Telangana, the New State in Southern India

Telangana becomes the 29th state in Southern India today, June 2 after 50 years of campaigning to be separate from Andhra Pradesh. Telangana was part of Hyderabad until 1948 after joining the Union of India. However, Hyderabad was dissolved in 1956 and Telangana was merged with the State of Andhra which later became the Andhra Pradesh state. The newest Indian state will consist of 10 districts from the northwestern part of Andhra Pradesh while Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the rest of Andhra Pradesh and the new state.

The creation of the new state of Telangana formalizes the split of Telugu-speaking Andhra Pradesh into two. Telangana residents have long been complaining that they have been neglected and their protests for half a century had not been peaceful.

New leaders

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi party (TRS), which had been leading the separation movement for the past 14 years will now form the first government of the new state. The bill for the creation of the new state was approved by India’s Upper House in February despite opposition from the Congress Party that was governing Andhra Pradesh. Residents of Telangana are hoping that this will bring good fortune and prosperity to the landlocked, agricultural community.

The Chief Minister of Telangana will be Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao from the TRS party. He will be sworn in by Governor ESL Narasimhan, who will also be the governor for the two recently separated states. After the oath-taking ceremonies, the new Chief Minister will be attending the ‘Telangana Formation Day’ official celebration. The ruling party, Telengana supporters and other political parties have planned for several events in Hyderabad and other areas and the capital city has already been bathed in pink, the color of the ruling party, through balloons, banners, festoons and flags.

Telangana’s composition

Telangana covers an area of 114,840 square kilometers and is home to 35 million residents as of 2011. The largely under developed region will now have four major cities: Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal. After 10 years, the new state of Telangana will develop a new capital. Telugu is the language that is used in Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh and this is the first time that a state with one language will be divided into two.

Historically, states in India were created for the group of speakers. Karnataka was created for the speakers of Kannada, while Malayalam speakers had Kerala. Gujarati is the main language spoken in Gujarat and Marathi is the dominant language in Maharashtra. Language and religion split Haryana and Punjab.

What the separation means

Hyderabad is a great loss for Andhra Pradesh and a big win for Telangana. The city is a major IT hub and home to the Telugu film industry and a very prosperous one at that. Realtors, industrialists and politicians have cause for worry, since there were allegations that many properties in the city were acquired dubiously and through government largesse and they fear that the Telangana government will either cancel the acquisitions or take over their properties.

Image credit: Scenic View from Mastyagiri hill in Nalgonda district taken by Adityamadhav83 under Public Domain.