[lg policy] Telangana State: India ’s newest state? India will create Telangana, its 29th state, ending advocates' decades-old quest for a linguistically distinct state.

[Harold Schiffman]

Telangana State: India’s newest state?
India will create Telangana, its 29th state, ending advocates'
decades-old quest for a linguistically distinct state.

By Amelia Newcomb | Staff writer 12.09.09

India’s national government agreed to carve the new state of Telangana
out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh Wednesday, ending a
50-year, often violent quest for a linguistically distinct enclave.
The announcement capped a day of protests that shut down the city of
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. It also came after the 11th
day of a hunger strike by prominent politician K. Chandrasekhara Rao,
who had said he would fast until death.

But the move raises questions about the future of Hyderabad, a
high-tech hub that hosts big-name multinationals including Microsoft
and Google, which sits within the 10 northern districts of the state
of Andhra Pradesh that are likely to be made into the new state. And
some may question a potentially ‘balkanizing’ impact of carving out a
new state along linguistic lines. Home Minister P. Chidambaram said
late Wednesday that the process of creating Telangana would soon be
under way, according to the Hindustan Times.

After these consultations, I am making this statement. The process of
forming the state of Telangana will be initiated. An appropriate
resolution will be moved in the state Assembly,” Home Minister P
Chidambaram told reporters late in the night. Mr. Chidambaram also
said the central government had been concerned about Mr. Rao’s hunger
strike, which appeared to have a galvanizing effect on a drive that
has dragged on for decades and caused hundreds of deaths. The leading
Congress Party, which had resisted the idea of a separate state, had
appealed to Rao Monday to adopt a “reasonable approach on the issue,”
and said it wasn’t against the idea, NDTV reported.

[Party spokesman Manish] Tewari said, “Congress party and our
government in Andhra Pradesh have reiterated at different times that
we are not against a separate state but whatever situation emerges
should happen by consensus.”  The Congress leader said things should
be seen not in a sub-regional context but in larger national context
when the issues have larger ramifications. When Rao got the news that
statehood had been agreed to, he called off his fast, Indian Express
reported.

The movement for a separate linguistic state dates back to the decade
after India gained independence in 1947, when the country was first
carved up along linguistic lines. That campaign had been dragging for
the past couple of decades, however. According to the Hindu newspaper,
the resurgence of the movement in recent months points to the
“political vacuum” created in Andhra Pradesh by the death of Y.S.
Rajasekhara Reddy. Mr. Reddy, the former chief minister of Andhra
Pradesh, died in a helicopter crash in September.

http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/12/09/telangana-state-indias-newest-state/
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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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