01726nam a2200241 4500 260610b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d 9788198525086 Purchased Prism Books, Kadavanthra English 954.035 MAL/FI Mallu Swarajyam FIRE OF DEFIANCE 1 New Delhi Zubaan Publishers 2025 156 Even as the movement for Indian independence gathered momentum at the national level in the 1930s and ‘40s, a different kind of mobilization and struggle was unfolding in the Telangana region. Led by the Communist Party, the Telangana armed struggle swept through the Nizam’s dominions, targeting the exploitative practices of the doras, or landlords. Hundreds of men and women, from a wide spectrum of social locations, participated in the movement, and pictures of women wielding rifles have today become iconic. Among the many women in the movement was Mallu Swarajyam, who joined the armed squads of the movement and also became a cultural activist. Her extraordinary story, as told to three women, is captured here. In her words: “I also worked in the Kothagudem coal mines. Our informants were tribal women who went into the forest to gather mahuva flowers. On one occasion, we received information that the police were travelling in a bus along the route. I stormed onto the road, stopped the bus and punctured its tyres with my pistol. Telangana Armed Struggle, 1946–1951 Peasant uprisings Women revolutionaries Purnima Tammireddy (tr.) Uma Chakravarti Vimala Morthala Katyayini S. LEN ddc 0 0 ddc 0 0 NFIC MAIN MAIN GEN 2026-06-02 Purchased 450.00 KC-26-CRB-1617,2026/06/02 1 2 954.035 MAL/FI E1102992 2026-08-01 10:08:04 2026-06-17 2026-06-02 LEN 198729 198729