Swasamrajya Vaibhavamu by Pingali Lakshminarayana

Swami Narayananda Saraswati, popularly known as Pingali Lakshminarayana, was a nationalist author. He wrote several works in Telugu and became well-known for his involvement in the Indian freedom movement in the Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh. Pingali Lakshminarayana’s literary works were primarily concerned with Mahatma Gandhi and the radical ideas associated with the Indian freedom struggle in Andhra Pradesh at the time. In 1927, he published Swasamrajya Vaibhavamu (Glory of the Self-Empire). It was an original and innovative work that discussed the application of Gandhian philosophy to political science. This book also attempted to address the pressing issue of India’s political fate following independence. Lakshminarayana asserted in this work that a liberal democratic system, based on the best elements of American and European models of governance would be most suitable for application to the nation after the struggle for independence had been successfully prosecuted. Besides his literary works, Lakshminarayana was also an active participant in the freedom struggle. He was a fiery orator, and inspired the masses to join the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers. He was arrested by the colonial police for his involvement in the Salt Satyagraha in the Krishna district. Swasamrajya Vaibhavamu was a radical work for its time, as it not only assured the masses of India’s independence in the near future, but also proposed a political model for the country’s future.