Telangana or Telingana is a region of Andhra Pradesh. It literally means "land of telugus".
The Telugu language originated here. It corresponds to the Telugu speaking part of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad. The region lies on the Deccan plateau to the west of the Eastern Ghats range, and includes the northwestern interior districts of Warangal, Adilabad, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, and the state capital, Hyderabad.
The Krishna and Godavari rivers flow through the region from west to east. Telangana has the largest area, with 1,14,800 asquare kilometer. Telangana region comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad.
Telangana region at present accounts for 119 of the 294 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and has 17 of the 42 Lok Sabha members.
In 2009 elections, Congress won 50 seats out of 119 Assembly seats and 12 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi, TRS, which emerged as a key force in 2004 elections by winning 26 seats, ended with only 10 though it contested 45 seats.
Telugu Desam Party, TDP, which was nearly wiped out from the region in last elections (2004), improved its tally to 39.
Telangana region was mentioned in the Mahabharata as the Telinga Kingdom which said to be inhabited by the tribe known as Telavana and said to have fought on the Pandava side in the great war of Mahabharata. It is also evident from the fact that there is Pandavula Guhalu in Warangal district (where the Pandavas spent their life in exile (Lakkha Gruham)).
1969 Movement
In the following years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh state, however, the Telangana people had a number of complaints about how the agreements and guarantees were implemented. Discontent with the 1956 Gentleman's agreement intensified in January 1969 when the guarantees that had been agreed on were supposed to lapse. Student agitation for the continuation of the agreement began at Osmania University in Hyderabad and spread to other parts of the region. Government employees and opposition members of the state legislative assembly swiftly threatened "direct action" in support of the students. This movement, also known as Telangana movement, led to widespread violence and deaths of hundreds of people and students of this Telangana region. Approximately 360 students gave their lives in this movement.
Although the Congress faced dissension within its ranks, its leadership stood against additional linguistic states, which were regarded as "anti-national." As a result, defectors from the Congress, led by M. Chenna Reddy, founded the Telangana People's Association (Telangana Praja Samithi). Despite electoral successes, however, some of the new party leaders gave up their agitation in September 1971 and, much to the disgust of many separatists, rejoined the safer political haven of the Congress ranks.
Movement in 1990-2004
The emotions and forces generated by the movement were not strong enough, however, for a continuing drive for a separate state until 1990s when Bharatiya Janata Party, promised a separate Telangana state if they came to power. But the BJP could not create a separate Telangana state because of the opposition from its coalition partner, Telugu Desam Party. These developments brought new life into the separatist Telangana movement by year 2000. Congress party MLAs from the Telangana region, supported a separate Telangana state and formed the Telangana Congress Legislators Forum. In another development, a new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (or TRS) was formed with the single point agenda of creating a separate Telangana state, with Hyderabad as its capital lead by Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao popularily known as KCR.
Proponents of a separate Telangana state feel.. all the agreements, accords, formulas, plans and assurances on the floor of legislature and Lok Sabha, in last 50+ years, could not be honoured and Telangana was forced to remain neglected, exploited and backward. The experiment to remain as one State proved to be a futile exercise and therefore, separation is found to be the best solution.
2004 and later
In 2004, for Assembly and Parliament elections, the Congress party and the TRS had an electoral alliance in the Telangana region with the promise of a separate Telangana State. Congress came to power in the state and formed a coalition government at the centre. TRS joined the coalition government in 2004 and was successful in making a separate Telangana state a part of the common minimum program (CMP) of the coalition government. In September 2006 TRS withdrew support for the Congress led coalition government at the centre on the grounds of indecision by the government over the delivery of its electoral promise to create Telangana.
In December 2006, the TRS won the by-election to the Karimnagar parliamentary constituency with a record margin. There was pressure on the Congress party to create a Telangana state in 2008.
All TRS legislators in Parliament and in State (4MPs, 16MLAs, 3MLCs) resigned in the 1st week of March 2008 and forced by-elections to increase the pressure on Congress party, and to intensify the movement.
By-elections for the 16 MLA seats, 4 MP seats were held May 29, 2008. During the election campaign the TRS party said it is a referendum on a Telangana state but both Congress and TDP parties said it is not a referendum on Telangana and also said that they are not opposed to the formation of Telangana state. To the disappointment of Telangana proponents TRS retained only 7 out of 16 MLA seats and 2 out of 4 MP seats after the by-elections.
In June 2008, Devender Goud, who is considered number two in the TDP, a politbureau member and Deputy Leader of the Telugu Desam Legislature Party, resigned from the party saying he would devote his time and energy to the formation of a separate Telangana state. In July 2008, Mr Goud along with some other leaders like Mr. E Peddi Reddy formed a new party called Nava Telangana Praja Party.
On 9 October 2008, in a historical turnaround from its 26-year history TDP announced its support for the creation of Telengana.
2009 and later
Ahead of the 2009 General Elections in India all the major parties in Andhra Pradesh supported Telangana state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) again announced their policy of having smaller states and will create 2 more states Telangana and Gorkhaland if they win the election. When the BJP was last in power, they created Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarkhand. They suggest smaller states create more competition for investment and are better governed.
Congress Party still says it is committed to Telangana statehood. But it did not create any new states during its rule over the last 5 years, not did it have a convincing answer to why it could not create Telangana state. Also it claims Muslim minorities are opposed to creation of separate state along with majority people...
Telugu Desam Party(TDP) promised to work for Telangana statehood. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) joined a Mahakutami(or grand alliance) with TDP and left parties to defeat congress party for denying statehood for Telangana.
Praja Rajyam Party(PRP), newly founded by film star Chiranjeevi, too supports Telangana statehood. Nava Telangana Party merged with PRP after it realized that there is not enough political space for two sub-regional Telangana parties with Telananga statehood as main agenda.
Several political parties, including some Telangana congress leaders, criticized Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekahr Reddy (YSR), when he changed his stand from pro-Telangana and gave anti-Telangana statements after the polls.
Congress returned to power both at center and state. TRS and the grand alliance lost the elections in overwhelming fashion. In the first week of Dec 2009, the TRS president, K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) started a fast-unto-death demanding that the Congress party introduce a Telangana bill in the Parliament. Student organizations, employee unions and various organizations joined the movement. The decline of KCR's health has contributed to a sense of urgency for the central government to take a decision on the issue of Telangana statehood.
Fate of Hyderabad
Two Andhra Pradesh ministers have written to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to grant the status of union territory to Greater Hyderabad in the event of the formation of a separate Telangana state.
Health Minister Danam Nagender and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Mukesh Goud have been backed by seven legislators of the ruling Congress.
Nagender and Goud are from Hyderabad and have already come under criticism for their demand from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), students and other groups fighting for separate state.
Telangana region comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, which recently became Greater Hyderabad following the merger of surrounding municipalities and villages.
Demand For New States
Demands for new states are likely to intensify in the event Telangana state is formed. There have been demands for separate states of Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Rayalaseema and Gorkhaland, which may intensify after Telangana is set up.
If Andhra Pradesh is to be split to create a separate Telangana state, then there are similar demands from other regions in the state too. Andhra Pradesh has 23 districts, including the state capital Hyderabad, in three regions; coastal Andhra (nine), Rayalaseema (four) and Telangana (ten).
Along with Telangana, there is now the demand for a separate ‘Andhra', separate ‘Rayalaseema' and even a separate ‘north-coastal Andhra'.
Topping it all is the demand for making (Greater) Hyderabad a Union Territory! Now, within these demands is the latest addition: a ‘Greater Rayalaseema.
Rayalaseema region actually comprises four districts: Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool and Chittoor. It accounts for 52 of the Assembly seats and 8 MPs. Leaders of this region have now raised a demand for including Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore and Prakasam districts in Rayalaseema, thereby making it a ‘Greater' state.
SPS Nellore and Prakasam districts are now part of coastal Andhra that stretches up to Srikakulam bordering Orissa, along the Bay of Bengal coast.
This, of course, only if Telangana is indeed separated from Andhra Pradesh. On the other hand, people of north-coastal Andhra, which consists of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, are demanding that the three districts be formed into a separate state in the event of bifurcating AP.
That would then leave coastal Andhra with only four districts, Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari and East Godavari. Now the coastal Andhra has 123 MLAs and 17 MPs.
