2Q : Why Telangana was opposed to the merger?
Ans : Before answering this question, one needs to understand the then situations of Telangana, which are soon after Telangana got freedom from the clutches of Nizams.
- After the Telangana Peasants and Labour Rebellion, the farmers under the leadership of CPI, formed communes and administered their regions as mir.*
- These community governments were integrated regionally into a central organization.
- The main advantage of having these communes was farmers could put forth their problems and a collective solution was derived. This was a form of unity where practical and collective decisions were taken for the upliftment of the peasants.
- The communes were abolished once the region had their first elections in 1951-52.
* mir – In Russia, peasants formed a class apart, largely excepted from the incidence of the ordinary law, and governed in accordance with their local customs.
Now, let us understand the educational situation of the then Independent Telangana:
- Telangana had their first university in Hyderabad – Osmania University.
- Majority of the schools in Hyderabad were in Urdu Medium and few in Telugu Medium.
- Nizams, after the inception of Telangana, tried to improve Mughal culture and encouraged conversions of Hindus to Muslims.
- Infiltration of Urdu words into Telugu and its culture gave new dimensions to the culture of Telangana (or should I say Nizam’s Hyderabad state?). Pure Telugu was replaced by Urduish Telugu.
- In one sentence, there were no major actions taken to preserve the telugu culture of the region.
Opposition to the merger:
- Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema (Andhra State) was developed by British – both socially and education wise. Telangana was neither fluent with Telugu nor English (Forget about English during the Nizams rule. It was an elite subject which only few rich people could afford for).
- Since Andhra Pradesh will be a state with Telugu as the Regional Language, which means the government jobs will be for people who are well versed with Telugu, Telangana people will hardly get a chance to get into government jobs.
- Telangana had a developed Capital – Hyderabad. Since Andhra State didn’t had a developed capital, its eyes were already on Hyderabad. Telangana feared that it will become a colony for people of Andhra State just like India became one for British.
- The region never had freedom. Once it has got freedom, the people dreamed of developing it in their own way – as the resources (Water , infrastructure and labour) were plenty. But their dream of living free didn’t live for long and No one from the region wanted to sacrifice their freedom.
- Telangana, lacking educated people, will be ruled and looted by Andhra State.
- Telangana was never involved in politics before and do not have relations with Congress. This will not let their voices heard was the fear and eventually, it came true (by the formation of AP).
Regards,
Citizen.
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