Andhra Pradesh’s tumultuous road to statehood

The formation of Andhra Pradesh, the first linguistic State in India, which led to the formation of more States on a linguistic basis, is a story of great sacrifices made by those who were bound by a strong force—mother tongue

“I find only one way out. It is to lay down life with no desire, with no hate and with determination. From yesterday I felt that if I delay I should be committing a sin. I am prepared to go through the ordeal of laying down my life.” -Potti Sriramulu.

Author and professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, Lisa Mitchell, mentions the quote, taken from a letter dated September 15, 1952, written by Potti Sriramulu, in her book Language, Emotion, Politics in South India -The Making of a Mother Tongue.

The letter was written a month before the leader embarked on a fast unto death demanding a separate State for the Telugu people, with Madras as its capital.

Exactly three months later, on December 15, 1952, the fast unto death undertaken by Potti Sriramulu, revered as ‘Amarajeevi’ and the founding father of Andhra Pradesh, tragically ended in his demise after 58 days. A close friend and a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Potti Sriramulu had undertaken the fast for other causes earlier, too. He was known to be able to go without food for a few days.

His death sparked widespread protests in many Telugu-speaking pockets of the then Madras Presidency.

“The fatal conclusion caused people in towns and cities as far as 700 kilometres to the north to flock to those sites where news arrived first—the local railway stations. Soon, reports of violence, processions, destruction of railway property, stoppage of trains, and looting began to circulate,” writes Ms. Mitchell in her book. 

As per reports, seven people were killed in violence that erupted at different places, including Nellore and Visakhapatnam. On the fourth day after Sriramulu’s demise, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced the formation of Andhra Pradesh State, which came into effect on October 1, 1953. He also appointed a State Reorganisation Commission, which submitted its report in 1955 arguing for the formation of States along linguistic lines. 

Incidentally, it was not just Potti Sriramulu who decided to sacrifice his life for the Andhra linguistic State. Earlier, Gollapudi Sitarama Sastry, too, began his fast-unto-death in 1951 but gave up after leaders like Vinoba Bhave convinced him otherwise.

But, as Mitchell wonders in her book: “What conditions must exist for someone to die not for a nation but for a language? What was brewing in the Telugu-speaking region of Madras Residency or Province, which, apart from the Andhra region, covered Tamil Nadu, part of Odisha, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana?” 

“Language is a powerful tool to express one’s identity. It must be noted that while the geographical situation is considered while creating a unit, language is the second most important factor. Spain was the first nation State to be formed on linguistic lines,” explains former Head of the Department of History, University of Hyderabad, K.S.S. Seshan. 

Until the early 20th century, there was no hitch between Telugu and Tamil-speaking people in the Presidency. However, with the urge for Independence from the British growing in the early 1910s, the cleavage between people speaking the two languages widened. “People started forming groups on linguistic lines in their common fight for freedom from the British. A Telugu freedom fighter worked with another Telugu in activities such as attacking a Britisher,” Mr. Seshan explains. Language was a binding factor that began bringing people of the same tongue together.

While people remember Potti Sriramulu for his sacrifice, he was part of the last leg of a movement, the genesis of which can be found in the early 1910s. The Telugu-speaking group was conscious of their identity and was disregarded by the government of the time in terms of employment, the author says.

While the Telangana movement’s slogan in 1969 when protesting for a separate State was ‘Neellu, Nidhulu, Niyamakalu’, the reason for the separate Andhra State was only ‘Niyamakalu’, he says, remembering an instance where a Tamilian was appointed judge in Guntur, despite there being equally qualified Telugu judges. 

“On the education front, too, the only major educational institution in the 1910s-20s was the University of Madras. Only affluent people, mostly Tamil-speaking people, could study here, and they were the ones who got all the jobs,” Mr. Seshan says.  

As per information provided by the Andhra Pradesh History Congress, while Telugu people accounted for 40% of the 2 crore population in the Madras Presidency, there was not one of them in District Judge posts. A similar trend was visible in other posts too. In the education sector, out of 31 colleges in the entire Madras Presidency in 1915, only eight were in the Telugu-speaking region, which did not have a single engineering, medical or law college.  

“In the first decade of the 20^th century, Jonnavittula Gurunadham, a member of Youngmen Literary Association and a lecturer in Andhra Christian College in Guntur, wrote many articles in the English daily The Hindu. Later, contemporary dailies such as Andhra Patrika, Krishna Patrika, Deshabhimani, Desa Maata and Durbar too published articles about the Andhra movement, which helped in forming a Telugu consciousness among the people,” says A.P. History Congress general secretary Movva Srinivasa Reddy.  

A watershed moment came for the Telugu people in Madras when the Indian National Congress formed the Andhra Congress Committee, which gave a boost to the linguistic movement. It nurtured leaders such as Potti Sriramulu, Gollapudi Sitarama Sastry, who chose the non-violent ways to put forth their demand. 

“The leaders felt if they could have a separate committee for themselves, they might have a State for themselves, too. Besides, our people were students of history. They knew very well how Spain, Portugal, France and England were created. These ideas percolated during the 1920s, giving momentum to the movement,” explains Mr. Seshan. 

The discontent, brewing for three decades, reached a crescendo when, after the general elections in 1952, the Congress, which formed the government after joining hands with Kisan Majdur Party, denied the chance for Tanguturi Prakasam, leader of the front, to form the government and instead invited C. Rajagopalachari to do the same.  

“C. Rajagopalachari was opposed to the formation of the Andhra State and also tried to take away the water from Krishna and Penna rivers to Madras city through construction of dams. It was in this atmosphere that Potti Sriramulu decided to start a fast on October 19, 1952, in Madras,” Mr. Srinivasa Reddy says.

While Andhra State was formed with coastal districts and Rayalaseema on October 1, 1953, the region of Telangana was merged with the State to form Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956, after a section of people in Telangana and Andhra region wanted to be part of the State.

The Andhra movement helped the State become the forerunner in forming other States on a linguistic basis. But today, after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the State has the same region as it had in 1953, making one wonder if October 1 is indeed to be observed as the State Formation Day instead of November 1, or June 2, when the State was bifurcated in 2014. 

Published - November 02, 2024 05:05 am IST