Social and Political Philosophers of Modern Andhra

This book focuses on the thought that is available in only fragmented forms about) the various Telugu philosophers and creative writers. The concrete form You find here helps a better understanding of the foundation. formation and function of philosophical thought during the last hundred Years.

Devarakonda Balaganapathi is presently Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Dravidian Literature and Philosophy, Dravidian University, Kuppam. He did his Doctoral work at the University of Hyderabad. His research interests include Indian Philosophy. Social and Political Philosophy, Historiography and Animal Rights.

That the foundations of Indian culture were deeply embedded in Dravidian culture is now an incontrovertible fact. Dravidian culture is one of the most ancient cultures of the world. Those cultures, slightly contemporaneous to one another, slowly started fading out. However, the primordial Dravidian culture continues to thrive without losing its quintessence despite the apparent changes in systems of dress and address.

Dravidian University was established in 1997 to mirror the real and rich picture of Dravidian culture not only in its linguistic, literary, cultural and philosophical facets but in science and technological angles also.

At a time when no special attention worth its name was paid by the Centre with regard to language, the Southern states except Kerala, had established all by themselves their own Universities Telugu, Tamil and Kannada - to research on their languages and cultures.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh took a step ahead and started Dravidian University, with the co-operation of the sister states, to research and reflect on the inherent oneness of the cultures of the four states whose languages number up to 27. Its endeavour is to promote unity and amity in the family of several languages. The main objectives of Dravidian University are to augment the common weal and social well being of the communities of marginal languages and to build bridges among the Southern states. While working on each language separately in varied areas, it aims at a synthesis and a discovery of the common heritage through Comparative Studies.

Prasaranga (Publications wing) and Anusygana (Translation Bureau) are the two most significant wings of the University from out of its several on going progressive activities.

This book Social and Political Philosophers of Modern Andhra presents the biographical sketches and philosophical aspects of some of the outstanding social reformers of Andhra Pradesh in the last century. Each one’s contribution was examined in relation with the ethos of his time against his own unique and individual personality.

The book also enables the reader to read into the structure of a society that consisted of visionaries who helped to give a corrective notion to the collective ideas which were supposed to have been held right. This work also focuses on the magnitude of the struggle the reformers had to stand up against in the face of an almost universal disapproval. Giving us a clear picture of the ‘inner social environment’ (in the words of Durkheim) it tells us how necessary is ‘awareness’ as a significant element in any study related to social history.

Starting from the basic concept of comprehending a society in terms of its place and time, the reader gets an extension of understanding of the contradictions as well which always pose problems. At one level, the author of Social and Political Philosophers of Modern Andhra employs the method of simple exposition of the philosophical tenets, social and political issues but soon rises to the dimension of a thorough and comprehensive analysis of all the tangled issues at various levels.

The attempt is a successful one both in its method of evaluation and the resultant metamorphosis. This work is worth considering as a study of social and political philosophy not as two contradictory positions but as complementary appositions functioning in a systemic way giving room to laws ever changing.

I hope and wish that the book would attract a positive evaluation, thanks to its in built merits.

This book is an attempt to stress the need for reconstructing the social and political philosophy of India in terms of regional contributions. It claims that the ‘whole’ must be constructed not just by taking the commonalities among the parts, but also by taking the specificities of the parts into consideration. This is not to deny the importance of commonalities, but only to stress the significance of specific characters. It is an attempt to articulate, explain and examine the contributions of one of the particular parts of India, called Andhra, to social and political philosophy. This book, admittedly, does not give an account of all the social and political philosophers of Andhra, but it does aim to give some sense to such prospective work.

There are many scholarly works expounding their individual theories on the subject, but they are mostly concerned with providing Pan-Indian Social and Political philosophy by pointing out the commonalities among different regions. They have succeeded in providing a good account of the contributions of particular philosophers who are of Pan-Indian significance. But they do not deal adequately with the definite contributions of particular philosophers to their specific regional issues. The philosophical speculations and responses to their regional issues were not given due significance in constructing the Pan-Indian political philosophy in terms of commonalities. This book seeks to fill this gap in a modest way pertaining to the Andhra.

It must, however, be confessed that this is not an exhaustive account of the contributions of Andhra to the social and political philosophy. Since, it is a preliminary work intended primarily to address the issue of bringing alternative holistic approach to Indian social and political philosophy, I thought providing a brief biography of the philosophers would be helpful to the readers who are not familiar with literature and history of Andhra. In the conception of this work, at many a juncture simplification and over-simplification have been unavoidable. Great emphasis has been laid on analyzing the ideas of the thinkers, at certain places and their contribution to the ongoing process of socio-political movements of Andhra.

Even a cursory reading of Contemporary Philosophy or the Philosophy of the previous century reveals how the Grand Narratives or Meta Narratives face a legitimation crisis. In the wake of this crisis Little Narratives are emerging throughout the world and trying to assert themselves. Telugu society is no exception to this. During the last 20 years there have been numerous attempts to assert the native thought. I attempted to identify the thought that is available in fragmented forms in various philosophers and creative writers in Telugu society and put it in somewhat concrete form so that we can understand the foundation, status and function of thought in philosophy in Andhra in the last hundred years.

This work is has been a challenge as well as a new experience to me. I am indebted to several individuals who made this challenge possible and the experience worthwhile.

First and foremost I express my heartfelt thanks to Prof.G.Lakshminarayana, Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University for his constant encouragement in the academic pursuits. I am extremely indebted to Prof. P.V. Arunachalam, Former Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University and Prof. B.Ramakrishna Reddy, former Registrar, Dravidian University who were a constant source of inspiration to me during the course of this work. My sincere thanks are due to Prof. A. Raghuramaraju of University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad who taught me the fundamentals of research.

My sincere thanks are due to Dr. B. Tirupati Rao, Associate Professor in the Department of English & Communications for his critical comments and corrections. I am grateful to Prof. V. Sebastian, Department of Philosophy, Punjab University for the corrections he made in the introduction. I am thankful to Sri V. Mohan Prasad. Director AnusAujana for the corrections and comments he made to the final proof of the work. I am grateful to Prasdranga, publication division of the Dravidian University, especially Dr. R. Sitaram, Deputy Director for helping me in bringing out this work. I am thankful to my colleagues in the Department as well as in the University, and other administrative staff of the Dravidian University for their help.

My debt to a wide variety of scholars and friends whom I met during the time of material collection is substantial. In this regard, I must express my sincere thanks to my friends Dr. V. Joshi and Dr. Illa Ravi who have spent their valuable time helping me in collecting the material. I am indebted to Dr. G. Vijayam, Smt. Saraswati Gora, Sri Rajabahadur Gowd, Dr. Surendra, Dr. T. Rajyalakshmi, Dr. C. Sasibhushan for providing relevant material. I have benefited from the comments and suggestions of scholars like Dr. Velaga Venkatappayya, Sri Kodati Narayanarao, Sri M.S. Rajalingam, Sri Yetukurt Krishnamurty, Sri B. Ramakrishna, Sri Peddibhottla Subbaramaiah, Dr. Chalasani Radhakrishna Dasu, Dr. Anjaiah and Dr. Chinnaya Surt.

I am thankful to Mr.& Mrs. Bhavani Vijaya Gopal for their help and support during my visits to Hyderabad for material collection.

I sincerely thank Ms. Anuradha for sparing her precious time and thoughts in making this work complete.

I express my deep-felt thanks to my parents Sri Subrahmanya Sastry and Smt. Satya Ramalakshmil; and my brothers Sri Balasubrahmanyam and Bala Jaya Shankar whose support during the course of my research cannot be acknowledged in words.

Last but never the least, I record the love of my litle angeis Saathvik and Laasya and the endearment of my better half Lakshmi for being a source of inspiration despite their constant demands for attention.