Swarajya Mantramu by Y. Krishna Rao

Swarajya Mantramu is a book written by Yenamandra Krishna Rao who hailed from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. The book, in Telugu, was written in the backdrop of the somber event of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab where hundreds of innocent citizens were killed in an open fire ordered by General Dyer of the British army. The book questions the shrewd and cunning manner in which the British occupied India. Apart from this, the book focuses on events of national importance like the Rowlatt Satyagraha (agitation against the infamous Rowlatt bill which allowed to keep Indians in jail without appeal) and the participation of Indian soldiers in the First World War (1914-1918). Rao shows his anger at the colonial rule, which let several Indian lives perish in the battlefield. Moreover, instead of compensating the families of the dead soldiers, the British perpetrated more atrocities in India, such as the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh incident. The book further shows an inclination towards Gandhian ideology. Through the book, the author calls out to the masses to support Gandhi in his efforts by joining actively in the ongoing Non-cooperation movement. The nature of the book led to its ban by the government in 1921 under Indian Press Act, 1910.