Subregionalism in India the Case of Telangana

Subregionalism in India: The Case of TelanganaAuthor(s): Duncan B. ForresterSource: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), pp. 5-21Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British ColumbiaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2753831Accessed: 15/07/2010 00:36

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Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana

Duncan B. Forrester

T HE MOVEMENT FOR linguistic states in the non-Hindi areas of India has been closely studied, and it is now possible to speak of an accepted in-

terpretation of the forces behind the movement, the reasons for its final suc- cess in the i95os, and at least some of the consequences of the resultant re- organization.' The roots of the various particular movements for redrawing of provincial boundaries lie in regional cultural renaissances which can often be traced back to the nineteenth century. An enhanced sense of regional identity and a new cultural awareness quickly mobilized the sup- port of rising castes and alliances of castes seeking enhanced status and eco- nomic power; but they were also aware that their influence in multilinguistic provinces dominated by an English-educated elite must necessarily be restricted. Linguistic separatism captured the imagination of large sections of the student population partly, perhaps, because of the problems involved in higher education through the medium of English, but more markedly because of the desire for a pool of jobs within the state effectively reserved for them. The movement was strengthened because Congress had attempted over several decades to mobilize it in support of the national struggle, and it had also found some, rather more grudging, support from government prior to independence. The Congress government finally, and somewhat reluctantly, conceded most linguistic demands by i959. The consequences of this redrawing of boundaries appear to have been an indigenization and democratization of provincial politics, which gave a strong impetus to the development of diverse regional political cultures, enhancing the political significance of caste and of regional educated elites.

In this paper I use the term "region" to refer to a cultural and social area, the regional boundaries in peninsular India now in most cases being those of the major languages? By region I mean very much the same as Lenin

II am grateful to Mr. N. Ram and the staff of the Hindu library for making much material concerning the Telangana problem available to me, and to a number of my colleagues and students, particularly K. Sivamohan Reddi, N. Dilip Uthappa, C. A. Ponnappa, P. N. Vaithyanathan, and N. Ananda Kumar, for helpful suggestions and criticism.

2 Cf. N. M. Srinivas' essay, "The Problem of Indian Unity," in his Caste in Modern India and Other Essays (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, i962), pp. 98-III; and W. H. Morriss- Jones, "Language and Region within the Indian Union," in Philip Mason (ed.), India and Cey- lon: Unity and Diversity (London: Oxford University Press, I967), pp. 5i-66.

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Pacific Atairs and Stalin (and all the discussion of the "national question" among Marxists which flows from their writings) meant by "nation": "A nation is a his- torically evolved, stable community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture."3 Na- tional or regional frontiers are now usually also political boundaries in India. By "subregion" I understand a smaller area within a region or "na- tion" which for economic, geographic, historical, and social reasons is aware of possessing a distinct identity. Telangana is, as we shall see shortly, in many ways a typical subregion. The significance of such subregions and their claims to separate consideration were rather lost sight of during the movement for linguistic states. But subregionalism and the accompany- ing political subcultures are now increasingly calling for the attention of political scientists as phenomena likely to prove of mounting importance in India and probably not to be explained in the same terms as regionalism. Historical and economic factors produce subregional problems and en- courage the growth of compelling political subcultures which not only do not correspond but conflict with the larger unities of language, culture, and caste represented by the linguistic state. Insofar as subregionalism is the result of economic imbalances between historically defined subregions, it may be considered a by-product of modernization.

The Andhra Pradesh of today is a state of twenty districts which cor- responds fairly accurately to the area in which Telugu language and culture are dominant. The total population according to the i96i census was 35,983,447. The state is divided into three well-defined subregions: the Delta, sometimes called the Circars, Rayalaseema, and Telangana. For most administrative purposes the Delta and Rayalaseema are treated as one. The Delta, well-irrigated and fertile, is the most prosperous and wealthy of the three subregions; Rayalaseema is a dry, infertile area, subject to frequent droughts and famine. The nine districts which comprise Tel- angana are relatively backward economically.4

In terms of caste there are no fundamental differences between the three subregions-the same castes tend to have a horizontal spread throughout the state. Kammas and Reddis are the two dominant agricultural castes, al- though the Kammas are concentrated in the Delta districts, sometimes known as Kamma Rashtra, while the Reddis are heavily centred in Ray- alaseema. In Telangana also the Reddis are predominant, and there is a tendency for traditional Reddi caste ties and factional conflicts to disregard the subregional boundaries. The two significant untouchable castes of Malas and Madigas are similarly spread throughout the region, and most Chris-

8J. Stalin, Marxism and the National and Colonial Question (London: Martin Lawrence, n.d.), p. 8.

4Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Mabhubnagar, Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Khammam, Waran- gal, Karimnagar.

6

Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana TABLE I: TELANGANA COMPARED WITH THE REST

OF ANDHRA PRADESH: POPULATION

Population (Lakhs) Density (per sq. mile)

Rayalaseema and Delta 232.71 376 Telangana I27, I2 286

SOURCE: Handbook of Statistics: Andhra Pradesh, 1966-7 (Hyderabad: Bureau of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradesh, i967).

tians in Andhra Pradesh are drawn from these two castes. Muslims and North Indian Marwaris, the trading and moneylending communities, are more numerous in the towns of Telangana, and indeed throughout the old Hyderabad State, than elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana village may be more backward and traditional than the villages in the Delta,5 the caste system less modified by modernizing influences, and landless agricul- tural labour-very open to Communist influence-more numerous in the Delta than in Telangana. But it remains true that it is not possible to dis- tinguish Telangana sharply from the rest of Andhra Pradesh in terms of caste. The principal castes in the three subregions are the same, although there are certainly interesting minor differences in caste configuration be- tween Telangana, Rayalaseema, and the Delta.6

If subregional distinctiveness cannot often be traced to caste, cultural, or linguistic factors, it is clear that a history of division goes far to create sub- regional feelings within a broad cultural region. Andhra has a long history of unity, but in the middle of the eighteenth century it was broken up. Most of it came under British rule, but Telangana remained under Indian rule as part of the territories of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Telangana there- fore has a separate political history of some two centuries.

The four coastal districts, known as the Northern Circars, developed rapidly under British administration and benefited particularly from the large-scale irrigation works which harnessed the Krishna and Godavari rivers for agriculture. The Circars became the most prosperous part of the Telugu country and the rice-bowl of Andhra enjoying the benefits of a stable and enlightened administration and developing not only economi- cally but socially and politically at a far faster rate than the Nizam's Do- minions. Thus we may agree with the statement in a Communist party publication:

It is an undeniable fact of history that it was the Circar districts, from the once united Vizag district to Nellore, especially the four delta districts of Guntur, Krishna, West

5 Good studies of rural Telangana are S. C. Dube, Indian Village (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, I955); and P. Y. Luke and John B. Carmen, Village Christians and Hindu Culture (London: Lutterworth Press, i968).

6 See the unsigned article, "Telangana and Caste," in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), March 8, i969, pp. 455-6.

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Pacific Aflairs and East Godavaries, which had been the hub of social and political activities. Whether it was the so-called non-brahmin movement in the early twentieth century, or the language renaissance movement of grandhic blasha versus gramya bhasha, or the move- ment of a separate Andhra province or for Visalandhra, or the successive national movements of the 1920S, 30s, or 40s, or the progressive student, youth, and women's movement or in the spreading of the socialist and communist movement-it is from this region that the major contingents came forth....7

The ceded districts of Rayalaseema were also incorporated in the Madras Presidency, but nature was less amenable in Rayalaseema and in economic terms the area remained backward as compared to the Circar coast.

For two hundred years Telangana was separate from the rest of the Telugu country, maintained in a rather backward feudal condition by the Nizams of the Asaf Jahi dynasty. The jagirdar system of landholding seems to have stood in the way of agricultural development: "Though endowed with fairly good rainfall averaging 35.2 inches annually, the poor soil and the rugged country seem to present a handicap to intensive agricultural de- velopment. Besides, the agrarian conditions under the Jagirdar system in the olden days did not seem to have provided adequate incentives to the ryot to attempt any intensive cultivation."8 In the early years of the present century the Nizam's government constructed a major irrigation scheme based on the Nizamsagar dam, thereby making Nizamabad the most pros- perous district in Telangana. But local peasants seemed lacking in initiative, and many of the profits were reaped by immigrant farmers from the Circars.9 Thus Telangana backwardness has essentially political roots: with better administration the considerable water resources could have been more fully tapped for irrigation. Telangana is still mainly a dry farming area, like Rayalaseema, but the reason for this in Telangana is long-term failure to harness the potentialities of the area. The rule of the Nizams was autocratic and the official language, both in politics and education, was Urdu. The people of Telangana were effectively insulated from the Telugu renaissance and both their language and their culture came under strong Islamic and Urdu influences. Popular participation in politics was actively discouraged, and the Indian National Congress was cautious about extend- ing the national struggle to the princely states. It was not until I938 that a Hyderabad State Congress was formed, only to be banned shortly after by the Nizam, and not until i95i was the Hyderabad Congress merged with the Indian National Congress. Within the Hyderabad Congress there were three Provincial Congress Committees, one for each of the three linguistic areas of Karnatak, Marathwada, and Telangana. Thus, along with an

7 Why the Ultra-'Left' Deviation? An Examination of the Basic Causes of Left Defections in Special Reference to Andhra (Calcutta: Communist party of India (Marxist), i968), pp. 20-I.

8 Census of India, 1961. Vol. II. Andhra Pradesh. Part I-A(i) General Report, p. 20. 9 "United by History, Divided by Passion," unsigned article in Citizen, Vol. I, No. 9, July I2,

i969.

8

Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana awareness of economic and political backwardness vis-a-vis the rest of the Telugu country, Telangana developed a feeling of distinctiveness based on different political and, to some extent, cultural experiences."'

The people of Telangana were late in becoming politically mobilized, and neither the masses nor the elite were involved in the movement for the setting up of Andhra Pradesh. This had been initially led by Telugu Brahmins who were annoyed by the predominance of Tamil Brahmins in the administration and in the legal and educational systems of the existing Madras Presidency. These same Brahmins had controlled Congress in the Andhra districts, and the Andhra PCC from its inception in I9I7. Non. Brahmin feeling was never as strong in the Telugu country as in Tamilnad, but nevertheless Brahmin dominance was gradually challenged by the rising non-Brahmin castes, particularly the Kammas and Reddis, who tended initially to support the Justice party and the Andhra Movement, finding themselves at loggerheads with each other only after the setting up of And- hra Pradesh in 1953.11 Reddi-Brahmin rivalry was a feature of Telangana as well, but it was expressed in a social rather than a political arena.12 None of these events seemed to attract or involve the people of Telangana to any great extent, nor was any attempt made to mobilize them politically. They were only marginally affected by the Telugu renaissance, presumably be- cause their rather Urduized and unliterary Telugu was despised by the people of the Circars.'3 Congress, as we have seen, was very slow to involve the people of the princely states in the national struggle; here again the people of Hyderabad acted mainly as spectators. The non-Brahmin move- ment did not spread to Telangana or politicize the people because the Brahmins had never been as dominant under a Muslim Nizam as they be- came in neighbouring parts of British India. Nor did the horizontal political mobilization of caste, which has been so characteristic of linguistic politics, cross the Hyderabad frontier. Telangana Reddis kept up marriage and other traditional contacts with their caste fellows in the Circars and Rayalaseema,

10Anand Rao Thotha (ed.), The Telangana Movement: An Investigative Focus. Based on Papers Presented at the Telangana University and College Teachers' Convention on May 20, i969, at Hyderabad. (Hyderabad: published by the editor, i969, pp. 9-i0.)

11 Selig S. Harrison, India: The Most Dangerous Decades (Madras: Oxford University Press, i960); pp. 2II-3; Eugene F. Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, i969), pp. 38-4I, I76-7, 244-51; Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, i967), pp. 78-9; G. N. Sarma, "Aspects of Andhra Politics" in Iqbal Narain (ed.), State Politics in India (Meerut: Meenakshi Prakashan, n.d.), pp. 99-i00; N. M. Srinivas, op. cit., pp. 26-8.

12 Krishna P. Mukerji and Suharini Ramaswamy, Reorganization of Indian States (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1955), p. 88.

13 "There is much anthropological wisdom in the Shavian remark about two countries be- ing divided by a common language." Srinivas, op. cit., p. 99. Cf. Thotha, op. cit., p. 9; Mukerji and Ramaswamy, op. cit., p. 83; and Sarma, op. cit., p. 98.

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Pacific Affairs but the Telangana Reddis were in a backwater as far as caste political ac. tion was concerned until the integration of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh involved them in the factional politics of the Reddi-dominated Andhra Congress. Even then, they did not form a separate faction or pressure group but gravitated for various reasons to one or other of the already existing groupings. Nevertheless, as Professor C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf has pointed out, "the inclusion of the Telangana districts of the dismem- bered Hyderabad State in the greater Andhra Pradesh has definitely tilted the scales in favour of the Reddis, who in those districts are far stronger than the Kammas."'14

The Communists set up their first illegal unit in the Telugu-speaking part of Hyderabad only in I940, and for at least the first five years most of the Communist leaders in Telangana were from the Delta districts.'5 The Communists proclaimed themselves in favour of a linguistic state in which all the Telugu areas would be united and soon captured control of the Andhra Mahasabha, which became a front organization and adopted more radical agrarian and economic policies in addition to its original objective of a united Andhra. Capitalizing on peasant dissatisfaction with the oppres- sive rule of the Nizam and the exactions of the landlords, and taking ad- vantage of the vacillations of the Hyderabad government at the time of the transfer of power in India, the Communists spearheaded an agrarian up- rising centred mainly in the Telangana border districts of Nalgonda and Warangal but stretching to some extent into Madras. The revolt lasted from I945 until it was finally supressed in i950. A large section of the leadership was still drawn from the Delta and at one time, according to a Communist party document, "a total of 3,000 villages had been Sovietized, and one million acres of land had been seized by the peasants. Regular guerrilla squads numbered 2,000 members and village squads provided an estimated io,ooo more."16 The government of India's "police action" of I948 was re- sisted by these Communist guerrillas, and indeed it took a considerable time for the Indian forces to quell the revolt. In general one may say that al- though the Communists supported a united Andhra including Telangana, their remarkable success in Telangana must be attributed not to this but to local and particular problems in the area. Although the Communist party was formally a united one for the whole Telugu area, the social base of the

14 C. von Firer-Haimendorf, "Caste and Politics in South Asia," in C. H. Philips (ed.), Politics and Society in India (London: George Allen and Unwin, i963), p. 62. It is notable that a few Kamma groups in the Circars at present support a separate Telangana, presumably as a way of reducing the political dominance of the Reddis in Andhra politics. Nor is it an accident that the Swatantra party, led in Andhra Pradesh by N. G. Range, a Kamma, also supports separation.

15 Why the Ultra-'Left' Deviation? pp. 25, 29; Gene D. Overstreet and Marshall Windmiller, Communism in India (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, i960), pp. 266-7, 286, 292, 439.

16 Overstreet and Windmiller, op. cit., p. 300.

I0

Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana party was rather different in Telangana and the Delta. In the latter, as Selig S. Harrison has shown, the party relied heavily on the prosperous Kamma landlords; in Telangana it was largely an anti-landlord movement of the agrarian masses. The fact that relatively few of the larger Telangana land- lords were Kammas may have helped to avoid an open split in the Andhra party, which in the Delta was willing to co-operate with landlords to some extent at least.17 The Communists failed dramatically to establish a strong and lasting presence in Telangana or permanently to politicize the masses.

After the police action Hyderabad remained as a separate political entity, and indeed there was a certain amount of public feeling against the di- vision of the state on a linguistic basis: on June i6, I952, a motion in the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly for the dismemberment of the state was defeated by 79 votes to 63.18 Aware of their backwardness, the mulkist9 feared exploitation at the hands of their fellows in Andhra. Telangana played no part in the agitation which resulted in the setting up of the state of Andhra Pradesh in I953, composed of the Telugu districts formerly in Madras. The national leadership of the Congress seemed to flirt with the idea that Hyderabad might be retained as a multilingual state, a kind of bastion against linguistic feelings. In addition, it was suggested that the Urdu tradition in Hyderabad made it an ideal centre from which Hindi could be propagated throughout the South. A large section of the Muslims and many professional people and bureaucrats were against disintegration, while all the political parties were at least formally committed to breaking up the state among the surrounding linguistic states. Most of the dispute was concerned with the question of whether disintegration should be immediate or delayed.20

This was the situation in Hyderabad to which the States Reorganization Commission addressed itself. Only Hyderabad, Mysore, and Jammu and Kashmir among the former princely states retained their separate identities, although "the internal structure of these States as also their relationship with the Centre were cast into a new mould so as to fit them into the con- stitutional structure of India."21 The Commission was faced with a strong and organized demand, partly from Andhra but echoed in powerful sections of the Telangana community, for immediate absorption of the region into Andhra Pradesh. It rejected the argument that Hyderabad should be retained undivided as "a real cultural synthesis and an intermin- gling of Indian people" which "should . . . be preserved as a model for other regions to imitate." The backwardness of Telangana, and the other parts

17 Von Fiirer-Haimendorf, op. cit., p. 6o. 18 Thotha, op. cit., p. II; Mukerji and Ramaswamy, op. cit., p. 85. 19 Inhabitants of Hyderabad State. 20 Mukerji and Ramaswamy, op. cit., pp. 82-8. 21 Report of the States Reorganization Commission (Delhi: Government of India, 1955),

P. 5.

TI

Pacific Affairs of Hyderabad, could only be solved if these areas were attached to "more advanced units." But the Commission was impressed by two factors: while sentiment in Telangana appeared to be in favour of splitting up the Hyder- abad State, there was as yet no consensus on the question whether Tel- angana should remain separate or be incorporated into Andhra Pradesh and, secondly, in certain quarters there were deep fears that immediate integration would not be to the advantage of Telangana, making it vir- tually a colony of Andhra. The Commission concluded 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." Their recom- mendation was that the Telangana area should be constituted into a sepa- rate state "with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about i96i, if by a two-thirds majority the legislature of the residuary Hyderabad State expresses itself in favour of such unification." This period of five or six years could be utilized to bring the administration of the two states into tune and to allow opinion in Telangana to crystallize.22

These recommendations of the SRC were set aside, largely as a result of pressure from the national Congress leadership, particularly Mr. Nehru, and from the Andhra districts. Safeguards on which the merger was to be based were incorporated in the "Gentlemen's Agreement" signed in Delhi on February 20, i956, by representatives of Telangana and Andhra.28 Guarantees were provided for Telangana for utilization within the area of Telangana revenues, the provision of improved educational facilities, re- cruitment to the state public services, the position of the Urdu language, and the sale of agricultural land to outsiders. It was also decided to con- stitute a regional council with a watching brief on the interests of Tel- angana. The legal status of this Agreement is not clear-probably it is no more than a statement of good intentions-but it went far to alleviate Telangana's fears of absorption, and on this basis the united State of Andhra Pradesh came into existence on November I, i956, thereby uniting all the Telugu areas in one linguistic state.

The all-round backwardness of Telangana as compared with the Delta districts had been a major element in the SRC's caution in recommending a period in which Telangana would be a separate state. The integration of Telangana into Andhra aroused some immediate problems, and gradually public opinion in Telangana became convinced that their subregional in-

22 Ibid., pp. 101-9. 23 B. Gopala Reddi, N. Sanjeeva Reddi, G. Lathhanna, and Alluri Satyanarayana Raju

signed for Andhra; B. Ramakrishaa Rao, K. V. Ranga Reddi, Dr. M. Chenna Reddi and J. V. Narasing Rao for Telangana. The text of the Agreement may be found in Thotha, op. cit., Appendix I.

I2

Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana terests were not being adequately cared for in the new state. Immediate problems arose in connection with the integration of the services. In general, administrators at all levels in Andhra had been better qualified and less well paid than their equivalents in Hyderabad. The new arrangements meant that Telangana administrators were put on lower salary scales than pre- viously, their prospects of promotion were impaired, and a large propor- tion of the more important positions in Telangana were filled by outsiders .-."non-mulkis."24 The government claimed that the backwardness of edu- cation in Telangana made the filling of posts with well-qualified non- mulkis inevitable, and when steps were taken to expand education it was also inevitable that a large number of non-mulki teachers had to be im- ported in the first instance. But discontent over the situation became so rife that in 1959 the central government felt it necessary to promulgate the Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Requirement as to Residence) Rules, providing that fifteen years continuous residence would be required for appointment to government jobs. The Rules, however, provided loopholes, and false "mulki certificates" were not hard to obtain. Non-mulkis con- tinued to flood into government service in Telangana, and mulki teachers and non-gazetted officers in particular became increasingly restive.25 This discontent was a major factor in sparking off the i969 agitation.

In July i968, the Andhra Pradesh government had passed orders that all non-mulkis in posts reserved for Telangana personnel should revert to the Circars and Rayalaseema, if necessary as supernumeraries, within three months, and this was reaffirmed-revealingly-six months later in the All- party Accord of January ig, i969.26 The immediate result was that the Public Employment Rules were challenged in the courts, and at the end of March the Supreme Court declared them discriminatory and contrary to the Con- stitution.27 This judgement spread consternation among Telangana govern- ment servants, and the Wanchoo Commission, set up in April to find some

24A list of grievances in this connection is to be found in an anonymous pamphlet, Inside Telangana (Hyderabad: Telangana Mahasabha, I958). It is important to note that since the early 1930s the Nizam's government had required "mulki certificates" from applicants for government jobs. This was a concession to popular feeling against the policy of importing Muslims from other states to fill government positions in Hyderabad. See Sreedhar, "The Story of Telangana," Mainstream, Vol. VII, No. 44 (July 5, 1969), pp. 8-9.

25 "On the number of non-mulkis employed in Telangana there are divergent views. Gov- ernment circles estimate it to be nearly 5,000. But according to the figures collected by the Telan- gana N.G.O.'s Union the figure is nearly Io,ooo. .. . The Telangana N.G.O.'s Union has al- ready published a list of I,ooo employees who are alleged to possess bogus mulki certificates." Thotha, Op. Cit., p. 47.

26 J. V. Narasing Rao, Separate Telangana: A Suicidal Slogan (Hyderabad: Department of Information and Publicity, Government of Andhra Pradesh, i969), p. 2.

27 In A. V. S. Narasimha Rao & Others vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh & Others. Since the judgement is based on Article i6(3) of the Constitution, and this is not open to amendment in view of the Supreme Court's decision in the Golak Nath case, the only legal safeguards possible for mulkis in government employment would be within a separate state or union territory. Hindu, July 7, i969.

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Pacific Afairs constitutional solution to the problem, could only suggest that local govern- ment appointments should be made by the head of each office in the dis tricts.28 Non-gazetted officers, therefore, still felt insecure and spearheaded much of the agitation.

The involvement of students and teachers in the agitation must be seen against the backdrop of the educational backwardness of Telangana and the feeling that the educational system of the area has not been adequately ex- panded and encouraged since 1956. The legacy of the Nizam's government was a low level of literacy, comparatively poor educational facilities, and the tradition of Urdu as the medium of instruction.29 Today 17.3 per cent of the population of Telangana is literate as against 30.8 per cent in the rest of Andhra.!0 Primary education has expanded, but the enrolment has improved

TABLE 2: PRIMARY EDUCATION

No. of No. of pupils % increase schools % of state % increase i966-7 % of state from I966-7 total over I956-7 (lakhs) total I956-7

Rayalaseema and Delta 26,388 70.9 23.8 24.88 79.8 24.7

Telangana io,807 29.1 40.6 6.29 20.2 25.8

SOURCE: Some Facts about Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (Madras: Andhra Patrika Press, n.d.) p.g.

only marginally as compared with the rest of Andhra. Furthermore, the rapid increase in the number of institutions has led to a large number of non-mulki teachers being brought in.

At the other end of the educational spectrum there are also deeply felt grievances. The Osmania University in Hyderabad has increased in size and in the number of its affiliated colleges, but the state government has taken steps to control it very closely and has been vindictively par- simonious in its financial assistance to the university. An amendment to the Osmania University Act in i965 gave the sole right to nominate or re- move a vice-chancellor to the governor (who is ex officio chancellor) and tightened up government control in various other ways. Almost immediately the Governor removed Dr. D. S. Reddi from the vice-chancellorship. Dr.

28 Rao, op. cit. See also "Improving the Crutches," EPW Nov. I, i969, pp. 1737-8; M. Pattabhiram, "Recruitment to Services in Telangana," Hindu, Sept. Io, 1969.

29 The mother tongue was introduced as the medium of education in primary schools only in 1944.

80Handbook of Statistics, Andhra Pradesh. i966-7. It should be noted that Telangana literacy figures include the high literacy area of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The rural literacy rate may therefore be about 13 per cent.

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Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana Reddi was a non-mulki, and his original appointment as vice-chancellor in I957 had been greeted with student agitation. But in ten years he had come to symbolize a Telangana institution demanding freedom from outside interference.3' Before Dr. Reddi's appeal against his removal was upheld by the Supreme Court, the staff and students of the university had risen in his support, and their solidarity was merely strengthened when the govern- ment's vindictive parsimony landed the university in a financial crisis in which teachers could not be paid their full salaries and important develop- ments were halted.32 Students and teachers in the university and colleges of Telangana in i969 were united by the conviction that the government of Andhra Pradesh was determined to victimize and humiliate them. The new Vice-Chancellor himself (Dr. R. Satyanarayana) gave his blessings to the agitation.

A further factor leading to discontent was the migration of farmers from the Delta to Telangana, where they bought land cheaply, developed it, and prospered. The flow of population from the Delta to Telangana is quite significant23 The important new vineyards around the twin cities of Hyder' abad and Secunderabad, for instance, are almost entirely owned by non- mulkis. Immigrant farmers were attracted to Telangana partly by the rel- ative cheapness of land, and also by the fact that agricultural wage rates are markedly lower in Telangana. It has been suggested that a contributory cause of the unrest in this connection was the fact that many of the immi- grants were Kammas, who could not easily be accommodated within a Reddi-dominated caste hierarchy. But large-scale migration and change in land ownership of this sort involve major social tensions no matter what the immigrant group. And the situation was certainly complicated by the fact that the Telangana landlords, oppressed for centuries by the Nizams, and harassed around the time of the Police Action by fanatical Muslim Razakars and Communist guerrillas, had felt that at last they had come into their own under a Reddi-dominated Congress government-only to discover that their lands were being bought and unexpected profits being reaped from them by more enterprising outsiders. The resentment of the Telangana landed gentry against non-mulki competition on their own home ground has made them very sympathetic to the separatist movement.

Non-mulkis from the Delta have also entered trade and moneylending and have become very influential in the business life of the twin cities, as well as in various rural areas. This has posed a challenge not only to Telangana businessmen but also to the Marwari and Gujarati communities

31 See Robert C. Shaw, "Student Politics and Student Leadership in an Indian University: The Case of Osmania," in Philip G. Altbach (ed.), Turmoil and Transition: Higher Education and Student Politics in India (Bombay: Lalvani, I968), pp. 177-8o.

32 Weekend Review, Vol. II, No. i8 (April i6, I968), pp. i8-I9. 88 See Census of India, 1961, cited note 8 above, pp. 432-8.

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Pacific flairs which used to dominate commerce and business in Hyderabad State. It is notable that several prominent separatist leaders are non-Telugus, and there are many reports that the separatist agitation was liberally financed with Marwari money. While this cannot be substantiated, it is quite clear that an agitation so long drawn-out and so well-organized must have had consider- able financial backing.84

At least a section of the Telangana Muslims also supported the agitation, probably because their greater numbers and higher status in the old Hyder- abad districts would ensure greater security, and perhaps less competition, for them in a separate Telangana.

It is true that the leadership of the agitation has included a number of unsuccessful political leaders, but it is naive to suggest, as some observers have, that the agitation can be attributed solely to the activities of a small clique of disappointed and frustrated men. Personal ambitions may have played their part, and there is certainly an impression abroad that Tel- angana leaders have not received their due share of political power and in- fluence in the united Andhra Pradesh. But against this it must also be remembered that mulki leaders have far less experience of democratic pol- itics than their colleagues from the rest of the state. They seem in many cases to have been ineffective in defending the interests of Telangana and some- times have tried to advance their own careers in Andhra politics without paying sufficient attention to the grievances of the subregion from which they come.

There is, then, an imbalance in political development as between Tel- angana and the rest of the state, but the economic imbalance and the feeling that too little has been done to set it right, is the primary background to the agitation. Irrigation is, of course, the key to agricultural prosperity and, as we have seen, goes far to explain the economic progress of the coastal areas. A number of major schemes, notably the Pochampad and Nagarjuna Sagar projects, have been put in hand, but there is a feeling among educated people that Telangana has not derived a fair share of the benefits of these schemes. Table 3 shows how large a proportion of the benefits of government irrigation has gone to the other parts of the state.

Industrialization has proceeded in Telangana, but has been highly cons centrated around the twin cities and has scarcely touched much of the rest of the area. Telangana has certainly advanced economically since integra.' tion; the question is whether the area has advanced fast enough to bring it into a competitive position with the rest of Andhra and whether the de- velopment gap between Telangana and the rest of the state is narrowing or growing wider. The advocates of a separate Andhra argue that the gap is

34 See Elkay, "Telangana Another Aspect," Frontier (Calcutta) Vol. II, No. ii (June 2I, i969) pp. io-ii. There have been rumours that the Birla family, which has extensive business interests in Hyderabad, contributed large amounts to the agitation.

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Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana TABLE 3: AREA IRRIGATED BY SOURCES OF IRRIGATION (Lakh hectares)

Circars and % of A.P. % of A.P. Andhra Rayalaseema total Telangana total Pradesh

Government canals IO.7 88.4 I.4 ii.6 I2. I Private canals 0. I 50 .0 . I 50.0 0.2

Tanks 6.9 58.o 5.0 42.0 II.9 Wells 3.0 66.7 I-5 33.3 4.5 Othersources o.8 72.7 0.3 27.3 I.I Total 2I.5 72. I 8.3 27.9 29.8

Source: Handbook of Statistics: Andhra Pradesh, 1966-7.

widening, and they suggest that the development of the other areas is di- rectly at the expense of Telangana because it has revenue surpluses which, they argue, are being utilized outside. The Gentlemen's Agreement had stipulated that general government expenditure should be divided between Andhra and Telangana in a proportion of two to one. The so-called "Telb angana Surpluses" represent the surplus of revenue over expenditure re- sulting partly from the higher land revenue and partly from the high yield from excise in an area which has not enforced prohibition. These surpluses were to be spent exclusively on the development of the Telangana area. The calculation of these surpluses, the difference between what ought to have been spent and what actually was spent on Telangana, is very much in dis- pute. What is agreed is that the annual Telangana Surplus is a very large sum, and that since integration a considerable amount of this money has been spent outside Telangana. Two commissions were set up in i969, one by the state government and the other by the Centre, to determine the Tel- angana Surpluses, and the government of Andhra Pradesh and the Tel- angana Regional Committee disagree on how these should be calculated. We are not here concerned with the details of this controversy; it is enough to note that all are agreed that Telangana has been unfairly treated. Indeed, it would be true to say that Telangana has been cheated of several crores of rupees each year.35 Such a position adds force to the separatists' contention that Telangana would have progressed faster in isolation from Andhra Pradesh. Imbalance in economic development is surely the greatest single cause for the i969 troubles. And the fact that development has markedly slowed down in the last three years as a result of the so-called "plan holiday" adds fuel to the flames.36

The agitation proper began as a students' strike in Hyderabad at the end of December i968 but rapidly spread to the other Telangana towns and

35 On this complex question see C. H. Hanumantha Rao, "Budgetary Surpluses of Telan- gana," EPW, Oct. i8, i969, pp. i665-76; T. V. S. Chelapathi Rao, Are Telangana Surpluses Correctly Computed? (Vijayawada, n.d.). A crore is ten million rupees.

36 "Andhra: Will It Remain?" EPW, Feb. i5, i969, p. 345.

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Pacific Aflairs finally to most of the districts.87 A few districts, notably Khammam and Adilabad, remained relatively unaffected. The students shared a common belief that Telangana had not been getting a fair deal, but to begin with they were divided between the separatists and more moderate elements. As happens so often, the agitation quickly spread to the urban mob, and at least certain incidents seem to have been calculated-with some success- to terrify immigrant Andhras into returning to the Delta.38 More than 5000 people, including some 2000 students, were arrested and nearly 40 were killed in police firings in the first wave of agitation. The army was called in; the university, the colleges, and schools were closed indefinitely.

At the end of February i969, a students' convention was inaugurated in Hyderabad by Dr. R. Satyanarayana, soon to become vice-chancellor of Osmania University. The convention clearly demonstrated that virtually the whole academic community was sympathetic to the agitation, and that the students had powerful political and financial backing. The initiative was now clearly taken by the separatist group, who set up a broader organiza- tion, the Telangana Praja Samithi, to press their demands. With the appoint- ment of Chenna Reddi as chairman of the Samithi, the agitation took a new violent turn.39

Week after week the agitation dragged on. The extremists gained the open support of K. V. Ranga Reddi, former deputy-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and other leaders.40 All the Telangana ministers in the Andhra cabinet resigned, although most of them were integrationists and argued that it would be easier for them to combat separatist demands if they were free from the responsibilities of office.4' Apart from economic measures and strict adherence to the terms of the Gentlemen's Agreement, the Telangana moderates demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Brahmananda Reddi, and the imposition of President's Rule.42 Reddi sub- mitted his resignation to the Congress High Command but immediately secured a vote of confidence from the legislature Congress party on July 6, I969.43 The resignation was left in suspense, and the Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, flew to Hyderabad to investigate the situation. On her return to

87 "Uncertainty in Telangana," Citizen, May 24, i969, p. 23. The spark that set off the agitation appeared to have been a very minor conflict between a non-mulki landlord and his mulki labourers. The landlord is said to have brought in rowdies from the Delta to intimidate his workers, and the incident was well publicized.

38 See D. Sanjivayya's statement: "I am pained and distressed to learn that Andhra residents have started leaving the twin cities out of fear and feeling there is no security for them." Hindu, June 25, i969.

39 Elkay, op cit. Dr. Clenna Reddi, formerly a Union minister, had been disqualified by the Supreme Court in i968 from holding any elective office for six years.

40 "The Telangana Imbroglio," Citizen, April 12, i969, pp. 26-7. 41 Hindu, July 3, i969. 42 Hindu, June 23, i969. 43 Hindu, July 7, i969.

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Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana New Delhi she produced an eight-point program to deal with the problems of Telangana in the context of a united Andhra. She recommended the setting up of a committee to determine the Telangana Surpluses and devise ways of making good to Telangana money that had been incorrectly spent outside the subregion and the establishment of high-powered development and plan implementation committees for Telangana. The Chief Minister would consider the possibility of further delegation of power to Telangana authorities and possibilities of reserving jobs for mulkis. The Prime Minister herself would keep a watch on progress.44

The Telangana agitation gradually became involved with the national political crisis. The Centre was unwilling to impose President's Rule in a Congress state, and Brahmananda Reddi's gradual emergence as a leading supporter of the Prime Minister against the party bosses made his con- tinuance as chief minister inevitable. Prompt steps were taken to implement at least some of the Prime Minister's proposals.45 In August the agitation began to weaken, partly because funds were running out, partly because students and NGOs were losing confidence in the separatist leadership, partly because the gathering storm at the Centre distracted the attention of many leaders from subregional issues.46 By October it had virtually petered out, leaving the Telangana Samithi leadership discredited and no final resolution of the underlying problem.

With the sole, and not very significant, exception of Swatantra, no political party was willing openly to support a separate Telangana. Most Congress leaders in Telangana in 1956 had been in favour of a separate state, but with integration the Telangana Congress was infected with the factionalism of the Reddi-dominated Andhra Congress and developed some further factions of its own. The Telangana Congress leaders, therefore, could give no united lead, and much of their energy was diverted to ma- noeuvring within the larger organization. The separate Hyderabad Pra- desh Congress Committee had been abolished in I957, and as a result allo- cation of party tickets and offices was no longer domestic to Telangana. The present agitation led to a split within Congress and the setting up of a rebel Telangana Congress Committee with Konda Laxman Bapuji as president on June i, i969. The rebel Congress enjoyed considerable support, includ- ing that of many Telangana MLAs. As in many cases during the struggle

44Implementation of the Prime Minister's Plan for Telangana (Hyderabad: Government of Andhra Pradesh, I969).

45 For example, in July I969 a Telangana man, Mr. J. V. Narasinga Rao, was appointed deputy-chief minister, and another four state ministers from Telangana joined the cabinet. Hindu, July i9 and 24, i969.

46 "The Tide Turns in Telangana," Citizen, Vol. i, no. io (July 26, i969), p. 22, "Time for Peace in Telangana," Citizen, Vol. i, no. I2 (Aug. 23, i969), "Declining De- mand for Reddy to Go," Citizen, Vol. i, no. 15 (Oct. ii, i969); "Separatists' New Hope," EPW, Nov. 22, i969, pp. i804-5, "Opening in Telangana", EPW, Sept. 23, 1969, "Is Telan- gana Over, EPW, Oct. 25, i969. p. i697.

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Pacific Affairs for linguistic states, Congress found it could not hold together in face of strong separatist loyalties which conflicted with the declared national policy of the party. The national Congress came out firmly against separation be- fore the conflict between the Prime Minister and the Syndicate had come clearly into the open. Thereafter both the rebel Telangana Congress and the various factions within the Andhra Congress were caught up by the possibilities of advancing their interests by backing the winning side in the central struggle.

The two main wings of the Communist party are not now very strong in Telangana-the CPI (M) has four and the CPI (R) five seats from Tel- angana constituencies in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The Communists are clearly hampered by a lack of theory to explain sub- regionalism, and their ineptness in handling this situation contrasts with the shrewd manipulation of the movements for linguistic states which had contributed to their strength in many of the linguistic states-and to their weakness in the Hindi heartland.47 There was a general feeling in Tel- angana that the Communists had shown scant regard to the distinctive problems of the area until the agitation forced them to do some rethink- ing.48 Both branches of the party have consistently opposed bifurcation of the state and treat the problem as purely one of subregional imbalance, interpreting the agitation as a reactionary movement of landlords and big businessmen.49 Indeed, it is a serious distraction to a bifurcated party, both wings of which in Andhra Pradesh are faction-ridden, at a time when Naxalites are attempting to re-establish a revolutionary peasant movement in some parts of Telangana, particularly Nalgonda District.50

By way of conclusion, one may note first that the troubles in Telangana seem to be symptomatic of a new force of subregionalism in many parts of India. Competent observers are aware that this agitation could well spark off separatist movements in Rayalaseema, Vidharba, Marathwada, and vari. ous other places."' The growth of subregional localism was obscured by the struggle for linguistic states and did not become obvious and challeng- ing until the new linguistic states became settled and their boundaries fixed. Subregional conflict of this sort can cut across the caste and factional con- flicts which have been found to be characteristic of Indian state politics, and also the class conflicts which Indian Marxists are always hopefully claiming to discover. Subregionalism may, therefore, be yet another indication of the

47 Harrison, op. cit., pp. I8I, 220-6, 243-4. 48 Thotha, op. cit., p. 17. 49Raj Bahadur Gour, Telangana Tangle: The Communist Approach (New Delhi: CPI,

1969), p. 7. 50 "Sweet Smell of Revolution," EPW, Dec. 7, 1968, pp. I866-7. 51 Romesh Thapar, "Lessons from Telangana," EPW, June 2I, 1969, pp. 991-2; B. V.

Borkar, "Danger of Telangana in Prosperous Maharashtra" and Anon, "Averting New Telan- gana in Backward Rayalaseema," Citizen, Vol. i, No. iS (Nov. 22, 1969), pp. I6-I9, 26-17.

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Subregionalism in India: The Case of Telangana declining political influence of caste. Various scholars have detected the beginning of the breakdown of caste political solidarity and have attribW uted it to the successful rise of a caste, creating a situation in which in- dividual mobility becomes possible and voters and politicians gradually cease to take their political cues from caste factors.52 Subregional conflict can break down caste political solidarity in a different way and force state politics to concern itself not so much with balancing the claims of sig- nificant caste groups as with balancing the claims of various areas within the state to equality of treatment, particularly in economic development.

It is, therefore, probably correct to view this kind of subregional conflict as one aspect of the growing pains of modernization. Certainly there are reactionary and traditional forces at work, and disgruntled politicians may attempt to capitalize on the situation, but nevertheless it represents a distinctively modern style of politics both in its aims and objectives and in the alignments of groups and forces which it arouses. This kind of agitation may be supported or led by those who long for a restoration of the past, but its essential drive is in the direction of a balanced and equitable modern- ization.

The agitation ran its course over a period of nine months at immense cost in human lives and damage to property. It can well be argued that the underlying problems should have been identified and dealt with far earlier, and it is a real failure on the part of Telangana leaders and the Telangana Regional Committee that they did not draw attention forcefully enough to the gathering storm. The direct and immediate involvement of the central government as the arbitrator in an essentially intrastate dispute is notable, as is the delayed policy response on the part of the central govern- ment. On the other hand, the eventual petering out of the agitation may be attributed, in part at least, to the fact that the new measures proposed by the Centre had begun to "bite," and that separatists were being isolated as their followers became gradually reconciled to the possibility of a future for Telangana within Andhra Pradesh. The tragedy of Telangana is that so little was done to identify or deal with the legitimate grievances of the area for so many years. The consequence, we may hope, may be a new sen- sitivity to similar situations developing in other states. Madras Christian College, December 1969

52 Rudolph and Rudolph, op. cit., pp. 88-103; R. L. Hardgrave, The Nadars of Tamilnad (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969).

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