Kirippur's Adi Dravidas joined the Communist movement during the agitation of 1947–8. They told me that for about five years previously, wages had been very low and prices had risen. Struggles to raise wages were met with brutality in the neighborhood. In 1947 in a village six miles from Kirippūr, for example, a Naidu landlord owning a thousand acres seized a Harijan worker who led a party of Ādi Drāviḍas demanding higher rates of pay, and nailed his hand to a tree. The nail was removed some hours later and the man fled the district.

In 1947–8, as I have mentioned, a widespread kisan (peasant) movement was formed to demand higher wages for workers and bigger shares of the crop for tenants. Some branches of the movement were Gāndhian and reformist, appealing to the consciences of the landlords and of the government. Others – the majority in Nāgapaṭṭanam, Naṉṉilam, and Maṉṉargudi tālūks – were Communist, with some hope of turning the rural agitation into a revolutionary upsurge in many parts of India. In some villages of East Thanjāvūr in late 1947, armed bands of Ādi Drāviḍas attacked the houses and granaries of big landlords in order to distribute grain and other wealth to laborers. In Nāgapaṭṭaṇam tālūk the Communist Party dominated the six-week strike at harvest time in January–February 1948. In many villages Communists neutralized landlords and police and organized the harvesting of crops on behalf of small holders, tenants, and laborers.