The Andhra Movement, Hyderabad State, and the Historical Origins of the Telangana Demand: Public Life and Political Aspirations in India, 1900–56

Abstract

This article revisits the early twentieth century to rethink the forces that shaped discourses surrounding political community—specifically the political community in its regional articulation. As we begin to look at the particular ways in which the discourse of rights and political representation have emerged at the regional level in post-independence India, we begin to get a sense of the unique social, cultural, and political dynamics that constitute the region distinct from the dynamics of nationalism and national identity. Specifically, I examine the dynamics of a new discourse of politics in twentieth-century south India, primarily in the Telugu-speaking districts of the Madras Presidency and the princely state of Hyderabad. With the institution of representational bodies/institutions at the regional level, the extension of the franchise and the rise of a public politics based on liberal ideas of public reason, and debate at the turn of the twentieth century, we witness the emergence of the region as the site of a distinct set of political dynamics.