All about the peasant movement of Telangana

Hyderabad: This new series of articles will focus on Telangana armed struggle, which is one of the important topics in preparation for the State government recruitment examinations. Introduction The contradictions existing within the socio-economic structures of India had contributed to the birth of several peasant movements in different parts of the country. The Telangana Peasants […]

Hyderabad: This new series of articles will focus on Telangana armed struggle, which is one of the important topics in preparation for the State government recruitment examinations.

Introduction

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The contradictions existing within the socio-economic structures of India had contributed to the birth of several peasant movements in different parts of the country. The Telangana Peasants Armed Struggle which was led by the communists was the first independent trend in the history of Indian Communist movement.

The peasant armed movement took place between 1946 and 1951 in the Telangana region of the former princely State of Hyderabad. It was a multilingual State of three linguistic areas namely Telangana (eight districts), Marathwada (five districts) and Karnataka (three districts). The Telangana region comprised almost half the area of the State.

The seeds of formation of Hyderabad communist party in 1940 lay in the propagation of peasant and other problems in an organized manner led by, first, the Nizam Andhra Jana Sangham and later by Nizam Andhra Maha Sabha through their publications such as Vettichakiri, Nazarana, Varthakasangham, etc., and their Ryot Sanghams. But as the responsibility for these problems lies with the ruling elite the Mahasabha had focused its attention on political affairs too from its 1937 session. Immediately the Mahasabha, hence, was not permitted to hold sessions by the Nizam’s government. But, during the next year i.e. in 1938, the Hyderabad State Congress was formed and observed Satyagraha against the Nizam’s government ban on it before its inception for obtaining responsible government.

Together with Arya Samaj and Hindu Civil Liberties Union, the workers of Andhra Mahasabha like Ravi Narayana Reddy participated in the Satyagraha in October, 1938. But the real impetus for the Hyderabad communist party came from the Vande Mataram movement of the Hindu students of Osmania University in November, 1938.

A historic armed struggle was waged during 1946-51 by the people of Telangana, in the erstwhile part of the biggest princely State of India i.e. Hyderabad State. Initially, the struggle started as sporadic skirmishes by artisans and lower classes against a form of forced labour locally called vetti. At a later stage it was joined by peasant masses who greatly suffered due to the arbitrary and oppressive practices of feudal elements and the landed gentry. Finally, the movement was transformed into a Peoples’ Armed Insurrection against the autocratic regime of the Nizam. The armed struggle, at its climax, turned into a ‘Liberation Struggle’ against the union government and petered off subsequent to the ushering in of a new constitution and democratic elections.

Socio-economic conditions in Telangana

The State of Hyderabad was ruled by the Nizam from 1724 onwards. However the nature of socio-economic structures can be better understood by the dominant structure in relation to caste system and power relationship in Telangana society. The contradiction between peasants and landlords had become very sharp in Telangana in the early 1940s itself. On the eve of the peasant struggle, Telangana consisted of three types of tenurial systems. They were Diwani or Khalsa, Jagirs and Sarf-e-Khas which explains the class contradictions in the Hyderabad state.

Diwani constituted 60 per cent of agricultural land in the Nizam’s dominions. In this system, it was the State which collected land revenue from peasant-cultivators who were known as Pattedars and the Patteder retained rights over the Patta land in his name as long as he paid revenue. Jagirs constituted 30 per cent of land and there were estates granted to the nobles for their loyalty and services and to the ex-military personnel in lieu of their salaries.

To be continued…

Prof. Adapa Satyanarayana
Retired Professor

Department of History, Osmania University

Ph. 9573405551