The Telangana Rebellion

The Telangana Rebellion was a Communist led peasant revolt that took place in the former princely state of Hyderabad between 1946 and 1951. This was led by the Communist Party of India.

The revolt began in the Nalgonda district and quickly spread to the Warangal and Bidar districts. Peasant farmers and labourers revolted against the Nizam and the local feudal landlords (jagirdars and deshmukhs) who were loyal to the 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.

Nizam's resistance to join Indian Union

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 instigated the peasants to use guerrilla tactics and around 3000 villages (about 41000 sq. kilometres) came 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 Puchalapalli Sundaraiah, Makineni Basavapunaiah , Chandra Rajeswara Rao, Raavi Narayana Reddy, Arjula Ramana Reddy, the Urdu poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Sulaiman Areeb, Hassan Nasir, Bhimreddy Narasimha Reddy, Mallu Venkata Narasimha Reddy , Mallu Swarajyam , Arutla Ramchandra Reddy and his wife Arutla Kamala Bai.
The violent phase of the movement ended in 1951 after the accession of Hyderabad into the Indian Union. This was the time when Razzakar Movement was started by Nizams, which was very violent and was also responsible for forcible conversions of religion.

Annexation of Hyderabad State

The rebellion and the subsequent police action lead to the liberation of Hyderabad state from the Nizam's rule on 17 September 1948 and the dominion was merged into Indian Union eventually. 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.
And in 1956, Hyderabad State was merged with the Andhra state to form the present day Andhra Pradesh State..

In popular Culture

• Krishan Chander's famous Hindi/Urdu novella "Jab Khet Jage" was based on the Telangana Rebellion. Film-maker Gautam Ghose gained acclaim 1979 when he used the story as the basis for his first feature film, the Telugu language "Ma Bhoomi".
• "Bandenka Bandi Katti" is a famous song of the rebellion, written by Suddala Hanmanthu (Father of Suddala Ashok Teja, National award winner), and was known more as Bandi Hanmanthu