Telugus vs Tamils: The fight for Madras

by Guest Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:59 pm

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/the-fight-for-madras/article5033034.ece

by Guest Thu Apr 07, 2016 2:02 pm

The first such politician who tried to divide Telugu people was Jawaharlal Nehru who planted the seeds of hatred by passing a comment that if Telugu people who lived in erstwhile Nizam state join with the Telugus of Madras state they would suppress these people. Taking the advantage of the nature of infighting amongst us Raja Gopala Chary successfully grabbed Madras (now Chennai) from us in connivance of Nehru. There can be thousand points to prove that Madras belongs to Telugus but not even one proves otherwise. Indirectly the Tamils admitted that Madras city belongs to Telugus by re-naming the city after a Telugu ruler Chennapa Rayudu as Chennai. Because of the ill plan of Nehru and Rajagopala Chary we lost several Telugu areas like Bellary, Ganjam, Berhampore, Dharampuri and Madras which are legally or otherwise should go Telugus.

As always it is our own people who back stab us, at the time of states reorganization the Telugu leaders at that time signed documents agreeing to lose these areas to neighboring states.

http://www.greatandhra.com/articles/special-articles/opinion-telugu-awake-and-know-the-truth-23026.html

by Guest Thu Apr 07, 2016 2:04 pm

Rashmun wrote:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/the-fight-for-madras/article5033034.ece

About 70 years ago, Chennai or Madras as it was earlier known faced anxious moments when Telugu-speaking citizens demanded the city as theirs and wanted it to be the capital of their future state.

The demand in itself was not problematic, but the solutions proposed to solve the dispute between Tamil and Telugu-speaking citizens over the future of the city were.

The city came close to being split into two along River Cooum – the northern part assigned to Andhra and the southern to Tamil Nadu. However, a combination of factors settled the issue in Tamil Nadu’s favour. This not only saved the traumatic partition, but also avoided two other equally vexatious possibilities: declare Madras as a plebiscite or a centrally administered province. As the city celebrates its past, it would be worthwhile to recall how the city survived its testing moments and retained its cosmopolitan nature.

Madras was a presidency town – the largest colonial city in south India with Telugus, Tamils, Kannadigas and Malayalees all living here. As the struggle for independence intensified, the formation of States on linguistic principles became imminent. Telugus were among the first to raise the demand for the need of a separate province....

V. Kaleeswara Ro, the vice-president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress committee was practical. He told other Telugu leaders that they should now work ‘increasingly with the Karnataka brethren for the disintegration of Hyderabad State’ and combine the Telugu-speaking areas with Andhra. This way, Andhra could get the twin city of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as its permanent capital. He was right. After two years, a larger Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad as its capital emerged. Madras remained with Tamil Nadu.

by Guest Thu Apr 07, 2016 2:14 pm

Though Telugu speakers, at about 15 per cent of the population compared to about 70 per cent of Tamil speakers, constituted a clear minority in the city of Madras, for a variety of historical reasons they had high visibility. Proximity to Telugu regions, the dominance of the Telugu elite in the early history of Madras, their prominence in early nationalist politics where some of them founded organizations such as the Madras Native Association, and their preponderance in trade and business gave, at least to some, an illusion of Madras as a Telugu city. This was further accentuated by the disproportionate power Telugu speakers wielded in an electoral world where enfranchisement was based on property holding and direct taxation. With the gradual rise of Indian nationalist politics, at the threshold of its mass phase, legitimate demands were voiced for a separate province of Andhra for Telugu speakers. It is said that such demands were articulated as early as 1913. The Andhra Maha Sabha was a major voice in the articulation. By 1920, with its Nagpur session, the Indian National Congress had reorganized itself on linguistic lines and the newly-formed Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee demanded that the city of Madras come under its jurisdiction. Similar claims were made on Madras when a separate Andhra University was formed in 1926. Though such demands were articulated through the subsequent two decades, the issue came to a head only as Indian independence became imminent. The Telugu demand for Madras unfortunately got tied to the formation of a separate Andhra state and consequently became a running sore for over half a decade....

Wanchoo’s report, submitted in early February 1952, unequivocally favoured the creation of an Andhra state but equally clearly recommended that Madras should not be included. However he indicated that until a new capital was built the Andhra government could be temporarily (for about five years) lodged in Madras. Understandably Nehru was inclined to accept this recommendation but Rajaji stoutly opposed it on the grounds that the troubles would spread to other Tamil areas where a sizeable Andhra population lived. He even went to the extent of threatening to resign from the chief-ministership. This finally convinced Nehru and he agreed that this move would only result in “unseemly agitation, acrimonious controversies, and administrative conflicts” and would adversely affect the friendly atmosphere.
By 1952 the question of Andhra was pretty much settled, if ever it was in question. Despite the seeming controversy, the Andhra demand for Madras was a rather sectarian one raised by a group of Andhra leaders from the Rayalaseema region. What gave some impetus and nationwide visibility to the agitation was that it was linked to a very popular, genuine, and longstanding demand for a separate Telugu-speaking province of Andhra. But in fact the demand for Madras unnecessarily delayed the formation of this province. The relative quiet with which Tamil Nadu responded to the Telugu demand for Madras was rooted in the certainty that it was most obviously a Tamil city conceded by one and all.
The bitterness between Andhra and Tamil Nadu festered for some years after, with the controversy over the northern borders becoming the subject of further agitation and necessitating yet another commission. That however is a separate story.

http://missiontelangana.com/madras-manade-how-chennai-remained-with-tamil-nadu/

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Telugus vs Tamils: The fight for Madras

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