Famous Telugu poet Dasaradhi Krishnamacharyulu once described Telangana as a celestial instrument studded with a million precious stones. Although the word ‘Telangana’ conjures up the image of a vast, semi-arid landscape, which can be a little intimidating, this poet’s muse is actually waiting for exploration. Its pristine lakes, stunning rivers and majestic hill forts will take you by surprise. The state also has numerous temples that are important centres of worship and are closely tied to its culture.
The Qutub Shahis and Asaf Jahis dedicated decades to make Hyderabad, Telangana’s capital city, what it is today. With its grand palaces, magnificent forts, heritage buildings and beautiful lakes scattered within its boundaries, the city has found a place for itself amongst the most sought after tourist destinations. Many international surveys have listed Hyderabad amongst the best tourist destinations in the world.
GEOGRAPHY
The etymology of the word ‘Telangana’ in itself is enough to describe the geography of this state. Legend has it that Lord Shiva descended on to this land in the form of three lingas—Kaleshwaram, Srisailam and Draksharamam—which marked the boundaries of the Trilinga Desa (country of three lingas), which later became ‘Telinga’. Over time, the word Telinga transformed into Telangana. Kaleshwaram lies in the northern Telangana district of Karimnagar, Srisailam, located in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, marks Telangana’s southern border and Draksharamam, in the East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh marks its eastern border.
Spread over an area of 1,14,840sq km in the Deccan Plateau, Telangana is one of the five states in south India. It shares its borders in the east and south with Andhra Pradesh, in the west with Karnataka and in the north with Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Odisha. The state itself is broadly divided into two main regions—ghats and peneplains—and its surface is characterized by low depressions. Several natural resources such as coal, bauxite, mica and limestone are found in abundance here. Two major rivers of the Deccan Plateau, the Godavari flowing in from Maharashtra and the Krishna flowing in from Karnataka, drain the Telangana region with 79 per cent of the Godavari catchment area and 69 per cent of the Krishna catchment area. Other minor rivers such as Bhima, Manjira, Dindi, Penganga and Musi also flow through the region. Despite this, most of the state remains arid due to its proximity to the equator and the availability of cultivable soil.
The region has a mainly hot and dry climate. Summer sets in by March and the temperatures soar to 45°C during the hottest part of the season. The Southwest Monsoon hits the state in early June and lasts till September bringing welcome relief. Winter, however, is very mild and the average temperature during this period is around 22°C. Owing to its climatic conditions, the state is mostly covered by dry deciduous forest. There are several wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves in the state—the most famous of them include the Amradbad Tiger Reserve near Nagarjuna Sagar, Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Warangal District and Pranahitha Wildlife Sanctuary in Medak. The Adilabad District, which is primarily a tribal belt, is replete with many waterfalls. There are several natural and man-made lakes such as the Laknavaram and Pakhal lakes in Warangal District, the Nizam Sagar and the Ali Sagar lakes in Nizamabad District and the Kaddam Lake in Adilabad District.
It’s a common sight to see huge boulders as you drive around the state. Many historic forts, temples and dargahs havebeen built on these giant rocks. The Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts, which surround Hyderabad, are home to the highest number of these boulders. Some of them are even named, decorated and protected by the government and several voluntary organizations. Doli Gutta in Khammam District is the highest peak in the state at 965m. Other than this, Telangana doesn’t have any major mountain ranges within its borders.
HISTORY
The Satavahanas, who originated somewhere in the land between the Krishna and the Godavari rivers, ruled Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from 230 BCE to 220 CE. Their capital was based at Amaravati, which is now in Andhra Pradesh. After the decline of the Satavahanas, Telangana was part of various other kingdoms such as the Vakatakas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Western Chalukyas. However, it is the Kakatiya dynasty to which Telangana owes much of its present-day glory. The Kakatiyas were the first ones to consolidate the entire Telugu-speaking region of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under one kingdom. Their capital was at Orugallu in present day Warangal. Exactly when they came to power is still a mystery but the dynasty is said to have been at its strongest between the 12th–14th centuries CE. Several rulers such as Rudramadeva, Ganapathideva, Pratapa Rudra and Rani Rudramadevi played instrumental roles in strengthening the Kakatiyas’ position in the region. The Kakatiyas also left behind several examples of notable architecture in the region. They commissioned many reservoirs for irrigation in uplands, 5,000 of which were built by warrior families subordinate to the Kakatiyas. This greatly altered the scope for development in sparsely populated, dry areas. They were pioneers in urban development, and implemented what is known as the 3Ts strategy—constructing a tank, temple and town each—to enhance the infrastructure in many parts of the state.
Marvellous temples were built during their reign; the most popular ones include the Thousand Pillar Temple in Hanmakonda and the Ramappa Temple in Palampet, both in Warangal District. The Warangal Fort in Warangal city and the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad are also fine examples of Kakatiyan architecture. The Kirti Toranam (arch of victory) or Kakatiya Toranam, which is symbolic of Kakatiyan architecture, is now used in the state’s official emblem, along with the Charminar.
The Kakatiyas remained invincible until 1323, when the Delhi Sultanate succeeded in taking down the Warangal Fort after several failed attempts. In the ensuing years, the region was ruled by several small dynasties until it came under the rule of the Bahmani Sultanate in the 15th century CE. Quli Qutub Mulk, the then governor of Golconda, revolted against the Bahmani Sultanate and acquired the fort in 1518, which led to the birth of the Qutub Shahi dynasty. The Qutub Shahis ruled from Golconda Fort till about 1590 CE. It is widely believed that their vault in the fort once preserved some of the most brilliant diamonds in the world, such as the Hope Diamond and the Kohi- noor Diamond. In 1591, they shifted their capital to Hyderabad, which was then known as Bhagyanagaram, and hence became the first architects of the city. They built several monuments such as the Charminar and Mecca Masjid and constructed the Hussain Sagar Lake, all of which have come to define Hyderabad over the years.
In 1687, Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, waged war against the Qutub Shahis and gained control of Hyderabad. However, Mughal power didn’t last long and with the disintegration of their empire, their appointed governors, the Asaf Jahis consolidated their control over Hyderabad. The Asaf Jahis, who are better known as the Nizams of Hyderabad, built numerous palaces and royal buildings across the state and made Hyderabad what it is today. Falaknuma Palace, High Court, Chowmallah Palace and Mozzam Jahi Market are just some of the magnificent structures built by the Asaf Jahi kings and their prime ministers. The dynasty also helped in the construction and restoration of many ancient temples across the Telangana region. The Nizams maintained good relations with the British, due to which their kingdom was never annexed by the latter.
After Indian independence, Osman Ali Khan, the reigning Nizam, refused to join the Indian Union. This period also saw growing unrest within the princely state of Hyderabad. Peasants from around 4,000 villages, mainly in Warangal and Bidar districts, revolted against feudal landlords. Eventually, the movement turned out to be a revolt against the Nizam and the bonded labour he commanded. Due to the threat of civil disobedience, the Nizam succumbed to the pressure from the Muslim elite and set up the Razakars, a private militia, which perpetrated several atrocities in the name of religion. However, this infuriated people further and culminated in the central government sending the Indian Army into Hyderabad in September 1948, forcing the Nizam to give up his state. Hyderabad became part of Andhra Pradesh on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganization Act, when the union government divided India’s states along linguistic lines.
The first call for separate statehood began in 1969 when the demand for a state comprising Telugu-speaking parts of the erstwhile state of Hyderabad was made. Another protest followed in 1972 and the final one broke out in December 2009, when people from across all boards participated in a large-scale agitation. The government realised it could no longer turn a deaf year to the majority’s demand and hence sanctioned the division of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Ten districts in the north made up the new state of Telangana while 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema (southern part) remained with Andhra Pradesh.
POLITICS
After the fall of the Nizam, MK Vellodi, a civil servant, was appointed by the Indian central government as the first Chief Minister of Hyderabad state on 26 January, 1950. In 1952, the first democratic elections were held in the newly formed state and Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was elected chief minister.
Since India, for the most part still constituted the provinces and presidencies of the British Raj, a States Reorganization Committee was authorized in 1953 to recommend the reorganization of state boundaries, primarily along linguistic lines. In fact, Andhra was the first state to be carved out from the erstwhile Madras Presidency. An additional recommendation of the committee was the disintegration of the Hyderabad state and merger of its Marathi speaking regions with Bombay state and the Kannada speaking regions with Mysore state. The proposal for amalgamation of the Telugu speaking Telangana region within Andhra state also came up in 1953 and Burgula Ramakrishna Rao supported the Congress central leadership’s decision in this regard though there was opposition in Telangana, since the general opinion was that the people of Telangana would suffer from the merger and resources and opportunities would not be equally distributed.
On 25 November, 1955 a resolution was passed in the Andhra assembly accepting the merger proposal and promising to safeguard the interests of Telangana. Telangana leaders and their Andhraite counterparts led by Bezawada Gopala Reddy and Burgula Ramakrishna Rao signed a gentlemen’s agreement in 1956 to merge Telangana and Andhra with promises to safeguard Telangana’s interests. Eventually, Telugu-speaking regions of the state of Hyderabad were merged with Andhra under the States Reorganization Act, giving birth to the full fledged state of Andhra Pradesh on 1 November, 1956. The city of Hyderabad was made the capital of the new state.
However, unrest kept brewing in the Telangana region owing to the perceptible failure of the government to effectively implement the terms of the gentlemen’s agreement and other safeguards, erupting in a statewise agitation in 1969. Marri Channa Reddy, a prominent politician from Andhra Pradesh, became one of the founding members of a youth movement called the Telangana Praja Samiti (TPS) that same year. The TPS espoused the cause of a separate state of Telangana and was able to mobilize enormous youth support for the agitation, which intensified and turned violent with students at the forefront of the struggle. Several rounds of talks with leaders of the two regions later, the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi came up with an eight-point plan to control the volatile situation on 12 April, 1969. According to the plan committees were to be set up to determine financial surplus allocation to the region (Telangana), to facilitate develop-mental efforts, to ensure that plans are implemented judiciously and to address grievances amongst other things. The plan came to naught as the Telangana leaders deemed it inadequate and continued their protests under the aegis of TPS. Concurrently, a parallel movement began in the Andhra-Rayalseema regions as an answer to the Telangana struggle.
As a result of the growing disquiet in the state, a settlement was reached between the centre and the state on 21 September, 1973. It pushed for the implementation of a 6-point formula to placate the uneasy populace of the two regions. The terms of the formula were as such, adequate preference was to be given to local candidates in the matter of admission to educational institutions; accelerated development of backward areas of the state had to be strived for by representation in legislature; and fair allocation of resources had to be ensured. This too, however, failed to pacify the people as in 1985, employees from Telangana region again cried foul over appointments in government departments and complained about injustice done to people of the region. The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), headed by NT Rama Rao responded to the situation by bringing out a Government Order to safeguard the interests of Telangana people in government jobs.
Finally, in 1999, the Indian National Congress demanded the creation of a separate Telangana state. It is alleged, however, that the party did so primarily because it was smarting from the crushing defeats handed to it by the unassailable TDP in successive state assembly elections and needed an issue to win back the mandate of the people. Indeed, the Working Committee of the Congress sent a resolution to the central NDA government at the time asking for the constitution of a second States Reorganization Committee to look into the new state demand, which was rejected. Another important development of the time was the secession of Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao from the TDP, which was against the formation of the new state, to launch his own Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in April 2001. It was the TRS that gradually started spearheading the movement for the creation of a separate state. Its important position in state and regional politics was further bolstered when the Congress forged an electoral alliance with it by promising to create Telangana. The Congress came back to power with a thumping majority in 2004, both in the state and at the Centre, and TRS became part of the coalition governments at both places. However, after waiting for two years for some concrete steps to be taken towards the creation of Telangana, the TRS quit the coalition governments in the state and at the Centre in December 2006 and continued an independent fight. Interestingly, in the wake of growing demands for Telangana, the TDP changed its stance and declared support for bifurcation of the state in 2008.
On 29 November, 2009 the TRS organized an indefinite hunger strike demanding the creation of Telangana. The Centre came out with an announcement on 9 December, 2009 that it was ‘initiating the process for formation of Telangana state’. On 23 December, 2009, however, it was announced again that the Telangana issue has been put on hold. This fanned protests across Telangana with some students ending their lives. The Centre then hurriedly constituted a fivemember committee on 3 February, 2010, headed by former judge Srikrishna, to look into the demand for statehood. The committee submitted its report to the Centre on 30 December, 2010, recommending status quo. Telagana region witnessed a series of agitations such as the Million March, Chalo Assembly and Sakalajanula Samme (general strike) over the next two years.
With Congress MPs from Telangana upping the ante by quitting the house, the Union Home Ministry convened an allparty meeting on 28 December, 2012 to find an “amicable solution” to the crisis.
On 30 July 2013, the Congress Working Committee unanimously passed a resolution to recommend the formation of a separate Telangana state. After various stages the State Reorganization Bill was placed in the Parliament in February 2014 where it was passed, leading to the formation of Telangana state comprising 10 districts from north-western Andhra Pradesh. .
Telangana state was officially formed on 2 June 2014. Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao was elected as the first chief minister in the State Assembly elections held in April 2014. Hyderabad will remain as the joint capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a period of 10 years.