Early life

B. Nageswara Rao (1928-1991) was a well-known journalist from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. For his outstanding contribution to the profession of journalism, he received the Patrakar Ratna award. Posthumously, a Best Journalist award was instituted in his name and every year this award is given away to meritorious journalists. B. Nageswara Rao was fluent in Telugu (his mother-tongue), Urdu and English. In the early years of his journalistic career, which spanned more than four decades, he wrote to Telugu and Urdu dailies, in addition to English newspapers and journals. Throughout his career, he worked assiduously for securing the rights of the journalists and the workers in the press. He headed the state Union of Working Journalists several times and during his tenure initiated the establishment of a press club called Desodharaka Bhavan in Hyderabad and became one of the founder members of the first Journalists' Colony in Banjara Hills. He also presided over the activities of the Indian Union of Working Journalists as Vice President.
Born on 20, November, 1928 (Nagula Chavithi) in a sleepy little town Jagayyapeta in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, he relocated to Warangal and Hanumakonda (about a hundred kilometers north of Hyderabad) in his youth, where he worked on a printing press. Later he moved to Hyderabad and worked ceaselessly in his profession until death prematurely claimed him in 1991 at the age of 62.
Nageswara Rao's early life is interesting for two reasons: one, he actively participated in the political events of his time; two, his personal life story is a series of struggles personally as well as professionally.
Politically speaking, Hyderabad was on the boil. It was a princely state and Nizam the VII ruled it with the aid of the British who helped him militarily in securing his dominion. However, in 1947 when the British left, the Nizam found himself surrounded by the Indian Union and the pressure to accede to the Union grew day by day. There were several political parties at that time and prominent among them were the Communist Party, the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimin (MIM) and the Indian Congress. The communists sought violent means to put an end to the princely state. The MIM raised a posse of armed volunteers called razakars avowedly to fight the Indian army, but ran amok like marauders hurting Hindus and put pressure on the Nizam to desist from accession to the Union. The Nizam himself wanted to remain independent and explored all possible means to secure it. The congress party made political speeches against the establishment and roused the masses to revolt. Nageswara Rao, then a fiery youth in his bubbling teens, entered the political arena and made speeches. In one of the first speeches he made, he questioned the authority of principal of the school he was studying in, wherein the principal could arbitrarily suspend students from appearing for the board examinations. Offended by Rao's public denouncement of his authority, the principal detained Rao and refused him permission to sit for the board exams. Rao left school and joined the mainstream of political agitation against the Nizam. Along with his friends and fellow orators at public rallies, the Nizam's police arrested him and sent him to Chanchalguda jail. Later Rao was imprisoned in the Warangal jail and released after 14 months of incarceration. After the police action of 1948, free India released all political prisoners. Nageswara Rao came out empty handed, without even a school certificate, let alone a job for survival. From now on began a significant chapter in his life: an illustrious career of a veteran journalist.