TELUGU PEOPLE AT CROSS ROADS Obviously Telanganites are in a hurry. So is the Central Government acting through Table Notes running into some twenty two pages, to be read in no time, during the session itself, and to press ahead with an important issue like the division of s state in all its entirety. While every reason Telanganites put forth for division is itself contentious, including the tragic suicides by misplaced innocent zealot youth in the recent years , the political class is out in the open, in their ambition to taste power in the twenty nineth state of India, a bourgeoise democracy based on mixed economy in the beginning, and now courting the market manifesto of LPG, and throwing open Indian riches and resources to the MNCs in a Public and Private Partnership. Nothing great is going to happen in the name of social justice in Telangana, as it will be the same political class which will share the cake in a shamelss fight for cornering opportunities. Congress would have lost the entire Andhra Pradesh in the next elections, as they have failed to initiate any measures to keep the state united, in the Rayala Seema and Andhra regions, and on the other side in Telangana too, since they have not either acted to advance their interests, also. Seizing upon the self inflicted inaction of four years, the GOP has made some quick thinking, and to make the coalition math look rosy, thought of garnering at least a sizeable chunk of parliament seats from the state, and lo, suddenly the 2009 PC decision dangling since then, suddenly materialized, and now GOP hopes at least some major number of MP seats out of 17 in the Telangana region, would at least will be to their side. Meanwhile Telanganites, who claim sixty years of history to their agitation, during the last ten years to be precise, have brought in the arguments of backwardness, lack of development, which the Sri Krishna Committee called to be incorrect, ultimately ended up with the self rule sentiment, and on the cultural side embarked on creating a biggest cultural smoke screen. 1945-48 movement was partly freedom movement and much before that it was a movement against rampanat feudalism prevalent in the Nizam’s Hyderabad State, in which people of three regions were languishing. The people belonged to Marathwada, Kannada region and Telangana. Telangana, is a nomenclature referring to the region in which Telugu people lived, in the Nizam State of Hyderabad, and Telangana was an integral part of the former Hyderabad state, which was bigger, and not vice-versa, as the present Telanganites claim. While Nizam preferred Telugu and Telangana to be in parlance, he disliked the word Andhra, from the beginning, and even was against the name Andhra Jana Sangham (formed in 1921 by the Telugus in Nizam state) later changed it’s name to Andhra Maha Sabha ( which was a social movement demanding more political space in the administration in his state). Present Telanganites, share the dislike from their erstwhile ruler, and it is clear that the hatred is pathological, from the times of the Nizams, and we can only pity the present Telanganites who now play the role of being more hateful than the king. The Andhra Mahasabha floated by the Telugu people under the Nizam rule was denied right to conduct meetings in the Hyderabad state, and their meetings were held in places like Kakinada, Devarakonda Pune, Mumbai etc. The founder members included Unnava Venkataramaiah, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Suravaram Prataap Reddy, Ravi Narayana Reddy, T. andntha Venkata Rao, Ramachandra Reddy Desamukh Alldurgam gopala Venkata Rao and Datta Narayana Rao. The 1921 Andhra Jana Sangham subsequently Andhra Maha Sabha, inspired later on the formation of Karnataka Parishad in 1937 and Maharshtra Parishad in 1938. The 1949 movement was also a peasant revolution against the landlords i.e Desamukhs ( a Maharashtrian word) and Doras ( in Telugu local dialect). Claiming legacy from these movements to the present agitation is far fetched. Andhra Mahasabha lead the people for merger with free India successfully with more than 84% of Hindus identifying with their motherland, and desired to be free from the oppressive rule of Nizam who turned Hyderabad State into a Islamic State. The people included Marathis, Kannadigas, and Telugus and other linguistic groups as well, and only Telanganites can not claim any special legacy from the struggle. The CPI lead peasant revolution created grass root militias by arming the peasants and was chiefly responsible in dislodging the ruling landlords from their Zami or vast land tracts they possessed. With the party banned in India shortly before independence, the movement went underground, and is known for it’s heroic battles against the feudal character of the Nizam’s Hyderabad State. Often the shelter zones to these foot soldiers were in the neighboring Guntur and Krishna Districts, where the fighters, guerillas, their leaders and couriers took shelter and retreated after their mission in the Nizam’s state, since the area is under the rule of British. Now Telanganites are bent upon debunking the people and leaders who participated in this movement as “Andhrollu”, in the trade mark history propagated by them. In the last twelve years the Telanganites have made the word Andhra, a hate word in the educated circles of Telangana and the role of media in assisting this charade was not insignificant, though the common people of the region still refuse to believe this. Openly print media and electronic media, in the era of being owned by partisan and openly motivated neo-corporates, who are all over India, as a single window system ( politician, investor,entrepreneur, armed with an arm of print and electronic medium) also emerged in Telangana, playing hand in glove to this vicious propaganda and gradually the urban people have fallen prey to their mind games. The goals are simple, instead of one Cabinet there shall be two cabinets. The bureaucracy instead to being one, should be doubled. From each region, there will be jumbo cabinets, to satisfy the greed of the political class. While the whole problem can be solved by making a Telengana politician from any political party winning the elections as the CM for next fifteen years, with which much of the resentment will find a natural subsidence. But the political parties of India, have only learnt to fight it out for the booty, and in a complete act of career making, abandoned the people of the state. Hardcore Separatists among the Telanganites orchestrate that they never belonged to India, and belonged to a different state. None of the principalities that existed ( be it Travancore or Zunagad or the other five hundred plus estates or principalities) in the period of British resorted to this kind of divisionary mindset. Watch the Telangana zealots carefully when the hard core of them speak out, it would be as if they are advocating for separate country, but not for a separate state. The rhetoric bordered on malice, calling the state as Nizaamandhra and Britishaandhra, try to state that they were in better times in the rule of Nizam, which was nothing but a hoax. In the known history during the rule of Satavahanas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagar kings ( who before Krishna Devaraya ruled Warangal region also) Asafjaahis and Nizaams, the Telugu land was under one rule, and the same is also known as Andhramu, from the post-vedic times. Andhramu and Telugu are just two names to one language and one people, like Tamilamu and Aravamu, like Karnatamu or Kannadamu, or Malayalamu or Keralamu. Arguing as if they do not know the simple nomenclature pattern, the present separatist Telangana academics, labor to prove that Telugu is the Telangana region and Andhra represents the Andhra region. This has got nothing to do with regions, and Telugu and Andhra, being one language with one script how can they be separate identities, is a moot question, to which Telangana brethren have no answer in their hurry. The wedges they intended to create in the literature are regrettable seriously, and in a lighter vein are at best laughable. While we are capable of answering every falsification, I save the energies for a better and fitting occasion. The Nizam of Hyderabad state gave way the regions far away from his kingdom, coastal Andhra and Rayala seema, as part of buying protection from the invading French and British colonial armies, and even much before him Mughal Padshah Aurangzeb made a firmaana in favor of British for the coastal Andhra , and Nizam technically was his Subedar only, and even the act of giving away the region can not be credited to the Nizams. The Nizam state of Hyderabad, after the advent of British was not a soverign state, since it purchased protection from outsider attacks on their territory from the British, and any country which is dependent upon others for its defence, by treaty, how can it be an independent state at all? Any way, the territories of Andhra ( given out finally 190 years back appx) and Rayala Seema were given out only 150 years back appx) which will make the separation only less than 200 years old. What great changes of character can took place in a relatively small period to two centuries? Nothing, except both sides were exploited, by the Nizams and the colonial powers. In other words, Nizam’s principality or so called Hyderabad state existed courtesy the British rulers, which in return to his services and allegiance, offered him the 21 gun salute, and conferred some pompous titles on him. Nizams changed the Telugu names of places into Urdu ones, and even in the Osmania University, the medium of instruction was only Urdu, ignoring the languages of the majority population i.e. Telugu, Maratha and Kannada. The character of the rule in Hyderabad state had nothing to boast off except building some monuments, and amassing wealth from himself by the Nizams, who by right had inherited an agricultural estate of the size of present day Assam state, in the former Hyderabad state, and the entire income from this land was tax free to the ruler. Naturally he emerged the richest person in the world, ( The Times magazine had presented a cover story on this richest man of the world) and now we know the source and nature of this sinful income. To claim his legacy now seems to be fashionable to some ill-motivated Telengana brethren, and this can only be deemed as the biggest tragedy, for their understanding of history is fitful. The history they quote is twisted. The culture divide the claim is a fiction. The development disparities they champion are called incorrect by the Sri Krishna Commission. The backwardness if any was caused by the centuries of Nizam’s rule, that affected their lannguage ( which they turn to their identity advantage calling it as Telangana syli or style which was nothing but a mandalikam) but not in independent India, and for that matter the people from Telangana region are much better then most of the North Indian states, and even better than Andhra and Rayala seema, then where comes the question of backwardness. A district wise comparison with other regions will show that back ward districts are all over India, and the same is a fact even in our state, and development of back ward districts in all regions would be a true patriotic act, but not hurried division of states, in a frenzy, blaming even the linguistic states as if the concept has caused exclusive damage to only Telanganites in Andhra Pradesh? The nation-state is a modern phenomenon, and for identifying a nation and its people, apart from geographical boundaries, the language they speak was also taken as an identifier. Only difference was, while in Europe, Latin America and Africa also, when modern nations have formed, the language remained one of the identifiers. As these lands inhabited by a language speaking population was small they were made into separate countries, and in India, the linguistic regions where people of one language found to be living were brought together as Linguistic states. Please remember most of the Indian states, are of the size of independent countries in Europe, Latin America. In fact Orissa( now Odisha) was the first linguistic state carved out of Bengal Central Provinces and Northern most areas of Madras Presidency in 1930s itself by the British, in modern times. And thereafter the Government of India also followed the example of forming Linguistic states. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Kerala, and Odisha flourished well in the Indian Union, and the challenges before all these states are same for development and eradication of poverty. Telanganites have not suffered any separate adversity, which the people in other states, and people in the other regions of the states did not know about. Only thing that they have an agitational mindset, vulnerable to manipulation, and the waiting political class and the neo-rich craving for much space in the business, socio-polotical sector and investor fields have brought about this chaotic condition, to which the educated careerist class abetted and sections of the print and electronic media played the role of perpetuation as willing stooges. Painting a historical role to this deep set opportunistic epilepsy is nothing but tampering the facts. Also blaming linguistic states also does not hold water. Thus we have Telangana before us. And no body can compete with the present ruling establishment in creating a more unimaginative and dangerous procedure to oversee the division. The parties failed to keep the people together. It is for the people to stay united in unity or division. For the people of Andhra, the road ahead is again long and arduous. They have to start afresh. Instead of thinking about the job at hand, why people should waste their energies on roads, and in non-responsive capitals? Make the political class bite the dust, and spurn now on all the cultural malice the Telangana separatists churn off from their grind mills of discord and falsehood, n , and show to India what a decentralised modern state can be? Make sure there is provision of funds , plan for the future. Warn the powers that Andhra cannot be another Uttaranchal, Jarkhand or Chattisgharh, where the development is too low and too slow. After all it is our Gurazada who said timeless words. Mamchi gathamuna komchemenoyi Mamdagimchaka mumdukadugeyi Venuka choosina kkaryamemoyi Venuka badithe venukenoyi Good is little in the past Idle not, you progress on To what avail do you look back Once behind, you remain behind
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:22:03 +0000
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