Telangana Issue Highlighted by French Media

Separatist who burnt himself to death for 29th Indian state

Photo by Jessica Bachman.
This gruesome poster shows an IT student burning to death after setting himself alight at his university in the central region of Telangana, which he believed should be autonomous from Andhra Pradesh (AP), the state in which it lies. The young martyr is not the only one from the disaffected area, where more than 200 people are thought to have committed suicide in a desperate plea for autonomy.
Twenty-three-year-old K. Venugopal Reddy, who was in his final year of his master of computer applications degree at Osmania University, Hyderabad, doused himself in petrol and set himself alight on 20 January 2010. A note found nearby his charred body demanded the immediate amputation of Telangana from AP, India's largest state.
According to Telangana independence activists like Reddy, the province remains an underdog in the area, deprived of water and public service jobs. Telangana is generally considered the most backward of the state's three provinces. It is home to one third of AP's 80 million residents. While regional Telangana political parties have been lobbying the central and state governments for a separate Telangana state since the 1950s, the movement has only become violent in the past six months.
It's believed that in that time, between 100 and 200 people — most of them young — have committed suicide for the cause. The suicides come as part of wider unrest, which has seencontinued clashes between activist university students and the police in Hyderabad, the local capital and flashpoint of the Telangana state crusade.
Telangana is not the only state fighting for autonomy in India. Neighbouring Greater Rayalaseema also wants to count itself out of AP, and in the north of the country, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha movement is fighting to create another separate state called Ghorkaland, while in Pakistani-bordering Jammu and Kashmir, fierce campaigns to leave India altogether have been raging for decades.

The central powers fear that giving autonomy to one state could create a domino effect across the country.

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Golden Age of Hyderabad, Telangana

Azam Jah

Circa 1946: Prince of Berar, member of the Kshatriyas caste & heir to the throne of Hyderabad, relaxing w. his wife Durru Shevar as their servants serve them 'high' tea in their palace.

A State Banquet honoring the visit of the Viceroy of India.





A man riding on the Nizam's personal elephant.



Men guarding the Falaknuma Castle.







Flood lights surrounding the palace at night.







Statues holding lights line the marble stair case.



A pool ouside of the Palace where the Royal Family used to bath.









State Assembly 





A sign advertising the chemist company.





Green grass and trees surrounding the old British Residency. NOW KOTI WOMENS COLLEGE !!







The railroad cars branching off at the junction.





Men waiting for a buyer at the fruit stand. SEE THE BOARD . ITS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH, URDU & GUJRATHI





Poor people crowding the streets.





A man riding his bicycle past the Town Building.







Many people walking in front of the large hospital building. OSMANIA GENERAL HOSPITAL i think







Boys playing cricket at their boarding school. HYDERABAD PUBLIC SCHOOL, BEGUMPET






Men constructing the railroad station. SECUNDERABAD RAILWAY STATION IN ITS INFANCY




Razir (C) reviewing Razakar parade.




Women carrying loads of bricks on their head into the library. ITS STATE LIBRARY



A man riding his bicycle past the Custom's Office.




The Osmania Hospital standing so tall it almost reaches the sky.




People standing in front of the railroad station. I THINK NAMPALLY




he pilgrams crowding the station where the special train will carry them. NAMPALLY I THINK

Telangana Issue highlighted by Al-Jazeera

AlJazeeraEnglish — 01 अप्रेल 2010 — Andhra Pradesh is a state situated in south-eastern India. It was formed in 1956 by speakers of Telugu, which is the third most widely spoken language in India.

But in recent weeks, Andhra Pradesh has witnessed violence by a movement in the northern part of the state, who want to create the new state of Telangana.

Many living there say they are much worse off economically than other areas in Andhra Pradesh.

If Telangana were to be created, it would receive millions of dollars in grants from New Delhi, just like most other Indian states.

Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman reports from Hyderabad, on how it is bread-and-butter issues that are driving the movement.

[April 1, 2010]

Telangana Issue highlighted by New York Times

Suicides, Some for Separatist Cause, Jolt India

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

The mother and uncle of M. Sunil Kumar, who killed himself to aid a statehood struggle in India.

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: March 30, 2010

HYDERABAD, India — Sai Kumar Meegada, a 20-year-old straight-A chemical engineering student at a prestigious university here, came home from breakfast one morning early this month, slipped a length of clothesline around his neck, tied it to the ceiling fan in his dorm room and hanged himself.

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