Disclaimer :
previously in the second part i went into the historical significance and political rise up of cong in andhra region ......now i want to go into the nizam rule in telagana and of course the role of cong political party .....if any wrongs in the post .....free to express
For this post i have verified many books including the pradesh- 2 book
written by unknown author and Language, Emotion, and Politics in South
IndiaThe Making of a Mother Tongue by Lisa Mitchell
Nizams’ Rule in Telangana
Politics in Telangana started very late when compared to
Andhra.The simple reason for this was the fact that the Nizam never
permitted any political parties or national movements. Liberal
education and Leftist movements were unknown in the Nizam’s rule. The
Telugu people in nine districts of Telangana did not command any
respect. Urdu was the medium for every thing including
administration. Muslim students used to go to the Aligarh University and Hindus to
Madras and such other places. The villages were in dire poverty.
Bonded labour was prevalent everywhere. Jagirdars bossed over the
people.
Osmania University which was founded in 1918 had Urdu as the medium of Instruction. The Nizam ruled with the support of
the British by paying them taxes. The National movements all around the
State, could not penetrate the native State of Hyderabad.
Maharastrians were treated with respect of course, next to Muslims. The
Kanarese and Telugu speaking people were regarded as third rank
citizens. Krishna Deva Raya Bhasha Nilayam was founded by Kommaraju Lakshman Rao and Ravichettu Ranga Rao in 1902. Later, they
started the Vignana Chandrika Grandha Mandala.
Hyderabad Zilla Congress had its origin in 1918 under the presidentship of Vaman Nayak. It existed only in name.
Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao and Konda Venkata
Ranga Reddy used to attend Congress Sessions though they did
not influence the people in any way in the early days. Even the
Arya Samaj failed to have its effect on the Telugu people of
Telangana in the beginning.
The Telugu people were humiliated in Telangana. Telugu did
not carry the same value as Marathi or Kannada. Madapati
Hanumantha Rao and Alampalli Venkata Rama Rao made their speeches in
Telugu on the occasion of Hindu Social Reform meeting held in Vivek
Vardhini Narisetti Innaiah School of Hyderabad on 12th November 1921.
Both of them were insulted very badly which prompted them to meet in
Tekumukkala Ranga Rao’s residence and start the Andhra Association, with Shyamala Venkata Reddy, as the President and Madapati as the Secretary. That was the beginning of the Andhra Movement in Telangana. This association turned its attention to the
problems of the Telugu people not through politics but in the name of a
Library Movement. Hence, the Nizam did not raise any objection to
it.
In 1924, the Library Conference (Maha Sabha) was organized in Madhira, Khammam district with Pingali Venkata Rami Reddy
in the Chair. The second Library Mahasabha was arranged in
Suryapet under the leadership of Lokadindi Narayana Rao. The Brahma
Samaj influence in Suryapet enabled a Social Reform meet with
Gadepalli Suryaprakasa Rao in the Chair. These efforts moved the upper
and middle class Telugu people. They arranged the Andhra Maha
Sabha in 1930. Even the women’s meet was clubbed with this. In
those days they not only needed prior permission of the rulers but
the proceedings were also censored. Therefore, they could
discuss only the problems like social reforms, educational opportunities
and women’s problems. Golkonda Patrika was started by Suravaram Pratap Reddy in 1925 and it gave an immense boost to the
Andhra Movement in Telangana.
The Brahmins, the Vysyas and then the Reddys in Telangana made their entry into politics in respective order. The
first conference of the Telugu people was held at Jogipet, Medak district in
1930.Suravaram Pratap Reddy presided over the meetings. The
Women’s Conference took place simultaneously with Mrs. Nadimpalli Shreedevamma as President. In the conference, a resolution
was proposed in support of Government Acts banning child
marriages and permitting widow remarriages. The opponents to these
resolutions were Sesha Charyulu, Anantha Venkata Rao, Venkateswara
Gupta, Ravikoti Vittala Sastry and Venkata Bhujanga Sastry. There
was bitter resentment to another resolution proposed by a
Harijan, Bhagya Reddy Verma, for the abolition of untouchability. Many of
the upper class people even detested a Harijan sitting with them in
the
Conference. With the intervention of Vaman Naik the
situation was brought under control.
The second Andhra Mahasabha was organized in Devarakonda with Burgula Ramakrishna Rao as the Chairman. The Government suspecting the motive behind the Conference, tarried long to
permit
it. It was resolved in the meeting that there should be no
ban order on meetings where they were only making resolutions.
Panditha Keshava Rao spoke in favour of a ban on child marriages.He
was opposed by Vaman Naik. These meetings increased Government suspicion about their validity. It took two years to
organize the third Andhra Conference as the Government withheld permission to
all such meetings. Even after two years the organizers had to
assure the Government about their non-political activities, to get
approval for the meetings. This conference was chaired by Pulijala Ranga
Rao in 1934. The women’s section met with Mrs. Yellapragada Seethakumari in the Chair. These meetings were strongly
opposed by the orthodox men. The Government prohibited them from making any
resolutions.
The fourth Andhra Conference was held with Madapati as the Chairman at Sircilla, Karimnagar district in 1935. The
Government partially restricted this meeting. The main features of this
meeting
were the presence of Ravi Narayana Reddy who later became a Communist, and the speech made by Arige Rama Swamy regarding Harijan problems. The women also met and Mrs Joginepalli Radha Bai presided. Baddam Yella Reddy, a budding Communist
attended the conference. The new-comers evinced their love for Telugu
by making their speeches in that language.The Government
started realizing the implications of these conferences. Mandumala
Narasing Rao, through his paper ‘Raithu’ gave encouragement to the
Andhra Mahasabha.Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy was the President of the fifth Andhra Conference held at Shadnagar, Mahaboob Nagar
district.The meeting debated the need for deciding the boundaries of Telangana.
The Government of
Hyderabad Native State too introduced certain reforms in view of the changing times. A committee
of reforms was appointed. The Praja Parishath was founded with Madapati
as
Chairman in order to represent the feelings of Telugu people
to the Reforms Committee. But Praja Parishath could not function
with the same intensity as the Ithehadul Muslimeen - a Muslim
organization. This time the Telangana Andhra Conference was held in
Nizamabad and the Government imposed many restrictions on it.
Mandumala Chaired the meeting. The language problem was discussed,
V.B. Raju and Mandagiri Venkat Rao on one side and Ravi Narayana
Reddy on the other put forth sound ideas in these
discussions. V.B. Raju insisted on speaking only in Telugu but Konda Ranga
Reddy and his men did not approve of any such restrictions.
In 1937, an effort was made to establish a Hyderabad branch of the Congress but the Government prohibited it as an
illegal organisation. A Satyagraha was staged by Ravi Narayana
Reddy,
Mandumala Narasing Rao against the attitude of the
Government. Burgula Rama Krishna Rao and others retraced after seeing
the unrelenting dictatorial attitude of the rulers. During the
Satyagraha of 1938, many courted arrests and Communists like Arutla Rama Chandra Reddy and Baddam Yella Reddy were jailed.
Meanwhile, the Arya Samaj and the Hindu Mahasabha too started expanding in Telangana. For the first time, the
students of Osmania University defied the Nizam’s law by singing ‘Vandemataram’. The Nizam proposed that he would lift the
ban order on State Congress if they changed its name but the
Satyagraha prisoners were released only after a year. The Communist
Party was just shooting up in Nizam’s domain. Puchalapalli Sundaraiah
and Chandra Rajeshwara Rao promoted the party through their
parleys with Ravi Narayana Reddy, Baddam Yella Reddy, Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao, Sarvadevabatla Ramanadham. Mandumala Narasing Rao was the Chairman of the Andhra Conference at Malkapuram, in 1940. Ravi Narayana Reddy, Kalojee Narayana Rao, N.K. Rao and Pollampalli Venkata Rao were insisting
upon the opposition of reforms introduced by the Government. The
Rightists like K.V. Ranga Reddy, Madapati Hanumantha Rao and Pulijala
Venkata Ranga Rao welcomed the reforms. In this conference,
the differences between the Rightists and Leftists came up
openly.
In 1941, Andhra Mahasabha met under Ravi Narayana Reddy’s Chairmanship. The Andhra Conference was held in Dharmavaram,in 1942. Madiraju Rama Koteswara Rao presided over it. He
was a Rightist. The Communists and Rightists had heated
discussions regarding the Second World War. But the Communists did not
reveal themselves as yet.
The 11th Andhra Mahasabha met in Bhuvanagiri, Nalgonda district with Ravi Narayana Reddy as the Chairman. There was
a clear cut demarcation between the Rightists and the
Leftists. The 11th Andhra Mahasabha was almost completely dominated by the Communists. The Rightists banned it but many Communists from
the Krishna district attended the conference as invitees. The
women’s conference took place with Nimmagadda Satyavathy in the
Chair. Even the working committee was full of Communists and their sympathizers. The Rightists like Mandumala Narasinga Rao,
Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy, Burgula Rama Krishna Rao, Madiraju Rama Koteswara Rao and P. Sreenivasa Rao tried to organize the
Rightists. Andhra Conference had succeeded in having it in 1945 at
Mudigonda near Warangal.The 13th Andhra Conference was held in Kandi, Medak district in 1946 and Jamalapuram Keshava Rao was the Chairman. After the Conference at Bhuvanagiri, Nalgonda
district in 1942, the Communists tried to strengthen their party ranks.
Nizam Nawab banned the Communist party in November 1946 as he sensed danger from it.
The Nizam’s Government had to lift the ban on Hyderabad
State Congress keeping in view the changed circumstances in the
country. Qasim Razvi, with the intention of continuing Hyderabad
State as a Muslim State, employed very cruel measures and so the
Communists started fighting against the landlords for the liberation of
the peasants and labourers. The people became the victims of violence
both by the Razakars, muslim militia under Nizam in the day and the Communists at night. The question of Hyderabad State joining
the Indian Union came up and Qasim Razvi was against it. The
Congress insisted upon joining the Union.
On 4th May 1948, Nizam
Nawab lifted the ban on the Communist Party. Their role had become
dubious.The people thought that the Communists sided Nizam so that Hyderabad need not seek unity with the country, hence the
ban on them was lifted. The Indian Government annexed the Hyderabad State to the Indian Union through the Police Action. Many of
the communists who stood against the military forces had to
sacrifice their lives. Temporarily, the military ruled Hyderabad State
under General Chowdary. A year late, on 12th June 1950 the State Ministry was formed with M.K. Vellodi as the Chief Minister. Burgula
Rama Krishna Rao and V.B. Raju were among the Ministers. K.V.
Ranga Reddy, Dr. Channa Reddy and Arige Ramaswamy were nominated to the Parliament. There arose a big rift among the
Communists of Telangana over the armed-struggle. They were not willing to
be led by the Andhra leaders. Makineni Basavapunnaiah and Chandra Rajeswar Rao went secretly to Russia to seek Stalin’s
advice. Stalin told them to decide the matter according to local
convenience. He looked at the Indian map and is reported to have wondered
how they were going to liberate Telangana which was in the
middle of the country. They had no answer to that and returned home
without a solution.
The banned Communists took part in the General Elections in 1952 under the People’s Democratic Front. The State Congress was divided into two groups by then, due to the differences. Ramananda Thirtha, leading the Progressive Group, removed
Burgula Ramakrishna Rao and K.V. Ranga Reddy from the congress with the pretext that they had connived with the Nizam. Somehow
the centre patched up the differences. Burgula who was with the
Reddys till then, joined hands with Ramananda Thirtha. Ramananda
Thirtha led the election committee.The Reddys were displeased and
the Centre had to come to their rescue once again. The Congress
took 96 seats in the elections and 39 seats went to the
Communists (PDF). Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was selected by the Centre to be the Chief Minister as there were factions in the Hyderabad
Congress. Ramananda Thirtha and K.V. Ranga Reddy were the two group leaders. The Telugu speaking Cabinet members were Konda
Venkata Reddy (Revenue), Dr. Channa Reddy (Agriculture), V.B. Raju,
P. Hanumantha Rao, M.S. Rajalingam, Arige Rama Swamy and Sangam Lakshmi Bai.
In the 1952 elections, Jalagam Vengala Rao, Bommakanti Satyanarayana and Sidda Reddy contested with no success, as independents because they could not get Congress
seats. They were dismissed from the Congress Party for six years as
they went against the party rules. Burgula’s Ministry did not run
smoothly. D.G. Bindu canvassed that Burgula did not have the majority
support and would not last long. V.B. Raju and K.V. Ranga Reddy
tried unsuccessfully to topple Burgula as the Chief Minister. As a consequence, V.B. Raju was dropped from the cabinet, inspite
of his efforts to have himself retained.
In the elections to the President of the Congress,
Nimmagadda Satyanarayana stood against Venkata Ranga Reddy and the
latter won as the President. J.V. Narsinga Rao who had just then
entered politics was on good terms with Ranga Reddy’s group. Burgula
ruled till 1956. He saw to it that protection to the Tenants Act
and the Agricultural Reforms Act were passed in his time but they
failed in implementation. The Bhoodan Movement was first started here
by Vinoba Bhave when Vedire Ramachandra Reddy donated 100 acres land to the Movement.
By the time Andhra Pradesh was formed, the political
parties, groupism and casteism were already established in Telangana. When compared
to Andhra, there were no elections in Telangana for the local bodies, so disputes and disagreements had not cropped
up at that level. Their experience in the Legislature too was only six years old.
With this background, both Andhra and Telangana were to be merged into one, Andhra Pradesh. Burgula later worked as
Governor of Kerala and died in the year 1967.
In the next post .....i would like to bring notice to you on how cong politics worked from the state of andhra pradesh is formed
