# S. A. Rawoof

Sheik Abdul Rawoof was an Indian communist revolutionary leader from Andhra Pradesh. He was known by the nom de guerre 'Viswam' or by his initials 'SAR'. He was a leading cadre of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in Andhra Pradesh, and as an ideological hardliner he would go to lead his own faction after the CPI(ML) disintegrated. He was the secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) from 1998 and 2006. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in different criminal cases. Rawoof spent a total of 12 years of his life in jails.

## Youth

Born in 1924, Rawoof hailed a middle-class Muslim family from Kutagulla village in Kadiri taluk, Anantapur district in present-day Andhra Pradesh. He attended the Kadiri High School, and then got an B.A. degree from Anantapur College. During his college years he had became a sympathizer of the Communist Party of India, influenced by Telangana armed struggle. He eventually became a CPI party member. He worked as a teacher at Kadiri Vemana Board School for a period. He studied Law in Madanapalle, Chittoor district and obtained his law degree in 1964. He worked as an assistant to a lawyer in Madanapalle for a period. Rawoof worked as a lawyer locally in Anantapur district.

## Party leader in Kadiri taluk

He contested local elections, and became the first communist municipal chairman of Kadiri. As municipal chairman, one of his first acts was to cancel housing tax for poor and middle class people. He worked closely with local communist leader Nizamvali. During the 1964 split in the Communist Party of India, Rawoof sided with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)). As a local leader of CPI, and later of CPI(M), Rawoof was involved in mass organization work in the Kadiri taluk area. In 1965 he was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act. Among the fellow prisoners at the Secunderabad District Jail were state-level leaders CPI(M) in Andhra Pradesh, such as T. Nagi Reddy and Chandra Pulla Reddy. They gave political classes in the jail, including critiques of the political line of the CPI(M). At the Secunderabad District Jail Rawoof, who until had been a local leader figure, was exposed to the political struggles outside of his own home turf.
Rawoof stood as the CPI(M) candidate in the Kadiri constituency in the 1967 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. He finished in second place in the constituency, with 9,138 votes (21.20%).

## Naxalbari uprising

As the CPI(M) was in midst of internal division, the Kadiri party unit was dissolved and its cadres sided with T. Nagi Reddy's Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (APCCCR) en masse. But around this period Rawoof met with two Rayalaseema-level leaders, Mahadevan and C.K. Narayana Reddy, who alerted Rawoof that T. Nagy Reddy was rejecting Charu Mazumdar's line on questions like armed struggle, boycott of elections and underground party organisation. They instructed Rawoof to organise his group independently, which Rawoof along with others began to do. In February 1969 the APCCCR was expelled from the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR). Rawoof was invited to the February 28, 1969 Guttikonda Bilam meeting, at which the new Andhra Pradesh AICCCR unit was being organised, but was unable to attend.
He attended a state-level meeting of AICCCR in Visakhapatnam, held May 14-16, 1969, as a special invitee. Rawoof joined the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, and became a member of its Andhra Pradesh State Committee. Shortly thereafter he was arrested and detained at Vishakhapatnam Jail under the Preventive Detention Act. At the jail he encountered Adibhatla Kailasam, Nagbhushan Patnaik, Dr. Mallik as well as many Girijan revolutionaries from the Srikakulam armed struggle. Rawoof was released from jail after a few days.
Rawoof took part in the founding of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) on April 22, 1969. Upon instructions from the party he abandoned his career as a lawyer. The CPI(ML) Andhra Pradesh State Secretary Chaudhuri Tejeswar Rao organised a meeting of cadres from Anantapur district in late 1969, outlining the experiences from Naxalbari uprising, Mazumdar's positions and instructed the local cadres to organise armed squads and initiate militant actions in the area. Preparations were made to initiate actions in the Erramala area, but the plan was suspended. Early January 1970 Mahadevan convened the Rayalaseema Regional Committee of the party, and plans for armed actions in Anantapur, Nellore and Chittoor districts were defined. On January 17, 1970 some forty cadres took part in the attacks. Once the attacks had occurred, Rawoof and six others went underground.
Rawoof took part in the CPI(ML) Andhra Pradesh state conference held in Mysore March 28-April 2, 1970, and was elected to the 9-member State Committee of the party. Rawoof was elected as a delegate to the CPI(ML) party congress to be held in Calcutta on May 16, 1970, but was unable to travel there due to logistical issues.
Rawoof was one of four people able to attend a CPI(ML) Central Committee meeting held in Calcutta in June 1972, along with Charu Mazumdar, fellow Andhra Pradesh leader K.G. Sathyamurthy and Jagjit Singh Sohal from Punjab. Years later, Rawoof would later recall that Mazumdar had articulated self-criticism - commenting on the critique from the Communist Party of China on the use of the slogan "China's Chairman is Our Chairman" and the policy of annihilations.
As the CPI(ML) disintegrated following the arrest and death of Mazumdar, Rawoof sided with the Central Organising Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) and was a member of its Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee (state committee).

## Jail

Rawoof travelled to West Bengal in March 1973 along with another person, to seek contact with cadres supporting the Mazumdar line. He same night as they had arrived, the were arrested at their hotel in Howrah. Following ten days in police custody, Rawoof was transferred to jail in Andhra Pradesh. COC, CPI(ML) leader Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, who was also in imprisoned at the time, wrote a self-critical report in 1974 - calling for greater attention to mass organisations and mass movements. The report provoked strong reactions from other revolutionary prisoners, with some of them breaking away from the party. Rawoof was critical of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah's stance but remained in the party for the time being.
Once Rawoof had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Parvathipuram conspiracy case, he was sent back to West Bengal where we would face the Alipur conspiracy case (along with Kanu Sanyal and Souren Bose). He was imprisoned at the Presidency Jail, often kept in alone in a single cell. After the end of the Emergency he was moved to a barrack where he stayed with other jailed revolutionaries. At a court hearing in Calcutta, occurring after the 1977 Indian general election, Rawoof reaffirmed his loyalty to Mazumdar, argued against expecting change under the new government in Delhi and called for continuity of the armed struggle. After the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, the Left Front state government withdrew cases against Naxals, including the Alipur conspiracy case against Rawoof. Rawoof was transferred to the Rajahmundry Central Prison, and later to the Secunderabad Jail (upon Rawoof's request).

## APROC

In 1976 the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee broke away from COC, CPI(ML). In 1977, after a period of reflection, Rawoof broke with the organizatuion in opposition to the new tactical orientation of the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee outlined in its 'August Resolution' (which called for a temporary suspension of armed struggle). Kondapalli Seetharamaiah argued that a temporary suspension of armed struggle was necessary in light of the opportunities after the withdrawal of the Emergency. Rawoof labelled the August Resolution as 'revisionist', and tried to contact Kondapalli Seetharamaiah from jail to present his inputs. Revolutionary risoners were divided between followers and opponents of the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee. After breaking with Andhra Pradesh Provincial Committee Rawoof built his own party in Andhra Pradesh - the Andhra Pradesh Reorganising Committee, CPI(ML) (APROC). APROC denounced the new leadership in the Communist Party of China under Deng Xiaoping, the Three Worlds Theory and the line of the Party of Labour of Albania. It reaffirmed the 'Charu Mazumdar proletarian revolutionary line' and propagated for boycott of elections and organized armed activities in Nalgonda and Warangal district. An APROC armed forest squad operated in Warangal district.

## CRC, CPI(ML)

In jail Rawoof had been able to read copies of the publication Mass Line issued from Kerala. He instructed cadres to meet with the Kerala group, led by K. Venu and K.N. Ramachandran. In 1979 Rawoof's APROC and K. Venu's CPI (ML) Kerala State Committee merged, forming the Reorganisation Committee, CPI(ML) (later renamed the Central Reorganisation Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) - CRC, CPI(ML)). The central leadership consisted of K. Venu, K.N. Ramachandran and Rawoof. Rawoof organized a students movement (using the name Radical Students Union), youth movement, peasants movement, and he gave leadership to the armed struggle activities. His group conducted attacks on police stations and landlords. The geographic influence of the organization spread, conducting activities in Khammam, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Anantapur and Nellore districts. An armed forest squad operated in the Asifabad area in Adilabad district. The CRC, CPI(ML) was noted for "some notoriously brutal and sensational killings". Rawoof's group was targeted by state forces, and suffered heavy losses. In a few years some 40 people from APROC/CRC, CPI(ML) were killed, and the organisation was weakened.
Rawoof differed with the tactical line adopted by the All India Conference of CRC, CPI(ML) held in January 1982 in Maharashtra. Following the conference he wrote an article in Mass Line titled 'Dare to think, dare to struggle', calling for the development of armed struggle. The CRC, CPI(ML) leadership adopted the slogan "Fight against dogmatism and fight against secretism", and moved away from armed struggle and underground party organisation. The Kerala State Committee of CRC, CPI(ML), somewhat later, adopted an analysis that class relations in India had changed, that feudalism no longer constituted the social base of imperialism and that there was capitalist development in the country. Rawoof opposed these trends within the CRC, CPI(ML).

## Imprisoned again

Rawoof was arrested by police in Hyderabad on March 10, 1983. He was detained at the Warangal Central Jail, charged in three cases related to crimes committed in Warangal district in 1981 - conspiracy to commit the murder of Narayana Reddy (from Upparigudem in Mahbubabad taluk), conspiracy to commit the murder of another Narayana Reddy (from Odedu in Chityal taluk) and a criminal case under the Explosive Substances Act. The latter criminal case related to an incident in Wardhannapet taluk, when a clandestine meeting led by Rawoof assaulted by police forces and the meeting participants threw bombs against the police as they escaped.
Rawoof was released on bail in the three Warangal cases on December 4, 1983. Police waited for him outside the jail gates, and immediately detained him. He was served a National Security Act warrant dated December 5, 1983. Moreover on December 3, 1983, a day before his release on bail, Rawoof and 21 others were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case of the murder of Narayana Reddy of Upparigudem. Following a protest of prisoners at Warangal Central Jail, Rawoof was transferred in punishment to the Visakhapatnam Central Prison.
Ahead of a 1985 CRC, CPI(ML) plenum Rawoof authored a document from jail outlining his critiques against the new emerging line of the party. The Andhra Pradesh State Committee approved the document, and but it was rejected by the plenum. Instead the marathon plenum discarded the 1970 CPI(ML) as outdated, and argued for the importance of national struggles. The Andhra Pradesh delegation left the plenum in protest and broke away from CRC, CPI(ML). Rawoof renounced his affiliation to the CRC, CPI(ML) in protest of the new political line of the organization. The Andhra Pradesh group continued armed activities after the split.
On April 3, 1986 the High Court acquitted Rawoof and 12 others in the case on the murder of Narayana Reddy of Upparigudem. By then Rawoof had already been acquitted in the two other Warangal cases. But before he was released, on April 4, 1986 Warangal police appeared at the Visakhapatnam Central Prison with a court warrant for another murder case. Per the court warrant Rawoof had conspired with visitors at the Warangal Central Jail to commit a murder in Regondla in Parkal taluk in August 1985. The police brought Rawoof back to Warangal Central Jail. He was given bail by court on May 27, 1986. He would be jailed again in other case. By the late 1980s Rawoof's group in Andhra Pradesh was largely defunct, with many of its cadres in jails or having been killed.

## CPI(ML) Red Flag

In 1987-1988 CRC, CPI(ML) suffered a split, with a large section of the party in Kerala under leadership of K.N. Ramachandran forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag. After some hesitation and being convinced by CPI(ML) Red Flag cadres from West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, Rawoof joined the CPI(ML) Red Flag in late 1989 as it upheld the 1970 CPI(ML) program. He would remain a member of its Central Committee until 1998. A Telugu language mass journal of the party, Erupu ('Red'), was launched as the organ of the Andhra Pradesh party unit, which advocated for the Charu Mazumdar line, armed struggle and boycott of elections. Armed activities continued in Anantapur and Nellore districts and in Telangana, in which 12 party members were killed.
In 1996 the entire membership of the CPI(ML) Red Flag Andhra Pradesh State Committee and its armed squad were killed in an encounter, bringing the party to a near collapse in the state. And at the CPI(ML) Red Flag fourth All India conference held in Kerala in 1997, the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh delegations found themselves in a minority in the debates on the political line of the party.

## CPI(ML) Naxalbari

Rawoof was expelled from CPI(ML) Red Flag on October 1, 1998. He organized a new party, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Naxalbari, on the basis of the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka state units of CPI(ML) Red Flag. CPI(ML) Naxalbari contacted the Maoist Unity Centre, CPI(ML) (i.e. the remnants of the erstwhile CRC, CPI(ML)) which subsequently merged into CPI(ML) Naxalbari in 1999. Rawoof would lead the CPI(ML) Naxalbari as its secretary.

## Later years

Rawoof resigned from his role as the secretary of CPI(ML) Naxalbari in 2006. Kannamballi Murali ('Ajith') took over post of party secretary after Rawoof.
Rawoof never married. He spent his last years living in a simple hut in Kutagulla village. At old age he suffered from ill health, and spent several years at the end of his life in hospital.
Rawoof died at a Bengaluru hospital on February 9, 2014, at the age of 89. His body was kept for public viewing for two days at the Kutagulla Municipal School. Thousands of people paid the respects to him before his funeral. MRPS founder president Manda Krishna Madiga, who knew Rawoof from Warangal Jail, visited the wake to pay tribute and offered a red cloth. His body was cremated in Kutagulla. Reportedly funeral participants would include poets Varavara Rao and Gaddar, MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy and MLC Jupudi Prabhakar Rao.

## Memorial

A memorial monument for S.A. Rawoof was erected in Kutagulla by the S.A. Rawoof Memorial Trust. It was inaugurated by the S.A. Memorial Trust president Vadlamudi Krishna Rao on February 9, 2015. Annual commemorations are held at the monument on Rawoof's death anniversary February 9, organised by the S.A. Rawoof Memorial Trust. A colony located along the Kadiri-Kutaghulla Anantapur National Highway was named after him.