Muhammad Haneef

MUHAMMAD HANEEF

Date of Birth: 15^th March, 1914 and Date of Death: 1995

            Muhammad Haneef, who took part in the Indian freedom movement since his young age, was born on 15^th March, 1914 in Bapatla of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.  His father Shaik Mira Saheb was a British Government employee.  Though he was a British Government employee, he rendered his services to the Indian National Congress.  Haneef reached Madras in 1922, consequent to the transfer of his father, where he got educated.  Haneef met Shreepada Shankar, a freedom fighter in 1924 and started participating in the activities of the National Movement.  Thought he participated in Satyagraha and picketing activities, he was able to escape arrests because of his young age.  He supported the strike by the Railway Employees Union in 1927 under the leadership of V.V. Giri and campaigned infavour of the strike.  He also took part in the Anti-Simon Commission Agiation in 1928 and Salt Satyagraha, for which he was detained for 15 days and tortured by the police.  He organised hartal and condolence meeting in Madras, when Motilal Nehru passed away in 1931.  This act drew the attention of the Indian National Congress Leaders.  He also participated in the agitation, which demanded the removal the statue of Munro, a British official, in Madras.  For which he faced the ire of the British rulers.  He also participated in the Second Disobedience Movement in 1932 and also helped in the winning of the candidates of the Indian National Congress during the elections held in 1936.  He fought with the local Congress Committee to provide equal opportunity to all the activists to participate in Individual Satyagraha.  As a result, he lost the opportunity to participate in the Satyagraha.  He returned to Narasayapalem from Madras in 1940, where he met communist leaders like Kolla Venkayya, Dunna Ashirwadam.  This led to his joining Communist Party of India.  Later, for the first time in the state, he started the Bapatla Municipal Workers’ Union to improve the working conditions of the Municipal Workers.  He was detained in 1939 for breaking the Bapatla Railway Gate during the Anti-War protests.  Though he could not participate actively in the Quit India Movement in 1942, he helped the activists of the Movement.  When the demand for ‘Pakistan’ gathered momentum in 1942 after the failure of discussions held between Jinnah and Gandhi, he opposed the divisive politics of the Muslim League.  His marriage was a sensation in those days, as he married in 1946 in a simple way just by exchanging garlands under the leadership of the Communist leader Vemulapalli Srikrishna without any traditional rituals.  As an activist of Indian National Movement he had good relations with top level leaders like Rajagopalachari, Kamaraj Nadar and as a Communist activist Haneef had also maintained very close relationship with the Communist leaders like Puchchalapalli Sundaraiah, Makineni Basava Punnaiah.  Muhammad Haneef who served the people of Bapatla as a council of Bapatla Municipality for some time, passed away in 1995.