History of Telangana

The issue of a separate statehood for the Telangana region in the state of Andhra Pradesh has suddenly arisen from the ashes with the fast onto death "satyagraha" by the President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Mr. K Chandra Sekhar Rao (popularly known as KCR) reaching 9th day today.


His Son, K.Taraka Rama Rao (named after our famous former Chief Minister, N T Rama Rao) says that his father's health is critical but stable.

Why had KCR suddenly started the indefinite fast onto death ?

Till now, the only person who was against the formation of Telangana state was our former chief minister, Mr.Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy. He recently died in a helicopter crash in the Nallamala forest. With the elimination of YSR, the chances of getting a separate state has increased. This is one main reason why KCR had started the fast.

From the beginning, YSR was against Telangana as he felt that his powers would be limited only to a very small area of the state. He would lose his bargaining power in the Congress Party.
He cultivated a group of Telangana legislators in his own party who are against the formation of Telangana for their own personal reasons. He used these legislators in fighting against those who were strongly supporting Telangana in his party.
Congress had fought elections in alliance with TRS on several occasions and even going to the extent of supporting a separate state in their manifesto. But Congress ditched TRS and also the people of Telangana and never took the issue forward.

How many districts are there in Telangana ?

Here is a list of the districts that form Telangana:
* Adilabad
* Nizamabad
* Karimnagar
* Warangal
* Khammam
* Medak
* Hyderabad
* Ranga Reddy
* Nalgonda
* Mahaboobnagar

Hyderabad City is completely surrounded by the Ranga Reddy District and the nearest border to Andhra is around 150 Kilometers away.

How many districts are there in Andhra?

Here is a list of the districts that form Andhra:


* Srikakulam
* Vizianagaram
* Vishakhapatnam
* East Godavari
* West Godavari
* Krishna
* Guntur
* Prakasam
* Nellore

How many districts are there in Raayalaseema?

Here is a list of the districts that form Raayalaseema:


* Kurnool
* Ananthapur
* Kadapa
* Chittoor

Entire Andhra Pradesh is as big as England and all the three regions of of the state namely, Telangana, Andhra and Raayalaseema are backward. It is more than 50 years since Andhra State and Hyderabad State were merged to form Andhra Pradesh and all the three regions are backward. Is the merger worth ??

Is it not better if we split to out original areas and see how we can develop all the three regions ? The experimentation of a combined state flopped and why not try another experiment by splitting up ??

Formation of Andhra State:

The great Gandhian, Amarajeevi Potti Sri Ramulu went on a fast onto death in Madras(presently Chennai) demanding a separate state for Telugus to be carved out of Madras State where Tamil is spoken.

In an effort to unify the Telugu people, and preserve the unique culture of Telugu people, he attempted to force the government to listen to public demands for the unification of Andhra based on linguistic lines. He went on a lengthy fast, and only stopped when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised to support unification.

However, there was no movement on the issue for a long time. He started fasting again for attaining statehood for Andhra in Maharshi Bulusu Sambamurthy’s house in Madras on 19 October 1952. It started off without fanfare but steadily caught people’s imagination despite the disavowal of the fast by the Andhra Congress committee.

The government of the day however did not make a clear statement about the formation of a new state despite several strikes and demonstrations by Telugu people. On the midnight of 15 December (i.e. early 16 December 1952), Potti Sreeramulu died and laid down his life trying to achieve his objective.

In his death procession, people shouted slogans praising his sacrifice. When the procession reached Mount Road, thousands of people joined and raised slogans hailing Sriramulu. Later, they went into a frenzy and resorted to destruction of public property.

The news spread like wildfire and created an uproar among the people in far off places like Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Guntur, Tenali, Ongole and Nellore. Seven people were killed in police firing in Anakapalle and Vijayawada. The popular agitation continued for three to four days disrupting normal life in Madras and Andhra regions. On 19 December, the Prime minister of the country Jawaharlal Nehru made an announcement about formation of a separate state.

On 1 October 1953, the state of Andhra was established with Kurnool as capital carving it out from Madras State. However, the Telangana region existed prior as a separate state before merging with Andhra state. On November 1, 1956, Telangana was merged with Andhra and as a result Andhra Pradesh was formed with Hyderabad as its capital, against the States Reorganization Commission Report (SRC).


Kerala and Karnataka states were formed the same day in 1956, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1960. The formation of linguistic states is the single most important event in the history of South Indian languages, as it provided an opportunity for these languages to develop independently, each of them having a state to support.

While Sri Potti Sriramulu has done a great sacrifice to achieve Andhra state from Madras Presidency, its noteworthy for the readers to understand that at that time, Telangana existed as a separate state and his efforts were mislead to the layman's understanding that he sacrificed his life for the formation of the present Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh is formed based on linguistic base and that is when Hyderabad State (Burgula Ramakrisha Rao, Chief Minister for Hyderabad State from 17 September 1948 till merged in Andhra Pradesh) is merged.

Potti Sriramulu fasted in the heart of Madras (Chennai) city for over 58 days for an Andhra state with Madras as the capital. He described "Andhra without Madras as a dead body without a head. The reasons as to why the Rajaji government, Union government led by Nehru or police did not intervene to force feed or shift him to a hospital remain unclear.

History of Telangana:

The meaning of Telangana literally means "Land of Telugus". The Telugu language originated in Telangana.

Telangana region was mentioned in the Mahabharata as the Telinga Kingdom which said to be inhabited by the tribe known as Telavana and said to have fought on the Pandava side in the great war of Mahabharata. It is also evident from the fact that there is Pandavula Guhalu in warangal district(wherein Pandavas spent their life in exile (Lakkha Gruham)).

And, in Treta yuga, it is believed that Lord Sri Rama along with his consort Sita Devi and brother Lakshmana, spent their life in exile at Parnashala on the banks of Godavari river which is about 25 km from Bhadrachalam in Khammam District of Telangana.


India became independent from the British Empire in 1947. The Nizam of Hyderabad wanted to retain his independence, but the Indian Government amalgamated his state of Hyderabad by force on September 17, 1948 after the successful execution of Operation Polo by the Indian Army. When India became independent, the Telugu-speaking people (although Urdu is spoken in some parts of Telangana districts) were distributed in about 22 districts; 9 of them in the Telangana region of Nizam's Dominions (Hyderabad State), 12 in the Madras Presidency and one in French-controlled Yanam.

Social conditions then immediately after independence were drastically opposite in Telangana and the Costal andhra districts and to a some extent, when compared to Rayalaseema.

Being under Tyrannical,feudalistic,oppressive and religiously discriminative regime and years long of brutal oppression and cultural abuses by the Nizam and also due to constant fighting in the latter years of the Nizam rule, education, awareness and lingo(accent in some parts, especially Hyderabad) to an extent were seriously effected.Only after Telangana's Liberation, people felt they were safe after years living as second grade citizens under Nizam.

Where as in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema being under British rule enjoyed freedom to some extent than the Telangana people.They were educated and were generally more aware of whatsoever in the society.Under the British, they benefited by the development which the British had done to the region by laying roads , promoting education by the universities and colleges, reservoirs like Cotton Barrage, Prakasam Barrage and also are the language and cultural development by the likes of Charles Philip Brown, Campbell, Galletti, and reformers like Veereshalingam Panthulu etc.

They enjoyed religious freedom and cultural freedom except political freedom. The poor Telangana Telugus suffered a lot from cultural, linguistic and religious and political freedom, where Urdu was taught forcefully at schools( though they are very few schools as such), Islam was the state religion and Muslims were considered as masters over the other religions, religious freedom was almost nil, worst form of feudalism being prominent in Nizam state and literally no efforts in social and cultural reformation as in Rest of India.

Under these antipathetic and violent conditions ,the people were defensive and were Ignorant when compared to the outside world. ( Though after Operation Polo, Muslims of Nizam state suffered violent backlash of religious violence when many of the innocent Muslim families were killed or went missing. Most of the events took place in Marathi speaking areas and in a couple of Kannada speaking areas of the Nizam rule. In the Marathi speaking areas the revolt was led by AryaSamaj, a Hindu reformist organization. In Telangana, this was led by Communists and so didn't witness such violent backlash.)


Meanwhile Telugu speaking areas were carved out of erstwhile Madras state by popular agitation by the then leaders like Potti Sri Ramulu etc.

Merger of Telangana and Andhra

In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganization Commission to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. This was headed by Justice Fazal Ali and the commission itself was also known as the Fazal Ali Commission. The efforts of this commission was overseen by Govind Ballabh Pant, who served as Home Minister from December 1954. The commission created a report in 1955 recommending the reorganization of India's states.


The States Reorganization Commission (SRC) was not in favour of merging the Telangana region with the then Andhra state. Para 382 of States Reorganization Commission Report (SRC) said "..opinion in Andhra is overwhelmingly in favour of the larger unit, public opinion in Telangana has still to crystallize itself. Important leaders of public opinion in Andhra themselves seem to appreciate that the unification of Telangana with Andhra, though desirable, should be based on a voluntary and willing association of the people and that it is primarily for the people of Telangana to take a decision about their future...".

The concerns of Telanganas were manifold. The region had a less developed economy than Andhra, but with a larger revenue base (mostly because it taxed rather than prohibited alcoholic beverages), which Telanganas feared might be diverted for use in Andhra. They also feared that planned dam projects on the Krishna and Godavari rivers would not benefit Telangana proportionately even though Telanganas controlled the headwaters of the rivers. Telanganas feared too that the people of Andhra would have the advantage in jobs, particularly in government and education.


Para 386 of States Reorganization Commission Report (SRC) said "After taking all these factors into consideration we have come to the conclusions that it will be in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana area is to constitute into a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961 if by a two thirds majority the legislature of the residency Hyderabad State expresses itself in favor of such unification."

However, the Congress party was strong in Andhra than in Telangana because the Nizam who ruled till then did not allow Congress activities in Telangana. The strong Congress lobby in Andhra lobbied with central congress leadership for the merger. So, the central government decided to ignore the SRC recommendations and established unified Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956. However, a "Gentleman's agreement" provided reassurances to the Telangana people as well to Andhra people in terms of power sharing as well as administrative domicile rules and distribution of expenses of various regions.


At the time of merging parts of Hyderabad State, with Andhra, and forming Andhra Pradesh state, Hyderabad State had an excess revenue due to alcohol excise duty, and The Indian government confiscated enormous wealth accumulated by Nizams provided the resources in creation of larger state.

Separate Telangana state movement:

In the following years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh state, however, the Telangana people had a number of complaints about how the agreements and guarantees were implemented. Discontent with the 1956 Gentleman's agreement intensified in January 1969 when the guarantees that had been agreed on were supposed to lapse.

Student agitation for the continuation of the agreement began at Osmania University in Hyderabad and spread to other parts of the region. Government employees and opposition members of the state legislative assembly swiftly threatened "direct action" in support of the students. This movement, also known as Jai Telangana movement, led to widespread violence and deaths of hundreds of people and students of this Telangana region. Approximately 360 students gave their lives in this movement.


Although the Congress faced dissension within its ranks, its leadership stood against additional linguistic states, which were regarded as "anti-national." As a result, defectors from the Congress, led by M. Chenna Reddy, founded the Telangana People's Association (Telangana Praja Samithi). Despite electoral successes, however, some of the new party leaders gave up their agitation in September 1971 and, much to the disgust of many separatists, rejoined the safer political haven of the Congress ranks.

Geography, Culture & Identity of Telangana:

Of the three regions of the state, Telangana has the largest area, with 1,14,800 km2.The Telangana plateau is composed of Archean Gneissic rocks and drained by Godavari and Krishna rivers. The entire region is divided into two main regions namely ghats and peneplains. The surface is dotted with low depressions.


Centuries of independent existence has given Telangana its own distinctive culture and identity. The Telugu language spoken here has evolved into a new dialect with a liberal mixture of words from Urdu. Festivals: Eid al-Adha (Bakr Eid), Dassera, Eid-ul-Fitr and Ugadi are prominent festivals in Telangana. The region celebrates distinctive festivals like Bathukamma, and Bonalu. The other festivals, such as, Deepawali, Holi, Moharram and Vinayaka chaturthi are also celebrated with equal enthusiasm as in northern India. The national festival Sankranti is also celebrated in the beginning of harvest season on 14 January every year.

Note: Please find the recommendations of the SRC in Image formats on the right. This proves that despite opposition from Telangana people, Hyderabad State (Telangana) is forcefully merged along with Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh.

Resources: Wikipedia

Congress Ditching Telangana

After going through the news reports past couple of days, it looks like the more than 100 year old Congress Party is shying away in implementing what it stated in its manifesto - a Second State Re-Organization Commission (SRC) which will decide on the separate statehood for Telangana.


The Congress, which is ruling now, took the support of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the previous elections saying that they are in support for a separate Telangana state and won the elections. The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which was in power at that time was dead against separate state. Now, with the elections just couple of months away, the parties have taken completely opposite stand.

The TDP, which is in opposition is now supporting Telangana while the Congress Party which is ruling the state is against Telangana.


Looks like these two major political parties are taking the aspirations of the 3 Crore Telangana people for a ride. These two Political parties have got habituated in going against what they have pledged during the election campaigns. At the sametime, Telanganites have got used to getting ditched by their own politicians whom they elected.

For the sake of getting Ministries in the Central and State Governments, the TRS also didn't take up the Telangana issue vigorously. They sat on the issue and now with elections very nearby, they are again taking up the issue seriously - once again to take the people for a ride.


All these political parties should be taught a lesson. Unless they come out with a timeline for a separate Telangana, we should not vote to these parties.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had already stated that once they are in power in the central government, they would give Telangana within 6 months. During the earlier BJP rule, they carved our states like Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh and proved that they would stick to their word. The BJP had already passed a resolution for separate Telangana state in their once in a year meetings. Other parties have still not passed such a resolution in their own meetings.

Before we go for voting, we got to make sure to vote to those parties which stick to their word.

Congress Ditching Telangana

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy is trying the show off that he is a Master strategist. During the previous assembly elections, he had an understanding with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and fought the elections and won the elections. One of the agendas is creation of a separate Telangana - albeit through a second State Re-Organization Committee.(SRC)

Second SRC never came nor any commitment for a separate state. Looks like those who are in power never want to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. The earlier Telugu Desam Party(TDP) refused the separation point blank and now the same party has ditched its stance and supports a separate state.

Important Political Parties For Telangana:

* Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
* Communist Party of India (CPI)
* Telugu Desam Party (TDP)
* Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)
* Nava Telangana Praja Party - belonging to Devender Goud who split from TDP

Important Political Parties Against Telangana:

* Congress Party
* Communist Party of India (Marxists)
* Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)

Important Political Parties Who are Neutral or not yet taken a decision:

* Loksatta Party
* Praja Rajyam - belongs to the film actor, Chiranjeevi

Each party has its own stance on the Telangana issue. BJP was the first political party to take a right decision regarding the separation while others jumped into the fray due to other political reasons.

Two days back, the Chief Minister went to New Delhi for a Congress core committee meeting on Telangana issue. He informed the party chief, Sonia Gandhi that Congress is on a strong footing on Telangana. Looks like YSR is day dreaming. The day he says that he is against Telangana, Congress would be routed in entire Telangana region where TDP and TRS have a good following.


YSR is taking the party high command for a ride and he is going to drown the party along with him. When he was in a meeting, he ensured that all the Muslim MP's, MLA's and MLC's from Congress campaign against Telangana.

There is lot of similarity between YSR and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah fought for a separate Pakistan saying that Muslims would never be safe in Hindu India. Now, YSR is projecting the same.

Will TRS & NTPP Merge With TDP ??

The idea of a merger between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP) came to me today morning after going through the news reports that TDP is going to formally give support to a separate Telangana State while some of its Telangana based leaders went to the extent of starting off a agitation for the separation.


Till now, there were two major political parties in Andhra Pradesh - The Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party. Now, a whole bunch of parties have sprung up giving a nightmare to the voter in choosing a proper political platform to vent his anger. The major parties in Andhra Pradesh now are:

* Congress Party
* Telugu Desam Party
* Telangana Rashtra Samithi - Only in Telangana Areas
* Praja Rajyam Party
* Nava Telangana Praja Party - Only in Telangana Areas
* Communist Party of India (Marxists) - CPI(M)
* Communist Party of India - CPI
* Bharatiya Janata Party
* Loksatta Party

and a host of smaller and marginal political parties which are mostly based on caste equations.

The Congress Party is going to contest on its own now as the Communist Party of India (Marxists) had withdrawn its support.


The Telugu Desam Party is scouting for alliances and looks like it is going to get support from CPI(M). It is heard that TDP is also in talks with TRS. Once TDP comes out with a clear policy on separate Telangana, TRS should have no problem supporting TDP. Devender Goud recently came out of TDP to form Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP). If TDP supports Telangana state, NTPP "might" consider supporting TDP. After all, TRS and NTPP was carved out of TDP. If all the three merge, it would be sort of a re-union.


Mega Star Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam categorically said that they are out of a grand alliance to bring down the Congress Government. They are keeping their options closed to their hearts. They still have to come out with clear policies on lot of issues and the most problematic one is their stance on separate Telangana State. They said they would come out with a decision after a while. It is heard they are talking with non-congress and non-TDP political parties.


The Communists in Andhra Pradesh are always jumping alliances. They are the most opportunist political party here. Till now, they were supporting the Congress. They withdrew the support once the Congress went ahead with a Nuclear Deal with the US.

The Loksatta Party is formed by a former IAS Officer, Jayaprakash Narayan, who wants to clean out the scum from politics. Not sure how many would support this party. I voted them during the by-elections to Khairatabad Assembly Constituency a few months back. They lost to the Congress.


The Bharatiya Janata Party is hardly visible in the state. With 42 Lok Sabha Seats from Andhra Pradesh, AP plays a very key role in making and breaking Governments in the Center. The BJP is keep to form next Government in the Center but with not a single seat from AP in it's kitty, it would be very difficult for them to form a Government. The party in AP is in shambles with too many leaders who have no issues to fight for. It is in a moribund state now. It got to be revived with good and clean leaders like Himayatnagar MLA, Kishan Reddy.

KCR Resigns - A Political Gimmick ??

K. Chandra Sekhar Rao, President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) resigned today from his post owing to moral responsibility of a huge defeat of his party MLA's and MP's in the recently held by-elections in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.


KCR, as the Telangana party chief is known in political circles, sent his resignation letter to the party general secretary T Madhusudanachary.
"He has asked the party executive committee to accept his resignation," TRS sources said. However, his resignation is unlikely to be accepted by the party.

The party managed to retain only seven out of 16 assembly and two out of four Lok Sabha seats it had vacated.

So humiliating was the verdict that TRS lost Warangal Lok Sabha seat, considered the nerve centre of the Telangana movement, to TDP, while its floor leader in the assembly Vijayarama Rao was also defeated in Station Ghanpur constituency in the district.

Adding insult to the injury, the victory margin of KCR in Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat was reduced to 15,000 votes, a steep fall compared to over 2 lakh votes he had got in the 2006 elections.

Source : Rediff.com

Shocking By-Election Results

The by-elections to 18 Andhra Pradesh State Assembly seats (MLA Seats) and 4 Loksabha seats (MP Seats)have given a shocking thumbs down to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The by-elections are conducted after 16 TRS MLA's and 4 MP's resigned to put pressure on the Government for a separate Telangana State to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. At two other places elections were held as the sitting MLA's died. One of them is Khairatabad in Hyderabad where I voted.

TRS could retain only 7 Assembly Seats and 2 Loksabha Seats while the Congress Party won 6 Assembly Seats and 1 Loksabha Seat while the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which supports a united Andhra Pradesh won in as many as 5 Assembly Seats and 1 Loksabha Seat.


TRS was pushed to a corner on Telangana issue as Congress Party was not implementing what it promised in the earlier elections. Congress came to power taking help of TRS in the Telangana region thus indirectly supporting separate Telangana. As the Congress party strengthened, it started to distance itself from TRS forcing the TRS to pull out of the Government and eventually resigning to put pressure. TRS was almost synonymous with the Telangana issue. With this shocking defeat, opponents of Telangana State started asking whether the demand is valid as people are not supporting it.

Because of TRS, the separate Telangana State issue came out of the dust and forced all the political parties to take stand on the issue - either for or against the separate state. This is something good which came out of TRS. The main problem with TRS is their loose tongued leaders. From the party president down to all the levels of the party cadre are loose tongued, use filthy words and are known drunkards. Except for a couple of leaders like Harish Rao, others dont stand good in public scrutiny. This has given a very bad image of Telangana itself and people outside Telangana started thinking whether this is the culture of Telangana - using filthy words and drinking.

People from Telangana itself have understood that they have been taken for a ride by TRS and thus started opting for such parties like TDP, which are known well about their policy for a United Andhra Pradesh (Samaikya Andhra Pradesh). This has reflected in the dwindling vote share of TRS past couple of elections. I strongly believe TRS would be wiped out of the map in the general and state elections slated next year.


So, is separate Telangana State issue a closed chapter ?? I dont think so !! Even though people have opted for other parties, separate Telangana State is an issue which is something close to the hearts of people. TRS has to work hard to regain its lost glory. They have to come closer to all sections (Telanganas and Andhras who have settled in Telangana areas) of people and most importantly strive for the development of their constituencies. TRS has not got entire right on Telangana but TRS has the credit of taking the issue to the national stage. Atleast for that purpose, we need to credit TRS !!

Another factor that played in this elections is the role of new political party, Lok Satta. This was started by a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. Lok Satta was initially started as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and then transformed into a political outfit whose aim is clean politics where there is no place for corruption, nepotism and all the other ills of politics. Their aims look great but is it possible in India where political parties are spending hundreds of Millions just for the sake of a single assembly seat ? Practically Impossible !!
I voted to them because of There Is No Alternative (TINA) factor. Iam a traditional Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter and since BJP didnt contest in Khairatabad, and since Iam a traditional anti-Congress supporter, I had no option but vote to Lok Satta.

Lok Satta played a destabilizing role in the Musheerabad Assembly constituency in Hyderabad where BJP candidate, Dr.Lakshman was pitted against a old Congress lady. BJP chances weakened as the Congress used money and muscle power as BJP stood no chance against their power. But Lakshman fought hard and was leading in many rounds of vote counting. What tilted the balance is the 5000 odd votes Lok Satta got denting traditional BJP vote bank - the educated !! End of the day, BJP lost the elections by a very low margin on 2000 odd votes.

This comes back to the point "Is there a necessity for so many political parties?". In a democracy like ours, such questions are not answered nor asked!!