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Telangana: A Saga of Promises and Betrayals

Article · March 2018

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Gaurav J Pathania
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Telangana Politics: A Saga of Promises and Betrayals

June 1, 2015 (Kafila)
This is a Guest Post by GAURAV J PATHANIA

As the 29th state on the map of India, Telangana owes its formation to a half century long mass
movement and countless sacrifices by its people. In the movement for separate statehood,
thousands of university students lost their lives, families and careers. After the initial upheaval in
1969, the movement peaked again in 2009; thanks to Osmania University students who
spearheaded fresh activism, gaining a reputation as the real heroes of the movement. Throughout,
hundreds of students have been arrested and jailed, yet the government could not break the spirit
of the movement. Therefore, prior to his taking oath on June 2, 2014 as the first chief minister of
the separate Telangana state, K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), the head of the ruling party
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), promised to rescind police cases lodged against Telangana
activists during the movement as well as create one lakh jobs for the new state’s youth. However,
now almost a year later, students are now back on the streets protesting against the state they
fought so hard to achieve. Angry and dissatisfied with the undelivered promises of the present
government, they formed the ‘Unemployed Joint Action Committee’ (JAC). Their current
struggle has been met with police beatings and arrests. What is more shocking for student
activists is to receive retroactive government orders from the police, who had lodged cases
against them for their involvement during the Telangana movement. Surprisingly, activists who
did not join the ruling TRS party have been targeted. The handful of activists given election
tickets by the TRS and who are currently in power, remain silent on their fellow activists’ plight.
Generations of Osmania students, who made countless sacrifices for the state now feel cheated.
Students are shocked by yet another unjust action by KCR is now grabbing university land.
Osmania students see the present government’s action as yet another “betrayal” towards them in
the long history of struggle for separate Telangana.

1969: The First Betrayal.

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On 1 November 1956, the state of Andhra Pradesh was created on a linguistic basis by merging
the Telangana region with Andhra, which triggered a series of discontented voices. Since then,
Telangana has been neglected repeatedly, specifically in government employment and financial
allocation, as people from Andhra dominated the administration. Though there were many
“safeguards” arranged for Telangana to ensure equal development in the region, many of them
were never implemented. Telangana employees faced constant humiliation, their culture
considered “inferior” and their Telugu accent ridiculed. As Osmania University is located in the
capital city of Hyderabad, its students understood these “cultural” politics at a deeper level.
When agitations to uphold the policy of safeguards were repeatedly ignored by the government,
OU students raised the demand for separate statehood in 1969. They formed the Telangana Praja
Samiti (TPS) and rallied widely for support. Their collective anger burst onto the streets of
Hyderabad in the form of the first violent student agitation, spearheading the movement yet
creating bedlam in the city for nearly a year. Hundreds of students lost their lives in police
atrocities which fueled more protests. This resulted in a mass satyagraha in all districts of
Telangana. For the entire academic year, students were on the road confronting the police. Jails
quickly became overpopulated with students, and even schools in Telangana were used as
detention centers. At the movement’s peak, students invited Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy, a Congress
party leader to head the TPS. In the 1971 election, TPS won 11 of 14 parliamentary seats, the
most remarkable victory in the history of students’ struggle. With high hopes, pamphlets were
published to announce “Telangana State”. Unfortunately, Reddy’s politicking and the eventual
merger of TPS with the ruling Congress party led to widespread frustration among students, as
they lost trust in the state. Activism on campus waned and the emotions and forces generated by
the 1969 movement did not find a political platform. Sympathies began to sway towards the
extreme Left with many student leaders joining the Naxal movement and People’s War Group.
More than a decade later, these students eventually became disillusioned as Telangana was not on
the Left’s agenda, and returned home and took up jobs. Nevertheless, the vision of a “Separate
Telangana” never wavered in the minds of the leading intellectuals who had experienced the
1969 agitation and lost their friends in police firings. In 1986, they formed the “Telangana
Information Trust” where they penned their experiences of the movement. Later, many of them
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became popular writers and poets. In addition, OU alumni formed many socio-cultural
organisations such as Telangana Jana Parishad, Telangana Mahasabha and Telangana Sanskruti
Samakhya and to bring about consciousness to the masses.

Second Betrayal:
When the Indian government carved out new states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarkhand,
aspirations rekindled among Telangana supporters to propel their agenda to the national level. In
2001, the TRS was formed under the leadership of KCR, and revived Telangana activism. From
this point onwards, through various programmes, pamphlets and songs, students spread
awareness in cities and villages about social backwardness of Telangana, an absolute deficit of
governance and nepotism in employment practices, as well as the unjust utilization of natural
resources. During this phase, the movement expanded and diffused different ideological camps,
no longer clinging to the Left. The movement entered a second phase on 29 November 2009
when KCR’s announcement of a fast-unto-death caught national attention. The role of students at
this time was very crucial; before KCR began his fast, he ensured he had the support of students
and all of Telangana. Later, when KCR broke his fast without conferring with students, they
became distrustful and in their disappointment, carried out KCR’s symbolic shava yatra (funeral
procession). From this point onwards, the students’ took the movement into their own hands and
made a powerful attempt to reach the masses by forming a Joint Action Committee (JAC)-a non-
political organization.
The concept of JAC became widely popular and its decisions were unanimously
accepted. The historic rally Vidyarthi Garjana (Students’ Uproar) organised by the OU-JAC
attracted thousands of students who assembled in front of Arts College, in spite of desperate
efforts by police to stop them. This week-long agitation did not go unnoticed by politicians and
the masses. Political parties tried to dissolve student unity. Student JACs, however, remained
steadfast and chalked out a Padayatra (journey on foot) to visit all Telangana districts (from 18
January to 7 February 2010) starting from OU and ending at Kakatiya University (KU),
Warangal. This was their strategy to garner direct mass support, and it worked well. People were
overwhelmed by the students’ commitment to the issues and received them whole heartedly.
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 Newspapers covered stories where villagers literally washed the students’ feet with milk in order
to honour them. Student leaders gained even more respect and trust, which jeopardised the image
of Telangana politicians. In 2011, through programmes such as the Non-Cooperation Movement,
Sakala Janula Samme and Chalo Assembly and Chalo Delhi, students once again proved that the
Telangana movement did not rest completely in the hands of political parties.

Osmania’s Significance to Telangana

Osmania University and the Telangana movement have long been synonymous with each
other. The Telangana movement and its relation with the Osmania campus, and more specifically,
Arts College - the movement’s breeding ground, can be distinguished in many ways. Since its
inception the movement has faced several hurdles yet the enthusiasm and the spirit of struggle of
Arts College students has been unwavering. There is a common saying among them that “once
you are part of Arts College; you will be a Telangana activist for life”. The College became the
“sacred” place for activists, where students pay homage to the sacrifices made by their
predecessors. The Narmada Research Scholars (NRS) Hostel, also known as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
Hostel, has been the hallowed abode of student leaders. Student activism catalysed the
movement by bringing about socio-cultural consciousness. With their innovative methods, new
terminologies and ideologies of protests, students propelled the Telangana agitations into a mass
movement. Their contribution cannot be underestimated. Yet the present government seems to be
ignoring Osmania’s legacy. Students are also angry that in mainstream media and new school
text books the government is projecting KCR as the architect of Telangana. Now, on the eve of
completing one year in government, KCR, instead of providing new employment opportunities
to university students, is grabbing their campus’ land. This is yet another political betrayal
students have experienced in the name of Telangana. Those who are in power should remember
that in drawing new lines on the map of India, the students have laid down their lives.

Gaurav J. Pathania is a research scholar at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

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