T. Prakasam: The Andhra Kesari — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

As Revenue Minister in the Rajaji cabinet, Prakasam produced a report advocating the abolition of the zamindari system.

After Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation, Prakasam quit law. He began the daily Swarajya to spread the message.

The Krishikar Lok Party moved the motion on 4 November 1954. It passed by a single vote, and the government fell on 15 November.

T. Prakasam joined the freedom movement in 1921 after Gandhi’s call for Non-Cooperation, and later led a satyagraha at Devarampadu, in his home region.

T. Prakasam became Premier of Madras Presidency in 1946, resigning in 1947 amid an internal party rebellion.

T. Prakasam trained as a barrister in England and was called to the bar in 1907, then built a successful legal practice at the Madras High Court.

Tanguturi Prakasam was born on 23 August 1872 into a poor family in Vinodarayanipalem, Madras Presidency, and lost his father at age eleven.

He gave away his considerable legal earnings and died poor, reinforcing his reputation for personal integrity.

A dispute over choosing Kurnool over Visakhapatnam as capital split his coalition, and a no-confidence motion passed by one vote.

Potti Sriramulu’s fasting death in December 1952 forced the creation of Andhra State, which Prakasam then led.

He became the first Chief Minister of Andhra State on 1 October 1953, weeks after its creation.

He bared his chest before armed police protesting the Simon Commission in Madras in 1928, earning the title ‘Andhra Kesari.’

Prakasam’s editorship of Swarajya provided him an important platform for nationalist advocacy specifically within the Telugu-speaking Andhra region, complementing his direct political activism that would eventually see him serve as independent India’s first Chief Minister of the newly formed Andhra state in the 1950s. His honorific title ‘Andhra Kesari’, consciously echoing Tilak’s own ‘Kesari’ (Lion) association through his Marathi newspaper of the same name, reflects the broader pattern of regionally significant nationalist leaders earning honorific titles recognising their particular local prominence and leadership, paralleling similar titles given to figures like C.R. Das (‘Deshbandhu’) and Lajpat Rai (‘Sher-e-Punjab’, Lion of Punjab). Prakasam’s combination of journalistic and direct political leadership within the specifically Telugu regional nationalist movement illustrates the significant, if sometimes less centrally documented, regional dimensions of the broader all-India freedom struggle.