T. Nagi Reddy
Tarimela Nagi Reddy, often called "TN", was a communist politician from Andhra Pradesh, India. He was born in a wealthy family in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. He completed his schooling from the Rishi Valley School India, founded by Andhra philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. He would later study at Loyola College in Chennai and at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. During his student days, he got involved with nationalism and Marxism. His political activities got him jailed in 1940, 1941 and 1946. He revolted against his father who was a landlord and donated his land of over 1000 acres to landless labourers.
Reddy was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly as a Communist Party of India candidate in 1951 from Anantaptur. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Anantapur in 1957. In 1962 he was elected to the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly as a Communist Party of India candidate from Puttur. In 1967 he was again elected to the assembly, now as a Communist Party of India candidate from Anantapur. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, a two-time Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and the sixth President of India, was Nagi Reddy's brother-in-law.
In 1968, T.N. Reddy broke with the CPI and formed the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. He succeeded in attracting a large part of the CPI cadre to APCCCR. During a brief period APCCCR was part of All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. Reddy was however very critical of the left adventurist line of Charu Majumdar. Instead, he wanted to promote a mass line. Thus, Reddy and the APCCCR were expelled from the AICCCR.
In 1975, Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India was formed through the merger of the APCCCR with three other smaller groups. T.N. Reddy worked as a leader of APCCCR until his death in 1976. His most famous work is India Mortgaged.
