Unnava Lakshminarayana

Unnava Lakshmi Narayana was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social reformer, and writer in the Telugu language. He was born on 4 December 1877 in a village, Vemulurupadu of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. His father was Sri Ramulu, who practiced Kundalini Vidya or Achalayoga, and his mother was Seshamma. Lakshmi Narayana completed his early education at a native school and joined Rajahmundry Upadhyay Shikshan College in 1906 for a Bachelor of Arts. He later went to Burland, Dublin, in 1916 to study Barrister. He married Lakshmibayamma in 1892. Unnava Lakshminarayana started his career as a teacher in 1900 at a school in Guntur.

Later, he began practicing law in 1903 and joined the Madras High Court as a lawyer in 1917. He joined Congress Swarajya Party in 1923 and has elected as one of the two secretaries of the Andhra State Congress Committee. Unnava Lakshmi Narayana was one of the prominent disciples of Gandhiji and an advocate of Gandhianism. He gave up his career as a lawyer after being influenced by Gandhiji and joined him in his national movements. Unnava followed the principles of Gandhiji and played a leading role in several national campaigns, like Non- Cooperation Movement, the Forest Satyagraha (1920-1922), and Salt Satyagraha. He also took part in Andhra Mahasabha. Lakshmi Narayana was a great social reformer who went to jail several times for supporting such campaigns and opposing the British government.

He was also a great social well-wisher who established organizations for the betterment of society. One of them is Sharda Niketan at Brodipet, Guntur, that works for the upliftment of women's and girls' education, which he formed after releasing from the Raiveluru Jain in 1922. Sharda Niketan has run in Gurukul style for women and girl children. He founded an organization, Youngmen's Literary Association in Guntur, in 1900 and established a widow asylum in 1902. Lakshmi Narayana helped in conducting widow remarriage under an organization, Veerasalingam, in the chairmanship of Panthulu. In 1922, Unnava Laxmi Narayana became the President of the Chittoor Session of Andhra Mahasabha.

Apart from being a social reformer and a skilled lawyer, Lakshmi Narayana was also a writer and poet of the Telugu Language. He was the first among the poets to inspire by the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia in 1917. He wrote in the common language for the citizens to eliminate social and economic inequalities. A renowned novel by Unnava Lakshmi Narayana was Malapalli (Harijan Hamlet), or Sanga Vijay, a revolutionary book written by Lakshminarayana in prison in Telugu. The novel was printed in two parts by Bellamkonda Raghavrao in 1922. Malapali reflects the political environment, social evils, national satyagraha movements, and caste differences which made it banned by the Madras Government two times.

In 1926, the first ban has removed by Kaleswara Rao, and in 1928, it was allowed to re-publish with some changes. Madras Government selected the novel as a textbook, but in 1936, it banned the book again and removed it as a textbook. Other notable writings of Unnava Lakshminarayana are Palnati Veeracharitra, Nayakuralu, Bhavatarangalu, Swarajya Sode, and many more. Along with participating in the satyagraha movements and fighting for human rights, Lakshmi Narayana also played a pivotal role in Telugu literature. Unnava Lakshmi Narayana took his last breath on 25 September 1958.