STATE OF PLAY
Konaseema, which was carved out of the erstwhile East Godavari district, is a sleepy agrarian district. It is said to be the granary of Andhra Pradesh. But on May 24, Amalapuram, the biggest town in the district, burned as hundreds of members of organisations dominated by the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the upper castes, such as the Konaseema Parirakshana Samithi and Konaseema Sadhana Samiti, took to the streets opposing the State government’s order directing that the name of the district be changed from Konaseema to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema. They broke prohibitory orders and set ablaze the residences of Transport Minister P. Viswaroop and Mummidivaram MLA P. Satish. They also torched buses and threw stones. About 20 policemen, including the district SP and DSP, were injured in the violence. While the government blamed the Opposition parties including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Jana Sena Party, and the BJP for the riots, the Opposition in turn blamed the ruling YSR Congress for the failure of the police in stopping them.
History has shown that the nature of the farming class in this area changes when there is Dalit assertiveness. In Konaseema district, the numerically dominant castes are the Kapus, who are upper castes, the Settibalijas, who are OBCs, and the Dalits. While the Kapus and Settibalijas have a major share of the landholdings and constitute about 60% of the demography, the Dalits are farmhands and account for over 30%. If we consider the whole region of the erstwhile East Godavari district, two statues dominate the landscape. One is of Kapu leader and Congress MLA Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, who was killed in 1988 during TDP rule, and is considered a ‘Kapu Knight’; the other statue is of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
