Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya (24 November 1880 – 17 December 1959) was an Indian independence activist and political leader in the state of
Andhra Pradesh. He was also the first governor (1 November 1956 – 13 June 1957) of Madhya Pradesh.
Early life and education
Born in
Gundugolanu
Gundugolanu, an alliteration of the Telugu word "Gurukolanu" (school)' is a village in Eluru district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in Bhimadole mandal. The nearest train station is Bhimadolu railway station located at a d ...
village,
Krishna district
Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...
(now part of
Eluru district) in
Andhra Pradesh to a
Telugu Niyogi Brahmin
family, Pattabhi graduated from the
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
, fulfilled his ambition to become a medical practitioner by securing a M.B.C.M. degree.
Career
Medical and early political career
He started his practice as a doctor in the coastal town of
Machilipatnam, headquarters of Krishna District and the political centre of Andhra. He left his lucrative practice to join the freedom fighting movement. During the years 1912–13, when there was a great controversy over the desirability of forming a separate province for
Andhra, he wrote a number of articles in "The Hindu" and other journals explaining the need for immediate formation of linguistic provinces.
At the Lucknow session of the Congress in 1916, he demanded the formation of separate Congress circle for Andhra. The demand was opposed by Mahatma Gandhi, but as
Tilak supported Pattabhi, the Andhra Congress Committee came into existence in 1918. He was a member of the Working Committee of the Congress for a number of years and the President of Andhra Provincial Congress Committee in 1937–40.
Publications and imprisonment
He ran for the presidency of the
Indian National Congress as the candidate closest to
Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, against
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose in
Tripuri Session of 1939. He lost owing to
Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...
's rising popularity and the belief that Pattabhi favoured the inclusion of
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
-majority districts in a future
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
state in independent India.
Serving on the
Congress Working Committee
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the executive committee of the Indian National Congress. It was formed in December 1920 at Nagpur session of INC which was headed by C. Vijayaraghavachariar. It typically consists of fifteen members electe ...
when the
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...
was launched in 1942, Pattabhi was arrested with the entire committee and incarcerated for three years without outside contact in the fort in
Ahmednagar
Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 ...
,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
. During this time he maintained a detailed
diary of day-to-day life during imprisonment, which was published later as ''Feathers and Stones''. He is also the author of ''The History of the Congress'' published in 1935 with an introductory note given by the
Rajendra Prasad. His other popular publication was ''Gandhi and Gandhism'' .
High office
He ran successfully for Congress presidency in 1948, winning with the support of
Jawaharlal Nehru, the
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
. He was a member of the J.V.P. Committee (Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi) which formally rejected the reorganization of states on linguistic lines but after a 56-day hunger strike by
Potti Sriramulu
Potti Sreeramulu (IAST: ''Poṭṭi Śreerāmulu''; 16 March 1901 – 15 December 1952), was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. Sreeramulu is revered as ''Amarajeevi'' ("Immortal Being") in the Andhra region for his self-sacrifice for ...
the formation of Andhra State without Madras City took place. Prior to this he served as a member in the Constituent Assembly, in 1952 he was elected to Rajya Sabha. Pattabhi also served as the
Governor of
Madhya Pradesh from 1956 to 1957.
Andhra Bank
With the financial support of
Srimantu Raja Yarlagadda Sivarama Prasad Bahadur, Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya established
Andhra Bank in
Machilipatnam on 28 November 1923 which is currently one of the major
commercial banks of India. Its present headquarters is located at Hyderabad. The head office of Andhra Bank, "Pattabhi Bhavan", is named after him. He also started Andhra Insurance Company, Krishna Jilla Co-Operative Bank in
Krishna District
Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...
Bhagyalakshmi Bank. As announced by Govt of India on 29 August 2019, Andhra Bank is being merged with Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank on 1 April 2020 and thus losing its exclusive identity.
References
External links
Pattabhi's biographyFreeIndia.org – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya's biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitaramayya, Bhogaraju Pattabhi
Presidents of the Indian National Congress
Indian independence activists from Andhra Pradesh
Governors of Madhya Pradesh
Telugu politicians
1880 births
1959 deaths
People from Krishna district
Members of the Constituent Assembly of India
Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh
Prisoners and detainees of British India
Andhra movement