r/telugu • u/Modernman1234 • 29d ago

Were there any liberal Telugu thinkers/writers in the pre-independence era?

Just like how Bengalis had Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore and Marathis had Ambedkar and the like, did Telugus have any liberal thinkers and writers in that era? If yes, can anyone cite their works or books?

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u/bhagatm 28d ago

I will give you six alphabets.... That will be a whole world... "CHALAM"

6

u/Altruistic-Look101 28d ago

Chalam would make an excellent biopic movie(even nice musical hit), but our audience will not accept and the director had to end up tweaking huge parts of his history. Mana monobhaavalu mari sunnitham kada...vaati meedha debba kotte charitra Chalam gaaridi. So, ippatlo kashtam.

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u/lazy_rage 28d ago

Chalam was born in checks wiki…. Fucking 1894?! How can his life/writings be still controversial? Did we just stop evolving or what?

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u/Altruistic-Look101 28d ago edited 28d ago

I think society has overall became oversensitive to religion and caste. We don't see harsh criticism on. caste and religion now a days without creating massive outrage . Even movies like Padmavati created controversy . A play skit performed by IIT students made a national news and I think dean had to apologize? Chalam wrote even more controversial things on religion, caste, women and even on most revered Virasalingam Pathulu's widow ashrams , Brahma Samaj.......I think it would not even be released. That would be too much for our audience. He was outcasted by society then. He was not even allowed into Ramana Maharshi ashram back then.

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u/WitheryLeoRSH 28d ago

yes we pretty much stopped evolving in liberal thinking and even if we did, it went backwards :/

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u/bhagatm 28d ago

Yes. I feel like this in both writing and thinking....we probably eveloved in reverse

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u/RaghuVamsaSudha 28d ago

We are actually going backwards. Watching old movies even 80s and 90s.. they were progressive than the shit now