Andhra State

Not to be confused with Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra State ఆంధ్ర
State of India
← 1953–1956 →
Andhra State marked in yellow
Capital		Kurnool
Government		Federated state
Governor
•	1953-1956	Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi
History
•	Established	October 1, 1953
•	States Reorganisation Act, 1956	November 1, 1956

Andhra State Āndhra [IPA: [ˈɑːndʰrʌ]]) was a state in India created on October 1, 1953, from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The state was made up of two distinct cultural regions – Rayala-Seema and Coastal-Andhra. The combined region was commonly called Seemandhra or Seema-Andhra.

On November 1, 1956, the Telangana region (Hyderabad State) was merged with it to form the united Telugu-speaking State of Andhra Pradesh. When the present Andhra Pradesh State was created, some majority Telugu-speaking areas (e.g. parts of Kolar district and Bellary district) were included in Karnataka State and Gadwal and Alampur taluks were included in Mahbubnagar district of Hyderabad Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh. Historically, Gadwal and Alampur taluks were not part of Telangana. Telangana gained these two taluks being part of Andhra Pradesh when Rayalaseema lost its area to Karnataka. The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) recommended creation of Telangana State before merging with Andhra State after taking public opinion in the scheduled elections of 1961.

On 2 June 2014, Telangana State was separated back out of Andhra Pradesh. Now the residual Andhra Pradesh State has approximately the same borders as the old Andhra State of 1956.The residual Andhra Pradesh has lost bhadrachalam revenue division which was part of Andhra State before 1956.

Creation of Andhra State

Madras Province (South).

In an effort to protect the interests of the Telugu people of Madras State, Potti Sreeramulu attempted to force the Madras state government to listen to public demands for the separation of Telugu-speaking districts (Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra) from Madras State to form Andhra State. He went on a lengthy fast, and only stopped when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised to form Andhra State. However, there was no movement on the issue for a long time. He started fasting again for attaining statehood for Andhra in Maharshi Bulusu Sambamurti's house in Madras on 19 October 1952. It started off without fanfare but steadily caught people's attention despite the disavowal of the fast by the Andhra INC committee.

The government of the day, however, did not make a clear statement about the formation of a new state, despite several strikes and demonstrations by Telugu people. On the midnight of 15 December (i.e. early 16 December 1952), Sreeramulu died trying to achieve his objective at House No. 126, Royapethah High Road, Mylapore, Madras State; the house has been preserved as a monument by the state government.

In his death procession, people shouted slogans praising his sacrifice. When the procession reached Mount Road, thousands of people joined and raised slogans hailing Sreeramulu. Later, they went into a frenzy and resorted to destruction of public property. The news spread like wildfire and created an uproar among the people in far off places like Chirala, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Bhimavaram, Guntur, Tenali, Ongole and Nellore. Seven people were killed in clashes with police in Anakapalle and Vijayawada. The popular agitation continued for three to four days disrupting normal life in Madras and Andhra regions. On 19 December 1952, the Prime Minister of the country Jawaharlal Nehru made an announcement about formation of a separate state for the Telugu-speaking people of Madras State. The central government appointed K. N. Wanchoo, Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, to look into issues related to formation of Andhra State. Parliament passed the Andhra State Act in September 1953.

On October 1, 1953, 11 districts in the Telugu-speaking portion of Madras State became the new Andhra State with Kurnool as the capital. Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu (also known as Andhra Kesari – "The Lion of Andhra") became the first Chief Minister of the new state.

Formation of this first "linguistic state" paved the way to creation of more and provided an opportunity for these states to develop independently, linguistically and economically, each of them having a state to support.

See also: Andhra movement

Districts of Andhra State

Hyderabad State in 1956

• Uttarandhra
  • Srikakulam
  • Vizianagaram
  • Visakhapatnam

Coastal Andhra region

• • East Godavari
  • West Godavari
  • Krishna
  • Guntur
  • Prakasam
  • Nellore
• Rayalaseema region
  • Chittoor
  • Kadapa
  • Anantapur
  • Kurnool

Bhadrachalam and Nuguru Venkatapuram taluks of East Godavari district (part of coastal Andhra Pradesh), which are on the other side of the river Godavari, were merged into Khammam district on grounds of geographical contiguity and administrative viability. Earlier, Aswaraopeta was also part of West Godavari district and was added to Khammam district in 1959. Similarly, Munagala mandal was added to Nalgonda district and removed from Krishna district in 1959.

Formation of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra State (yellow), which merged with Telangana (white) to form the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1956

On 1 November 1956 Andhra State and the Telangana region of Hyderabad State were merged to form the united Telugu-speaking State of Andhra Pradesh. Non-Telugu-speaking parts of Hyderabad State were merged with Maharashtra State and Karnataka State.

Hyderabad State in 1956 (in yellowish green)

After reorganization in 1956, regions of the state west of the red and blue lines merged with Bombay and Mysore States, respectively, and the rest of the state (Telangana) was merged with Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh State.

SRC (Fazal Ali Commission)

Paragraph 382 of the SRC report dated 30 September 1955 said, "opinion in Andhra is overwhelmingly in favour of the larger unit, public opinion in Telangana has still to crystallize itself. Important leaders of public opinion in Andhra themselves seem to appreciate that the unification of Telangana with Andhra, though desirable, should be based on a voluntary and willing association of the people and that it is primarily for the people of Telangana to take a decision about their future".

While the Fazal Ali commission emphasizes on the necessity and benefits Visalandhra, the report suggests that the process of merging may only be done after 5 years. In Paragraph 386, it states, "...for the present the Telangana area is to constitute into a separate State, which may be known as Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961, if by two thirds majority the legislature of the residency Hyderabad State expresses itself in favor of the such unification.”

Paragraph 387 goes on to say that the advantage of this arrangement will be that while the objective of the unification of the Andhras will neither be blurred nor impeded during a period of five or six years, the two governments may have stabilized their administrative machinery and, if possible, also reviewed their land revenue systems etc., the object in view being the attainment of uniformity. The intervening period may incidentally provide an opportunity for allaying apprehensions and achieving the consensus of opinion necessary for a real union between the two States.

From the content of Paragraph 387, the commission's main objective was to attain uniformity by achieving adequate administrative machinery and proper land review systems in the recently formed Andhra State and the new State of Hyderabad being formed and this duration could also be incidentally utilised for gaining consensus opinion for merger of the two states. In line with SRC opinion, the elected leaders of both states decided for immediate merger by achieving consensus by two thirds majority strength in both assemblies of these states.

The Hyderabad chief minister, in his letter to the INC president, said Communist parties supported the merger for their political calculations. The Hyderabad PCC chief said the overwhelming majority of INC party members opposed the merger, that Communists were elected in special circumstances in 1951, that Visalandhra was not a political issue in 1951, and that the Assembly does not reflect the people's view on the issue. He also said 80% of INC delegates who were elected in 1955 opposed the merger. The government had to provide additional security for Communist leaders who supported the Visalandhra.

In the Hyderabad Assembly, on 3 December 1955, 147 of 174 MLAs expressed their view. 103 (including Marathi and Kannada MLAs) supported the merger, 16 were neutral, and 29 opposed it. Among Telangana MLAs, 59 supported the merger and 25 opposed it. Out of 94 Telangana MLAs in the assembly, 36 were Communists (PDF), 40 were INC, 11 were Socialist party (SP), and 9 were independents. Voting did not take place on the resolution because Telangana proponents insisted on including the phrase "As per the wishes of people" in the resolution.

To convince the leadership of Telangana to join the new state, an agreement was reached between the leaders of both sides. This came to be known as the Gentlemen's agreement. The agreement allowed the formation of the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, against the SRC's recommendations of waiting until 1961 to get the approval of 2/3 of Telangana State assembly after the 2 cycles of elections in Telangana State.

Telangana and 1972 Jai Andhra movements

Main articles: Telangana movement and 1972 Jai Andhra movement

The Telangana movement was started in 1969, demanding proper implementation of the Gentlemen's agreement, particularly the mulki rules. When the Supreme Court upheld the discriminatory mulki rules applicable among the people of a state, it spawned the 1972 Jai Andhra movement. This was a public agitation demanding a separate Andhra State. The movement dissipated after the central government repealed the mulki rules and introduced a new six point formula.

Creation of Telangana State

On 2 June 2014, Telangana State was separated back out of Andhra Pradesh. The residual Andhra Pradesh has lost bhadrachalam revenue division which was part of Andhra State before 1956.

See also

• Madras Presidency