The late sixties marked the first major crisis of independent India at all levels of its
economy and polity. This crisis gave birth to radical movements. Among these
were the tribal and peasant struggles led by Marxist Leninist parties. Brutal state
repression was launched on these movements. Regional civil rights
organisations arose as a response to the various illegal modes of repression. Thus in
1974 Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee [APCLC] was founded in
Andhra Pradesh.

Those were the times when A. Ramanadham, a medical doctor by profession,
founded one of the district units of APCLC in Warangal town.
Born in Mustikuntla, a small village in Khamman district in 1933, he started his
career as a government doctor. Dissatisfied with the unethical medical practices, he
left his job and set up his own Children’s Clinic in 1968 in Warangal. That year
marked the beginning of his involvement in various social issues. The clinic was to
become, perhaps, the only democratic centre in the entire town.
In June 1975, Emergency was imposed institutionalising the ongoing repression. Dr.
Ramanadham, along with other activists, were arrested. After lifting of
Emergency APCLC was able to function again. Dr. Ramanadham became its
Vice President.
Civil rights organisations that had earlier been confined to their own regions and
histories, began to share information and experiences. Joint investigations into
repression on worker and peasant struggles and joint campaigns on repressive
laws. In this process of building fraternal relations PUDR came to know the work of
Dr. Ramanadham. And to appreciate his gentle friendliness and modesty

Dr. Ramanadham’s involvement with civil liberties was inseparable from his
professional role as a doctor. In fact, his professional role helped the civil rights
movement which, in turn, made him a better doctor. It helped him to understand
the social origins of the diseases of his patients He did not confine himself to
giving medicines but tried to spread a scientific outlook. Out of this came his
famous book in Telugu, Medical Guide which was addressed to the people and not
to health workers.
Dr. Ramanadham tried to create a space for democratic values wherever he went
and in whatever he did. Struggling against corrupt medical practices in a health
centre in Husnabad, helping friends to bring out a revolutionary literary journal in
Warangal, helping a young girl and conducting her marriage against the will of her
influential parents, organising a people’s clinic with the help of doctors on strike in
front of Warangal -Government Hospital, are examples of Dr. Ramanadliam’s
involvement and initiative in democratic concerns

In the late seventies peasant struggles for higher agricultural wages and against
landlord repression spread in Warangal and other districts Police was given extensive illegal powersto repress these struggles. Governments kept changing  but state violence continued. With APCLC, Dr. Ramanadham was actively involved in investigating fake encounters, custodial torture and deaths. This earned  them the wrath of the police

On 2nd September 1985, at Kazipet railway station, SI Yadagiri Reddy was shot
dead by unidentified assailants, believed to be naxalites. Next morning his body
was carried in a funeral procession in which a number of armed policemen
participated. The procession was led by the district Superintendent and the Deputy
General of Police. When it neared the Children’s Clinic, a group of policemen
broke into the clinic. They ransacked the clinic and assaulted the compounder and
waiting patients. Then they went into the neighbouring shop, Kalpana Opticals,
where they found Dr. Ramanadham and shot him at point blank range.
Immediately after, a neighbouring doctor took him to Mahatama Gandhi Memorial
Hospital, about two kilometres away. Soon after he was declared dead. With his
death the Warangal unit of APCLC” ceased to function
Four days after his death, police filed a second FIR in the Yadagiri Reddy murder
case, the first murder case to be registered under TADA in Warangal. Dr
Ramanadham was named as accused. However, in the case of the murder of Dr.
Ramanadham, no accused were named. Police maintained that naxalites were
responsible and they had used snatched police revolvers. Two policemen were
suspended for dereliction of duty as their revolvers had been snatched
Barely a year later J. Laxmareddy, President of the Karmmagar unit of APCLC
was killed by police on 7 November 1986. The Warangal unit was revived with
the efforts of N. Prabhakar Reddy who became its convenor. A lawyer by
profession, he was instrumental in obtaining bail for hundreds of rural youth
charged under TADA. On 7 December 1991, police came to his house and shot
him dead.
The murders of civil rights activists are not random acts of violence by a few
deviant policemen. These are part of a larger political policy of the government
against the people. Perhaps the only meaningful way of remembering Dr
Ramanadham is by committing oneself to the movement for democratic rights
and affirming our faith in people’s struggles to implement and extend these
rights.

People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi

Invites you to attend

27th Ramanadham Memorial Meeting

Public Health, Inequality and

Democratic Rights

Speakers:

Dr. Yogesh Jain

Jan Swasthya Sahyog

Topic: Social Inequality and Public Health

Dr. Jacob Puliyal

St. Stephens Hospital, Delhi

Topic: Immunization Programmes and Public Health

Dr. Amit Sen Gupta

People’s Health Movement

Topic: Drug Policy, Pricing and Public Health

Chair

Dr. Ritu Priya Mehrotra

Centre for Social Medicine & Community Health, JNU

8th September, 2012

5 pm – 8pm

Conference Hall

Indian Law Institute

Opp Supreme Court

Bhagwan Das Road

New Delhi