The merger of Andhra and Telangana

The States Reorganization Commission unanimously adopted the principle of linguistic homogeneity as the basis to recommend the reorganization of states. But why there were differences with regard to Hyderabad State, and how and what finally led to the unification are explained in the following excerpts from Sri Krishna Committee Report.
These excerpts provide answers on whether the merger between Andhra and Telangana regions was imposed against the latter’s wishes, why SRC indulged in flip-flop on the issue of unification and what finally weighed in favour of Visalandhra. The emphasis in some parts is ours.
1.1.04 After the formation of Andhra state in October, 1953, the demand for creation of other linguistic states gained momentum. On December 22, 1953, the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, announced in the Lok Sabha the decision to set up a States Reorganization Commission to examine “objectively and dispassionately” the whole question of the reorganization of the states of the Indian Union. Accordingly, the Government of India, vide Ministry of Home Affairs resolution, dated December 29, 1953, appointed the “States Reorganization Commission” headed by Justice S. Fazal Ali with H.N. Kunzru and K.M. Panikkar as members, to examine and suggest a rational solution for the reorganization of states, based on language. The Commission submitted its report to the Government of India in 1955. “The Commission, after consultations and interactions with various groups of people, is reported to have found the public will in favour of linguistic reorganization. The rationale was that language being the most faithful reflection of the culture of an ethnic group, ethno-lingual boundaries would be considered the most stable and suitable arrangement for the effective working of democratic entities and institutions. It was also perceived that the same would also have the advantage of ease for people‟s interaction with the government.”
1.1.05 SRC itself in the above context concluded in their Report:
“It is obviously an advantage that Constituent units of a federation should have a minimum measure of internal cohesion. Likewise, a regional consciousness, not merely the sense of a negative awareness of absence of repression of exploitation but also in the sense of scope of positive expression of the collective personality of a people inhabiting a state or a region may be conducive to the contentment and well being of the community. Common language may not only promote the growth of such regional consciousness but also make for administrative convenience. Indeed, in a democracy, the people can legitimately claim and the government has a duty to ensure that the administration is conducted in a language which the people can understand.”
The States Reorganization Commission, accordingly, unanimously adopted the principle of linguistic homogeneity as the basis to recommend the reorganization of states. Based on the recommendations, the States Reorganization Act was passed by the Parliament and came into effect on November 1, 1956.
1.1.06 The SRC in its report also mentioned:
“further reorganization of States in the South is dependent in a large measure on the future of Hyderabad. ………There has been a general demand, with popular support behind it, that the State should be disintegrated on the basis of linguistic and cultural affinity.”‟5 Considering the above and other issues, the SRC recommended that:
(i) the Kannada-speaking districts of Raichur and Gulbarga be transferred to the then Mysore State (the proposed Karnataka State),
(ii) the Marathwada districts should also be detached from Hyderabad
State; and as for the primarily Telugu speaking areas, the Commission‟s recommendation was that
(iii) the residuary State of Hyderabad might unite with Andhra after the General Elections likely to be held in about 1961, if by a two-thirds majority the Legislature of Hyderabad State expresses itself in favour of such a unification.
The SRC also recommended that the residuary state should continue to be known as Hyderabad state and should consist of Telugu-speaking districts of the then princely state of Hyderabad, namely, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal (including Khammam), Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Hyderabad and Medak, along with Bidar district, and the Munagala enclave in the Nalgonda district belonging to the Krishna district of Andhra.

Telangana: A distant dream

In October, everything had come to a standstill in Telangana as the movement for a separate state for this underdeveloped region of Andhra Pradesh was at its peak and it looked like the central government would yield to pressure tactics. A month later, all the guns appear to have fallen silent.

A few days before the second anniversary of the central government's announcement Dec 9, 2009, to initiate the process for carving out a Telangana state, the dream of a separate state still looks like a distant one. Political parties are fighting for one-upmanship and appearing more interested in pushing the issue to the 2014 elections for reaping the benefits.

After government employees and mine and transport workers called off their 42-day-long strike Oct 24, the movement virtually disappeared from the streets in the region comprising 10 districts, including Hyderabad, and is now confined to the legislature and political circles.

With the region's political and non-political groups in total disarray and frequent strikes alienating people, it is not surprising that the central government too has developed cold feet over the issue and is even dropping hints that a separate state will not be a reality, at least in the near future.

Even the protest in parliament by Congress MPs from Telangana and two MPs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has been drowned in the din over foreign equity in the retail sector.

With the political leadership losing credibility among the Telangana people for setting frequent deadlines without achieving anything, a sense of frustration has engulfed youth and students, which is reflected in their suicides.

The mass strike saw the Telangana movement reach its highest peak since TRS revived it a decade ago, but going by the present public mood, it looks unlikely if any political party can give it a new lease of life in the near future.

Even the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising TRS, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and some other groups, appears to have given up, as it dropped its grandiose plans to hold a million-man march on the lines of protests in Egypt.

TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, whose 11-day hunger strike had forced the central government to make the Dec 9, 2009, announcement, is also having second thoughts on carrying out his threat of another "fast-unto-death".

TRS critics blame it for the present situation, saying it is only interested in furthering its own political agenda.

"It was never a people's movement but a movement led by a political party which has a shortsighted agenda," P.L. Visweswara Rao, chairman of the Telangana Intellectual Forum, told IANS.

"A people's movement is one in which all sections of people and all castes participate. The present movement is being run by some upper caste people," said Visweswara Rao, a former head of the journalism department at Osmania University.

As a student of the same university, he had participated in the 1969 movement. "That was a real people's movement," Rao recalled

Both political and non-political critics of TRS feel the party is only interested in strengthening itself as proved by five legislators - three of the Congress and two of the TDP - joining its ranks.

"TRS has no credibility. It says it is opposed to Polavaram, but gets a contract for the same," said Visweswara Rao in an obvious reference to the allegation that a company which invested in a daily owned by the TRS chief bagged the contract for the irrigation project in the Andhra region.

Visweswara Rao believes a people's movement has to be transparent. "People want to know why the indefinite strike was called off and what deal led to the JAC suddenly withdrawing the strike," he said.

He, along with veteran freedom fighter Konda Lakshman Bapuji and other Telangana protagonists, is now trying to build the people's movement by bringing all the groups together.

He claims it would be an ideological platform with a common agenda of achieving the Telangana state.

They acknowledge that it would be an arduous task, given the serious differences among dozens of groups and the fact that all the three major parties - TRS, the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - are not willing to share a platform