CHAPTER -III

NATURE OF POLITICAL STRUCTURE

In this chapter firstly, the nature of the state,

both in its institutional-structural and ideological

dimensions, is analysed; secondly, the broad contours

of political and social articulation prior to Telangana

movement are examined; thirdly, nature and logic of

development of political processes prior to Telangana

struggle, in its various dimensions is inquired into.

The social base of Nizam• s State, as discussed

earlier, consisted of the feudal agrarian structure

that was made up of the j agirdars and deshmukhs who

thrived on the all-pervasive and obnoxious feudal

exactions like vetti, mamuls, dandugalu and rack-renting.

If its support structure was the feudal classes in

the countryside, then its institutional structures

were throughly autocratic and fashioned to safeguard

the dynastic rule of the Asaf Jahis, with hardly any

mechanism of accountability an<?- semblance of responsi­

bility towards the ruled; and the ideological content

of Nizam' s state was reactionary to the core -and

consisted of the Muslim communalism, which was ingrained

into the body polity, systematically injected into the

civil society and was evident in almost every aspect

of everyday lifeo·

115

COMMUNAL CliARAcrER OF THE STATE

The Salar Jung administrative reforms can be

taken as a point of departure to examine the adrninis-

trative institutional sttucture of the Nizam• s state,

for these reforms despite their good intentions syste-

matized and formalized, what can be described as the

"loosely structured patron-client relationships 11 ,1 in

vogue earlier. The process of systematization of the

state institutional structures broadened the scope of

the state activities, on the one hand, and gave it a

distinctly communal character, both institutionally and

ideologically, on the other. It is because of this,

Salar Jung reforms can be taken as the beginning of a

new phase in the administrative history of Hyderabad

as much as it opened a new chapter in the agrarian

history of the state by consolidating the agrarian

class base of the regime.

The administrative reforms introduced by Sir

Salar Jung in 1853 were experimented with minor changes

during his Diwanship and later. But the essential

features of the reforms can be said to have remained

- - - - - - - ~ - -- -1. Karen Leonard, 'Tne Hyderabad Political System and

its participants • Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.XXX No.3, May 1971• p. 5~1.

--~G 1 1

in tact. They were mainly: (a) the institutionalisation

of revenue functions, (b) the centralisation of authority

in the taluqdars at the district level, and (c) the

concentration of administrative control in the Diwan. 1

117

A bo:and: of revenue consisting of a president and

four members was constituted to bring about the necessary

administrative changes to implement the revenue reforms.

Taking district as a properly constituted revenue adminis-

trative unit, zilabandi was organised. Corresponding to

the enlargement of diwani revenue area, following the

reforms for the regularisation of land revenue, the

district boundaries were reconstituted. 2 To collect the

revenue and to head the district administration,

taluqdars were appointed with clearly defined functions

and powers in civil, criminal and revenue matters.

Dispensing with the earlier practice of paying a

proportion of revenue collection, the taluqdars were

appointed as salaried employees and were made liable

to be transferred like any other govemment employee .

Along with the taluqdars, superintendents of police,

educational and medical officers were appointed in

the districts. Treasuries were set up to regulate

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. for details, see, V.K.Bawa, The Nizam between Mogbuls

and British Hyderabad under Salar Jung I, s. Chand & Co., Ramnagar, New Delhi, .1986 1 Chapter-III 'Reconstru­cting the Administrative Machine' p.56-!7o

2. V .K. Bawa, ~·

the district finances. A large segment of subordinate

staff was appointed to man the administration and was

paid out of the government exchequer. An elaborate

administrative machinery, thus came into existence

with the execution of the Salar Jung refonns, the spirit

of which can be said to have lasted till the last days

of the Nizam, although changes in the context of power

relations 1 had correspondingly necessitated marginal

changes in form and nomenclature of the institutions.

The Executive Council (Babe Hukumat) was, theore­

tically, the highest decision-making body of the Nizam's

2 state. Based on the principle of collective responsibi-

+ity, it was constituted to 'aid and advice' the Nizam

in the decision-making and to look after the actual ad-

ministration of state affairs. Consisting of seven

members in all the Executive Council was a replica of

the support structure of the state, with three of its

members being the biggest paigh jagirdars, and others

belonging to the nobility and Nizam's family, and all

of them being nominated by the Nizam. To top it, most

../ of them were Muslims and this left hardly any semblance

of 'representativeness' about it. Added to it operating

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Carolyn M. Elliot, "Decline of Patriomonial Regime:

The Telangana Rebellipn in India, 1946-51" Journal of Asian Studies, 34(1), 1974, p.31.

2. Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Telanganalo Andhrodhyamam Vol.I, Andhra Chandrika Grandhamala, Hyderabad, 1949, pp. 49, :. . ; and, Ravi Narayan Reddy, Telangana: Naa Anubhavalu-Gnapakalu, Vishalandhra Publishing Vijayawada, 1972, p. 11.

iJS

as it did in the specific context of feudal Hyderabad

and constituted specifically to look after the interest.s

of the Nizam, the Executive council could hardly be said

to have lived upto the purpose for which it was set up.

i 1 9

In otherwords, in practice it was a handiwork of the Nizam

divested of all the powers it was supposed to possess.

It was the Nizam being under the supervision of the

British residency, who ruled the dominions through the

firmans (royal decrees) issued from time to time on the

matters concerning almost every aspect of administration.

Thus, whall: characterised the Nizam' s rule in all its

aspects was a.rbitrariness of law, with nothing definite

and objective about the rules of governance. Law was the

subjective pronouncement of the Nizam, made in the form

of firmans. ~he council was thus reduced to a mere

decorative piece. To be precise, it was a firman·· raj.

If the Executive council, the highest administra­

tive structure was characterised by the preponderance

-.1 of Muslims, the lower echelons of bureaucracy, civil,

police and judicial, were no exception. Restructured

in an elaborate fashion under the reforms of 1850s,

the governmental sector, by 1920s, formed a massive

institutional structure providing employment opportu­

nities. It is worth examining it to perceive the

communal preferences of the state. As much as 77.11

../

per cent of civil bureaucracy was muslim by religion,

while their share in the total populJtion of the state

was less than 12 per cent. On the other hand, while

Hindus constituted 88 per cent of total population,

they held only 20.3 per cent of civil bureaucratic

posts. If the under-representation of Hindus vis-~-lli

Muslims in Public Administration was due to a

deliberate communal policy, then Hindu representation

in liberal professions (like law, medicine and teaching)

was no better; while Muslim representation in it was

49 per cent, in the case of Hindus, it was only 44.8

1 per cent. This therefore has to be seen in the context

of massive illiteracy among the Hindus.

The fairly well expanded state bureaucratic

structure and the massive employment potential it

had, and the grotesque under-representation of Hindus

in it led to the concentration of the wrath of the

liberal Hindu intelligentsia who were beginning to

sprout and gravitate around the liberal secular and

religious organisations that emerged in the Hyderabad

State at the beginning of this century inspired by the

nationalist movement in the British India. Thus the

fact of communal nature of governmental employment

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Census of India, Hydera.bad, 1931, Vol. 23, Part.II,

p. 185.

became the target of criticism by these

organisations. But the question of Hindu under-

absorption was related to the larger question of

...; their cultural and educational backwardness.

Communal Nature of Language and Education Question

It was perhaps in the 1 anguage policy, more than

in anything else that the Nizam's communal bias was

conspicuously evident. It was the communal language

policy in particular

that was determinate of the general backwardness of

the Hindu majority.

In the Hyderabad state, according to 1931 census,

88 per cent of the population was non-Urdu speaking,

while a minority 12 per cent had U.rdu as their mother-

tongue. Of the non-Urdu population, Telugus constituted

48 per cent followed by 26 per cent Marathis and 11 per

cent KannadiSas. 1

Ir{spite of the composite language situation, and

against the majority aspirations of such a diversified

1. Ibid., pp. 206-7.

l2i

linguistic populations, the minority language of Urdu

was not only encouraged by being assigned the status

of official language to IUn the administration but also

introduced or rather thiUst forcibly upon the majority

Hindus by being made compulsory as a medium of instr:u-

ction at all levels-from primary school upto university

education- in the government run schools and colleges.

The most atrocious impact of the language policy was at

the primary level, where children with mother-tongue

other than Urdu were forced to learn their nursery rhyrns

in an alien language. As language is culture-specific,

it psychologically created a sense of inferiority complex

and lack of confidence among the Hindu children. The

result of it was an unhealthy socialisation of the

children.

The establishment of the Osmania University in

1918 is often seen as a progressive step towards the

improvement of educational situation in the state. 1 But

in practice, given the overall repressive, anti-democratic

and communal education policy the establishment of the

university only further precipitated communal propensties

in the Nizam•s education policy and led to a general

- - - - - - - - .- - - - - - - -1. For a statement on .. the objectives of establ.ishment

of· Osmania University, Ibid, p. 216-20.

~ r ? lt. ..

-./

disillusionment of the Hindu masses. Only those insti­

tutions which had Urdu as the medium of instruction

were recognised and granted affiliation to it. A number

of private.schools and colleges that were opened during

1920's and 30's by public-spirited individuals being ·

inspired by ~he cultural upsurge brought about by the

nationalist movement in the North, were either obstructed

and nipped in the bud or eventually refused recognition

and affiliation to the Osmania University. For instance,

the Narayanaguda Girls High School in Hyderabad, which

was a Telugu medium school, having been denied recogni­

tion had to seek affiliation with Karve Women's

University in Poona. Thus reduced to.the status of a

minority institution, despite tall claims of promoting

education and Urdu language, the Osmania came to be

seen increasingly as a 11political conspiracy11 to suppress

tne Telugu, Marathi and Kannada languages of the

people and to produce clerks for administration.

In the traditional Hindu schooling system, known

as Patashala system, the schools in towns and rural

areas used to be operated by educated individuals .on

a non-institutional basis. Given the rigidity of caste

system, they used to be either from Brahmin or Satani,

the traditional literate castes of Telangana. They used

to impart the traditional wisdom contai,ned in the Sanskrit

slokas, Telugu shatakas (like Vemana, Sumati,etc.,) and

moral parables (eg., the Panchatantra) after initiating

the child to the alphabets of Telugu language through the

traditionally accepted text, namely, Pedabalashiksha.

Given the political and administrative significance

of Urdu language, the children of well-to-do-upper caste

families used to be sent to madrasas run by muslim

1 . 1 mau v~s.

Though these informal school systems did not enjoy

any state patronage, they were, of necessity, kept alive

by the needs of the landed gentry and upper caste well-

to-do families. Needless to add that the artisan and

other lower caste peasant families were either incapable

of sending their children, or when they could or

willing to they were prevented from doing so. Thus

~ education was an exclusive privilege of the dominant

caste-classes. Most of the first generation of literates

in Telangana, who were from upper castes and landed gentry,

1. Mundumula Narsing Rao writes: "Urdu was sarkari language. This is the reason why Karnams, patels, deshmukhs in the villages used to consider it im­perative for their children to learn Urdu 11

• See, his Yaabhai Samvasths.arala Telanganam, Gnapakalu, Narsing Rao Smaraka Samithi, Hyderabad, 1977, p.S.

i25

were products of this infonnal system of schooling. 1 As

a consequence of this repressive cultural and educational

policy, the literacy in the state in general and that

among the Hindus in particular was very low. According

to 1921 census, the overall literacy rate for the Hyderabad

state was 3.25 per cent, the male literacy was 5.7 per

cent, and female literacy was 0.8 per cent. While among

the Muslims.the male literacy was around 14 per cent,

the female literacy was 3.5 per cent; among the Hindus,

the male literacy was 4.7 per cent and female literacy

2 0 • 4 per cent.

Communalisation of Civil Society - Ideology of the State

The pro-Urdu official language and educational

policy, and the preponderance of muslims in the state

employment are the empirical indicators of the quanti-

tative dimension of communalisation of state stiUcture

and policy. It is the qualitative ideological dimension

of communalisim built into civil society, we shall

turn our attention to in this section.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Ibid, Passim.

2. Census of India, Hyderabad, 1921, p. 173.

..; Communalism was the core of the ideological

formation in Nizam's state. It was reproduced and

perpetuated in almost all aspects of everyday social

life. To begin with, the educational institutions,

which are seen as the nucleus of socialisation, were

symp~tomatic of the macro-level ideological process in

the larger social formation. It is here that the child

is taught the first lessons on what it were to be the

loyal subject of the Nizam. For instance, singing of

the prayer addressing Allah to bless the Nizam with a

long life, that was compulsory in the educational

institutions served precisely this purpose. The students

were taught in the language of the rulers and socialised

in their culture to make them think and act in tune

with the ruling ideology.

The ruling class ideology had Muslim cultural

component both in form and content. The identification

with or imitation of Muslim mannerisms and habits was

considered to be a sign of 'being cultured'. It was more

evident in urban areas than in the villages. For instance

in Hyderabad, where 57 per cent were Hindus, the Muslim

culture was predominant. It was the same even with

12&

..;

smaller towns despite the prepondenance of Hindu

population. It was tirdu that was widely used both in

public and private interaction as a medium of communi­

cation. Urdu, as a matter of fact facilitated easy

communication in the multi-lingual Hyderabad State.

The literate Hindus, -like the Muslims, tended to dress

in the traditional muslim outfit of sherwani, pyjama

and romi top·i which were regarded as symbols of being

literate, cultured and urbane. For instance, it was a

compulsory uniform in the Osmania University. Though

they were not widely used, in the countryside, but on

special occasions like a visit to the city, honouring

a visiting dignitary to the village and in marriages,

the village elite used to put on the traditional muslim

dress and invariably terrled to_ speak Urdu in elite

gatherings. Alongwith the dress, mannerisms like greeting

the superiors - salaam - by bending almost on ones

knees and touching the palm to the chin, was considered

to be integral to the Hyderabad etiquette; any departure

from it was tantamount to showing disregard to the

elders and higher ups. Imitation of these formal

cultural components of a communal regime were commonly

accepted as rituals and uncritically adhered to until

they started being questioned in the 1930s during

Andhrodhyamam by nationalist-inspired Hindu leaders

l ~ /'

replacing them with Telugu language, dhoti, klthurta and

namaskar.

Along these cultural fads, the ideological

notion of Annal Malik ('every muslim is a ruler•) was

perpetuated and given wider currency. It sought to

justify the Hyderabad as a naturalised muslim state

and the Nizam as its divinely-ordained ruler among

the ordinary muslims for evoking their consent for

the regime.

To. serve the ideological function of the state

a number of 'private' organisations were created. Most

of them, being flouted by men of the ruling nobility,

operated in the garb of social service and cultural

organisations and attempted to spread the communal

message in the civil society. The spread of communalism

is generally seen as the consequence of the efforts

of cert·ain individuals and communal organisations. But

to view these efforts as individualistic is to see

them in isolation and thereby miss the crux of the

issue. 1

The communal is at ion of civil society, on the

- - - - - - - - ~ - - - -1. Traditionally marxists have worked with the concept

of ideology by making a distinction between State and civil society; the former being identified with the coersive apparatus and the latter with the rest of in­stitutions in society which serve the purpose of re­producing social relations. But, Althusser viewing ideology as integral to the State, clubs, both of them into the structure of State. Althusser hence observes a distinction between •coersive State Apparatus• and 'Ideological State Apparatuses•. See, Lquis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays, Monthly ReviewPress, New York, 1971, Chapter 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses', pp.127-186.

contrary, was integral to the Nizam's state policy as

much as to the communalisation of state structures and

educational system.

One of the earliest and most influential of such

organisations was the Anjuman Tabli Gulislam, 1 which

operated as a muslim cultural organisation. Though it

could not make any significant dent into the country-

side, it was quite influential in Hyderabad city and

other towns.

With the founding of the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul­

Musl ameen (MIM) in 19 26 by Nawab B ahadur Yar Jung,

a member of the royal scion, the socia.Jfand political

articulation in the state took an avowdly communal turn.

Functioning overtly as a muslim communal organisation,

MIM sought to spread the communal virus in the composite

civil society consciously and systematically, through the

Tableegh movement (the Islamic conversion). Supported

morally and materially by the Nizam and volunteered by

a section of muslim intelligentsia, the mullahs (muslim

priesthood) allying with and assisting it and the

state bureaucracy wholeheartedly rendering patronage,

the Naya Muslimeen, as Tableegh was known to the rural

- - - - - - - -.- - - - - - - - - - - - --1. Ravi Narayan Reddy, .op. cit., p. 21 o

.. ' ( 1...: .:1

folks, gathered momentum and made deep inroads into

the Telangana countryside. As part of the communal

campaign, the MIM also took up the programme of con-

structing mosques and dargas (tombs) after local pirs.

/ The Naya Muslimeen movement, despite its apparent

religious cover, played a significant politico-

ideological function of creating legitimacy to the

Nizarn•s rule ·in the political scenario unfolding in

the 1930s. Firstly, it drew the panchamas or Harijans

and other lower caste Hindus into the fold of Islam;

secondly, it legitimized the Nizam•s state as a Muslim

state. The first sought to swell the ranks of the

Muslims and enlarge the otherwise minority Muslim

constituency to counter the Hindu claim of being a

majority religious community and politically to create

legitimacy to the communally infected Nizam•s state.

The rigid hierarchical structure that Hindu society

essentially was (and is), and the internal principle

of purity and pollusion that governed the caste system

and more importantly its legitimizing role in the

subjugation of the Harijans and other lower castes to

the feudal oppression were the factors that contributed

to the success of the Naya Muslimeen movement. Equally

130

significant was the fact that the oppressed, being

promised certain material benefits~ were attracted

to it. Of course, coersion was not left unused.

Secondly, the MIM sought to naturalise the

Hyderabad as a muslim state and the Nizam as its

natural and divinely ordained ruler to draw in the

Muslim support for it by uniting them- who were

otherwise objectively unequal, economically, socially

and culturally with a wide gap between rich and

poor- on communal lines, through the ideology of

Annal Malik.

The Muslim communalisation was not an un-

chequered process. The oppressed lower caste classes

responded positively to the conversion movement finding

a respite in the conversions, as the new converts

to the 'religion of rulers' were spared from the

obligation of vetti. 1 Initially when the conversions

were still an individual phenomenon, the Hindu land-

lords extended cooperation and support by organising

mel as for this purpose, to curry the favour of the

Muslim rulers and local Muslim officials. But when the

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

A .-. ~

JJ1

1. In this context, itmay also be recollected that the Christian evangelistic missionaries that made inroads into the backward rural Telangana during the early decades of this centu"ry, tried to convert the lower castes to Christianity. Though the Christian missionaries could not 'take off' and thus their impact was limited; but, compared to the Islamic conversions, the missionary activity had greater impact on the

conversions, encouraged by the initial success, tended

to become a collective phenomenon and assumed the

dimension of a movement, the landlords began t.o per-

ceive its dangerous portents to their social domination

in the village microcosm. The Arya Samaj came handy as

a religious counterpart to the Ittehadul, to reconvert

them back into Hinduism.

The Arya Samaj, founded in 189 2 in the Hyderabad

state, was primarily a Hindu religious reform organisa-

tion. Its primary goal was the propagation of Vedic

religion. But in the specific socio-cultural environment

and the vacuous political space in the Hyder~)ad, it

came to assume a tremendous political significance by

gravitating the Hindu intelligentia into its :fold. During

social relations. The nature of the Christian missionary impact can be assessed from the £allowing song, still remembered and sung by the rutal people in certain parts:

Yesaiah vachindu lallayilo, vetti manpinchindu lallayilo.

(Jesus has come lallayilo, Put an end to the vetti lallayilo)

In 1901, the district of Nalgonda had 1212 native Christians drawn from lower castes, Imperial Gazetteer, Hyderabad State, Calcutta, 1909, p .153.

this period the socio-cultural situation in Hyderabad

has increasingly come to manifest as a Hindu-Huslim

../ contradiction. As a consequence, the Hindu-Huslim

question was seen as the crux of the state of affairs

and the Arya Samaj thus was looked upon both as the

salvager of Hindu subject masses and as the embodiment

of the Hindu aspirations.

It must be pointed out that in the early

decades of this century, the Arya Sarnaj was influen-

tial only in the urban centres of the state. But with

the establishment of the MIM and the growth of the

Tableeqh movement in the Telangana countryside, the

Arya Samaj found a new lease of life, as the Islamic

.conversions provided an alibi to it to enter the

rural Telangana. The significant factor in this

changing complex of socio-political situation, ironi-

cally enough, was that the MIM' s conversions campaigns

flared up contradictions of a spurious kind that proved

to be detrimental to its rural support base itself.

The deshmukh landlords and village officials- patwaris

and patels- saw in the religious conversions a challenge

to their domination- as the converts to Islam, given

their newly acquired status could not be forced to submit

to the feudal authority. It was this socio-economic

consequence of the Tableegh that became the eyesore

of the landlords and made them rally around the

Arya Samaj •1

Thus under the patronage of the affected

landed gentry, of course_ on/the_, sly, the Arya Samaj

took an extensive shuddi (p~i fication) programme in

the countryside. Apparently, the aversion to the

Muslim communalising efforts of the Ittehadul, had

driven the Hindu intelligentia including the liberals,

into the fold of the Arya S amaj, thereby rendering

it a progressive reformist image. It is evident in the

fact that most of the activid.:.s of Andhra Maha Sabha

and the corrununists, in the beginning of their career

were connected to the Arya Samaj either directly or

·indirectly. 2 However, given the logic and force of the

circumstances of its entry and the domination- subordi-

nation dialectic in the countryside, the Arya Samaj

only helped in restoring the status ~ ~ with

respect to the landlords' supremacy to continue an

unabatted exploitation of the social labour.

- - - - - - - - - - - -1. Later, the landlords in Nalgonda, under the leader­

ship of the vishnur deshmukh, Rapaka Ramachandra Reddy, floated an organisation called the 'Hindu Samithi' to stall the Islamic conversions. See, A.R.Reddy, Telanqana Porata Smrithulu, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Vijayawada, 1981, p.20.

2. A.R. Reddy, Ibid, p.23; cf. Mundumula Narsing Rao, op • cit • , pas Siiii":'

The social articulation in Hyderabad by early

1930s, became mainly if not exclusively communal with

the MIM initiating Muslim communalism and the Arya

Samaj, as a counterpoint, in its turn spreading Hindu

communalism. In social and political terms, it brought

about a clear cleavage or polarisation in the civil

society: an influential segment of Muslim intelligentia

supporting the MIM alongwith the mullahs and the state

bureaucracy.actively siding with and patronising it,

on the one side; and, the Arya Samaj actively supported

by the urban Hindu intelligentsi.a and landlords on the

other.

It was this rift between the two major religious

communities brought about by the communal social articu-

lation that has crystalised the communalised social

identities in the civil society, on the one hand, and

drove the state increasingly into the ambit of

communalism, on the other. As a consequence the state

consciously assumed a communal character by orienting

itself on communal lines. All this added to the

crystalisation of communal character of state in the

popular consciousness, effecting in a contradictory

-f::~~hinn it-~ 1<=>rririm::~f"'v ~mono ~nd consent to it bv

~ r ....

1JJ

by the two major religious communities. While the state

gained increasing legitimacy among the ordinary Muslims

with the ideology of Annal Malik, 1 its legitimacy among

the Hindus began to erode gradually but perceptively

thereby resulted in the narrowing down of its popular

base. Thus, the state became both cause and effect of

communal polarisation in the civil society.

1 ANDHRODYA.MA1.'1' IN TELANGANA

Although the princely states in India came under

the suzerainty of the British but they largely remained

aloof from the political developments in the British

India. Hyderabad the largest among the princely states

was no exception to the general prevalence of political

stagnation in the native states. But the First World

War gave a jolt to the eomplacent native .rulers• ~

The first-ever all-India movement that produced

vibrations in the political back waters of princely

1:16

. Hyderabad was the Khilafat. The Khilafat movement gaining

momentum during 1919-20 in the Northern India against

1. On a visit to Hyderabad in 1939, Sheikh Abdullah, expressed shock at the influence of the notion on the ordinary Muslims of Hyderabad in general and of Kolanupaka, a jagir village in Nalgonda in particular. see, K. Seshadri, 'A.look into the Peasant Struggles in Andhra Pradesh' in K.N.Pannikar (ed.) ., National and ~eft Movements in India, Vikas, New Delhi, 1980, p. 152.

the British attempts at thrusting upon the Turkish

Sultan-Calipha a peace treaty forcefully after the

latter's defeat in the First World War (according to

which Turkey was deprieved of the predominantly Turkish

Asia Minor and Thrace, COJ?trary to the pre-war promises

of the British), united the Hindus with the Muslims

transcending the narrow religious confines of the

'extremist' phase of Indian nationalism. Quite signi-

ficantly, echos of the nation-wide anti-British Khalifat

were heard in the Hyderabad as well. As a result, a

Khilafat Committee was formed in 1920 consisting of

both Muslim and Hindu leaders. Organised under the

s9cretariship of Mohamed Asghar, a Hyderabad lawyer,

it had Asgari Hasan, Maulana Syed Abdul Hai, Pandit

Keshav Rao, Vaman Naik of Vivek Vardhini and Pandit

Keshav Rao of Arya Samaj as its members. The Khilafat

Committee organised largely attended meetings at

Vivek Vardhini school to stir the conscience of lawyers,

middle class professionals, students and youth of

both the communities. A hartal was organised on its

call in Hyderabad on 19th March, 19 20. 1 The movement

further went beyond the central issue and demanded

the ban on cow slaughter therfy pressuring the Nizam

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. S.M. Jawad Razvi, Political Awakening in Hyderabad,

Role of Youth and Students, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Hyderabad, 1985, p.12.

1:17

./

to issue a firman to that effect. Thus, the Khilafat

movement came to signify the Hindu-Muslim unity in the

Hyderabad state.

The Nizam, the 'Faithfully Ally' of the British

reacted by suppressing the movement: restrictions were

imposed on the meetings, the leaders were ·arrested,

non-citizens among the activists were banished from

Hyderabad and the youth activists were deported to the

'Mannanur• camp. 1 On September 9, 1921,the Nizam issued

a firman banning the political meetings from being held

without the prior permission of the governmento

With •politics• and political movement being

practically pre-empted following the firman of 1921,

the social articulation in Hyderabad took the form of

cultural and social reforms, with no explicit political

character. The Andhrodyamam in Telangana took such a

cultural form. Its origin can be traced to the formation

of the 1 Nizam Rashtra Andhra Jana Sangam• (Nizam State

Andhra Peoples' Association) in November 1921 with

prominent Telugus in Hyderabad like R. Raja Gopala

Reddi, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Mundumula Narsing Rao,

1. Mannanur, located in AmO.rabad hills between Hyderabad and Srisailam, was known as the 1 Andaman of Hyderabad• during the Nizam•s ruae, for the political dissidents used to be deported to this camp. See, Mundumula Narsing Rao, op.cit., pp. 61-76; Razvi, op.cit., P• 13.

Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy and Adi Raju Veerabhadra. Rao

as the founding members. 1 It was rechristined as 1 Nizam

Rastra Andhra Jana Kendra Sangam• in 1923. 2

The 'Nizam Rastra Andhra Jana Kendra Sangam'

(here after referred to as AJKS), strove to secure a

pride of place to Telugu language and culture in the

state, by acting as a central organisation to encourage

and coordinate the Telugu literary and cultural

movements in different parts of the state. The member-

ship was opened to any Andhrite who was literate and

above the age of eighteen. By 1928 it succeeded in

conducting four conferences at Hanamkonda (in 1923) 1

Nalgonda ( 19 24), Madira ( 19 25) and Suryapet ( 19 28)

· against all odds imposed by the law and order and

administrative machinery of the Nizams' Government.

The AJKS heralded the second phase of the

library movement. In fact under its leadership a

genuine library movement was democratically organised

unlike the limited and largely individual· effort of

1. The immediate provocation for its fonnation was the hooting down of the famous Telugu lawyer Allampalli Venkata Rama Rao by the Maharastrians, when he roi;e to speak in Telugu in a meeting of the Marathi domi­nated 'Sanga Samskarana Mahasabha' chaired by Pandit Karve (the founder of Poona Women's University) on 12th November,1921. ~ncensed by this, on the same night, the above members founded AJS with R. Raja Gopal Reddy as President and Madapati as Secretary to reassert the pride of Telugu language and culture which was derisively referred to as •telanqa• bedhanqi' in Urdu (meaning 'everything related to Telugu is deficient and poor) •

2. For details, see, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, op.cit., PP• 18-30o

1 the earlier phase. During this movement the earlier

established libraries Here rejunevated, a number

of new libraries \vere set up and several reading

rooms were run by its enthusiastic activists. The

movement soon spread to the small toHns of Telangana

enlisting as its activists the educated youth,

obviously belonging to the upper castes like Brahmin,

Reddy and Vysysasasliteracy per....,centage vh'..S high2st

among ther.1. I'he library movement beca.-ne widespread

and fonnida:Ole in so short a time that in 19 25 a

seperate conference of the Grandhalaya Sabha vJas

organised simultaneously with the third conference

of the AJKS at Madhira in Warangal district.

-. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -

1. During the first phase, certain public spirited patrons and literary figures like Raja Nayani Venkata Ranga Rao of Munagala, Komaraju Laxman Rao, Adipudi Somanatha Rao, .:Vlylavaram Narsimha Shastri, Ravichettu Ranga Rao and Mad.apati Hanumantha Rao, took interest in setting up libraries vli th the aim of popularising Telugu classics and creating av1areness among the 'l'elugu people toward.s their history and culture. The most important among them were: 1) Sri Krishna Deva Raya And.hra Basha Nilayam at Hyderabad, in 190 1; 2) Raja Raja Narendra Andhra Basha Nilayam at Hanamkonda in ·1904; and 3) Andhra Samvard.hini Grandhalayam at Secunderabad in 1905. For details see, Mundumula Narsing Rao, op.cit., pp. 52-53.

1~0

The AJKS also took up 'the programme of establishing

schools. Under its guidance and encouragement

schools \·Jere set up and run in many villages. But

within a short span of two years, ie., in 1334 F.,

the government issued "Instructions for private

schools", making it compulsory for the schools

with a strength of fifteen and above to obtain

the prior permission of the government. Following

this firman around ~000 private schools, most of

them run by. the activists of the AJKS, were

estimated to. have been closed do\m as the govern-nent

report itself made it clear. Repeated appeals

to the government by the AJKS to relax the conditions

in the 11 Instructions 11 fell on a deaf ear. 1

Thus the AJKS 1 s efforts at the establishment of

schools were frustrated at the very outset, before

they could gather momentum. This firman, perhaps

more than any other, demonstrated hO\v systematically

2 anti-Telugu and communal the state policy-making was.

1. Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Ibid., p. 83-85.

, 2. It was after twenty years the instructions were modified, exempting the primary and middle schools from its purview, while high schools were still required to obtain prior permission of the government. Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Ibid., p. 85.

Simultaneously, the AJ'.t<S took up the

publication of books on Andhra history and

pamphlets on the issues of current interest.

Books like Nizam Andhra Rastra Prashamsa and

Nizam Andhra Rashtra -,.Ways of Improvement

can be cited as examples of its concern for

research on the history of Andhra. Three of

the important booklets that had contemporary

relevance \vere Vartaka - Swatantriyamu,

Mohatarpa Moqgam Panrru and Vetti Chakiri. 1

The first focussed attention on the social

conditions of trading community by describing

the officials' julum on the Komati traders

and merchants, through forced unpaid eA~ra-

ction of provisions and goods known as

sarbarahi; the second dealt with the illegal

tax imposed on the weaving community, Padmasali

by caste; and, the third dealt with

the different fonns of an all pervasive

1. Madapati Hanurnantha Rao, .!£!9:., p. 82 and PP• 88-90o

.. . 'j

l ! , 'tt..

Vetti in Telangana to which even upper caste Brahmins

and Komatis were no exception. But the tone and tenor

of the discourse in these booklets is worth commenting

on; for, instead of being critical of the government

policies, they focussed on the legal provisions and

their implications, and sought relief through their

proper implementation;1 The result of this was the

issuing of a firman by the Nizam in 1923, ordering

monetary payment for ~he goods supplied by traders

and services rendered by the balottadars.The AJKS

activities led to the organisation of the traders and

merchants especially in the urban areas and to a large

extent they were relieved from the compulsory extraction

of provisions by the government officials. But the

impact of the AJKS can not be over-emphasizedo

Though the above practices taken up during this

period by the AJKS were legally abolished by the stat.e,

its impact did not percolate to the countryside. The

traders in the .rural areas were still forced to supply

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -" 1.Ravi Narayana Reddy, 'Telanganalo Rajakeeya Udyarnalu'

in Vattikoti Alwar Swarny (ed) • , Telanqanarnu: Vyasalu, Part I, Desodharaka Grandharnala, Secunderabad, 1953, p. 16; and Madapati Hanumantha Rao, op. cit., p. 79.

the goods to the touring revenue and police offici~us;

rural handloom weavers continued to pay mohatarpa;

whereas the balottadars and other lower caste

villagers continued to be coerced to render vetti

labour services to the officials uninterruptedly and

to the landlords customarily. 1

In spite of the initial hesitation the Andhra

Jana S angh could not remain aloof forever from the

nationalist movement. The pressure built up from

below especially by the youth, inspired by the

nation-wide unrest, forced the moderate leadership

to reflect upon and relate itself to the nationalist

aspirations. Though there was no substantial change

in the AJKS programme but it definitely effected a

functional change. As a result the AJKS started

organising annual melas fashioned after annual

conferences of the In~ian National Congress known as

Andhra Maha Sabha (literally meaning Andhra General

Conference), from 1930 onwards. These conferences

became so popular that thenceforth the AJKS came .J -2)

to. be known as ~ 1 Andhra Maha S~_!la' ..___j

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.1. Madapati attributes, rather apologetically, the

reasons for the continued prevalence of vetti practices in the countryside, despite AJK 1s propaganda, to the multi-faceted nature of the phenomenono Madapat~ Hanumantha Rao, Ibid., p. 97.

2o Ravi Narayana Reddy, op. cit., p. 18.

fi The first Andhra Maha Sabha was held in

March 19 30 at Jogipet (in Medak district) under

the Chairmanship of Suravararn Pratap Reddy. In

this conference, there surfaced a perceptible change

in the orientation of the AMS marked by a shift in

emphasis from predominantly cultural and literary

issues to general agrarian problems. The conference

demanded the spread of agricultural education to

the farmers, loans to·the peasants and addressed·

itself to the question of peasants• welfare besides

the long-standing demand for vetti abolition. The

conference went further to organise 'lecture

demonstrations• to the farmers on the use of modern

plough with the help of officials of the departments

pf agriculture and animal husbanqry. It was even

eulogized as the 1 conference of rural agriculturists'

of Telangana. 1

In the subsequent conferences resolutions were

passed demanding: abolition of vetti and waiving of

taccavi loans; supply of cattle fodder, agricultural

implements, .fertilizers and seeds to ryots; removal of

restrictions on fuel; laying of rural roads; reduction

1. G. Someswara Rao, 'Peasant Movements and Organisation in Telangana• in B.A.V Sharma (ed), Political Economy of India, Light and Life Publishers, New Delhi, 1980, p. 216o

i45

of land tax; resolution of problems of ryots in jagirs;

spread of rural literacy; increase in salary of

patwaries; relief from agricultural indebtedness;

welfare of Harijans; implementation of constitutional

reforms, so on ·and so forth. 1 In addition to this

debates were conducted on widow remarriages, abolition

of child marriages, women's education and eradication

of prostitu~ion though doing practically nothing

about them. 2.;/

But significantly enough, although the AMS

passed numerous resolutions on the above mentioned

issues between 1930-43, it never agitated assertively

for their implementation. If one closely scrutinizes

~he issues and demands raised in the resolutions

and the general nature of the discourse, one would

realise that the agrarian issues, deceptively seen

as the 'general problems• of an agricultural society,

were neither generic nor class neutral. They infact

reflected the numerical preponderence and increasing

hold of the upper caste small landlord segment on the

1. G. someswara Rao, Ibid., pp. 217-222.

2. Ravi Narayana Reddy, op.cit., p. 23.

1~6

AMS during this period. 1 These demands to some extent,

created problems to the vast majority of backward

peasantry. 2 The pro-landlord and non-peasant nature

of the AMS, the resolutions seeking abolition of

Jagirdari system, vetti and land taxation not with-

-../ standing, can be assessed from its conspicuous silence

on the atrocious tenancy and land problem, and

miserable conditions of the lower caste and panchama

agricultural labourers.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. In the studies on Telangana, this segment is

inaccurately characterised as 'rich-peasant' class. But such an expression in the context of feudal Telangana has incorrect theoretical implications. Though there undeniably was certain degree of stratification within the peasantry that was feudal in nature (for it was based on caste, land and tenancy, with landlord class as a reference point for differentiation than based on market) but to trace it to the development of capitalism in Telangana agriculture is to ignore the social reality. Precisely

1from the viewpoint, the changes in the orientation of AMS from cultural to agrarian is seen as the conse­quence of the entry of 'rich peasantry' into AMSo But the fact of thematter was that certain educated elements from the landed classes exposed to the developments elsewhere raised these demands. To see the elements of the subjective domain as a reflection of the changes in the objective reality is vulgar over-Marxism. See, for instance, Barry Pavier, Telangana Movement, Vikas, New Delhi, 1981, pp. 67-68.

2. See, Palla Parvatha Reddy's essay "Nizam Kalamnati. taccavi bakayila m.afikai poratam", in Y.V.Krishna Rao (ed) ., Andhra Pradeshlo Raitu Poratalu, Vishalandhra Book House, Vijayawada, 1979, p. 217.

. ) .... J 'l I

The limited nature of demands raised in the

AMS resolutions has to be understood in the light of

its mass base which consisted predominantly of the

urban intelligentsia and the upper crust of non--/ .

feudal agrarian sector (variedly described as small

landlords or rich peasants or market integrated rural

rich). This went well with the legalist frame of

protest. ---What characterised the AMS for a decade was

its legalist and moderate line of thinking on the

~issues that were in essence politicalo This of course

was reflective of the influence of nationalist

movemento -

But the most significant of the contributions

of the liberal AMS was on the communal front. It

played a significant role in containing the influence

of the communal Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen• s Tabeeq

movement and in thereby reducing the communalisation

of social fabric by the Hindu religious organisations

like Arya Samaj and Hindu Maha Sabha. In Telangana, though

Arya S arnaj had an independent e;d stence, quite a . few of its adherents also took part in the Andhra

Maha Sabha movement. Their association \vith the Arya

Samaj was individualistic. As discussed earlier,

though the Arya Samaj played a significant role in

counter~ng the Tableeq movement, the shuddi programme

remained as individual. events of 'reconvertions' and

never assumed the fonn of a movement. It was the

AHS that gave a larger secular and cultural

perspective to the communal question and heralded

an 'anti-conversion' movement.

Andhra Maha Sabha - Intellectual fonnation

The A.M.S thus became an organisational

eXpression of the liberal Telugu intelligentsia

in the Telangana region. The liberal, reformism of

the A.MoS vanguard was consciously cultivated in

J its support base. It was reflected in the conditions

stipulated for membership: ie., a high rate of

membership at Rs 1; and the insistence on literary

membership: 1 and the objectives of the movement were

defined and sought to be realised within the purview

of the infonnal and in finn legal structure of Ni zam 1 s

1. Madapati Hanumantha B.ao, op.cit., p. 21.

15u

firman raj, though in the British governed neighbourhood

a nationalist movement was simmering against a fairly well

defined liberal legal code of the Raj o

v. It is worth its while. to take a look at the soc~al

..; base of the movement to understand its limitations both

on the side of objectives it set for itself and the

method it followed for their realisation. The leadership

and cadre of the movement was constituted largely of the

urban educated middle class with professional liberal

pursuits (like lawyers and journalists)~ educated urban

and landlord youth and petty-bourgeoisie (traders and

merchants) • By caste, the top level leadership predominantly

comprised of intellectuals belonging to the Brahmin caste

which had highest literacy rate and w.itll; representation

in almost all government and non-governmental sectors. As

one goes down, in the lower echelons of the AMS, the

educated men and youth belonging to the Komati (or Vaishyas),

Reddy and Kapu castes can be found to have actively

participated in the movement. Thus the AMS - led movement

was predominantly upper caste in social origin, liberal

..../ ~n its outlook, moderate in its politics, reformistic in

its pursu~t. 1 .._ ______ _

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Sarojini Regani, •social Background for the ~se of the

Andhra Maha Sabha Movement in Telangana•, It~has, (Journal of the Andhra Pradesh Archives), Vol.I, Nool, January-July 1973, ·p. lQl; Ravi Narayana Reddy, Op.cit., p. 19.

~The reformist ideological preoccupations of the

leadership and its predominantly urban social base,to

conclude, were the most important factors which deter-

mined the limited cultural and social character of the

movement and the failure of the movement to dwell deep

into the vast countryside of feudal Telangana. It was

this vast feudal dominated landscape that was to be

addressed to and brought under an anti-feudal struggle

later by the communists through the radicalisation of

the AMS both in form and content.~

Formation of Communist Party

f

By the end of 1930s, a left leaning group with

Ravi Narayana Reddy and Baddam Yella Reddy in the lead .../

started growing within the Andhra Maha Sabha. 1 Like most

men of that generation, who later joined the Communist

Party, these individuals were initially involved in

the Congress-led nationalist movement with an avowed

loyalty to Gandhian ideology. This group had a distinct-

ness about itself right from the beginning. Unlike the

old AMS members of liberal disposition, tnese relatively

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. Others were 'Arutla brothers': Ramchandra Reddy and

taxmi Narsimha Reddy.

151

younger members were openly nationalistic and patriotic,

and displayed sensitivity to all-India political

developments, despite being amidst 'self conscious'

or 'confessed' apoliticism of the old guard of the

" AMS. In 1932 itself, they compaigned for a Gandhian

programme for the Harijan upliftment and organised the

Gandhian Harijan Movement. In 19~, at the sixth AMS

held at Nizam~ad, they not only introduced the first

ever political resolution on the AMS platform demanding

political refoillls and 'responsible government'. but also

succeeded in getting it through. They went out to coastal

Andhra and participated in the Gandhian satyagrahas. Even

in the face of a repressive watch of the law and order

they along with the Marathwada and Karnataka activists, v'

organised the first ever satyagraha at Hyderabad in 1938

November and several subsequent similar satyagrahas in

1 different pockets of the state and courted arrest.

It was this group along with three other groups

{ound the Communist Party in the Hyderabad state. The

three other cofounder groups were thetcomrades Associa-

tion, the Vandemataram group and a group of individuals

working in the Maharastra Parishad.

1. See, Ravi Narayana Reddy, op.cit., passim.; and Kambampati Satyanarayana, Andhra Pradeshlo Communist Udyama Charitra, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Vij ayawada, 198 3 , pp. 101-2 •

t5 2

The Comrades' Association, the most significant v

of them, was fonnally inaugurated in 1939, by a group

of progressive students of the Osmania University, the

only University in the Nizam's State. 1 But the progressive

trend among the Universit~ intelligenttaa could be said

to have begun much earlier. The progressive developments

in literature and journalism, and the rapidly developing

political crisis in the British India could not but

create a stir among the intelligentsia. Journals like

the Nigar, Purcham, Naya Adob and Hindustan from Northern

India, the local newspapers like the Payam edited by

Kazi Abdul Gaffar and Rayyat by Mundumula Narsing Rao

and the writings of M.N. Roy played a very significant

role in creating democratic, secular and socialist

consciousness among the literate sections in general

and students in particular. 2 The manifestation of this

new stirring was the staging of satyagrahas and the

singing of 'Vandemataram' (Bankim Chandra's song that

symbolised resurgence of nationalism in India) by the

students, with a section of the University teaching

community extending moral support. With the government

banning the singing of the •vandemataram• in the state,

a fairly large chunk of students boycotted the Osmania

University in protest and joined the Nagpur University.

1. The Osmania University. was established in 1918,<l

2. S.M. Jawad Razvi, op.cit., p. 17.

153

The Vandemataram movement the first after the Khi1 a fat,

v united the secular Muslim intelligentsia, with its Hindu

counterpart.

The Vandemataram movement thus acted as a major

catalyst in bringing more and more new student recruits

into the fold of the composite and chequered mosaic of

politics in Hyderabad. It also brought together the

already initiated, but largely scattered and isolated

left student intellectuals into an active interaction.

The cystallisation of this process culminated in the

fonnation of Comrades Association, the first united

organisation of left and secular minded youth in t.he

Hyderabad state in 19~. In the words of Jawad Ra.zvi,

one of the founding members of the association, it was

meant to be "a broad forum of all those forces who were

anti--imperialist, anti-fascist and anti-nizam11 •1Reflecting

on it four decades later. Razvi comments that: "it served

as a common platform for communist, socialist, Royist

congressmen and progressive individuals who were not

attached to any political party". 2 So much for the confusion

of the early times. But under the guidance of the more

1. Razvi, Ibid., p. 18.

2. Razvi, Ibid., P• 18.

15~

advanced Andhra unit of Communist Party, the Comrades

Association developed rapidly and graduated to revolu-

tionary politics within a short span of time. As a

sequel to this a large chunk of its active and more

advanced members like Makdum Moidduin, Raj Bahadur Gour,

Omkar Prasad, Syed Ibrahim, Alam Kundmini joined the

v Communist Party in 19 39 albeit covertly.

The students, who after having agitated in the

Vandemataram migrated to the Nagpur\/University, came

under the influence of the Bombay Communist Party. Some

of them like D.V. Rao, Sarva Devabhatla Ramanatham

later joined the party at Hyderabad. The Maharashtra

Parishad as well was exposed to the growing influence

of leftist ideas. A group of socialist 'youth of

Aurangabad like Chandra Gupta Choudari, Habibuddin,

V .D •. Deshpande, under the guidance of Bombay unit,

joined the communist party.

v With the confluence of these four groups, the

Hyderabad State Communist Party was formed secretly v

under the guidance of the Andhra unit in 1939. It

remained a secret organisation and operated through

the parent mass organisations till the ban was lifted

155

156

../ on the CPI in 1942 follovling the vlar. Despite the

differences in their origins and, social and political

experiences, the AMS and Maharashtra Parishad being

mass political fronts having rural origins and the

Comrade Association being comprised of urban based

intelligentsia, there was certain commonality about

them.

The common factor that greatly agitated these

young minds intellectually, it seems, was the Second

World War and rise of fascism in Europe with a sense

of urgency about ito Marxism provided clues, if not

a complete answer, to understand the fast deteriorating

international scenario.

Added to it, the fairly well articulated position

of the Congress Sociaiist Party with communists as its

members and the easily available writings of Jawaharlal

Nehru, which presented _ _a-view :_- of fascism and its

implications for the nationalist movement and a consistent

exposition of the left nationalist viewpoint, were quite

influential in moulding the left activism. The develop­

ments in Soviet "'Russia always appealed to their irnagi-

nation, and led them to aspire a similar social system

in India as well.

Further, having been integrated in~o the world

capitalist system, albeit in an unequal relationship

of subjugation under the hegemony of British imperialism,

the 'crisis' developments in the warring Europe had their

logical repercussions both in the Hyderabad state as well

as in the British India. Perhaps, more than ever before,

the inter-imperialist war fostered multi-lateral crisis

in the Indian society in all spheres of life on all

fronts - economic, political, social and cultural -

affecting all sections of the society: the intelligentsia,

the bourgeoisie, middle class, peasantry and the rural

and urban working class. To begin with the developments

in Telangana have to be seen in this context, for they

are logically and substantially inter-connected in a

world ridden with contradictions that intertwined into

a seriality like a chain and st.ructurally and hierar-

chically arranged thus forming a circuit.

Second World War and Worsening everYday life in a Colonial Society

The development of crisis in international

capitalism and its culmination in the World War II, I

had its obvious manifestation in the colonies. India

being the largest and probably the richest colony, was

seen as a golden goose by the colonial masters right

from the beginning. As part of the war policy British

masters started galvanising the resources - human and

material - from India, to support the war effort. Reduced

to a predominantly primary agricultural commodity

producer by the British colonial state, India assumed a

significant role as a supplier of food to feed the forces

and of castor to lubricate the tankers in the British

war strategy • .The consequence of the export of goods

was the import of crisis brewed in the exotic lands;

the net impact being further worsening of the already

deteriorating quality of everyday life of the natives.

Levy System:

In correspondence \vith the British war effo·rts,

the _Ni zam introduced levy system and rationing policy .../.

in 1943. Under the levy system, known as levigalla in

Telangana countryside, the goverrunent took over the

purchase of food grains from the cultivators by

setting up a corporation, namely, the Hyderabad

Commercial Corpo_ration, specifically for this purpose,

specifically for this purpose, to supervise and

coordinate the purchase, while the state bureaucratic

machinery was assigned the task of its implementation. 1

1. Barry P a vier, Op • cit • , p • 36 •

i5S

The method followed in levy collection was that

a certain proportion of land under cultivation was

reserved for the production of food grains; and taking

village as a unit a definite quota of foodgrains

produced were required to be sold to the Corporation

at the rate fixed by the government. The flat basis

of levy fixation created problems for the peasants in

the countryside. Given the feudal domination - subordi-

nation relationship between the landed gentry and

peasantry and the notoriously corrupt local officials

being favourably disposed tov1ards the landlords or

rather actively allying vlith them, the entire burden

.Jlof paying the levy quota, at the prices, much lowe~

than that of the market, was shifted onto the peasants.

Even where the landlords had to pay levy it was

extremely minimal and quite disproportionate to their

grain production and stocks. With the levy burden

disproportionately and even unilateral)¥forced on it,

the peasantry had to suffer impoverishment and thereby

found itself caught in the trap of self-perpetuating

indebtedness of the usurious landlords and the local

moneylenders. The worst hit within the peasantry,of

course, were the lower caste poor and middle peasants:

159

Caught in the colossal crisis and debt-trap, ·and the

caste acting against them the distress selling of

land was understandably most rampant among them,

forcing them in turn into the ranks of the agricultural

-/labour. At the other side of this unequally or rather

onesidedly distributed 'crisis' was the landed gentry.

Using their influence with the officials and their

position in ~ral power structure, the powerful

landlords not only got the total levy quota due from

the village fixed but also saw to it that the levy was

fixed for each cultivator in such a fashion that they

could get exempted altogether or pay nominally. Taking

advantage of the spiralling price index of commercial

crops caused by the inflationary war situation, they

went for commercial crops, contrary to the government

regulations. Here the government statistics deserve a

comment. Most of the studies, taking the government

statistics for granted, tend to trace the irregularities

and discrepancies in them, despite fairly well-known

1GD

general trend of developments to neutral factor-s like weather

conditions and statistical errors. But the question is

much deeper or serious tha,.: what it appears to be

on the surface. For they are not errors but rather

inanities. To be more precise, the data is

not about a class neutral society collected in a

161

cia-political vacuum by non-partisan objective

umerators but aboutfsociety ridden vJith exacerbated

class contradictions and enumarated by individuals

closely allied with the dominant forces of rural power

structure. Thus statistical data is not and cannot be

a given self-evident static datum but is a relation

and thus has to be s~en contextually. If One turns I

attention to the sources of data, this assertion

becomes fairly clear.

The information published by the governmental

agencies, and available in the various governmental

reports, is based on the data supplied by the village

officials, ie., patwaries and patels, who were part

of the UJbiquitous •oustachatustayam• (the evil quartette)_

as they, together vlith the landlords and money

lending banias were known for their irrepressible

notoriety. Especially during,the calamitous times

like the present.one of war situation, with the government

imposing restrictions on the cultivation of the

co~~ercial crops, and the market, on the contrary,

being favourable, the landed rich could obviously

not be expected to control their whims and

abide by the governmental orders. Th\ls there was

manipulation of records showing'wrong crop-acrage

and crop-yields-#, with the patwari extending a

helping hand. 1 The ordinary p2asants having no accessi-

bility to the record-keeper had to bear all the brunt.

Hence the need for a judicious usage of such highly

contaminated records. 2 Added to this, the data collected

and classified following ~on-class conceptual categories

present, what can be called, a •translatability'

3 I

J/problem for the Marxist paradigm (because it does

not view cla~ses as quantities but as a social relation),

leading to misleading inferences regarding formation

of classes, nature of class structure, relative

position of classes in it and the impact of larger

macro-level economic trends on different classes, that

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. The census report also notes that the area under

Cash crops has been shown as left fallow to avoid penalty for violating levy order. See~ Census of India, 1951, IX, Hyderabad Report, Part I, p.37.

2. For a critique of the census enumeration and government statistics, see, Daniel and Alice Thorner, Land and Labour in India, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1974, esp., the Section 'Census and Sample Surveys', pp. 133-226.

3. Cf., Thomas s. Kuhn~; The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970.

~6? l ...

are prone to contradictory and even to spurious

interpretations, depending on ones theoretical

d . 't' 1 lSpOSJ. J.On.

But the collective.popular memory, on the

contrary, reflects the crisis times more authen-

tically. It stores the hardships of the times in

their experiences in flesh and blood. Being

qualitatively different, popular mind has additional

advantages: in that firstly, it is self-reflective

and critical, and secondly, it throws light on those

who had bore or rather 'lived' all the brunt of the

hard times in their everyday life. Though it cannot

1. For instance, Tirumali Co-relating the rising price index with Iyengar's data on Land transfers concludes that rich peasantry had emerged 'by accruing profits• from rising prices of com~ercial crops and purchasing land from the poor peasants. See I. Tirumali, 'Aspects of Agrarian Relations in Telangana, 1928-1948 11

, Unpublished M.Phil dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1979, esp., Chapter 3.

Barry Pavier, from a different point of view, observes that the \var crisis had intensified the contradiction between the deshmukhs and rich peasants as the latter were put -fc. disadvantage because of the former's relation to the state. See Pavier, Telangana Movemenr 1944-51, Vikas, New Delhi, 1981, pp. 38-43.

163

be quantified and capsuled into statistical tables

and at times may be imprecise, but the authenticity

of the narrative of lived and shared eXPeriences can

hardly be questioned.

In the following discussion we shall try to

appraise the impact of \-Jar on the peasantry, on -the

basis of the field work conducted in Nalgonda district

between 1985 and 1987~

If levy fixation was arbitrary, the method of

its .collection was still v1orse. The W·2ll-to-do among

the peasant families were obviously the choicest

target of the whole operation. Producing more and

having greater food stocks they were forced to

contribute a larger share to the levy. Add to the

levy quota the share of the corrupt officials, you

get the picture of an unbearable burden on the

peasantry.Horeover this was happening in the conte:;,.'t

of crisis, which meant that much more power to the

subaltern revenue and police officials. With the delicate

balance of normal ~imes shaken due to the war crisis,

the officials assumed arbitrary powers. The well-to-do

upper caste peasants, usually enjoyed certain degree

of • au-tonomy' and respect springing from their independent

economic position and izzat implicit in their upper

peasant caste status, not only with regard to the classes

lower to them but also to the deshmukhs and government

officials. 1 But, with the newly usurped powers, the

officials tended to 'derecognise• the nuances of social

interaction in a caste-governed agrarian society. As

a consequence, there were many instances of the peasants

of above description being subjected to humiliation.

In the case of lower strata of peasantry, meeting the

levy demand meant the loss of subsistence and in

turn playing into the hands of usurious landlords or

money lending banias or all the s&~e distress-selling

of land. Thus the peasantry being effected adversely,

its spiralling snow ball impact on the other segments

of rural population like artisans, jeethas and agricul-

tural labour who derived their livelihood by supplying

goods and services to them, could be imagined. With

their dependence on the well-to-do peasants being

almost exclusive, given the prevalence of vetti system,

_ the impact of forcible levy was all the more serious,

on the toiling masses. Let us now examine some concrete

instances.

1. See Dasarathi Ranga Charya, i'1odugapulu, Vishalandhra Book House, Hyderabad,' 1985, pp. 14-18 and 22-24.

ib5

In Anantagiri village of Huzurna-;;<ar taluq, in

the perpetually drought-prone district of Nalgonda,

the local officials' response to the inability of

the peasants to meet the levy demand was not merely

violent and coersive, as it always was but was also

full of vengeance. Unable to extract the levy as the

peasants themselves ,were in a miserable position,

the officials collected the grains, pulses and whatever

they could lay their hands on in the peasant houses

and consigned them to flames, apparently, to teach

a lesson to those who failed to - no matter whatever

the reasons may be - comply with the official levy

demand.

In Kadivendi, a similar enforcement of levy

provoked mass protest. Though the radical mass contact

programme by the AMS had not yet made its dent, the

mass action was largely spontaneous but displayed

certain degree of unity. The courageous youth of

the village, who by then had come to know about the

N1S though not yet been enrolled into it, were in

the lead of the movement. The issue that raged them

was the sole exemption of the landlord, Vishnur Ram

Chandra Reddy, who has came to be known for his

166

unexceptional notoraity in the history of feudal

Telangana, from levy, while everybody else was coerced

to pay it. Apparently enraged by the complacence of

the ~ and callous compliance of the officials,

the youth determined to expose both in their collusion.

They kept a watch on the gadi from whose godowns bags

of grain were overnight carted out and the grain that

-had dropped out in the process was casually covered

up by soil to avoid any possible inconvenience in the

event of a visit by some higher official, and also

the fact that youth had already made their presence

felt is significant. \>'/hen such a visit actually

materialised, at the behest of the group's request,

the landlord was promptly exposed. This caused sub-

stantial injury to the ego of the landlord as much as

to his authority. As a conse:-1uence, the landlord got

a nunfuer of them implicated in false cases and got

them arrested. 1

Under '(;he 'Grow More Food • progra..'llffie taken up

by the government, to meet the worsening food crisis,

improved seeds and fertilizers were supplied as taccavi

1. For a different account of levy collection, see Zahir Ahmed, Dusk and Dawn in Village India, Twenty fateful years, Ambika Publ~cat~ons, Delhi, 1980, PP• 76-77o·-

167

lo.ans. In the backward Nalgonda district the peasants,

as yet uninitiated to the utilization of fertilizers

and the usage of modern techniques of cultivation

resisting the advancing of taccavi, were coerced to

accept them under the threat that non-compliance would

result in dire consec1uences. Though the peasants in

most cases formally accepted the loans but never used

them. The seeds and fertilizers, as a result,. were

grabbed by the dominant landlord families. The practice

continued for four years. As a consequence, the peasant

were dragged into the govenw~ent debt-trapo

Radicalisation of AI4S

With formation of Hyderabad State Corn.rnunist Party

(HSCP) in 1939, the group from AI4S which joined it,

continued to remain in the parent AI4S and started

making its presence felt. As pointed out earlier,

this group was not only sensitive to the local problems

._,;but was also responsive to the national and international

realities. Th~reby it tended to view the specificity

of the situation in the princely state of Hyderabad

in its inter-connections to larger political realities

albeit with all its ebbs and flows.·

ifiS

This leftist nucleus set out to transform the

AMS into a platform for mass action without a clear

sense of direction and largely responding to the exi-

gencies of contemporary situation whose logic of

development was still unclear and incoherent. The

initial step towards the process of transformation was

liberalisati.on of criterion for membership of A.I1.S • ../

In 1941, in the eighth conference of ~~S at Chilukuru

presided by Ravi Narayan Reddy, the membership fee

was reduced from one rupee to four annas and the

rigid literacy criterion to ~ualify for AMS membership

was deleted.

With this conference, k~S was set to assume

a distinct political character with the declaration

of its resolve to establish a responsible goverrunent

as its prime objective. The lifting of ban on the

Co~nunist party in 1942, enabled the communists to

establish their party offices and operate overtly v'

under the HSCP banner. Thus the scope f.or a genuine

transformation of the N4S into a mass front organi-

sation was now ensured and possibility for the

unfolding of radicalised political s@enario was

opened up.

1f)9

, ... 0 J.. I

The rela'Cation of th:= conditions of AMS member-

ship at Chilkur formally opened its doors to the lower

echelons of society, hitherto denied entry. The ground

situation characterised by crisis has rendered the

lower classes especially,.its youth restless. The AMS

activists with their leftist programme entered the

villages to spread the anti-feudal political message

and to gravitate the restless but equally aimless

rural youth into the fold of the AMS and swell its

ranks. Thus the ground was prepared on the eve of the

h. . ../. . v . lstorlc Bhonglr conference ln 19 44 for a maJor

shift in the N1S.

The Bhongir conference of AHS held in 1944

occupies a unique place, for it is here that the

1 elite' AMS was transformed into a popular sangam,

as symbolised in the election of Ravi Narayan Reddy,

the acknowledged leader of the movement as the

President. The enthusiastic and unprecedented

participation of the rural members, especially the

youth being in preponderance became a remarkable

feature of this conference. The shift in the ideo-

logical orientation and the constituency of the

AMS 1r1as reflected in its taking up of the immediate

problems of peasants d.nd c2nants who were sever·21~{ hit

by the war-time agrarian crisis, that was macked by

v compulsory levy - both its arbitrary fixation and

coersivevcollection - and the enormous problem of

insecure kowldari. The new leadership under Ravi

Narayana Reddy carnpaigned for a graded system of

levy and exemption of the poor peasants from ito 1

With this conference, the ,;r.1s assumed the character

of a mass organisation by transcending the earlier

phase of petitioning to that of a predominantly

agitational mode of action, thereby setting the stage

~ for a wider and deeper grass-root politicisation by

reducing the membership fee from four annas to one.

The popular response to the sangam >vas almost

overwhelming and spontaneous. The activists were

invited to the villages in Nalgonda to address the

rural folks on their problems. Hore significantly,

the M1S got actively involved in the actual collection

of levy to discount the irregularities and prevent

gross m~suse of power by the landlords and local

officials.

1. A.R. Reddy, op.cit., p. 15.

1. 71

This obviously b0came an eyesore to the liberal

old guard and as a result they began to disassociate

themselves from the radical leadership and programine

of the Bhongir conference. The leaders of the moderate

wing, Mundumula Narsing R9-o and Pulijala Ranga Rao

wanted to organisea rival Sabha, but subsequently

dropped the idea baffled by the overwhelming popularity

of the new p-rogramme.

The popular mood of the times can be captured

from the following song \vhich used b2 sung, like the

present day film-songs, on the streets by young and

old alike.

11 Endukayya poti sangam - Mundumalayya Unna sangam chalada - Pulijala Rangaiah" (Why the hell rival sangam - Mundumulayya, 1 Is n't the one enough - Pulijala Rangaiah).,..

Unwilling and unable to face the wind that was

blowing against them, the moderates dropped their idea

of forming a parallel AMS. Thus the political space

was left to the sangam, which encouraged by the

spontaneous mass upsurge came to'direct the course of

events in the area.

1. The song was written by a people 1 s poet, by name Alvala.Venkanna. Se2; Dodda Narsaiah, Telangana Sayudha Poratam: Anubhavalu-Gnapakalu, Vishalandhra Publishing House, Hyderabad, 1988, p .13.,

11~