Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya

Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya Biography

Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya was a politician and freedom fighter from Andhra Pradesh. He belonged to Indian National Congress, and was a prominent political figure in the party from south India. He was the first Andhra leader to become secretary of the All India Congress Committee. He lived during the period, 2 June 1889 – 10 June 1928. As a freedom fighter, Annie Besant's Home Rule Movement, non-cooperation movement etc are some of the movements with which he was associated with. He also worked for the cause of Swaraj and was a great Rama devotee. Gopalakrishnayya was a polyglot and a powerful orator who set up Andhra Vidya Peetha Gosthi, a literary society. Yet politics remained his first priority.

Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya was born on June 2^nd 1889 in Penuganchiprolu in the Nandigama taluk of Krishna District, present day Andhra Pradesh. He belonged to a landlord family. But his father worked as a school teacher. He lost his mother soon after his birth. His father remarried, but died young. Later Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya was raised by his uncle and grandmother. After matriculation, he worked for one year before he moved to University of Edinburgh along with his childhood friend Sri Nadimpalli Narasimha Rao for higher studies. He returned 6 years later, after completing his post-graduation.

Gopalakrishnayya returned to Guntur in 1917 and started his career as a teacher in a government college. Since those days, he got involved with freedom struggle movement, and slowly entered politics as well. He led anti-tax Satyagraha during the Non-Cooperation Movement conducted at Chirala. As a freedom fighter, he is best known for this incident. When Mahatma Gandhi visited Chirala, Gopalakrishnayya met him for the first time and sought his advice on the future course of action. When C R Das and Motilal Nehru founded the Swarajya Party in 1925, he joined the party. He was short-lived and lived only 39 years.

Published: October 08, 2018

Updated: October 08, 2018