Thread by @YunusLasania

THREAD on #Telangana and the history of its formation as a separate state. The States Reorganisation Committee recommended against its merger with the Andhra areas, so why did it happen?

The answer lies in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad that Telangana was part of
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Telangana & AP were both part of the Nizam/Asaf Jahi state, but the Andhra areas were eventually ceded to the British in the 19th century.
Hyderabad state was annexed to India in 1948. At the time, it comprised of 16 districts.8 in Telangana, 5 in Maharashtra and 3 in Karnataka.

Population of Hyderabad population: 18.7 million.
Language breakup: 47.8% Telugu, 24.3% Marathi, 11.6% Urdu, 10.5% Kannada and 5.8% others.
In 1947, Hyderabad's last Nizam Osman Ali Khan refused to join India or Pak. He wanted to stay independent. But it wasn't going to work.

With a serious communist party-led peasant rebellion in Telangana in 1946, the Indian govt under Nehru/Patel after a year of deliberations, sent the army, which annexed Hyderabad to India on 17th Sept 1948. (For details on this, please check my pinned thread).

After the annexation to India in 1948, the Hyd state had a military governor for 18 months. The Nizam was also made the Rajpramukh.

Later, in Hyd state's 1st state polls, the Congress came to power, and the CPI (PDF) winning 42 out of 77 seats in Telangana (total 175 seats)

Eventually, the Indian govt began considering restructuring states on linguistic bases. People from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema began demanding a separate Telugu state. The Andhra state was created on 1st Nov 1953, with Kurnool as temporary capital.

In Hyd city/state, the govt had begun bringing in English speaking and other officers, especially from AP. The main complaint was that they got most of the positions. This would become a major issue.
Telangana folks were subject to ridicule by AP folks for their Telugu dialect

Similarly, Urdu speakers also felt the same (the spoken language of the Deccan is Dakhni, but on the later).

The states reorg committee also noted that Urdu speakers comprised 45.4% of the population in Hyd, who felt that they "will stand to suffer culturally", if TS&AP unite

The chorus from Hyderabad/Telangana against the merger of Andhra and TS began gaining momentum, specially for jobs

You see, owing to local protests, the Nizams had to bring in the 'Mulki rule' to safeguard local jobs (non-Mulkis had to stay in Hyd for 13 years to get a govt job.

In the 1950s, before the merger in 1956, locals here also held a "Go back Idly Sambar" protest against the people of AP (at that time those dishes weren't staple to Hyd)

Unhappy youngsters even protested against the Hyd state's first (&last) CM Burgula Ramakrishna Rao.

In spite of the supposed advantages, the main fear in Telangana was as the region was backward, people in the state would be unequally placed, especially in terms of education and jobs, acc to the States Reorganisation Committee.
Opinion in AP was greatly in favour of a merger.

However, the committee took note of the unhappiness over it in Telangana. "..public opinion in Telangana has still to "crystallise: itself.
It suggested that safeguards could be in the form of a pact in terms of employment opportunities, and in public services.

However In SPITE of all the advantages, the committee in 1955 stated, "Integration of Telangana with Andhra at this stage is therefore, likely to create administrative difficulties for Andhra and Telangana:”. AP, separated from Tamil Nadu (with no proper capital)

It concluded saying, "We have come to the conclusion that it will be in the interest of Andhra as well as Telangana, if for the present, the Telangana area is constituted into a separate state, which may be known as the Hyderabad state, with provision for unification..."
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"... with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961". The Reorg committee added that both the Telugu states could be merged if a 2/3rd majority in the legislature of supposed residuary Hyderabad state "expresses itself in favour of such unification.”

In fact, the committee also stated that if public sentiment "crystallises itself against the unification of the two states", Telangana will have to continue as a separate unit.
Interestingly, it also said that Bidar dist of the Hyd state should go remain instead of going to TS.

Hyderabad state (Telangana), would have the following districts: Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal, including Khammam, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Hyderabad, Medak, and Bidar. Also Munagala enclave in Nalgonda district belonging to the Krishna district of then Andhra state.

However, in spite of this, for reasons best known to the then govt, Andhra and Telangana were merged, with a lot of safeguards promised to TS.
Promises wouldn't be kept, and in 1969 people, the first major statehood movement was launched.This would be quelled after a compromise

The rest, as we know it, is history. Perhaps the trajectories of AP/TS (which still doesn't have a capital), would have been different had the committee's recommendations been implemented.
The committee, in spite of claims from Andhra leaders, rejected the demand to share Madras

#TelanganaFormationDay #Telangana #telanganaformationday2022 #TelanganaState

Thank you for reading the thread till here.

If anyone is interested in learning about the background in detail here is my article on Telangana's pre independence past:

siasat.com/why-telangana-…