For the past few years, the separatist movement demanding the creation of
a Telangana state has roiled our state. Thanks to the verdict given by the
Telugu people during the recent elections, the movement and its leaders are
now going through introspection. Before the current movement, vocal demands
for a separate state were raised on two other occasions. The demand surfaced
for the first time during our state’s formation in 1956 when Prime Minister
Nehru, in trying to stop the formation of a Vishalandhra state, accused Telugus
of being imperialists. The movement resurfaced in a violent form in 1969 when
Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy used high school and young college students for his
political means. Now, for the third time, separatism’s ugly head has risen when
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader Sri Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao
(KCR) started the current separatist movement after the ruling Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) denied him a ministry in the state cabinet. The gullible people of
Nizam Telangana continue to fall for politicians’ antics.
During the 2009 elections, the demand for a separate state reached a
new crescendo. Political parties of all hues tried to cash in on peoples’ whipped-
up sentiments. Many of our leaders were so blindly in love with power that
they have put aside their ideals and vied with each other to separate our state
and its people. Sadly, many national parties and regional parties not having
any stake in our state politics have thrown their hats into the fray to support
separating our state and people.
Today, different quarters of our state are demanding chopping of our
state into at least five pieces, namely, Nizam Telangana, Costal Andhra, Uttara
Andhra, Greater Rayalaseema, and Greater Hyderabad.
About two years ago, when the din about dividing the state reached a
crescendo, I resolved to learn more about the history of the Telugus and the
legitimacy of the demand for a separate state. I wanted to understand how
these so-called regions of Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, and Nizam Telangana
formed. We all speak one common language, and people’s lifestyles across
these regions have many more commonalities than differences. I hypothesized
that we must have all been part of one nation and one society. If so, how did
these regions and disparities arise?
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