The True Legacy Of September 17

Is 17th September 1948 a liberation day for Hyderabad state or just a day of merger with the Indian union or a day of Betrayal? This was long debated issue in the recent past. The central Government for the last two years has celebrated it as Liberation Day with the Home Minister attending at parade grounds of Secunderabad. Last Telangana Government has declared it as National Integration Day and commemorated this day in new Telangana state. This year, the new Government while continuing the celebration has come up with People's Rule Day notion.

Can this important occasion in the lives of the people of erstwhile Hyderabad state be casted in this way every time? What is the ground truth behind September 17th, 1948? Most importantly, who owns the political legitimacy of this people’s movement?

A most powerful Marxist quote and very relevant for many struggles says, "social conditions determine social consciousness". It tells us that if you put a population under conditions of extreme inequality and injustice for sufficient time, then they will eventually rise up. Social consciousness may also stimulate working towards a common goal. 78 years of Indias independence and the Liberation struggle of Hyderabad where people have consciously combined political independence with economic and social emancipation from the feudal landlords they all belong to this facet.

Inclusive India

The emergence of the concept of an inclusive India was a product of a continuous battle between three schools of thought and visions that emerged during the course of the independence struggle. The mainstream Congress vision had envisioned that independent India could be a secular democratic Republic. The Communists and socialist forces, while agreeing with this, went further to say that such a secular democratic structure would be untenable, if independent India pursues the path of capitalist development. The Communists and the socialist forces, thus, envisioned that political freedom that we achieve must be extended to the socio-economic freedom of every Indian – possible only under socialism. This was also their objective during the Telangana armed struggle.

Antagonistic to both these is the third school of thought which argued that the character of independent India should be determined by the religious affiliations of its people. This vision had a twin expression – the Muslim League championing an `Islamic State’ and the RSS championing its `Hindu Rashtra’. The former succeeded with the unfortunate partition of the country, engineered, aided and abetted by the British, with all its consequences that continue to fester tensions till date. The latter, having failed to achieve their objective at the time of independence, continued with their efforts shedding away their original swadeshi concept and adopting a rigorous private monopoly capitalist mode of development to transform modern India into `Hindu Rashtra’. Today’s ideological battles, including that regarding the character of Telangana liberation or merger, and the political conflicts in different parts of the country are in a way, the continuation of this battle between these three schools of thought and their development visions.

Andhra Mahasabha: Banner of Telangana Armed Struggle

It is important to understand that peasants led by the communists, socialists and farmer organizations,based on their above mentioned vision played their key role in the evolution of an inclusive India by bringing on to the agenda of the national movement crucial issues through the struggles that they had launched. First, the struggles on the land question unleashed predominantly by the Communists in various parts of the country – PunnapraVayalar in Kerala, the Tebhaga movement in Bengal, the Surma Valley struggle in Assam, the Warli uprising in Maharashtra etc – the highlight of which was the armed struggle in Telangana – brought the issue of land reforms and exploitation of the poor to the center stage.

As we know, before Indian independence, Hyderabad state was a princely state within the territory of British India.In one of the most feudal systems in the world, the rights and duties of Nizam, his family and the other elites were very clearly defined and protected. Nizams feudal system of ruling his state has rested on a well knitted network of Police Patel (law and order), Mali Patel (Revenue) and Patwari (land record and collection) at village level. At the upper level, there were Girdawars and Tahasildars (Revenue Inspector) and Talukdar (Collector). Important to note is the fact, that police patel, malipatel and patwari posts were hereditary and have been continued for decades by the involved loyalists of Nizam. The nature of land ownership in the region was extremely exploitative. Forty percent of the land was either directly owned by the Nizam or given by the Nizam to elites in the form of jagirs (special tenures). The remaining sixty percent was under the government’s land revenue system, which relied on powerful landlords who collected upto 50% crop rent from kauludarlu and gave no legal rights or security from eviction to the people actually cultivating the land. The vetti (forced labor) system consisted of different works performed by lower castes at the will of the landlord. Another practice was the prevalence of keeping girls as ‘slaves’ in landlords’ houses, used by landlords as concubines.

Against this background, formed in 1928, Andhra Mahasabha was organized under the leadership of MadapatiHanumantha Rao, Suravaram Pratapa Reddy and othersbecame in those wretched and tremendously oppressive conditions in Hyderabad state, a forum, a focal point for the rising democratic aspirations of the people. In conferences, it used to pass resolutions demanding certain reforms in the administrative structure, for more schools, concessions for the landed gentry, for certain civil liberties etc. It is this background and the continued resistance of the oppressed which culminated into the historic Telangana armed struggle against the Nizam. It was the Communist Party of India which has organized this peasant led armed rebellion against the cruel rule of Nizam landlords under the banner of Andhra Mahasabha. Few among the well-known individuals at the forefront of the movement were Ravi Narayana Reddy (President of Andhra Mahasabha in 1947), Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Hassan Nasir, Bhimreddy Narasimha Reddy, Mallu Venkata Narasimha Reddy, Mallu Swarajyam, Arutla Ramchandra Reddy, his wife Arutla Kamala Devi, Raj Bahadur Gaur, Baddam Yella Reddy, Anabheri Prabhakar, Chennamaneni Rajeswara Rao and others. As part of this historic rebellion from 1946 to 1951, lakhs of people in Telangana resisted the feudal brutal exploitation of Nizam and his razakars as well as jagirdars, deshmukhs and deshpandeys etc. About 60 000 people left their homes and joined actively as leaders of the movement and took to the arms to wage an armed struggle against Nizam and his Razakars liberating thousands of villages and marching to overthrow them. According to the official records, 35 000 people were arrested in Hyderabad state and put to inhuman torture. About a lakh bogus cases were booked against the participants of the movement. In spite of this upsurge, Nizam continued his brutal oppression and was in no way ready to recognize independence to India in 1947. As part of this historic struggle to liberate the Hyderabad state, 4500 people sacrificed their lives.

Police Action against Nizam and Peasants Rebellion

On September 13, 1948, in a ‘police action’ aimed at countering the violence in Hyderabad, the Indian Army marched into the state. Within a week’s time, the Nizam, the razakar squads and the police surrendered. Following the capture of the razakars, a military administration was set up under General J.N. Chaudhuri, and a military offensive was directed at the peasant rebels in the Telangana region. During the next three years, in more than 2000 villages about 300,000 of people were tortured, about 50,000 were arrested and kept in detention camps for a few days to a few months. More than 5,000 were imprisoned for years. The Indian Army’s presence transformed the struggle, as it was no more a liberation struggle against the Nizam, but rather against the army of the newly-formed Indian Government. In an effort to co-opt peasant support, the military administration issued the Jagir Abolition Regulation (August 1949) and set up an Agrarian Enquiry Committee to recommend comprehensive land reform legislation. It was clear, though, whose side the state was on; within two weeks the landlords started returning and regaining their lost land. General J.N. Chaudhuri, the military governor made a statement from Hyderabad, calling all communists to surrender within a week, failing which they would be exterminated. A debate ensued within the Communist Party. Certain sections, predominantly led by Ravi Narayana Reddy, felt that giving up arms was essential as India became independent, Nizam’s rule came to an end and people have welcomed this change. He argued that the core feudal system in the rural Telangana has been severely damaged by overthrowing Nizam’s state and the next stage of fight has to be aimed against the ruling Indian capitalist bourgeois democracy. Other sections were skeptical, as they felt that giving up arms could lead to loss of gains and appear as a betrayal of the people. However, due to severe military repression leading to a huge loss of life, the movement has weakened leading to the CPI formally declaring the struggle as withdrawn on October 21, 1951.

Political Legacy and Way Forward

The uniqueness of Hyderabad Liberation Day of 17th September has to be, therefore, seen in a larger context today should we make an attempt to objectively understand the causality effect underlying it. Telangana armed struggle undoubtedly paved way for the defeat of Nizam’s rule in Hyderabad State enabling its merger into Indian Union. None other than Ravi Narayana Reddy said “we would have overthrown Nizam even if Indian army would have not started police action”.

History establishes that neither the Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha nor the RSS, from which the BJP claims to inherit its legacy, played any role in the struggle against Nizam’s feudal rule. What they did was to create religious animosity among people and break their unity, in Hyderabad State, which was until ‘a couple of decades back’, an ‘ideal place as far as relations between the various communities are concerned’. This was documented none other than the Sunderlal Committee, appointed by the Indian government to enquire into the ‘massacre of Muslims’. Over the past 75 years, this region never had a strong affiliation with any religion despite being a Nizam state in the past. Pertinently, in the historic Telangana armed struggle waged by the exploited peasantry against the Nizam – a Muslim and independent ruler under British suzerainty – none of the antecedents of the BJP had participated.The BJP thus has no history in the state to showcase, and this predicament is forcing it to hunt for an issue to soft-land the Hindu-Muslim polarization agenda in the state.The idea is to portray Telangana as the land of Hindus who fought against the Nizam, and Sardar Patel, the first Home Minister of India, would be reintroduced in the state as the true liberator of Telangana. This absolute distortion of history lies in the fact to portray the Telangana peasants’ movement against the Nizam as an anti-Muslim struggle and the merger of Hyderabad princely state with the Indian union as ‘liberation’!

Notwithstanding such distortions, the uniqueness of legacy of Telangana undoubtedly lies in the fact that more than seven decades ago, it witnessed the armed struggle against feudal forces and designed its own economic and social agenda; six decades ago these predominantly leftist forces foughtunder the banner “Land to the Tiller” to implement agrarian and tenancy reforms for telangana peasants; five decades ago the historic students movement raised the banner for separate telangana state; four decades ago it provided the epicentre of the most vibrant civil liberties movement in the country; it has been home for marxist-leninistrythu coolie udyamam against landlordism; in the aftermath of the emergency period to the formation of the first autonomous women’s rights groups in the country in the mid-1970s; the dalit and adivasi movements are always at home here. Therefore it is of high political importance to note that again it is the culmination of these divergent forces demanded uncompromisingly a separate telangana state and achieved it. Needless to say that these forces look today at their political, economic, social and cultural agenda to be successfully implemented step by step in the newly emerged telangana state and absolutely not in polarizing hindu and muslim communities for political mileage.

As India and Telangana liberation and merger into the Indian Union marks its 78th anniversary of independence, it is necessary for all of us to understand and analyze the current political and social battles of what should be the character of the political and social structure of post-independent modern Indiaas well as the development path we should strive for. Independent India having adopted the framework of a secular democratic republic adhered to the Indian Constitution under which our political system functions today. The four foundational pillars upon which this constitution rests are: secular democracy; federalism, social justice; and economic self-reliance. However, each one of these pillars are today under severe strain and pose a big challenge to all democrats and progressive forces to protect them!