On the Old Grand Trunk Road that connects Guntur to Chirala via Bapatla, an approximately 80 km drive down what is now State Highway 48 in Andhra Pradesh, is Stuartpuram. At the entrance to the village is an arch that welcomes people in the name of Hemalatha Lavanam.
Its name, quaintly inconsistent with its context, is a throwback to Harold Stuart, a British civil servant who served as Home Minister in the early 1900s. The arch is an ode to the social activist and rationalist who helped bring change to the people from the Yerukula tribe who live here.
