The Independent India is a Union of 29 States and 7 Union Territories (UT), Telangana being the latest to be added in February 2014. The Parliament bifurcated Andhra Pradesh and created a separate state of Telangana, with possibility of more states being carved out in the name of providing efficient administration! In October 1953, India’s first linguistic state, Andhra, came into being.
In November 1956, Parliament formed the unified Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh, by merging Andhra and the Telugu-speaking areas of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s erstwhile empire. These areas were known as Telangana, states Jairam Ramesh in his latest book “Old History New Geography: Bifurcating Andhra Pradesh”.
Ramesh played a key role in carving out Telangana as a Union Minister in the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh of Congress. Both, the then ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, joined hands to create Telangana.
The Madras Presidency under the British covered the areas of present day Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and part of Odisha, Kerala, Karnataka and Union Territory of Lakshadweep. Even the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was part of Madras Presidency from 1793 to 1798 when it was created a Crown colony.
Madras (Chennai as renamed in 1996 by M Karunanidhi government) was the capital city. All the linguistic group, Tamils, Telugus, Kannadigas, Malayalees, etc., lived together in the Madras Presidency and prospered.
In 1639, the English East India Company purchased the village of Madraspatnam from Raja Venkatappa Nayak, a local Telugu chieftain, and one year later it established the Agency of Fort St George.
As early as 1912, Telugu leaders and newspapers started to complain that the ‘progress of Dravidians overshadowed’ that of the Andhras (Telugu speaking) and the creation of a separate province would ‘cure this handicap’. However, they did not step up the demand immediately, but wanted to do so only after independence. Until then, they decided to keep the issue alive. In the initial years, the status of Madras city was not a central issue. The situation changed in the 1940s. An intriguing tale in November 1941 brought the city of Madras to centre stage. Congress leader Tuguturi Prakasam, who later became the first Chief Minister of Andhra state, disclosed at Vishakhapatnam that Lord Erskine, the Madras Governor, had suggested that both provinces, Andhra and Madras, be located in the city and everyone, including the Tamil Ministers, agreed to this idea.
The city of Madras was to be divided into North Madras and South Madras with river Couum as the boundaries, making North Madras the capital of Andhra and South Madras the capital of Madras state of Tamils. Prakasam then alleged that an ‘evil genius in the cabinet’ poisoned Erskine’s mind later and made him write a letter to the Secretary of State against the move. Prakasam refused to divulge the name of the ‘evil genius’ but told the gathering that Erskine cautioned the British government that ‘blood would flow in the streets of Madras’ if Andhra was formed, Jayagopal Kannan records.
On 16 June 1948, the President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad, appointed a commission under the chairmanship of a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, S K Dar, to examine and report on the formation of the new provinces of Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. The Dar Commission submitted its report on December 18, on the eve of the Jaipur session of the Indian National Congress. The report was strongly against linguistic considerations as the view was echoed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad and Rajaji, all the key persons in the Constituent Assembly. Hence a three-member committee was set up by Jaipur session. Jawaharlal, Vallabhbhai and Pattabhi Sitaramayya were the members. It was called JVP committee, after the first letter of the name of the three members.
Meanwhile Dr B R Ambedkar came out with his book in support of the linguistic states. Nehru personally wrote the JVP Committee report in the last days of March 1949. It was a comprehensive assessment and once again, while not advocating large-scale linguistic reorganisation, made a special mention of formation of Andhra minus the city of Madras. With Nehru and Patel involved, many thought the JVP report would be accepted. On the contrary, the fight over Madras escalated.
Meanwhile Sardar Patel died. Rajaji was Home Minister of India between December 1950 and November 1951. Nehru and Rajaji continued to differ on the formation of Andhra. Since PM Nehru was keen on early formation, CM Rajaji insisted on postponement. Making matter worse, an energetic follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Potti Sriramulu, announced a fast-unto-death in Madras city on October 19, 1952, for meeting two demands: carving out an Andhra state from the state of Madras comprising its Telugu-speaking areas and making Madras city the joint capital of the two states.
Despite efforts to make him give up the fast, the Telugu Gandhian was adamant. Rajaji was feeling hurt, he even insulted Telugu leaders and proclaimed no compromise. Rajaji was not prepared to have even the temporary capital of Andhra in Madras. After 51 days, Sriramulu died on December 15, 1952, at Sri Bagh which later became his memorial. His death sparked violent protests across Telugu-speaking areas of the Presidency. Nehru appealed for calm and assured people that the issue would be settled soon. The Government of India conveyed Rajaji on March 20, 1953, the decision of the Cabinet on the formation of Andhra state, including the fact that “most of the offices of the Andhra state should continue to be located in the city of Madras till arrangements are made for their transfer to the Andhra territory”.
India’s first state to be created on a linguistic basis, namely Andhra state, came into being on October 1, 1953.The new state came into being with Kurnool in Rayalaseema as its capital and with the High Court at Guntur in the coastal region. Nehru addressed a public meeting in Kurnool on October 1, 1953, but he was at pains to explain this was not going to be about the linguistic division of India, something that was unacceptable to him as well as to Rajaji, who considered linguistic provinces to be a “tribal idea”, records Jairam Ramesh in his book. Nehru made a statement in the Lok Sabha on December 23, 1953, announcing the appointment of a States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) under the chairmanship of Justice S Fazl Ali with H N Kunzru and K M Pannikar as members. The Commission submitted its report on September 30, 1955, which led to open floodgates for more linguistic states in India.
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(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected])
