T. Prakasam: The Andhra Kesari

He bared his own chest in front of armed British police and dared them to fire. That single act of defiance earned Tanguturi Prakasam the title “Andhra Kesari,” the Lion of Andhra, and a career that eventually made him a state’s first Chief Minister.

Must Know Need to Know

• Tanguturi Prakasam (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957) was born into a poor family in Vinodarayanipalem, Madras Presidency. He lost his father at age eleven.
• He trained as a barrister in England and was called to the bar in 1907. He then built a successful legal practice at the Madras High Court.
• He joined the freedom movement in 1921, after Gandhi’s call for Non-Cooperation. He later led a satyagraha at Devarampadu, in his home region.
• On 3 February 1928, protesting the Simon Commission in Madras, he bared his chest before armed police and dared them to fire. This earned him the title “Andhra Kesari,” the Lion of Andhra.
• He became Premier of Madras Presidency in 1946, resigning in 1947 amid an internal party rebellion.
• On 1 October 1953, he became the first Chief Minister of the newly formed Andhra State. His government fell by a single vote in a no-confidence motion in November 1954.

Good to Know Good to Know

• Andhra State’s creation followed Potti Sriramulu’s fasting death in December 1952. See ModHist0269 — Potti Sreeramulu for that full story.
• The 1954 government collapse centred on where to place the new state’s capital. Prakasam’s coalition backed Kurnool, while a key ally pushed for Visakhapatnam. When Kurnool was chosen, that ally withdrew support.
• He founded and edited the English/Tamil/Telugu daily newspaper Swarajya in 1921, following Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation call.
• Despite decades of a lucrative legal career, he gave away his earnings and died poor. Ongole district was renamed Prakasam district in 1972 in his honour.
• See ModHist0054 — The States Reorganisation Commission and Linguistic States for the wider process that followed Andhra State’s creation.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Tanguturi Prakasam earned the title ‘Andhra Kesari’ after a dramatic act of defiance during protests against which body, in 1928?

The Cripps Mission

The Cabinet Mission

The Simon Commission

The Simla Conference

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Great to Know Great to Know

• Baring his chest to armed police was a dangerous individual act, not a symbolic one. It shows how personal courage, not just organisational strategy, shaped the freedom movement’s local leadership.
• Losing power over a capital-city dispute, rather than a grand ideological fight, is telling. Ordinary administrative questions could destabilise even a hard-won new state government.
• Dying poor after a lucrative legal career complicates any simple story of political ambition. His reputation rested as much on personal integrity as on his role in creating Andhra State.