The Land Of Telugus – FAQs

The demand for a separate state of Telangana is naturally raising a number of questions.  Some are raised out of ignorance, some out of bias and some out of genuine concern for maintaining status quo. In any case these questions need to be answered.  An attempt is made here:

[Note: Internet has been a major source for me for almost all the questions (and couple of them were raised while in discussion with friends) and a major chunk of statistics is also from Internet. Rest assured, wherever the statistics are mentioned they are checked at least twice with the reliable sources.]

Why the issue of separate Telangana is being raised once again?

The demand of the people of Telangana for a separate state is not a new development.  It was voiced much before the formation of Andhra Pradesh and continues to be raised even thereafter. It is essential to understand the history of the region to comprehend the historical need to become separate state (Will update the history soon in my next blogs). The reason for the resistance of people of Telangana to join Visalandhra in 1950s was the fear of exploitation in the enlarged state as rightly documented in States Reorganization Commission (SRC) as “One of the principal causes of opposition to Visalandhra also seems to be the apprehensions felt by the educationally backward people of Telangana that they may be swamped and exploited by the more advanced people of the Coastal areas…The real fear of the people of Telangana is that if they join Andhra they will be unequally placed in relation to the people of Andhra and in this partnership the major partner will derive all the advantages immediately while Telangana itself may be converted into a colony by the enterprising Andhras”. (SRC Report: para 378). And the reason for their reluctance to continue in the present state is the actual experience of being exploited.

Is it not a bogey raised, on and off, by the disgruntled politicians?

Sadly, the answer is mostly yes. Yet the demand for a separate state could not have sustained itself for more than six decades if it was just a ‘time pass demand’ raised on and off by disgruntled politicians. The demand for Telangana state never died ever since the region was forcibly merged against the wishes and opinions of Telangana people. It is true that there are too many opportunistic elements that are infiltrated in to the movement of the people knowing very well that this struggle will act as a political ladder in the hierarchy of power. But such aberrations cannot undermine the genuine aspirations of the people. Aspirations of those people who have two major rivers of South India traversing their homeland and yet can’t really utilize more than 20% of the waters. Can it be brushed aside for ever? What about the voice being constantly raised by the intelligentsia and practitioners of learned professions who do not have any vested interest in practical politics? Is it of no consequence? Can it be ignored just like that?

Is there no alternative to the demand for a separate state?

All possible alternatives have already been tried and experimented with – The Gentlemen’s Agreement, The All Party Accord, The Eight Point Formula, The Five Point Formula, The Six Point Formula and what not? Were they not experiments to safeguard the interests of Telangana within the integrated state of Andhra Pradesh? Have any of these agreements been implemented? Have any of these solemn pledges been redeemed? Have any of the judicial pronouncements including the verdict of Supreme Court of India been honored?  Now what else is left to be further experimented with?

What did the Chief Ministers who belonged to this region do while they were in power?

P. V. Narasimha Rao, M. Chenna Reddy and T. Anjaiah did become Chief Ministers of the state. But what was the duration of stewardship of all of them put together? It was hardly 5 years, in the state’s history of 53 years, that too in bits and pieces – to be precise, in four spells and each spell spanning a few months.  It should be noted that J. Vengal Rao was a migrant from Coastal area. He never came out of his moorings and he never identified himself with the hopes and aspirations of people of Telangana.

P. V. Narasimha Rao made a feeble attempt in 1972 to implement the verdict of Supreme Court validating the Mulki Rules (Mulki Rules is the implementation of a 1919 firman by the Nizam, which said only “Mulkis” were eligible for public appointments in Telangana. A Mulki was one who was born in the region or had resided there continuously for 15 years and had given an affidavit abandoning the idea of returning to his/her native place). The verdict, naturally, was in favor of Telangana.  But the reaction from the other regions was so instantaneous and so wild that in the process P. V. Narasimha Rao lost his chair of Chief Minister and the Telangana region lost the only chance of safeguarding the interests of the region.  Even the verdict of the highest judicial authority of the country was nullified.  This can very well happen to any leader from Telangana in that position and for any number of times.  Because, their survival depends upon the support of the area which has a numerical majority in the political setup and has greater money power to influence the political process and administrative machinery. That being the sad version of democracy will become another story.  The problem, therefore, lies essentially in the nature of political equations between the developed and backward regions and not fully and necessarily in the persons holding positions of power.  The States Reorganization Commission eloquently and very rightly foresaw the situation and commented upon this as well after a dispassionate assessment of the feelings and fears of people of Telangana (“One of the principal causes of opposition to Visalandhra also seems to be the apprehensions felt by the educationally backward people of Telangana that they may be swamped and exploited by the more advanced people of the Coastal areas…The real fear of the people of Telangana is that if they join Andhra they will be unequally placed in relation to the people of Andhra and in this partnership the major partner will derive all the advantages immediately while Telangana itself may be converted into a colony by the enterprising Andhras”. (SRC Report: para 378)

Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra also are backward. What is so special about Telangana to ask for a separate state on this score?

It is true that these two regions also are backward. They too have been, like Telangana, victims of neglect. But Telangana has an additional problem i.e. diversion of its resources, which legitimately belong to it, and worst, for the development of other regions.  Best – or worst – examples are diversion of river waters and other natural resources, financial resources, employment opportunities and so on. This has been going on unabated.  The other two regions do not have such problem.

Further, Telangana can be a viable unit as a separate state and can be better developed.  This was also endorsed by the SRC. Above all, the people of the region want to have it. You go and ask anybody in the region, the answer would be the same except probably a few people in Hyderabad who never went beyond the comfortable boundaries of multiplexes, big smooth roads and cyber cities in to the hinterlands of Telangana that are afflicted with hunger, suicides, malnutrition and seasonal diseases.

What about linguistic unity and cultural identity?

Next to Hindi, largest number of people in India speaks Telugu.  If there can be nine Hindi-speaking states with the possibility of some more coming up, what is wrong in having more than one state for Telugus?  It may be recalled that the SRC recommended the creation of separate Telangana state in addition to the already existing Andhra state.  The SRC, in fact, never wanted language to be the sole criterion for reorganizing Indian states. The most intriguing part of the whole argument of the so-called linguistic unity is that the Telangana dialect is ridiculed with impunity especially by the cine field and mass media.  Who controls them is an open secret.  Can such things go on without the connivance of ruling classes? Otherwise what are the agencies that are supposed to be censoring films and TV serials are doing?  In such humiliating conditions what is the significance of linguistic and cultural unity?  Has it not become totally meaningless?

How many smaller states can this country have?

More than half of the states in the country are smaller than Telangana.  They are: Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal of which six are ranked ahead of Andhra Pradesh (in a ‘best Indian states to live in’ survey conducted by an Indian magazine ‘India Today’). Further, West Bengal and Kerala also are smaller than Telangana in geographical area.  Then where are this doubts and objections to conferring statehood on Telangana, which would be the largest of the smaller states in the country, are coming from? Don’t you think it’s a mere illogical excuse to continue the exploitation of the region?

Isn’t separate Telangana state an anti-Andhra people’s movement?
A very big no. Telangana people don’t bear any animosity against the coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema people or the ordinary migrants from those areas to Hyderabad or to any place in Telangana.

Hyderabad has been developed efficiently by everyone. Is it now fair to ask some of them leave?

It is not fair to ask anybody leave their home. A person settled in Hyderabad or anywhere in Telangana (irrespective of the place where he is from) has as much right to live there as much as much as the person who was born in the region.

But it is a travesty of truth when an impression gets so easily created that the development of twin cities took place after they became capital of AP. The fact is that the plight of erstwhile Andhra state in locating its capital could be mitigated only because of the formation of Andhra Pradesh and giving to it, on a silver platter, an already well developed capital of erstwhile Hyderabad state. The States Reorganization Commission also was very clear on this issue when they reported “This will also solve the difficult and vexing problem of finding a permanent capital for Andhra, for the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad are very well suited to be the capital of Vishalandhra” (SRC Report: para 371).

The development that has taken place in and around the capital city, after the formation of Andhra Pradesh, is natural and is comparable to the development that has taken place in other major cities of the country. Besides, while we keep discoursing about the ‘development’ that Hyderabad has so fortunate to experience in this 50 years thanks to the people of ‘all regions’, why not think about the possibility of this happening in a same way or, in all probability, better way had Hyd been left on its own to get developed!?

Huge reservoirs, like the Nizam Sagar, Tungabhadra, Osman Sagar, Himayat Sagar, and others were built, not in the past 50 years! Products such as silverware, saris, Nirmal and Kalamkari paintings and artifacts, unique Bidri handcrafted items, lacquer bangles studded with stones, silk ware, cotton ware and handloom-based clothing materials are made and traded through the city for centuries but not just for the past 50 years!

Few significant changes to the city in the past 50 years include the way Hyderabad has established itself as the leading destination for IT and IT-enabled services, pharmaceuticals, call centers and entertainment industries. Many computer software companies, software consulting firms, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, dealing with IT and other technological services firms have established their offices and facilities in the city since the 1990s. But it should be noted that any IT or non-IT services industry had started its operations in Hyd only coz of the potential workforce the city was offering at a modest expense. This could have anyway happened eventually and there’s nothing anyone from Andhra or even Telangana should take credit for!

And please understand that construction of flyovers, widening of roads, development of Hi-Tech cities etc., will not address the serious problems confronting the people in the other nine districts of Telangana. Cholera deaths in Adilabad, spread of malaria in the tribal belt, suicides by farmers in Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam, suicides by weavers in Karimnagar, eternal famine conditions in Mahabubnagar, flurosis in Nalgonda, fall of ayacut under Nizamsagar cannot be ignored under the gilded veils of ‘development’ that we presume to have achieved in Hyderabad.

The Land Of Telugus

It’s been so long since I brought myself before ‘wordpress’ and I never expected that I would come back with this as my next entry subject!

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[For those who don’t know, my friend Vishnu is an amazingly adorable software geek. His gentle and sometimes vibrant multimedia skills are just awesome and widely appreciated in our group back in college days. He expressed couple of his opinions in a very elaborate way about ‘the state of my state’ (http://vishspeak.blogspot.com/2009/12/state-of-my-state.html) and it is recommended to go through his blog  before you make time to listen to what I got to say coz most of the following is in reply to his observations. It is A-okay even if chose to directly jump on to my lines.]

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You should first know couple of things about what I believe and what I don’t before you further scroll down in to this page. This is strongly suggested coz this will only help you to understand what is discoursed below in an un-biased perspective. Well, if you think you already know enough of me (or probably more than necessary ), skip the next 10 lines.

a. I strongly believe in the world with no physical boundaries. I consider myself as a World Citizen before anything else. If given a choice, I would merrily erase all the boundaries of the world and would ask everyone to live in World together (highly improbable, I know!.

b. I cannot remain a spectator when there is any kind of injustice happening around (and sometimes, anywhere in the world) and would do anything and everything in my power to stop any type of discrimination happening to my fellow citizens of the world.

c. I do not identify any individual based on their region of birth, religion, caste or color. Coz I myself do not perceive any of those to be important enough.

There may be many other things that you would want to know, but let’s stop with these for now.

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Now, let me just mention some of the distortions my friend made to the history in his blog. (Very Imp. Note: All the sentences that are italicized and made bold in the following pages are directly taken from my friend’s blog)

..In 1969 when 36 GO was issued, ordering the transfer of 25,000 non-Telangana employees, who were posted in the Telangana regions, the Andhra movement take (sic.) shape. The supreme court (sic.) stepped in and nullified the order…

The then State government issued a government order (G.O. 36) in January 1969 repatriating nearly 25,000 non-local employees illegally appointed in Telangana. When this was challenged in SC, the Apex Court declared the G.O (or Mulki Rules – G. O. 36 is implementation of a 1919 firman by the Nizam, which said only “Mulkis” were eligible for public appointments in Telangana. A Mulki was one who was born in the region or had resided there continuously for 15 years and had given an affidavit abandoning the idea of returning to his/her native place) to be valid and in force.  The Supreme Court judgment was nullified in 1973 by an Act of Parliament, and a Six Point formula was drafted guaranteeing “adequate preference to local candidates in admissions to educational institutions” but “subject to the requirements of the State as a whole”. Similarly, local candidates would be preferred “…to specified extent in the matter of direct recruitment for certain posts”. A tribunal was to be constituted to deal with grievances regarding appointments, seniority and promotion. Needless to say that those words (‘adequate preference…’ etc) remained as hollow as ever since then!

…The Capital city of Hyderabad was built over a period of 50 years with effort and revenue of all the three regions… Now if the city goes into Telangana state, the region of Andhra or Rayalaseema stands to lose all their effort and work…

The city of Hyderabad was built over a period of 500 years. The city was richest and the largest among the princely states of India (i.e., before 1947). It is after centuries of its grand existence that the territories of the State of Hyderabad were divided between newly created Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai state (later Maharashtra), and Karnataka on 1 November 1956. Telugu speaking areas of Hyderabad state also known as Telangana (including Hyderabad city) were merged with Telugu speaking state of Andhra state to create to Andhra Pradesh. Thus, Hyderabad became the capital city of the new state of Andhra Pradesh. My point is what is perceived as ‘development’ in Hyderabad is only consequential effects of its grandeur existence, not an overnight bubble. This is to be understood properly especially in the light of many theories floating around suggesting that the Hyderabad now we see (or live in) is in her sublime high only coz of what has been done to her in the past 10 years.

Moreover, any kind of revenue is invested anywhere (especially when it is by private parties) only when there are returns expected. You would risk investing far from your home only when there is high probability of huge returns. That is exactly the thing that was done with investments in Hyderabad. It is a well known fact that those investments, in this case, got multiplied by many numbers because of the obvious reasons. Still, there’s no one who is asking anybody to leave everything and go back! Anybody is free to keep the revenues invested in Hyderabad and watch them multiply more but not at the cost of region losing its own revenue. Please note that the development that has taken place in and around the capital city, after the formation of Andhra Pradesh, is natural and is comparable to the development that has taken place in other major cities of the country.

Also, what would you say if British argued in 1947 that all the investments (oh yes, they made hell lot of investments in their 200 yrs of colonial rule) that were made in India before 1947 were actually to develop and make India prosper? What would you say if Britain demanded to take back all that could be taken back from India when they were leaving coz, it was after all their investment? This might look like an exaggerated analogy but holds true in every manner! Some XYZ comes Hyderabad and gets amazed to find its richness (just like the way when British entered India long ago). He brings over the surplus left over at home and invests it (like the way British brought their soldiers). He slowly makes everything own and tries owning others’ own too (British founded East India Co. and spread it across the country). He builds couple of buildings for his own convenience and creates more revenue out of them (British built couple of rail tracks calling it ‘development’ but actually meant to make their exploitation more convenient). He claims to have ‘developed’ Hyd now (like the way British claims that they built modern India!)!! It should be noted that this analogy stands valid only for those few whose actual interests lay upon squeezing Hyd for their own wicked interests not for everyone who’s being in and with Hyd and became a Hyderbadi (just like the way this analogy stands good only for British not for every foreign merchant who wanted to do business with Indian Kingdoms, make couple of profits with no plans colonizing India)

Lastly, Hyd used to be called as ‘City of lakes’ and ‘City of pearls’ – forget about pearls but lakes are seen no more (or seen everywhere in the months of July and August) thanks to the hideously groomed real estate market which by the way is being controlled mostly by non-locals!

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Now, let’s talk about something more interesting. Since I can continuously discourse upon the subject in discussion for hours, or probably days, I will limit myself to the major issues that are being raked up in the advent of recent events happening in and around Telangana.

Here are some of the famous and repeatedly preached arguments by many of my brothers and sisters of Telugu land whenever a talk of separate state is made. I know most of them are inadvertently oblivious and so I will attempt to make couple of such sermons as naked as possible for it is elemental to see them in the true colors to understand what they could actually mean.

I repeat, it is recommended to go through  http://vishspeak.blogspot.com/2009/12/state-of-my-state.html) before you make time to listen what I got to say coz most of the following is in reply to the observations made in the above link. It is A-okay even if chose to directly jump on to my lines.

…It is a common practice to make ‘villains’ or ‘comedians’ in telugu movies speak the Telangana/Rayalaseema dialect while the ‘good guys’ speak the Godavari/Krishna accent…

It would be stupid to ask for a separate state just because someone is ridiculing your language. I mean, you can file a complaint in the court or ask Govt/Censor Board to look into the matter seriously but you can’t make a serious case out of ‘ you are being derogatory to my language so, I want a separate state ‘ argument. I know it’s pretty serious issue (coz, it’s your identity that is at stake) but not good enough to demand a Separate State based merely on that!

…Lack of sea ports will weigh down heavily on Telangana…, if made separate:

In spite of having sea on all sides, and thus having many ports, Srilanka is nothing more than a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia and stands 104^th on UN’s Human Development Index List. A country with no port on any part of its boundary, say, Switzerland, remains in the top 10 (9^th according to the 2009 list) countries in the UN Human Development Index List. So, for a region or nation to become developed (and by developed, I mean the standard of living of everyone not just couple of individuals entering Forbes’ billionaire list) depends very minimal on the number of sea ports it possess.  Every region has its own ratio of strengths and weaknesses. It is for us to decide where we lay our efforts and energies on. So, Telangana, in spite of not having any sea with its boundaries, will not have to worry about the means of building a port within the state!

…You (both Telangana & Andhra) will not have as many jobs in the IT sector if the state becomes two…

American companies running their offices here in Hyd (that’s is what we call ‘IT Sector’)  will be more than happy to set up their new office in any city (even if it is a ‘ second-rung ‘ city) with few graduates as long as these people can write couple of programs and attend couple of conference calls at 2 AM without much of bemoaning (No offence intended for those in IT – it’s just that IT sector needs relatively less complex resources to establish and sustain). This is precisely because of ‘Easy re-location of the IT-hub‘ as it was rightly observed in another part of my friend’s blog that ‘Unlike the other industries, the IT industry does not depend much on the location’. So, Andhra people do not have to lose their sleep over the possibility of not having more IT Jobs. Neither does the Telangana people worry about prospects of losing many IT jobs to their Andhra counterparts. Coz, both the states are going to have their own share once they are conveniently separated!

…In a federal setup, numbers is strength…

Let me just correct that. It should have been ‘in the current federal setup, numbers is strength’. I yell for the umpteenth time as the walls of my larynx vibrate that what is being followed by many does not necessarily make it the correct practice. But, using ‘numbers’ like the way it is being used in the current India is a sufficient condition to call our nation as flawed democracy!

Yes, you need to have ‘numbers’ in the current federal setup to bring down the govt. (which, by the way, was elected to rule the country after ~1000 crore rupee elections) because your demand for more cabinet berths was not met. It’s true that these ‘numbers’ decide the policies of a 100 crore nation! How pathetic!

Why else would we need ‘numbers’ to have a say in the national politics? The impression that ‘you need moral conviction and genuineness to make your demands heard’ is no where existent anymore. I didn’t know that we need to stretch muscles (read as, threatening and blackmailing with serious consequences if you don’t listen to me!) every time we feel our vested interests are not being properly cared for. Besides, wouldn’t the number game result in mere blackmail politics? Don’t you think we see enough of ‘numbers’ getting kidnapped (oh no, they are now terming the sudden disappearances of MLAs/MPs as ‘taken away’ or ‘made invisible’) to threaten the governments unless their stupid demands (like, ‘my party candidate should have XYZ ministry’) are met? Which month in a year passed by with no mention of a group of these ‘numbers’ sulking over countless and meaningless issues with no memory of the responsibilities they are supposed to be caring for.

What is more and urgently needed is the veracity or genuineness in your convictions or demands not the strength in ‘numbers’. It is proven time and again that the number game would result only in more of blackmail politics and nothing more! Besides, as long as the Judiciary (which, by the way, is the only one pillar that remains unscathed to the surprisingly large extent in the midst of all the mud) is existent and is driven by a compassionate lot, I really don’t think there is any reason to lose our sleeps over having less ‘numbers’. People are anyway equipped with the most powerful weapon of all time (that’s called phalanx) and they don’t hesitate to use it when the need comes by.

…Farming problems…

Are you actually suggesting that we should be worried over ‘few sanctions’ or ‘possible water-riots’? The centre (or in this case, anybody with common sense) already states that percentage of water to be used by any particular state should be equal to the percentage of catchment area of the flowing river through that state. If you find your share getting exploited by upstream parties, you go and fight with them. You have Centre’s policy and an apex court to back you up for your genuine and deserving share. I know you are jumping to say ‘why can’t we do the same within the existing AP instead of complaining about one region not getting to utilize its share of waters?’ It’s not possible simply coz Centre don’t have a say in State’s internal water disputes, neither would the apex court say something unless asked for (Well, SC did ask AP State Govt. to implement couple of things to avert the damages done to Telangana which, of course, went conveniently unheeded and there’s nothing Centre could do about it). If it was a separate state, even the most disgusting political parties will have to fight for the new state’s rightful share coz their existence depends on their fight. Again, as long your fight is just, you don’t need ‘numbers’ to support your cause.

‘Choice: Imagine, you run a company and you want to take employees into it. …’ Nice try.

What is incomprehensible is why did we not ‘develop’ (Development is just another most abused word) or why is this so called ‘development’ getting limited to a very few pockets of the state in spite of ‘better employees‘ across the state and thus ‘better administration’ resulting in ‘growth and development’ or even when you are ‘ picking the best of a lot ‘ since 60 long years! Does it not look like a well crafted method of bamboozling some in the name of unity? This method, (the method of keeping unemployed/under-privileged as unemployed forever) in fact, negates the ‘growth’ that is supposed to have reached every corner of the state/country.

…All the problems we face today are because of our leaders. Change them and we will change our lives…

There is nothing that can be truer than what is said in the above two sentences. But in this particular case, have we not been doing that for the past 60 years!? Why is it still not working? Coz, people we call as leaders are highly efficient (not inefficient) in keeping problems alive so that there remains a chance of making promises. This exists in every direction you see and in every region you live. And this continues for years and decades. So, how does a separate state solve this problem? Breaking news: It won’t.

A separate state will only solve one of the many problems that the people of Telangana region are facing. And the one that will get solved is the most important one. There won’t be anybody whose sole aim is to bring Telangana anymore! And there won’t be any of those false promises anymore! Anything and everything that the ‘leaders’ will have to do then will be to spend the resources (or at least act so, coz their existence depends on how better they act!) on Telangana and Telangana only. Again, will there not be any problems then? Of course, there will be, just like the way there are problems in any part of the country or world for that matter. But that’ll be the different stage for another battle. People will fight for their rightful share in the already allocated resources.

Democracy is a highly flawed practice for the existing world, especially for India. And it’s surprising that many of us still can’t see this naked truth and live in our own dream world! If you think you can change lives by just changing the ‘leaders’, I would urge you to think again! (You may probably be able to change something – very little with huge number of constraints, though – if you become one of the ‘leaders’)

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Most of the above lines were only intended to analyze the mostly used objections for the formation of Telangana State and attempts to present a little fairer picture of what those objections actually consist of. It is never my intention to assault any individual or a group but I am sure you will have many more objections and doubts over the necessity of forming a separate state. You may please contact me or leave your comment below and I assure you that nothing will be left unanswered unless it is very stupid in tongue or intention. You will find me updating more information here with few more details in the next couple of days.