Rainbow Quiz - Identify the personality - Week 42

Here is the next weekly "Rainbow" quiz , where I would be giving 7 clues (Hence the name Rainbow) about a personality. Try to discover the person in the least number of clues . You can either leave the answer as a comment / email me . Feedback/ suggestions welcome. Googling is not preferred but then its just for fun and so go ahead if you need to.

clue # 1 : "X" was born in 1901 in Chennai although his ancestors belonged to Nellore District.

clue # 2 : He studied in Madras till he attained the age of 20. Later, he studied Sanitary Engineering in Bombay.

clue # 3 : He joined the Great Indian Peninsular Railway and worked for about four years there. After the death of his wife when he was only 25, he lost interest in the material world and resigned from his job. He divided property between his brothers and mother and joined Sabarmati Ashram as a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

clue # 4 : "X" took part in the Salt Satyagraha and the Quit India movement and was imprisoned several times.

clue # 5 : Observing X's commitment, Mahatma Gandhi once remarked "We can achieve independence within a year if there were another ten people as committed and dedicated as X".

clue # 6 : After Indian independence, in an effort to unify the Telugu people, and preserve the unique culture of Andhra from Dravidian and largely tamil identity, he went on a lengthy fast demanding formation of a separate state.After 56 days of fasting, "X" died and laid down his life trying to achieve his objective.

clue # 7 : He is the only person in post-independence India who actually fasted to death (for a public cause) as all others either gave up or were arrested and force fed or hospitalised.

Who is X?