A well known politician and zamindar, Ramakrishna Ranga Rao became the Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency twice – once from 5 November 1932 to 4 April 1936, and then other from 24 August 1936 to 1 April 1937. He was born on 20 February 1901, and passed away in 1978.
Royal childhood of Ramakrishna Ranga Rao
The birth of Ramakrishna Ranga Rao took place in the royal family of Bobbili. The place was an integral part of the Madras Presidency and the royal family was part of the Velama community. His grandfather was Raja Venkata Ranga Rao and his father was Venkata Kumar Krishna Ranga Rao. He also had an elder sister called Victoria Venkata Ramanamma.
His early education took place in the palace of the royal family under the tutorship of F.H.J. Wilkinson, H.C. Leclare, Ramalingaswamy and D. Gordon. Sports activities like badminton and billiards were enjoyed by the royal prince within the palace premises. He got married to Lakshmi Subhadrayamma in 1921. She was the princess of the Tallaprole Zamindari.
Political career of Ramakrishna Ranga Rao
It was in 1925 that Ramakrishna Ranga Rao’s early political career began. He was nominated as the member of the Council of State. It was the upper house of Imperial Legislative Assembly of India. He offered his services till 1927. In 1930, he contested for the Madras General Elections from the Vizagapatam constituency. He fought for the Justice Party (India) against C.V.S. Narasimha Raju, who was a candidate of the Nationalist Party. He won the election by 28,000 votes. In 1931, he went to London to attend the second Round Table Conference, representing Indian landholders. Slowly, Ramakrishna Ranga Rao rose to leadership.
As Chief Minister and other important positions
As mentioned previously, Ramakrishna Ranga Rao served the post of Chief Minister twice. His first tenure began on 5 November 1932, when he was just 31 years of age. It continued till 1 April 1937. During this period, Madras was suffering from the Great Depression. Though initially the government tried doing many things to improve the distraught conditions of the farmers, they could not succeed. This led to the Justice Party losing the elections in 1937.
The designation of mayor was removed from Madras in 1801, but it was again revived by Ramakrishna Ranga Rao on 17 January 1933 via the City Municipal Act. The Estates Land Act of 1933 was also an important move by him. Though the zamindars opposed the act vehemently, he passed it so that the rights of the farmers could be safeguarded.
End of political career
In 1937, the Justice Party lost badly in the elections. The appeal of Ramakrishna Ranga Rao also decreased gradually and he resigned from politics and got involved in other social and public activities. He also got elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946.
Ramakrishna Ranga Rao also showed great interest in various kinds of sports activities like polo and horse racing. He had one of the best collections of horses from various countries of the world. He won many awards for horse racing and polo.
The death of Ramakrishna Ranga Rao took place on 10 March 1978. He was 77 years old at that time. His son Venkata Gopala Krishna Ranga Rao succeeded as the titular Raja of Bobbili.
Also on this day:
1945 – Annu Kapoor, Indian actor, was born
1976 – Rohan Gavaskar, Indian cricketer, born
1988 – Jiah Khan, American-Indian actress and singer, was born
2010 – Basavaraju Venkata Padmanabha Rao, Indian actor, died
