K Balagopal
K Balagopal
K Balagopal
Balagopal
He left a conundrum to grapple with, in terms of the rights debate.
He laid standards of dizzying heights for public life, social activism
and advocacy in courts.
A pioneer of human rights movement, a prolific writer, orator, theoretician and lawyer. After
a post‐doctoral, had a brief stint as teacher (Reader) of Mathematics at Kakatiya University,
Warangal. Moved to Hyderabad. Practiced law.
As a leader of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) he was himself a victim
of severe state repression. Withstood bouts of physical torture, illegal detention and foisting
of false cases. Stood by the woebegone lot. Manifested ideals of simplicity in appearance and
habits to the extent of their overlapping with unkemptness. Died a personality endearing to
countless social activists and intellectuals of all tendencies.
Initial popularity and acceptance was owing to commoner's perception of being the public
face of Naxalite movement. Drifted and founded Human Rights Forum.
Practiced law in High Court and other courts in Hyderabad for about a decade. Designated
Senior Advocates seemed pettifoggers in comparison. Judges mind boggled over the
stupendous grasp of intricate procedures and substantive law that took decades for lawyers
to attain. Contrary to general awareness of being an advocate in 'encounter cases', filed and
argued with equal adroitness several cases arising from varied branches of law.
Left a vast corpus of literature, essays in Telugu and English on a wide array of subjects. They
range from the infamous 'encounters' ‐ a euphemism for murders by police of the 1980's,
people’s deprivation through liberalization of 1990's and the Special Economic Zones of
2000's. Gifted to Telugus, translations of D.D.Kosambi's work, the Illustrated Classic "Marx for
Beginners" of Rius. Contributed scores of articles to the 'Economic and Political Weekly' and
'Manavahakkula Bulletin" of Human Rights Forum.
Over the period, the frequency of the writing grew alongside a modicum of prolixity and
developed a philosophy of human rights being an independent domain of theory and praxis as
distinct from one that is aligned to the peoples movements.
Towards the end of this amorphous body of writings were reflections that doubt the very
efficacy of organized protest against the state ‐ whether violent or non‐violent. He left a
conundrum to grapple with in terms of the rights debate. He laid standards of dizzying
heights for public life, social activism and advocacy in courts.
‐ Srini Bodduluri, [email protected]