Madapati Hanumantha Rao

Madapati Hanumantha Rao
Andhrapradesh Legislative council
Personal details
Born Jan 22, 1885
Pokkunuru, Nandigama Taluk, Krishna district
Died Nov 11, 1970
Spouse(s) Manikyamma
Religion Hindu

Madapati Hanumantha Rao (Jan 22, 1885- Nov 11, 1970) was an Indian patriot, statesman, poet and a short-story writer. He was the first Mayor of Hyderabad from 1951-1954. He is also a Padma Bhushan recipient. He was affectionately called as Andhra Pitamaha (Grandfather of Andhra) by his admirers.

Early life

He was born in Pokkunuru, Nandigama Taluk in Krishna district.

Public worker

He headed many a Andhra MahaSabha meetings and wrote Andhrodhyamam. Because of his passion in public service, he left his lucrative legal practice at the age of 56 in 1941 and became a full-time public worker. After the formation of separate state for Andhra Pradesh in 1956, the then Chief minister Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy asked him to be the Chairman of Legislative Council. He conducted the proceedings of the upper house till 1964.

He encouraged compulsory elementary education with mother-tongue as the medium of instruction. He lost his father at the age of five.

He is one of the proponents of library movement inaugurated in 1901 along with Komarraju Venkata Lakshmanarao and Ravichettu Ranga Rao. They started Srikrishna Devaraya Andhra Bhasha Nilayam at Hyderabad in 1901 and Sri Rajaraja Andhra Bhasha Nilayam at Hanumakonda in 1904. He was influenced by the writings of Kandukuri Veeresallingam, the great social reformer.

A Telugu medium High school was started by Madapati. When the state government and Osmania University, and Andhra University refused recognition, he got recognition from Women's university at Pune. He was also a member of the Senate and Syndicate of Osmania University.[1]

Writings

References

  1. The Great Indian Patriots, Volume-2, Page 226
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.