C. Venkat Subba Rao was born in Rajahmundry in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on 17 December 1953. It was his passion for literature that drove him towards revolutionary politics. At the age of 13, he wrote his first poem dedicated to Gurujaddo Apparao, a nineteenth-century litterateur. His passion for literature remained to the end. With the declaration of emergency, Subba Rao spent a few months underground and finally returned to Vishakhapatnam where he was arrested on 25 October 1975. He completed his MA in economics in jail and was released on 28 March 1977 and came to Delhi. He presented a paper on student repression in Andhra Pradesh at the convention organized by the Delhi unit of PUCL&DR and also helped in bringing together a slim poetry collection – Dissenting Voice – Raktbeej, voices of protest in the Emergency. After the formation of the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights in March 1981, he devoted his energy to the visible and invisible work of the organization. On the occasion of his death, we in PUDR would like to remember him by celebrating his life and struggle that brought us together.
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Remembering C.V. Subba Rao
