XLVIII: The Partition of Telugu Country
Why did India’s first linguistic state also become the first non-Hindi state to be bifurcated?
1| A Gandhian Fasts
An emaciated and frail Gandhian breathed his last on 15 December 1952 in Madras. He hadn’t eaten for 58 days. It was not Potti Sreeramulu’s first fast, but it would be his last and most significant one. Sreeramulu’s fast gripped Telugu country and his death united it and unleashed a torrent of pressure and violence which led to creation of India’s first linguistic state.
‘Andhra State’ was carved out of the Telugu speaking districts of the Madras Presidency in 1953. A full three years later, on 1 November 1956, the Telugu speaking parts of the State of Hyderabad’s territory (ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad) were added to these boundaries to form a new, united, Andhra Pradesh. The later addition is critical because the residents always referred to the Telugu speaking parts of the State of Hyderabad as Telangana — an amalgamation of Telugu and angana (welcome, or more literally, a front courtyard) i.e. Welcome to Telugu country.
