Students and Telangana agitation

The apathy of the then Chief Minister towards Gentlemen's Agreement irked young pupils.

Hyderabad:  This article is in continuation to the last article focusing on the Jai Telangana Movement (1969-70), which is one of the important topics for the government recruitment examinations.

The Osmania University Vice-Chancellor, DS Reddy, appealed to the students to call off the strike and attend classes. But the Students Action Committee declared that the protest would not end unless and until Telangana became a separate State.

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The separatist group organised a big procession on January 18 from Nizam College under the leadership of Mallikarjun and Dr. M Sridhar Reddy. As the procession was leading towards Koti, another procession of safeguards supporters crisscrossed them near Abids centre and there was a verbal quarrel between these two groups. The police taking advantage of the feud ordered for lathi-charge and used tear gas shells to disperse the agitators. Many students were injured in the incident. That was the first lathi-charge that occurred during the 1969 Jai Telangana Movement.

On the same day, the Telangana employees held a meeting in Hyderabad and demanded for immediate repatriation of 6,000 non-mulkis to the Andhra region, if not, they declared that they would resort to direct action. Added to these developments, five opposition parties (Janasangh, Majlis, Socialist, CPI and CPM) gave a statement that they would also join hands with the students’ struggle for the implementation of the Gentlemen’s Agreement if the Chief Minister didn’t take initiative.

The movement flared up. A group of students in Shamshabad situated in the outskirts of Hyderabad city tried to attack the railway station on January 20 and the police fired at them. That was the first police firing during the 1969 Telangana Movement. Enraged because of the police firing on the 20th, the students held a meeting on January 21 in Nizam College to condemn the action of the police. It was estimated that as many as 2,000 students attended the meeting. The students’ mob mainly targeted the police. Again there was lathi-charge and teargas shells were set off. Around 34 student leaders, including Mallikarjun and Sridhar Reddy, were taken into custody by police.

Students took out a procession on January 24 in Sadasivapet, a small town in Medak district. Police fired at the huge body of the procession causing severe injuries to 14 people. All were admitted to Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad. The next day, one Shankar succumbed to injuries and he was the first martyr in the 1969 Telangana Movement. His funeral was attended by 3,000 people.

Relay hunger strikes, rallies and boycott of schools and colleges were continuing all over Telangana. The Student Action Committee decided to hold a Telangana Convention in the first week of March on a large scale. In order to make it a grand success, a team of 35 student leaders was formed to tour all the Telangana districts extensively from January 28. As they began their journey, an incident that took place in Nalgonda town made those living in Andhra districts start counter agitation.

They attacked the trains coming to Telangana districts. They demanded that the State capital should be shifted to the Andhra area from Hyderabad. This created a problem and a group of students took out a rally with a reverberating “Andhra Go Back” slogan in Nagarjuna Sagar. Police opened fire on the students gathering and a student was killed.

To be continued…