Vishalandhra Movement

Andhra State before Vishalandra – 

v  There was no proper capital city for newly formed Andhra State, Madras state refused to share the Madras as a capital with Andhra State.  Andhra people fought for separate state but they forget about the capital city, Govt of India so delayed the formation, finally Andhra congress leader agreed to have no capital city sharing.

v  Do not have COAL and Oil Resources; there were no provisions to generate Electricity.

v  Do not had cities/places which were developed in Trading, VISHAKA harbor, that too a small one, there was no woolen mills, cloth mills, oil mills (which are main streams of trading).

v  Do not had  a place to put-up Capital City resources, not even a place to setup Districts header quarters

v  Vizag, there is no road facility which can accommodate two Lorries at the same time (no two way)

v  There is no Net revenue to continue or manage the state operations, that time Andhra state revenue was 22 crores (per capita), in which 20 crores they were spending to run the government itself, means what about others – irrigation, agriculture, roads, electricity, loans to formers etc..

v  There is no place to put the Govt officials, rather they continued to provide facilities by giving rents in Madras.

v  Even after spending crores to build the capital city in Karnool, even it was not in shape in run the government operations, no secretariat building, no hi-court, etc. Creation of state capital was “The biggest” problem of the Andhra state. 

 A struggle started by Andhra leaders to merge Telangana with Andhra to form Andhra Pradesh, this has started early 1954, a year after the formation of Andhra State – few reason for the cause of vishalandra to save their socia-economic imbalances. 

Nehru - March 6th 1956 - "It is like a matrimonial alliance having provision of divorcé, if you wish not to continue with it". 

In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganization Commission to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. This was headed by Justice Fazal Ali and the commission itself was also known as the Fazal Ali Commission. 

Fazal Ali Commission  in the year 1955, report says (in favour of separate for Telangana): 

v  The existing Andhra State is facing a financial problem as it got low per capita revenue compared to Telangana and on the other hand, Telangana is much less likely to be faced with financial embarrassment. Telangana has got much higher incidence of land revenue and excise revenue.

v  Telangana leaders seem to fear that the result of uniting will be to exchange/transfer/shared of settled sources of revenue and funds to overcome the financial uncertainty of Andhra which it is facing currently.

v  Telangana claims to be progressive and from an administrative point of view, unification it is contended is not likely to confer any benefits on this area.

v  When plans for future development are taken into account, Telangana fears that the claims of this area may not receive adequate consideration in Vishalandhra.

v  One of the principal causes of opposition of Vishalandhra also seems to be the apprehension felt by the educationally backward people of Telangana that they may be swamped and exploited by the more advanced people of the coastal areas.

v  In the Telangana districts outside the city of Hyderabad, education is woefully backward. And Educationally less qualified than Andhra, so there is less chances of  opting public services compared to Andhra region people, fear of the Telangana people that, they will be ill-treated, forcing bossism upon them and may be converted into a colonial rule by coastal Andhra.

v  “The Telangana” it has further been argued, can be stable and viable, unit considered by itself. The revenue receipts of this area on current account have been estimated at about Rs. 17 crores, and although the financing of the Krishna and Godavari projects will impose a recurring burden on the new State by way of interest charges, the probable deficit, if any is unlikely to be large. In favorable conditions, the revenue budget may even be balanced or indicate a marginal surplus. This fairly optimistic forecast can be explained or justified by a variety of reasons.

v  One important reason is, of course, that the existing Hyderabad State and Telangana as part of Hyderabad have benefited considerably from the implementation from April 1952, of the Finance Commissions' recommendations. The increase in central payments from out of the divisible pools of income-tax and Central excise which has been possible under the present arrangements and the reduction in police expenditure for which credit can be taken., as the situation in Telangana improves, more or less offset the loss on account of the abolition of internal customs duties, and if the scope which exists of raising the yield of certain State heads of revenue is fully explored, the financial position of Telangana need not cause anxiety.

 Fazal Ali commision clear says Telangana/Hyderabad state can be treated independent; we can name it as “Hyderabad State”. However, you can form vishalandra if 2/3 majority of Legislature of Hyderabad expresses their favor towards unification.

 Andhra leaders views on Uniting Telangana after Fazal Ali Report:

 With Fazal Ali commision, Vishalandra leaders completely dis-satisfied and lost hopes with SRC and started playing cruel politics for unification and ready to give any kind of assurances to Telangana safeguards. Their aim to get united to improve their socio-economic situation. 

• “If unification of Andhra and Telangana delayed to till 1961, it never be possible rather more strong possibilities of separate Telangana state. They is no possibilities of getting 2/3 majority favor towards vishalandra”.
• They Stated “Unification will not lead any problem in their development,  they will no regional imbalances and disparities”.

 Who is going to be benefited with Vishalandra????

 Definitely Andhra – a readymade and full-fledged Capital City, Improvements in Socio – Economic situation, bringing the Krishna and Godavari river basins under unified control, the trade affiliations between Telangana and Andhra.

 One thing we have to notice that they (vishalandra leaders) never brought the point of uniting the Telugu speaking people, their aim was only on Telangana resources.

 Andhra Leader at that time – Kasu Brahmanda Reddy, Bezawada Gopal Reddy, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Vavilala Gopala Krishnayya, Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao started playing politics with Telangana state leaders – Burugu Ramakrishna Rao, Marri Chenna Reddy etc. they brought force from Central Govt to unite, because they got full influences with Central Leader as they were part of the party since freedom fight days.

 Coutesy:

Satya N Rapelly