What is described as the Telangana movement of 1969 actually commenced in December 1968 On 6th December1968, students took out a procession from Vivek Vardhini College in Hyderabad. The procession was attacked both by rowdies recruited by so-called integrationists and the police. In the melee that ensued along, several students were injured. Thus commenced the movement. Soon in Khammam and Warangal demonstrations were organised which later spread to Nizamabad and other parts of Telangana. Integrationists decided to organise a public meeting on 6th April 1969, at Buru Mahadev Hall, Secunderabad. Students gave a call for boycott of the meeting. The meeting to be addressed by a few Congressmen and Communists, was finally held but it was a very small gathering in a small hall. But thousands hand gathered outside the hall denouncing the holding of the meeting. Policemen opened fire on a totally peaceful crowd killing several young men. The martyrdom of young men was the spark that lit the fire all over Telangana. A little before this, at a meeting of intellectuals, it was decided to from an organisation called Tellangana Praja Samithi. Pratap Kishore and Raghuvee Rao were the prime movers behind this move. A.Madan, an advocate, was elected as President. Madan Mohan had no experience in politics and was chosen mainly because most others were employees in some organisation or the other. Under the banner of Telangana Praja Samithi, the movement spread to all corners of Telangana. A remarkable feature of this movement was its totally decentralised character. Praja Samithi and Students` Action Committees were formed everywhere without any direction from above. Whenever funds were required collections were made at the local level. By March 1969, the organisation was in shape to take on the Andhra Government.
After the police firing of 6th April the agitation began building up. Finally, the Praja Samithi decided to take out a rally to Raj Bhavan on 1st May 1969 which can be described as the golden day of the movement. The Government banned the rally. For about a kilometer on all sides of Charminar, movement of people was banned. Yet a night before hundreds had left their localities and taken shelter in Ghansi Bazar, Alijah Kotla, Kali kaman and Pathargatti areas around Charminar. Most of them were from the old city. The writer himself could reach Charminar after persuading armed policemen that he was going to offer pooja at the Charminar “Gudi’ (temple). For that purpose he carried coconut, arti karpoor and agarbattis. Of course, the pooja was performed, the only pooja he preformed in his life. Parikrama too was performed around Charminar and not merely around ‘Gudi’. By that time K.V.Ranga Reddy had arrived. He had become so weak that he could be taken to the Chabutra with the greatest difficulty. He was almost blinded and deaf. Yet when he spoken his voice was firm, not betraying old age. By the time he started speaking hundreds had gathered at the site defying thousands of armed policemen. He spoke very briefly. The last sentence of his speech will ever remain etched in my memory-”Ghulami Ki Zindagi se mouth acchi hai” (death is preferable to a life of slavery). Even before he could be escorted out of the place teargas cylinders were bursting all around.
The grand old man of Telangana had spoken and people spoken with their blood. More than a hundred teargas shells were fired at the procession. But there was no stopping the procession and by the time it reached Afzalgunj it had swelled to a few thousand. The police started firing at Siddiambar Bazar area which continued all along the procession route, till it reached Raj Bhavan. But even then firing continued intermittently and Umrender Rao, President of Secunderabad College Union (Evening), fell to a bullet near Raj Bhavan. It was said later that a section of Telangana policemen had refused to open fire in the Raj Bhavan area. Yet in spite of all the tear-gassing and firing the procession continued to swell and by the time it reached Raj Bhavan there were more then fifty thousand people. It was an amazing spectacle. Generally crowds disperse as soon as policemen open fire. But here was a procession which was swelling with every round of firing. By March itself Congressmen had started infiltrating the movement. Later they proved to be Trojan horses. They started propagating the pernicious thesis that the movement needed a `leader of stature` whatever it might mean. And they started canvassing for Channa Reddy, suggesting the resignation of Madan Mohan from Presidentship. Alternatively, they threatened to form a parallel samiti. At this critical juncture, courage and common sense were needed. White Madan Mohan proved to be totally spineless, B.Satyanarayana Reddy and Badri Vishaal Pittie supported Channa Reddy`s plans. Others followed him. On 21st May 1969, six months after the agitation was launched Channa Reddy who had nothing to do with the movement, became the President of Telangana Praja Samiti. The Trojan horse had entered the organisation. He started dismantling the organisation at every level, disbanding student, trade union, NGOs and women`s Committees. Centralised collection of funds started. Corruption seeped in. Yet the movement continued since it was still alive at the grassroots level. A call had been sent out to boycott examinations to be held from 1st June onwards. The NGOs` strike was continuing. The entire administration had been paralysed.
There was heavy police firing on 1st and 2nd June. Aruna a high school student, who was picketing an examination centre near Chandarghat was killed on 1st June, 1969. Several more student fell to police bullets all over Telangana. It was then that Indira Gandhi, healding a weak minority Government, paid a flying midnight visit to Hyderabad to pacify people, perhaps also to purchase some leaders. In the meantime a parallel Samiti was formed with M. Sridhar Reddy as Chairman who soon left for America. Channa Reddy announced the suspension of the movement even though Nagam Krishna Rao and Madan Mohan had been elected to the Assembly as people’s candidates. With the approach of 1971 midterm poll, the TPS decided to contest the election and won, inspite of Channa Reddy`s leadership. Channa Reddy in a volte-face announced the merger of TPS with the Congress. Students stormed the TPS office but Channa Reddy had escaped. The merger was a stunning blow to the people of Telangana and their aspirations. More than 370 had fallen to police bullets., hundreds more had been crippled. The people of Telangana were overcome with a sense of despair and hopelessness. They had made immense sacrifices even the movement was with drawn. What else were they expected to do ?
The Socialist Party, the Republican party and a few unattached intellectuals revived the agitation under the banner of TPS and gave a call for Telangana Bandh on 23rd November 1972, which was total. A young man was killed in police firing near Charminar. In the meantime, an agitation had been started for a separate Andhra State. Congressmen soon took over the reins of that movement also which was originally led by Tenneti Vishwanathan and Gouthu Lachanna. In fact. a joint committee to fight for two separate states of Andhra and Telangana was formed of which the writer was a member. Using the Channa Reddy model Congressmen took over the Jai Andhra movement, sabotaged it and demanded cancellation of all Telangana safeguards. Channa Reddy and his Congress followers collaborated with them and all the safeguards were taken away to be replaced later by the six Point Formula.
In the meantime 1972 Assembly elections had arrived and Sampurna Telangana Praja Samiti whose President was B.Satyanarayana Reddy and the writer, the Secretary, decided to contest 49 seats. Three candidates of STPS were victorious and a large number lost with narrow margins. All this without any resources. But the decline had started and by the end of 1972 the agitation petered out. It was the longest, most spontaneous, non-party, toughest, most-intense and the greatest movement of free India. It was a totally peaceful movement. Yet those who are never tired of calling themselves followers of Gandhi unleashed the most terrible violence on the movement. Telangana had been turned into a National Police Museum. Malabar Special Police, Maharashtra Armed Police, Uttar Pradesh Armed Constabulary, Jammu Kashmir Militia, Karnataka Armed Police, Tamil Nadu Armed Police, Bihar Armed Police companies were posted all over Telangana. The Gorkha Marhatta regiments of the army were also deployed. In fact officers of the Gorkha Regiment were amazed at the ability of Telangana people to improvise new forms of agitation. Gorkhas came face to face with a 8 feet high barricade in Hussaini Alam area and could not believe that it was erected by civilians !
Yet most horrible atrocities were inflicted on the citizens. Lakhs went to jail. Most school and college buildings in Telangana had been turned into prisons. With Telangana jails full, detainees were sent to Rajahmundry and Vizag jails. White no Andhra was touched in Telangana two Telangana citizens were burnt alive in the Andhra area. We were witnessing the unfolding of regional fascism of the worst kind.
I cannot forget a few incidents. In the 1952 agitation the shirt of a slain student had been turned into a flag-the red flag of anger, martyrdom and relentless battle was fluttering in the air and policemen were firing at the procession on the Abids Chowrasta. On women’s satyagraha in 1969 day I saw hundreds of women, from the age of 15 to 75 marching along the Puranapul-Hussaini Alam road towards Charminar and being lathicharged by policemen, On another day about twenty young men singing, an Urdu song “Telangana, Telangana Telangana ki Jai” were marching towards a police platoon posted near Charminar to stop processions. There are thousand of such stories. A leaderless agitation head emerged morally victorious even though politically betrayed. But the movement continued, undaunted by betrayals. Twice every year large numbers gathered at the Martyrs Memorials in Secunderabad and Hyderabad and paid tributes to martyrs. In January, 1986 some activists decided to form `Telangana Information Trust`. Soon “Ma Telangana” was launched, which was closed down after seven months due to financial troubles. More then a thousand people had gathered at its inaugural function at Basant Talkies, Kachiguda,. Around 1991 two organisations, Telangana Student Front and Telangana Liberation Students Organisation were launched in Osmania Universty. In 1992 the Kakatiya Unit of Telangana Students Front was formed. A national seminar on small state was held in Landscape Gardens and Tagore Auditorium in August 1993 . Surendera Mohan inaugurated the conference and Justice Madhav Reddy addressed the gathering. George Fernandes addressed the concluding session. Delegates from various parts of the country including Vilas Bhongade from Vidarbha and Laxman Dasti from Hyderabad-Karnatak attended the conference. Both TSF and TLSO organised demonstrations on and outside O.U.campus and forced Osmania University to sanction 15 per cent supernumerary seats to Telangana students.
Stirrings of a new movement could be clearly seen in Warangal on 1st November 1996 at the Telangana Praja Samiti convention attended by more than five thousand delegates from all parts of Telangana. The Hyderabad convention was held on 1st December 1996 and after that a series of conferences, group and public meetings have been held at Godavarikhani, Karimnagar, Siddipet,Jangaon, Aler, Ghanpur, Nizamabad, Khammam, Nalgonda, the old city of Hyderabad and Bhongir. The Bhongir conference and the public meeting proved to be a turning point. The Bhongir conference was addressed among other by Kaloji Narayan Rao, Dr. Jayashankar, Prof.P.L. Vishweshwer Rao, Dr.Srinivasulu, Sidda Reddy, Dr.Simhadri and many others who had come from all parts of Telangana. The public meeting presided over by shri Mallayya Gupta, a respected Communist leader and addressed by Gaddar among others was a huge gathering, much beyond the expectations of organisers. Gaddar called upon the people to launch a totally peaceful agitation for achievement of a separate state while the writer called for a new type of leadership from grassroots upwards, emphasizing total control over leaders by masses. A mong parties opposing the Telangana movement of 1969 were the Communist party, Jan Sangh and Majlis-Ittehadual-Muslimeen. While the first two represented upper-caste, upper-class section of the Andhra area, the Majlis represented upper-caste, upper-class, and non-Daccani section. However both Hindus and Muslims supported the movement and dealt a crushing blow to all the above mentioned parties in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. The role of Daccani and Urdu in the Telangana movement cannot be ignored. While Telugisation is a historical and necessary process it would be a folly to ignore Urdu and Daccani. Such an act would be a repetition of Nizam`s mistake in ignoring Telugu, Marathi, Hindi and Kannada. Hindi and Urdu are based on Dahhani and Khadi Boli. They are a part of our heritage. Who can forget the part played by Maqdoom Mohiuddin, Ibrahim Jalles, Sulaiman Areeb, Raja Dube, Jeelani Bano, Om Prakash Nirmal and many others who have enriched the politics and culture of Telangana through their. writings. The Andhra elite in their linguistic chauvinism of regarding Guntur Telugu as the only Telugu have tried to rodeo roughshod over Telangana Telugu and Daccani as also Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Kannada, Similarly tribal language were sought to be destroyed. New Telangana will nurture all these languages which are a part of our cultural and literary heritage.
Telangana now stands on the verge of another movement for liberation from aliens and for participatory politics. What the people of Telangana do now and how colonialists react will decide the future course of Indian politics. The demand for small states is a demand for responsible and participatory politics. The Telangana movement of 1969 was the first Indian struggle for economic and cultural autonomy. The movement going on now has added a demand for social emancipation. This is as it should be. The whole world is moving towards liberation from racism, sexism and casteism. Telangana has stood in the vanguard of such movements for the last fifty years and awaits correct leadership. What then shall we do now? The job is not to liberate Telangana from a colonial system but also to liberate Andhras from their selfishness and greed which is increasing in leaps and bounds. The liberation of Andhras, however, can only commence with the formation of a separate state of Telangana. How do we visualise Telangana? Because people are asking us for whom Telangana is sought to be formed? What is the point in fighting for Telangana if nothing is to change? One thing that will change for sure is that we will have control over our resources, jobs and education. But, that has to be only the beginning. Other policies have to be visualized and projected.
After the police firing of 6th April the agitation began building up. Finally, the Praja Samithi decided to take out a rally to Raj Bhavan on 1st May 1969 which can be described as the golden day of the movement. The Government banned the rally. For about a kilometer on all sides of Charminar, movement of people was banned. Yet a night before hundreds had left their localities and taken shelter in Ghansi Bazar, Alijah Kotla, Kali kaman and Pathargatti areas around Charminar. Most of them were from the old city. The writer himself could reach Charminar after persuading armed policemen that he was going to offer pooja at the Charminar “Gudi’ (temple). For that purpose he carried coconut, arti karpoor and agarbattis. Of course, the pooja was performed, the only pooja he preformed in his life. Parikrama too was performed around Charminar and not merely around ‘Gudi’. By that time K.V.Ranga Reddy had arrived. He had become so weak that he could be taken to the Chabutra with the greatest difficulty. He was almost blinded and deaf. Yet when he spoken his voice was firm, not betraying old age. By the time he started speaking hundreds had gathered at the site defying thousands of armed policemen. He spoke very briefly. The last sentence of his speech will ever remain etched in my memory-”Ghulami Ki Zindagi se mouth acchi hai” (death is preferable to a life of slavery). Even before he could be escorted out of the place teargas cylinders were bursting all around.
The grand old man of Telangana had spoken and people spoken with their blood. More than a hundred teargas shells were fired at the procession. But there was no stopping the procession and by the time it reached Afzalgunj it had swelled to a few thousand. The police started firing at Siddiambar Bazar area which continued all along the procession route, till it reached Raj Bhavan. But even then firing continued intermittently and Umrender Rao, President of Secunderabad College Union (Evening), fell to a bullet near Raj Bhavan. It was said later that a section of Telangana policemen had refused to open fire in the Raj Bhavan area. Yet in spite of all the tear-gassing and firing the procession continued to swell and by the time it reached Raj Bhavan there were more then fifty thousand people. It was an amazing spectacle. Generally crowds disperse as soon as policemen open fire. But here was a procession which was swelling with every round of firing. By March itself Congressmen had started infiltrating the movement. Later they proved to be Trojan horses. They started propagating the pernicious thesis that the movement needed a `leader of stature` whatever it might mean. And they started canvassing for Channa Reddy, suggesting the resignation of Madan Mohan from Presidentship. Alternatively, they threatened to form a parallel samiti. At this critical juncture, courage and common sense were needed. White Madan Mohan proved to be totally spineless, B.Satyanarayana Reddy and Badri Vishaal Pittie supported Channa Reddy`s plans. Others followed him. On 21st May 1969, six months after the agitation was launched Channa Reddy who had nothing to do with the movement, became the President of Telangana Praja Samiti. The Trojan horse had entered the organisation. He started dismantling the organisation at every level, disbanding student, trade union, NGOs and women`s Committees. Centralised collection of funds started. Corruption seeped in. Yet the movement continued since it was still alive at the grassroots level. A call had been sent out to boycott examinations to be held from 1st June onwards. The NGOs` strike was continuing. The entire administration had been paralysed.
There was heavy police firing on 1st and 2nd June. Aruna a high school student, who was picketing an examination centre near Chandarghat was killed on 1st June, 1969. Several more student fell to police bullets all over Telangana. It was then that Indira Gandhi, healding a weak minority Government, paid a flying midnight visit to Hyderabad to pacify people, perhaps also to purchase some leaders. In the meantime a parallel Samiti was formed with M. Sridhar Reddy as Chairman who soon left for America. Channa Reddy announced the suspension of the movement even though Nagam Krishna Rao and Madan Mohan had been elected to the Assembly as people’s candidates. With the approach of 1971 midterm poll, the TPS decided to contest the election and won, inspite of Channa Reddy`s leadership. Channa Reddy in a volte-face announced the merger of TPS with the Congress. Students stormed the TPS office but Channa Reddy had escaped. The merger was a stunning blow to the people of Telangana and their aspirations. More than 370 had fallen to police bullets., hundreds more had been crippled. The people of Telangana were overcome with a sense of despair and hopelessness. They had made immense sacrifices even the movement was with drawn. What else were they expected to do ?
The Socialist Party, the Republican party and a few unattached intellectuals revived the agitation under the banner of TPS and gave a call for Telangana Bandh on 23rd November 1972, which was total. A young man was killed in police firing near Charminar. In the meantime, an agitation had been started for a separate Andhra State. Congressmen soon took over the reins of that movement also which was originally led by Tenneti Vishwanathan and Gouthu Lachanna. In fact. a joint committee to fight for two separate states of Andhra and Telangana was formed of which the writer was a member. Using the Channa Reddy model Congressmen took over the Jai Andhra movement, sabotaged it and demanded cancellation of all Telangana safeguards. Channa Reddy and his Congress followers collaborated with them and all the safeguards were taken away to be replaced later by the six Point Formula.
In the meantime 1972 Assembly elections had arrived and Sampurna Telangana Praja Samiti whose President was B.Satyanarayana Reddy and the writer, the Secretary, decided to contest 49 seats. Three candidates of STPS were victorious and a large number lost with narrow margins. All this without any resources. But the decline had started and by the end of 1972 the agitation petered out. It was the longest, most spontaneous, non-party, toughest, most-intense and the greatest movement of free India. It was a totally peaceful movement. Yet those who are never tired of calling themselves followers of Gandhi unleashed the most terrible violence on the movement. Telangana had been turned into a National Police Museum. Malabar Special Police, Maharashtra Armed Police, Uttar Pradesh Armed Constabulary, Jammu Kashmir Militia, Karnataka Armed Police, Tamil Nadu Armed Police, Bihar Armed Police companies were posted all over Telangana. The Gorkha Marhatta regiments of the army were also deployed. In fact officers of the Gorkha Regiment were amazed at the ability of Telangana people to improvise new forms of agitation. Gorkhas came face to face with a 8 feet high barricade in Hussaini Alam area and could not believe that it was erected by civilians !
Yet most horrible atrocities were inflicted on the citizens. Lakhs went to jail. Most school and college buildings in Telangana had been turned into prisons. With Telangana jails full, detainees were sent to Rajahmundry and Vizag jails. White no Andhra was touched in Telangana two Telangana citizens were burnt alive in the Andhra area. We were witnessing the unfolding of regional fascism of the worst kind.
I cannot forget a few incidents. In the 1952 agitation the shirt of a slain student had been turned into a flag-the red flag of anger, martyrdom and relentless battle was fluttering in the air and policemen were firing at the procession on the Abids Chowrasta. On women’s satyagraha in 1969 day I saw hundreds of women, from the age of 15 to 75 marching along the Puranapul-Hussaini Alam road towards Charminar and being lathicharged by policemen, On another day about twenty young men singing, an Urdu song “Telangana, Telangana Telangana ki Jai” were marching towards a police platoon posted near Charminar to stop processions. There are thousand of such stories. A leaderless agitation head emerged morally victorious even though politically betrayed. But the movement continued, undaunted by betrayals. Twice every year large numbers gathered at the Martyrs Memorials in Secunderabad and Hyderabad and paid tributes to martyrs. In January, 1986 some activists decided to form `Telangana Information Trust`. Soon “Ma Telangana” was launched, which was closed down after seven months due to financial troubles. More then a thousand people had gathered at its inaugural function at Basant Talkies, Kachiguda,. Around 1991 two organisations, Telangana Student Front and Telangana Liberation Students Organisation were launched in Osmania Universty. In 1992 the Kakatiya Unit of Telangana Students Front was formed. A national seminar on small state was held in Landscape Gardens and Tagore Auditorium in August 1993 . Surendera Mohan inaugurated the conference and Justice Madhav Reddy addressed the gathering. George Fernandes addressed the concluding session. Delegates from various parts of the country including Vilas Bhongade from Vidarbha and Laxman Dasti from Hyderabad-Karnatak attended the conference. Both TSF and TLSO organised demonstrations on and outside O.U.campus and forced Osmania University to sanction 15 per cent supernumerary seats to Telangana students.
Stirrings of a new movement could be clearly seen in Warangal on 1st November 1996 at the Telangana Praja Samiti convention attended by more than five thousand delegates from all parts of Telangana. The Hyderabad convention was held on 1st December 1996 and after that a series of conferences, group and public meetings have been held at Godavarikhani, Karimnagar, Siddipet,Jangaon, Aler, Ghanpur, Nizamabad, Khammam, Nalgonda, the old city of Hyderabad and Bhongir. The Bhongir conference and the public meeting proved to be a turning point. The Bhongir conference was addressed among other by Kaloji Narayan Rao, Dr. Jayashankar, Prof.P.L. Vishweshwer Rao, Dr.Srinivasulu, Sidda Reddy, Dr.Simhadri and many others who had come from all parts of Telangana. The public meeting presided over by shri Mallayya Gupta, a respected Communist leader and addressed by Gaddar among others was a huge gathering, much beyond the expectations of organisers. Gaddar called upon the people to launch a totally peaceful agitation for achievement of a separate state while the writer called for a new type of leadership from grassroots upwards, emphasizing total control over leaders by masses. A mong parties opposing the Telangana movement of 1969 were the Communist party, Jan Sangh and Majlis-Ittehadual-Muslimeen. While the first two represented upper-caste, upper-class section of the Andhra area, the Majlis represented upper-caste, upper-class, and non-Daccani section. However both Hindus and Muslims supported the movement and dealt a crushing blow to all the above mentioned parties in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. The role of Daccani and Urdu in the Telangana movement cannot be ignored. While Telugisation is a historical and necessary process it would be a folly to ignore Urdu and Daccani. Such an act would be a repetition of Nizam`s mistake in ignoring Telugu, Marathi, Hindi and Kannada. Hindi and Urdu are based on Dahhani and Khadi Boli. They are a part of our heritage. Who can forget the part played by Maqdoom Mohiuddin, Ibrahim Jalles, Sulaiman Areeb, Raja Dube, Jeelani Bano, Om Prakash Nirmal and many others who have enriched the politics and culture of Telangana through their. writings. The Andhra elite in their linguistic chauvinism of regarding Guntur Telugu as the only Telugu have tried to rodeo roughshod over Telangana Telugu and Daccani as also Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Kannada, Similarly tribal language were sought to be destroyed. New Telangana will nurture all these languages which are a part of our cultural and literary heritage.
Telangana now stands on the verge of another movement for liberation from aliens and for participatory politics. What the people of Telangana do now and how colonialists react will decide the future course of Indian politics. The demand for small states is a demand for responsible and participatory politics. The Telangana movement of 1969 was the first Indian struggle for economic and cultural autonomy. The movement going on now has added a demand for social emancipation. This is as it should be. The whole world is moving towards liberation from racism, sexism and casteism. Telangana has stood in the vanguard of such movements for the last fifty years and awaits correct leadership. What then shall we do now? The job is not to liberate Telangana from a colonial system but also to liberate Andhras from their selfishness and greed which is increasing in leaps and bounds. The liberation of Andhras, however, can only commence with the formation of a separate state of Telangana. How do we visualise Telangana? Because people are asking us for whom Telangana is sought to be formed? What is the point in fighting for Telangana if nothing is to change? One thing that will change for sure is that we will have control over our resources, jobs and education. But, that has to be only the beginning. Other policies have to be visualized and projected.
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