About Telangana



          The State of Hyderabad was founded by Mir Qamruddin Chin Qilich Khan. He was the son of Aurangzeb’s general . Ghazi-ud-din Khan Feroz Jang, who traced his ancestry to Abu Bakr, the first Khalifa. In 1713, six years after Aurangzeb’s death, emperor Farrukhsiyar made Mir Qamruddin Viceroy of the Deccan, with the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk Feroz Jang. Later, emperor Muhammad Shah conferred on him the title of Asaf Jah, by which title the dynasty is still known. By 1724, Mir Qamruddin had made himself virtually independent of Delhi, although he and his successors continued to profess a nominal allegiance to the Moghul emperor right up to 1858, when the British Crown assumed the governance of India.
          In 1799 the Nizam aided the East India Company in the war with Tippu Sultan and after the latter’s defeat and death, the British gave a part of his territories to the Nizam.
         Nizam Mir Usman Ali Khan Bahadur is the seventh in the line. He succeeded to the gaddi on 29 August 1911. In 1918 the title of “is Exalted Highness” was conferred on him as a hereditary distinction. Shortly thereafter, by an autograph letter from the King, he was granted the title of ‘Faithful Ally of the British Government.’
      The Indian Government did not agree that Hyderabad had any right in international law to seek the intervention of the United Nations Organization or any other outside body for the settlement of the issue. And that as the Government of India regarded the Indo-Hyderabad dispute as a purely domestic one, they did not recognize the Nizam’s claim to invoke the good offices of the United Nations in that connation.


Telangana is situated on the central stretch of the Indian Peninsula, most of it on the high Deccan Plateau between the Aryan North and Dravidian South. The earliest mention of this region is to be found in the Aitareyabrahmana. It figured subsequently in the Ramayana and Mahabharatha and in the Puranas. It became ”the region eminently suited for the fusion of the two cultures”.
 The language of the people was Dravidian, called Telinga. The race and language had a glorious history that spans over 1000 years. The people had distinct style of their own in the fields of literature, music, dance, painting and sculpture. This culture acted as a bridge between the North and South. There were many Buddhist monasteries built in this region. though it belonged to Dravidian family of languages. They have more affinity in customs, traditions and social institutions of marriage and the like with that of Sanskrit.
By nature the Telugus are considered to be emotional people. They combined in themselves the intellectual agnosticism of the Tamils and the mystic quality of the Bengalis, said Sarojini Naidu. The former state of Hyderabad, for instance, presented a polyglot character consisting of the Telugu speaking Muslims constituting an influential minority. After the merger of the two regions in 1956, many people migrated into Telangana from Andhra districts, resulting in new social tensions.
As Myron Weiner puts it, migrations sometimes have de-stabilizing effects, arousing intense conflicts. There is a healthy mixture of Aryan and non-Aryan traditions and customs here. In this region, customs and practices of Dravidian and Sanskrit features are reflected. In marriages essentially the form is Vedic and many local customs found place. Tying of mangalasutra and pouring talambralu are specially Andhra customs. They are seen in the marriage descriptions of Tikkanas Virataparva and in Ranganadharamayana.
The most important thing is cross cousin marriage, which never had the sanction of the law makers (smritikaras). This is purely a Dravidian and local custom which had to be accepted or tolerated. There was a custom of singing auspicious songs during the time of marriages from the period of the Satavahanas. Married women in this region wear rings on their second toe. They used to apply turmeric to the body and to the face before taking bath. They used to wear saris. Men used to wear dhotis. Both men and women adorned themselves with ornaments. Men and women used to tattoo their bodies. This information is found Peddannas Varudhini.
Women used to sweep the front yards in the morning and decorate the ground with powders of different colors. We find the descriptions about the decoration in Nannayas Mahabharata and Kridabhirama. During the period of festivals like Sankranti these front yard decorations became more interesting.
There were a large variety of these decorations. Mango leaves were tied to the porches for any auspicious occasion. Women used to decorate themselves with flowers. Men also used to grow long hair. They used to consume betel leaf, which was called tamboolasevanam.
People here were fond of intoxicant liquors. They used to make their own liquors. They had varied names depending on the quality. A detailed description is found in Simhasanadwatrimsika that the people of Srinadha’s period lived a luxurious life. There were facilities for the supply of water to houses and fountains.
Their houses were decorated. There were drawings on the walls of their bedrooms. Women use to wear bangles. There were houses serving food that were called pootakulla illu. Rulers used to visit their paramours. Kreedabhirama and Krishnaraya’s Amuktamalyada contain many interesting pieces of information about the social life of the people.
The food of the Andhras needs special mention. Srinadha presents to us the variety of items served. Till Portuguese introduced chilly the people used pepper. They used strong spices to flavor their food. The mango pickle with mustard (aavakaya) is renowned in the entire country.
The entertainment of this region is also varied. There were many kinds of sports and games. These interesting names are known from Gadhasaptasati and Kamasutra of Vastayana. There were literary gatherings, drinking parties and courtesan visits. There were cockfights for entertainment. Young children used to play with ivory dolls. Kings used to go for hunting. Wrestling and boxing were also competitively entertaining. Many of these forms of entertainment are still exist.
Festivals are celebrated with much fervor and people used to go to temples on these days to offer special prayers.Festivals are listed below.
Ugadi, Guru Purnima , Sri Rama Navami, Hanumajjayanti , Raakhi Pournami, Vinayaka Chaviti , Dusserah , Nagula Chaviti , Krishnashtami,Deepavali,Mukkoti Ekadasi ,Karthika Purnima , Subrahmanya Shashti ,Makara Sankranti and Ratha Saptami
Regional Festivals:
Telanganites not only celebrate the main festivals, but also celebrate certain regional festivals like Bonalu in Hyderabad, Batakamma all over Telangana districts, Yedupayala Jatara in Medak , Sammakka Saralamma in Warangal district.
Other festivals are Nomulu Vrathalu Kedareswara Vratam , Madana Dwadasi Vratam, Vinayaka Vratam, Saraswati Vratam, Varalakshmi Vratam, Krishanshtami Vratam,Ananta Padmanabha Vratam, Margasira Lakshmi Varapu Nomu Katha,Polala Amavasya Vratam , Kumkuma Gowri Nomu,Sraavana Mangalavara Nomu Katha, and Karthika Deepala Nomu
The major religions of the people are Hinduism and Islam, though Buddhism was the dominant religion up to the 6th century. It is the home of Mahayana Buddhism as revealed by the monuments of Nagarjunakonda. Acharaya Nagarjuna presided over the World University at Sri Parvata. Hinduism was revived in the time of the Chalukyas and the Kakatiyas in the 12th century. The Vijayanagar rule saw the glorious days of Hinduism when the famed emperors, Krishnadeva Raya in particular, built new temples and beautified the old ones. Siva, Vishnu, Hanuman and Ganapati have been the popular Hindu Gods. The Vugra Narasimha swami Temple at Yadagirigutta and Thousand Pillar Temple at Warangal are among the oldest shrines in the state attracting people from different parts of the country for hundreds of years.
In terms of influence, Islam occupies the second place. It started spreading from the 14th century onwards. Mosques began to come up in many parts of the region during the Muslim rule. Christianity began to spread from 1701, Especially among the socially disabled people. Educational institutions and churches grew in number in the Circars in the 18th and 19 centuries when the East India Company and later the British government encouraged them. Other European countries were also active in building churches and taking care of the weaker sections of the people.
Hindus 88.75 % Muslims 8.47 % Christians 3.62 %
Telugu is the main language of the state, which was formed on the principle of one language-one state. Telugu, the second largest spoken language in India and it has a long history. While Tamil is the oldest among the Dravidian languages, Telugu has enjoyed a unique status because of “its melody and grace.” It has justly been called the “Italian of the East.” Dr.William Carey, who set up printing press in vernacular languages, published his Telugu grammar in 1812.A.D. Campbell prepared a Telugu-English dictionary. C.P.Brown’s contribution to the growth and development of Telugu is well known. He felt sad that Telugu classics were “in a deplorable state like those of Greek and Latin authors before the invention of printing.” He heralded the renaissance in Telugu literature through his monumental works. Carey, describing Telugu as the most polished among the five South Indian languages, namely Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Sinhalese, observed that “its variety of inflection is such as to give it a capacity of expressing ideas, with a high degree of felicity, justness and elegance.” Campbell too lavished high praise on Telugu when he wrote in 1816: “Few languages will be found more copious, more nervous or more regular in constructions, and it may boast, in a peculiar manner, of great elegance of expression and melody of sound.” Caldwell, the “father of Dravidian languages”, gave it first place in point of “euphonic sweetness” and this view was supported by Henry Morris, who called Telugu the most musical of all Dravidian languages.
Quite recently the noted scientist J.B.S. Haldane expressed the view that Telugu could be a rival to Hindi in teaching science, medicine and engineering. Around the same tinie G.H. McLeod wrote that “Telugu is the northern-most memuer of the northern languages: and it has the advantages of both groups with few, if any, of the defects…. It has never suffered from narrow provincialism.”
Telugu is said to have grown out of a synthesis of the language of the native Dravidians and Sanskrit, the language of the colonizers, the Aryans. The influence of Sanskrit began in the 3rd century B.C. and since then the growth of the language is traced. The evolution of Telugu as it is understood now however took place in the 9th Century A.D. Enrichment of the language took place at regular intervals in the history. The names of Nannayya, Tikkana and Pothana are cherished in every home like those of Vemana and Thyagaraja of later periods. Veeresalingam, Gurazada, Viswanatha Satyanarayana and Sri Sri were prominent writers and poets of the last hundred years. The development of Telugu language and literature owes a great deal to the efforts of the Englishmen. Historians noted the “Asia-wide influence of Andhra art” and as a scholar summed up: “The people of this region especially Kakathiyas made a glorious contribution to the development of art and architecture .”
It must be remembered that Telugu varies from region to region in its expression. Here too the Telugu-speaking people proudly claim that the language spoken in their region is superior to that of the other regions. All the same, one unique aspect of Telugu is that it has never harboured, as McLeod pointed out, narrow provincialism. It interacted much with other languages and in Hyderabad city-and neighboring areas, Marathi, Urdu and Kannada have had much influence on the people. It is said that the Telugus’ spirit of tolerance is due largely to the mingling of different languages for several centuries. Urdu is the second most widely spoken language in the state. The majority of the Urdu-speaking people are confined to the twin cities and neighboring districts. Of the total population of Andhra Pradesh 87 percent have Telugu and 7.20 per cent Urdu as their mother tongue.


Telangana.com has been started with a view to give people a medium for communicating their views and problems of Telangana region. This page is created to highlight the problems of this region.
1. There are 10 districts in Telangana, 9 in Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema. Out of these 7 districts in Telangana, 3 in Andhra and 1 in Rayalaseema are considered severely backward districts which means 70% of districts in Telangana are backward while in Andhra it is 35% and in Rayalaseema it is 25%. Apart from these there are some areas in all parts of the state which are also backward.
3. Normally canals are dug to supply water to the crops from rivers for cultivation. The amount of land cultivated through canals in just Guntur district is more than the land cultivated with canals in entire Telangana region.
4. Nagarjuna sagar dam is built in Nalgonda district which is in Telangana but majority of the water from the dam is used for Krishna and Guntur district. The original dam was supposed to be build much ahead of its present location but the location was changed so that it falls in the Telangana region. Due to the construction of the dam several hectares of Lime stone mines vanished as part of the dam back waters. Everyone know that lime stone is used for producing cement. Even the natural resources were not allowed to remain.
5. Fluorinated water problem is only in Nalgonda district which has not been resolved since decades.
7. RDS (Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme) is build in Mahaboobnagar to provide water to 85000 hectares of land in the district. The leaders of Rayalaseems blasted the gates of RDS and water is supplied to KC (Kurnool-Cudapah) canal while only remaining water, if any, is supplied to the lands in Mahaboobnagar.
8. 3 TMC of water from Gandipet is sufficient to supply drinking water to our city. Every year 1700 TMC of water is wasted and is flown into Bay of Bengal from river Godavari. Starting from Nizambad to Bay of Bengal there is no project allowed to build on Godavari. If it is built leaders in Godavari districts fear that the fertile lands in the area may fall short of water. If the Godavari water is utilized properly, there will be no scarcity for food grains in our state.
9. In Telangana regions, only few areas cultivate one crop a year and very rarely two crops a year while most of the land doesn’t even cultivate single crop. In both the Godavari districts, Krishna and Guntur district, two crops a year is common and there are times where even 3 crops a year are cultivated. The only reason is WATER.
10. Government issue G.O.’s for implicating its decisions. G.O number 610 is the longest non implicated G.O in the history of AP. The G.O was issued in 1986 by late NTR who was then the CM of AP, which is not yet implicated. The G.O speaks about the share of Telangana employees in Government jobs in Telangana region.
11. 33% of the population in Mahaboobnagar district have left the district for livelihood to different parts of the state due to draught and majority of them are working as daily labour. No other district has so many people who fled the home place due to lack of livelihood and working as daily labour.
12. There are 25 plus government degree colleges in Krishna, Kadapa and Guntur district while there is not even a single government degree college in Ranga Reddy district.
13. Dairy development corporation of AP purchases milk from farmers across the state for distribution. For the same milk, in Andhra, the government pay Rs. 24 to the farmers and in Telangana they pay Rs. 22 per litre. Partiality is shown even in milk
14. In between 2005-2008 government sold lands worth Rs. 20000 crores in and around Hyderabad which was utilized to build projects in Rayalaseema and Andhra.
15. Not even a single project was completed in Telangana in the last 5 years while several projects were completed in Andhra and Rayalaseema.


  1. I don't support a new state but can certainly see the point in asking for a new one But this issue has to be sorted out in peace rather than destroying public peace and property. Being an immigrant, I cannot say more.

  2. Arun , allow me to echo your thoughts on the whole issue of Telangana and if it is all right with you, I would like to add a few more.

    Telangana history from last 200 years to the present day….how they got ripped by nizam, killed by razakars, exploited by government injustice in jobs, lack of irrigation projects when two major rivers run through it, betrayal by by-gone telangana politicians and spinelessness of the present day telangana politicians.

    Generations of telangana people have been cruelly oppressed by nizam, uncared thereafter by the successive government(CM's mostly were from the other regions). Frustations, helplessness and revolt runs deep in the blood, offshoot of which unfortunately I think is naxalism.

    People in telangana region do honestly want a seperate state. It is more than 50 year-old movement right from AP's inception. More than 400 students and farmers have made supreme sacrfices. People have to go back and read some history and only can they make constructive solutions to the problem. Just saying united andhra does'nt solve the problems on ground.

    Hell, in the United States, we have two organisations for Telugu people running on caste and regional lines. Why no unity there?.

    One more question to ponder: If Telangana seperates, why do rayalseema and may be uttarandhra want to seperate from andhra. Where is the unity and who is the culprit.

    I am mad at the politicians and people who are now insisting on unity of Telugu people when in real life they would'nt help others unless they belong to their own caste.

    There is discontent which needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, in the past, the Government made a lot of unkept promises to the region and the trust factor is not there any more.

    May God intervene and bring peace and harmony in this region.


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