Don't trust Andhra people

It all started when none of us were born. Telangana was a separate entity and it was ruled by Muslim dynasties, whereas Andhra and Seema were governed by Hindu rulers. The Muslim Asafjahi dynasty established a separate state known as Hyderabad. When the British began their rule in India, Andhra and Seema became a part of the Madras Presidency. However, Telangana was never under the British rule - they had a treaty of subsidiary alliance. This gave Telangana a lot of freedom and liberty in its actions. This freedom went upto the extent where the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali had his own bank and own currency.


The Hyderabad state was very rich in terms of the wealth the Nizams had and also the wealth which the state generated through taxes. Alcohol, for example, was not banned here (like in Andhra or Seema) but it was taxed, thus generating copious amounts of revenue. The Andhra and Seema regions too were very well developed, but the people led a simple plain life, quite happy with music, art, culture etc. The Nizam supported the same but Hyderabad lived in richness and pomp. The other two regions were less glamorous.

The problem started after India’s independence. Hyderabad was never a part of the British Colonial Rule so it saw no reason why it should be a part of the Indian sub-continent. It declined the offer to be a part of India. But Hyderabad was forcibly amalgamated on September 17th, 1948 after the execution of what is famously known as the Operation Polo. PM Jawaharlal Nehru had a task to reorganize the entire country. He had setup the State Reorganization Committee and had decided to do the same on linguistic lines. But there was another problem - the Hyderabad state didn’t want to merge with the Andhra state. The reasons were many but predominantly the problem was that Andhra was miles ahead in terms of Economic Development. Though Hyderabad had more money, Andhra had more literacy and education. This was because they were under the British rule and they concentrated a lot on irrigation, education and agriculture. This was what even the SRC report had mentioned. 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." But the government overruled this, merged the two and brought in an agreement between the two parties. This agreement was called the Gentleman’s Agreement which 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. But the agreement was violated. None of the terms mentioned in the agreement were met. Telangana continued to suffer from lack of jobs, poor irrigation facilities, poverty and illiteracy. To overcome the suppression, the separate Telangana movement was launched in the year 1960. But that was when the Congress was at its might. With no strong opposition, the Congress had everything going its way. But the party began lose its sheen when Indira Gandhi imposed emergency and Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Congress had no strong leader to piggyback upon, and the other parties began to take advantage of this.