The different opinions of SRC

Hyderabad: This article is in continuation to the last article on the recommendations of the States Re-Organisation Commission. Overall recommendations of the SRC: The SRC opined that it is neither possible nor desirable to confine one language to one state or form a single state for one language. Therefore, it recommended the formation of unilingual, […]

Hyderabad: This article is in continuation to the last article on the recommendations of the States Re-Organisation Commission.

Overall recommendations of the SRC:

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The SRC opined that it is neither possible nor desirable to confine one language to one state or form a single state for one language. Therefore, it recommended the formation of unilingual, bi-lingual and multilingual states. The SRC gave more preference to the unity and integrity of the nation and administrative convenience was recommending the formation of states in India. Third criterion was language. It recommended the formation of 16 states including Hyderabad state. The recommendations of SRC were implemented in the form of the States Re-organisation Act 1956 with minor changes. However, only 14 states were created under the Act and the left out states were Hyderabad and Vidarbha.

Ambedkar severely criticised the fact that the SRC did not take into consideration the size of states in terms of population and geographical territory while proposing 16 states. This resulted in the formation of large states in the North and gradual decline in the size of the states towards the South. According to Ambedkar, this in future will lead to major differences between the North and South and finally result in a horizontal divide of the country into North-India and South-India.

Reasons for people of Telangana opposing the formation of Vishalaandhra

1. Migration of Andhra people to Telangana region started from 1920. The migrations were to those places in Telangana where there were adequate irrigation facilities as the intention behind the migration was to do agriculture. Initially, they started off as tenant farmers, gradually purchased lands and established their own colonies in the villages like Kammagudem, Guntur Gudem, ReddyGudem and so on in order to preserve their own identity. The migrant Andhra people considered the local language and culture uncivilised and therefore demarcated areas within the villages they settled in order to avoid mingling with the locals. Over a period of time, they gained political influence with their money and also started dominating in the cultural sphere. This was considered as an insult to their self-respect by Telangana people and led to the opposition of the idea of Vishalaandhra as there was a fear of complete loss of identity if Vishalaandhra was formed.

2. During the Vandemataram movement that took place in 1938 in Osmania University (OU), almost 350 students of Hostel B were rusticated from the University for defying the government orders and singing Vandemataram. The rusticated students first approached the Andhra University for admissions to continue their studies. The Vice Chancellor of Andhra University refused admissions as the University was getting donations from the Nizam. Later, the students approached Nagpur University for admissions. The OU officials wrote to the University Board not to grant admission to these students, but a defiant Vice-Chancellor of Nagpur University, TJ Kedar, agreed to give admission to all the students. This experience was used by the Telangana people to counter the propagation of language based unity by the people of Andhra to convince Telangana people on formation of Vishalaandhra.

3. The atrocities of the Razakars during 1948 caused many people of Telangana to migrate to neighboring states such as Mysore, Bombay and Andhra region in Madras state. The people who migrated to other states were treated well as the locals were empathetic towards their situation whereas the people of Andhra region took it as a business opportunity and collected money for giving shelter and food. This experience created an impression that people of Andhra valued money more than relationships.

4. The incidents between 1948 to 1952 – removal of Muslims from service by the Military government post police action, mass migration of people from Andhra to Telangana, majority of jobs occupied by people from Andhra, raising levels of corruption in Telangana because of the fake Mulki certificates obtained by Andhra people for jobs – left an everlasting impression of people of Andhra as selfish and manipulative in the minds of the people of Telangana resulting in them strongly opposing Vishalaandhra.

 To be continued…

By Deepika Reddy

Director, Shikara Academy

Mobile No. 7702026769