Witness

Born and brought up in Hyderabad, I can't remember the first time I heard about Telangana. It actually seemed to be always there. As a child, I remember having heard things like "Andhrites (referring to people from coastal Andhra)  are street smart, they can get the things done. Telangana people are lazy they don't really work" all this said with a tinge of jealousy. Growing up in Andhra Pradesh, when one was asked where one is from, it not just meant which region of the country but which region of the state as well. When one traveled across the state one could also see geographical differences, while Andhra region was agriculturally prosperous, Telangana was barren. As I grew up, I also became cognizant of the fact that people from Coastal Andhra were mocked for not being conversant in Hindi. The subtle differences of language were quite a few times a visible differentiators. While the language of Telangana would be infused with a lot of Hindi and Urdu words, the stress and the intonation of Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema would differ. Though there were these small differences there was also one underlying unity, I grew up listening to and singing "Ma Telugu talliki malle pu danda..", like all others from the state.  Potti Sri ramulu  was introduced to us as a hero who fasted till death to achieve a separate unified state for all the Telugu speaking people. I was also a part to random political discussions on different regions of Andhra Pradesh, but not until much later did I make an effort to understand it completely. I don't quite remember what triggered the agitation, but my memory of the resurfacing of the Telangana agitation begins with a lot of bandhs and continuous shut of down of schools and colleges. There was a situation where an academic year would have to be condoned due to continuous disrupting of education institutions. I was then forced to take a stance, belonging to Andhra Pradesh one had to answer the question "So do you support Telangana?" at some point in life. It was then that I delved deep into understanding how it all began. As I read more about it, I realized the reasons they were talking about were historically right. Telangana and Andhra never shared a common history, except Hyderabad, Telangana has been historically backward under the Nizam's rule. It was the Telangana region which had to fight the brutal army of razakars, it was also Telangana had one of the earliest communist movements to over throw the feudal system. Telangana had issue with being merged with Andhra right from the beginning, it was merged much against the public consent. It was only merged with a promise of power sharing and special development package. Today Telangana is one of the most backward regions in the country and a region with very poor literacy and infrastructure. It also has lion share of farmer suicides. It is also a region with mass migration, where thousands of people have migrated in search of livelihood as daily laborers. When I spoke to the older people around, I realized how Telangana agitation was a part of their life, some of them had been to jail agitating for it as they were promised jobs if they did so. Some of them had to struggle to get bonafide certificates, what they called mulki certificates to be eligible for employment. The problems seem to be the same, they were worried that their jobs would be snatched away. All they needed was employment and opportunities. The issues which were present decades earlier seem to be still relevant, it makes me wonder what has the state done for so many years. But it is also true, that if the state hasn't done anything for Telangana nor has it done too well for the other regions. Apart from the tier 2 cities like Vizag, there are no big cities in the entire state. The industry has been developed by investments from the prosperous Coastal region. It is the people from coastal region who have prominent fore-bearers in all the industries. Economically with all the resources from all over the state poured in, there is one Hyderabad with the divided resources and lack of leadership, I wonder where the "development" will come from. Though the reasons are all right, will a separate state develop the region, one really cannot be sure. Now is the division for all the stated reasons or for political gains, one can only guess.  After so many years of coexistence is it really possible to separate who is from Telangana, Andhra and Rayalseema and what about those who have intermarried which region do they belong to. Also the division of the state has created a weird situation where a single political party is strong in one region, which decreased political pluralism there are more questions on the promised development. Now am I pro Telangana ? Well I stand by "Imagine no countries It isn't hard to doNothing to kill or die forImagine all the people living life in peace...."