This sun refuses to set

Never reconciled, in their loved land, born from the pangs of history, the Telangana movement resurrects in the hearts of young students like fire and fury, waiting to become rivers of self-respect and equality. Will it, this time?
Manjusha Madhu Hyderabad

The serene atmosphere of Landscape Gardens, Osmania University (OU), is tense and disturbed. Hundreds of students have gathered to mourn the death of Venugopal Reddy, a first year OU student, the latest 'martyr' to the cause for a separate Telangana. The students have not allowed the body to be taken and it remains for hours together in the blazing sun. All the right politicians are here and so is the media - the war for 'bites' is on. A bunch of students hold up a picture of Reddy and a visibly upset Upender speaks into the camera: "How many more lives will they take?"

The question looms: in the crisp white shirts of seasoned politicians, in the impregnated silences of the mourning classmates and in the frenzied eyes of the mulkis (the natives of Telangana). "This is not a suicide. This is murder. Murder by the State," says legendary revolutionary balladeer Gaddar, who has arrived to speak to the students. Soon, the tension escalates as throngs of lawyers and students from other colleges join the crowd. The Rapid Action Force and the state police patiently waits out the role of spectators. 

Sphinx-like, the fight for Telangana has re-emerged. It remains contested whether the movement had ever been dormant in the first place. However, since 1969, the struggle had ceased to be a burning issue and had somehow gotten restricted to glorious reference points in election manifestos and political rallies. With the Telugu Rashtra Samiti Chief Chandrasekhar Rao's fast unto death in early December, 2009, the movement has received fresh impetus. Criticism may abound that the struggle is yet another instance of political opportunism and that the politicians in the game are simply waiting for a cue to up their stakes. However, even the most vitriolic of critics would concede that the passion and deep emotional frenzy that one witnesses in the lanes of Osmania and other universities in the Telangana region have a haunting innocence and honesty about them.

The student's movement, in its third phase now, has taken all by surprise by attempting to break from political reins and consolidate a struggle that has not been able to exhibit the key strength of any people's movement- the people themselves. The students of Osmania, Kakatiya (Warrangal) and elsewhere are in the process of attempting to formulate a strategy beyond the call of vote banks and money and it seems to be paying its dividends.

History revisits
The large-scale student support maybe seen in the backdrop of the region's extreme educational backwardness. The legacy of the Nizam had been stark and widespread poverty and exploitation in a terrible caste society dominated by the upper castes, low literacy levels, poor educational facilities and an Urdu medium of instruction. This made 90 per cent of the population incapable of taking on government jobs. The State Reorganisation Committee, perceptive of the gross inequalities, gave a time bound programme for a merger - a period which it hoped would be utilised for the region's development. However, the Indian Union went ahead nonetheless and declared the state of Andhra Pradesh in 1953, on the cornerstone of the 'Gentleman's Agreement' for regional growth.

The next two decades witnessed repeated flouting of the stipulations. In 1965, the Osmania University Act gave the sole right to nominate or remove a vice chancellor to the governor. This led to the immediate removal of Dr DS Reddy, the then vice chancellor - a move that met with severe student and faculty denouncement. By virtue of being a non mulki, Reddy's initial appointment in 1957 had met with considerable resentment,