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Telangana independence day and All about 17 September, 1948

admin | September 17, 2011 | 0 Comments

Before 1947, Hyderabad was under the suzerainty of the British Crown but was not part of British India. In 1947, at the time of the independence of British India and its Partition into the Union of India and the new state of Pakistan, the British abandoned their claim to suzerainty over the Princely states and left them to decide their own future.

The Nizam of Hyderabad initially approached the British government with a request to take on the status of an independent constitutional monarchy under the British Commonwealth of Nations. This request was however rejected.

When Indian Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel requested the Hyderabad Government to sign the instrument of accession, the Nizam refused and instead declared Hyderabad as an independent nation on 15 August 1947, the same day that India became independent. Alarmed at the idea of an independent Hyderabad in the heart of Indian territory, Sardar Patel approached the governor general of India, Lord Mountbatten who advised him to resolve the issue without the use of force.

The Nizam’s efforts also triggered the largest agrarian armed rebellion in modern Indian history. To deter the Nizam, Indian union chose to implement an economic blockade, which forced the state of Hyderabad to sign a Standstill Agreement with it.

Qasim Razvi, a close advisor, and leader of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) Party, had set up a voluntary militia called the ‘Razakars’. The Razakars – who numbered up to 200,000 at the height of the conflict – swore to uphold Nizam rule in Hyderabad and the Deccan plateau in the face of growing public opinion amongst the majority population favouring the accession of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.

As the manpower and arsenal of the Razakars grew, there was an escalation of violence between the Razakars and other communities. In all, more than 150 villages (of which 70 were in Indian territory outside Hyderabad State) were pushed into violence. In Telengana, large groups of peasants revolted against local Hindu and Muslim landlords, and also came into direct confrontation with the Razakars, in what became known as the Telangana Rebellion.

The revolt began in the Nalgonda district and quickly spread to the Warangal and Bidar districts. Peasant farmers and labourers revolted against the Nizam and the local feudal landlords (jagirdars and deshmukhs) who were loyal to the Nizam. The initial modest aims were to do away with the illegal and excessive exploitation meted out by these feudal lords in the name of bonded labour. The most strident demand was for the writing off of all debts of the peasants that were manipulated by the feudal lords.

The rebellion and the subsequent police action(termed Operation Polo) lead to the liberation of Hyderabad state from the Nizam’s rule on 17 September 1948 and the dominion was merged into Indian Union eventually leading to the independence of Telangana.

Elections of 1952 led to the victory of Congress party in Hyderabad state. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was first chief minister of the Hyderabad state from 1952 to 1956.

Unfortunately, on 1st November 1956, the states of India were reorganized on linguistic grounds. The territories of the State of Hyderabad were divided between newly created Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai state (later Maharashtra), and Karnataka. Major part of Hyderabad State was merged with the Andhra state to form the present day Andhra Pradesh State and thus we lost our independence.

With this history, Telanganites have every right to celebrate 17th September. Seemandhra politicians are against celberating September 17th Officially as they do not want the younger generation to know about the history of telangana freedom fight. They have never bothered to include about telangana history in any of the school text books.