Origin and Historical Evolution of the Identity of Modern Telugus Author(s): YAMADA KEIKO Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 45, No. 34 (AUGUST 21-27, 2010), pp. 57-63 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25741999 Accessed: 15-10-2016 06:49 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly This content downloaded from 115.184.91.76 on Sat, 15 Oct 2016 06:49:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Origin and Historical Evolution of the Identity of Modern Telugus YAMADA KEIKO The "linguistic principle" following the States The significance of a common language as a major attribute Reorganisation Act of 1956 was framed as a cultural defining a nation or an ethnic group has come under scru tiny in India. The "linguistic principle" following the bond and administrative facilitator for socio-economic States Reorganisation Act of 1956 was framed as a cultural prosperity. It has not only been challenged bond and administrative facilitator for socio-economic pros intermittently but also contested as a unifying concept. perity. It has been challenged intermittently and contested as a From the historical point of view, the emergence of the unifying concept. Andhra Pradesh was formed by combining Telangana, the current separate Telangana movement of Andhra eastern part of the former Hyderabad princely state, with the Pradesh is testimony to the failure or even death of Andhra state, after the Andhra movement to integrate Telugus regional historiography or history consciousness, out of into a single political unit. The former Andhra state, the first which the Telugu people's identity once sought to "linguistic state" of post-independence India, was carved out of the Madras Presidency in 1953, following an emotional upheaval evolve. The historical understanding of a small group of triggered by the fast-unto-death of Potti Sriramulu. The violence Telugu intellectuals under colonialism finally developed following Sriramulu's death was responsible for Jawaharlal into an imagined common historiography of the Telugus Nehru's reluctant adoption of the linguistic principle in the as Andhras. Giving the name "Andhra7 to the Telugu federal system, and for his consent to the formation of the first state for Telugu-speaking people of the region. Indeed, it is ironic region in the 20th century was arbitrary and was due to that Andhra Pradesh, a larger state combining the regions of the intervention of a new historical consciousness Telugu-speaking people from the Madras Presidency and the emerging among Telugu intellectuals. From the end of Hyderabad princely state is now facing a demand for a bifurcation the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and the creation of a sub-regional state - Telangana - irrespec tive of the language. describing the Telugu people as Andhras and the However, the demand for a separate Telangana was not new Telugu region as the Andhra region was not a simple and has a long history, beginning with the arguments and distur matter of naming. It was an example of a particular bances against the initial merger of the Telangana region with historical interpretation that was rooted in the Andhra state before the Reorganisation Act came into force. Except when violence swept across the Telangana region during colonialism and modernisation. The history of a 1968 and 1969 for a separate state, it remained a forgotten issue. separate Telangana movement, in a sense, follows In 1972, another movement for a separate Andhra state (The Jai a process to bid farewell to the colonial legacy of a Andhra Movement) erupted but ended when president's rule was modern intellectual tradition formed around regional imposed in 1973. In all the debates on Telangana, the main focus is on socio language and history. economic issues like the backwardness of the region, the coastal people's dominance in employment, and overall indifference towards development on the part of politicians and administra tors ever since the birth of the state. All these would have been solved, it was assumed, if the safeguards spelt out under the Mulki agreement had been implemented. However, that did not happen. The key reason behind the emergence of the current separate Telangana movement cannot be solely attributed to the failure of the "linguistic principle" to unite people. From the historical point of view, it is a crucial testimony to the failure or Yamada Keiko {[email protected]) is with the Faculty of even death of a regional historiography or history consciousness, Humanities, Ibaraki University, Japan. out of which the Telugu people's identity once sought to evolve. Economic & Political weekly [3323 august 21, 2010 vol xlv no 34 57 This content downloaded from 115.184.91.76 on Sat, 15 Oct 2016 06:49:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SPECIAL ARTICLE _= _I In this paper, we will see how the historical understanding of a to one another, it is natural to presume that the language small group of Telugu intellectuals under colonialism finally domain is an indicator of certain socio-economic dimensions of developed into an imagined common historiography of the people's lives. Telugus as Andhras. We will also refer to the potential that the Language, after all, is not a self-contained autistic culture but terminology "Telangana" once had but is now lost and forgotten. a social system. Interestingly, Bh Krishnamurti, in his linguistic The history of a separate Telangana movement is, in a sense, study of Telugu agricultural words and their isoglosses, found following the process to bid farewell to the colonial legacy of a the correlation between the formation of dialects and the dynas modern intellectual tradition formed around a regional language tic tracts of the past.5 This may be applied to individual lan and history. guages also. In spite of that, the reason why linguistic states ap pear to be an ineffective institution is that the political economy 1 Language Domains and Linguistic States within a state's boundary is different from its language domain. A name is not just a noun. It appropriates the past and the future Moreover, it is not as if the language has nothing to do with the to the extent that its connotation allows it to. Therefore, the act of state's socio-economy or politics (in fact it does) but that it only naming, as well as its selection from among options, is a political represents a dimension, like religion or jati, among the many element worthy of historical debate. "Andhra" in contemporary which compose the multilayered structure of people's lives. usage is first of all a place name, such as Andhra Pradesh in a Even the state's boundary is one of these whether or not it is broad sense, or in a narrow sense the Krishna-Godavari basin linguistic in nature. that is commonly regarded as the heartland of Telugu culture. So when one says "he is a Andhra" he is considered to be from the 2 The Relation between 'Andhra' and 'Telugu' coastal area but not from Telangana. Applying the word Andhra It would be worth reviewing at this point of time the historical to Telugu people "at large" is an unusual practice, but was not formation of the Telugus and also what has been said so far. All unusual in history. A dynastic tract did not have to care for the students learn that Dravidians migrated from north-west India geographical distribution of languages, and so from the time of upon the precedent Austro-Asian inhabitants. These proto the ancient Satavahanas to the British period, the Telugu Dravidians are said to have been ramified between pre-Telugu speaking area was either ruled by bigger dynasties or divided and the rest around the nth century bc somewhere in the into smaller kingdoms. Even the medieval Kakatiyas, who Deccan.6 Next is the Ashoka edict of Erragudi village of the covered relatively the territory closest to Andhra Pradesh, ruled third century bc, the first written evidence. Since there are re not more than two-thirds of Andhra Pradesh.1 In that sense, gional variations of the Ashokan Prakrit, some elements of the today's Andhra Pradesh is a rare political unit demarcated over local language must have been reflected in the Erragudi Prakrit, all by language boundaries, and the origin of such an idea cannot too. However, the distinct local characteristics which devel be traced back to the pre-British period. Moreover, it seems to be oped into Telugu appeared much later than Ashoka, and some almost the consensus among scholars that the coincidence peculiar names of places and persons are found in Prakrit in between language and political domains as well as people's aspi scriptions since the second century ad. Besides, according to ration is a modern phenomenon in general.2 the phonological analysis of the regional variations of the past Thus, the viewpoint that the linguistic states are, after all, tense of Telugu, it is concluded that two out of the three fictitious apparatus lacking any historically substantial socio regional dialects today were the later developments out of the economic foundation is often expressed by scholars.3 However, in other one.7 We do not know much about this period, but this the writer's view such seemingly resolute opinions may enclose may suggest that the earliest group of Telugu people was small questions about the important issue of language in history that and linguistically homogeneous and its influence spread over are still left unanswered.