Vennelakanti Raghavaiah B.A.,

B.L. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

(June 1897 – 24 November 1981) was a social worker and Indian freedom activist.Raghavaiah Vennelakanti, Luminaries of 20th Century, Part II, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005, pp: 466-467. He was affectionately called "Girijan Gandhi" for his service to the

Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

people. He is born at Singapeta village in Kovur Taluq of Nellore district to Vennelakanti Papayya and Subbamma. He completed

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degrees from

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

. He joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

led by

Mahatma 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- ...

and participated in the

Non-cooperation movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.

and

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

, and was jailed for 21 months. He was again arrested for participating in

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 ...

. He was elected to the Combined Madras State from the Nellore constituency for two terms. He held the position of parliamentary secretary in 1946 headed by Tanguturi Prakasam. During his tenure, he fought for the scrapping of the

Criminal Tribes Act Since the 1870s, various pieces of colonial legislation in India during British rule were collectively called the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), which criminalized entire communities by designating them as habitual criminals. Under these acts, ethni ...

of 1871. He received Padma Bhushan from Government of India in 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raghavaiah, Vennelakanti 1897 births 1981 deaths Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in social work Indian independence activists from Andhra Pradesh People from Nellore district Gandhians Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh University of Madras alumni 20th-century Indian politicians Social workers from Andhra Pradesh Telugu people