Chandra Pulla Reddy

1917 – 1984

Chandra Pulla Reddy was born in 1917 at Velugodu village in Andhra Pradesh. As a result of his anti-British activism while a student of Guindy Engineering College in Chennai he was expelled from the school. He joined the communist movement in the 1940s and became the Kurnool district secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Later he became the editor of the party organ Janasakthi.

When the CPI split in 1964, he went with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and was actively involved in the practical as well as political work of the Party. His writings were published in the CPM organ. During the 1967-68 period he fought what he perceived to be the revisionist character of the CPM and, together with other Andhra Pradesh CPM leaders, including D. V. Rao, Nagi Reddy, Kolla Venkaiah and others, he organized a majority of the CPM in Andhra Pradesh to leave the party.

Subsequently, C.P. Reddy became one of the main leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (APCCCR). Reddy soon began organizing armed struggles in the Khammam and Warangal areas, without the approval of the APCCCR leadership. Later on, he issued a self-criticism regarding these efforts. At the same time, he continued his writing, directing criticisms against the CPM’s revisionism on the one hand and what he considered to be the adventurist line of Charu Mazumdar on the other.

In December 1969 six out of the nine APCCCR State Committee members were arrested, including T. Nagi Reddy and D.V. Rao. The arrests were a serious blow to the organization. In response, a new state committee led by C.P. Reddy was created in July 1970. However, the jailed leadership opposed the direction C.P. Reddy was leading the group on the issue of armed struggle and in 1971 a split occurred.

Thereafter the APCCR grouping led by Reddy renamed itself the Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Party (APRCP). The APRCP was the strongest Maoist group in the state in the 1970s. It conducted armed struggle operations in various locations and assisted the armed defence of the cadres in the face of repression. But it also insisted upon combining these action with the active mobilization of masses in struggle.

In 1975 the APRCP merged with the CPI (ML) led by Satyanarayan Singh. In 1980, however, Reddy led a break-away from the party, forming an alternative CPI (ML).

C.P. Reddy died on 9 November 1984 in Calcutta as a result of a massive heart attack.

Works

World Communist Movement and Its Lessons (1967)

Some Problems Concerning the Path of People's War in India by C.P. Reddy for the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (n.d. (1970?))

People's War Path - Lessons of China (1970)

Chinese Communist Party's Struggles Against Left and Right Deviations - Mao's Lessons - Relevance to India (1972)

Agrarian Revolution - Attitude of the Communist Revolutionaries (1978)

On the Principal Contradiction in India (1979)

Build the Revolutionary Movement to Defeat Fascism (1980)

Agrarian Revolution and Elections (1980)

Perverted Brains of the Splitters (1980)

Studying the Principal Contradiction (1980)

The Politics of Comrade D.V. Rao and his UCCRI (1980)

Our Tasks in the Present Situation (1980)

Mao's Hunan Report and Its Lessons (1981)

Opportunism of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its Contradictions (1981)