Hello everybody and welcome back to Revolutionary Left Radio.

On today's episode we have the nephew of Varavara Rao, VV Rao, Indian poet, a revolutionary

and a political prisoner.

His nephew Venu Gupal is on the episode today to talk about his uncle's life, the impact

his uncle's poetry and political activism has had on Indian culture and the current state

of his uncle which is being imprisoned in India as a political prisoner.

There's no other way to put it.

So this is a fascinating episode on a fascinating figure.

In a lot of ways this is a continuation of an earlier episode we did on the Naxalites.

So if you want to have a broader cultural and historical understanding of the Naxalite movement

and of Indian history I would urge people to check that out and then come back to this

episode perhaps if you don't know anything about the Naxalites.

But even if you have some working understanding of the situation in India and Indian politics

you'll get so much out of this conversation even outside of a full fledged understanding

of the Naxalite movement.

So I'll link to the sources that he mentions in the show notes so people can follow up

and even if it's just sending a letter to the family showing solidarity it can mean a lot

to see people from the US at taking active interest in participation in trying to get

a Vara Vara out of prison.

I believe he's in his early 80s.

He's obviously not doing well.

He's recently been diagnosed with COVID and to put any pressure on the Indian government

...