| Telangana Rebellion | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
| Nizam appointed Razakars | People of Hyderabad State | ||||
The Telangana Rebellion or Vetti Chakiri Movement also known as Telangana Raithanga Sayudha Poratam was a communist-led peasant rebellion against the feudal lords of the Telangana region and later against the princely state of Hyderabad between 1946 and 1951. This was led by the Communist Party of India.
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The revolt started in 1946 in the Nalgonda district against the oppressive feudal lords and quickly spread to the Warangal and Bidar districts in around 4000 villages. Peasant farmers and labourers revolted against the local feudal landlords (jagirdars and deshmukhs)[1], who were ruling the villages known as samsthans. These samsthans were ruled mostly by Reddys and Velamas called as Doralu. They virtually ruled over all the communities in the village and managed the tax collections (revenues) and owned almost all the land in that area. Nizam had little control over these regions barring the capital Hyderabad. Chakali Ilamma, belonging to a low caste Rajaka caste, had not only revolted against ‘zamindar' Ramachandra Reddy,[2] during the struggle which he tried to take her 4 acres of land. Her revolt inspired many to join the movement.
The communist led agitation was successful in liberating over 3000 villages from the feudal lords and 10,000 acres of agriculture land was distributed to landless peasants. Around 4000 peasants lost their lives in the struggle fighting feudal private armies.
It later became a fight against Nizam. The initial modest aims were to do away with the illegal and excessive exploitation meted out by these feudal lords in the name of bonded labour. The most strident demand was for the writing off of all debts of the peasants that were manipulated by the feudal lords.
With Hyderabad's administration failing after 1945, the Nizam succumbed to the pressure of the Muslim elite and started the Razzakar Movement, which was very violent and was also responsible for forcible conversions of religion. At the same time the Nizam was resisting the Indian government's efforts to bring the Hyderabad state into the Indian Union. The government sent the army in September 1948 to annex the Hyderabad state into Indian Union. The Communist party had already instigated the peasants to use guerrilla tactics against the Razzakars and around 3000 villages (about 41000 sq. kilometres) had come under peasant-rule. The landlords were either killed or driven out and the land was redistributed. These victorious villages established communes reminiscent of Soviet mir (social)s to administer their region. These community governments were integrated regionally into a central organization. The rebellion was led by the Communist Party of India under the banner of Andhra Mahasabha.
Few among the well-known individuals at the forefront of the movement were great leaders, like Suddala Hanmanthu, Chandra Rajeswara Rao, Raavi Narayana Reddy, Arutla Laxmi Narsimha Reddy, Arjula Ramana Reddy, the Urdu poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Sulaiman Areeb, Hassan Nasir, Bhimreddy Narasimha Reddy, Nandyala Srinivas Reddy(NSR), Mallu Venkata Narasimha Reddy , Mallu Swarajyam , Arutla Ramchandra Reddy and his wife Arutla Kamala Bai.
The violent phase of the movement ended in 1951, when the last guerilla squads were subdued in the Telengana region.
The rebellion and the subsequent police action led to the liberation of Hyderabad state from the Nizam's rule on 17 September 1948 and after a temporary military administration the dominion was eventually merged into the Indian Union. The elections of 1952 led to the victory of Congress party in Hyderabad state. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was first chief minister of the Hyderabad state from 1952 to 1956. In 1956, Hyderabad State was merged with Andhra state to form the present day Andhra Pradesh State.