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Telangana Movement

Telangana Movement

Vignettes from the Telangana Movement

The Telangana movement (1948-51) was an armed revolt of peasants under the leadership of the Communist Party of India against oppressive landlordism patronized by the autocratic rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad.

The sufferings of the peasants intensified with the onset of the Second World War, as they were subjected to increasing numbers of exploitative taxes and levies and forced to perform ‘vetty’ (forced labour). The poorest strata of the peasantry were affected the most, as many of them were unable to bear the increasing burden of exactions, losing their land to the village moneylenders.

Men, women and children from different discontented villages were organized by the Communists into armed guerilla squads to fight exploitative landlords and armed battalions of the Nizam called ‘razakars’, who were increasingly deployed for crushing the movement. Parallel governments were established in about 3000 villages in the region.

P.C. Joshi, the then General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, provided inspiration for the armed struggle in Telangana. He arranged for the supply of arms and ammunition to the struggling peasants. He was supported in his endeavour by many military officers who gifted weapons free of cost and arranged for their shipment.

This rare collection of photographs taken by a party photographer, captures in vivid (and sometimes amusing) detail the many dimensions of the lives of the people of Telangana during those tumultuous times.

Note: All photograph captions in inverted commas were given by the party photographer at the time they were taken.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.