Landmarks of the Movement
We have noted that the Communists took control of the Andhra Maha Sabha around 1940. The Mahasabha slowly gained strength and popularity in the rural areas. Step by step, the movement took the form of a peasant upsurge, culminating in a major uprising between 1947 and 1950. This period of upsurge can be conveniently analysed in three phases.
The First Phase – Mass Resistance
We have earlier described the socio-economic structure of the State. During the Second World War, a system of levy on foodgrains was introduced. Under this system, each cultivator was required to give a certain quantity of foodgrains per acre to the Government. While every cultivator was expected to perform this duty, the landlords managed to escape, and the burden was pushed onto the ordinary peasants.
The Government also forcibly collected money towards the War Fund. All these measures seriously affected the peasants. At the same time, the big landlords and deshmukhs continued their exploitation of the tenants and agricultural labourers. In many villages of Nalgonda district, struggles between the peasants and the propertied classes began to take place under the impact of Andhra Maha Sabha.
Andhra Mahasabha and the Communist Party trained many volunteers to fight the Police with lathis and slings. Women volunteers used to throw chilli powder, stones, and boiling water at the Police. Nonetheless, the masses could not continue their fight against the army, which established camps in many villages. The Nizam’s Government also banned the Communist Party in November 1946. Thus, the mass upsurge against the big landlords and the Government came to a halt.
The Second Phase – Liberation Struggle
The ban on Congress was lifted in April 1946. The State Congress began to mobilise people in favour of a struggle for the freedom of Hyderabad State. It began to pressurise the Nizam of Hyderabad to join the Indian Union in the event of the British granting independence to India.
On 11th June 1947, the Nizam announced his desire not to join either the Indian Union or Pakistan and to remain independent.
On 7th August 1947, the national flag was hoisted all over the State of Hyderabad. Thousands of satyagrahis were arrested. While all the political parties supported the accession of Hyderabad State to the Indian Union, the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen was opposed to this move.
Political parties of all shades united under the leadership of the Congress, led by Ramananda Tirth, and planned a State-wide Join Indian Movement. Except for a small number of Hindu feudal lords, all the Hindus and some Muslims supported these activities. The Nizam Police and Razakars came down violently on the agitators.
The Congress set up its camps on the borders and made counter-raids on the Police and the Razakars. The Communist leadership studied the situation and concluded that the field was fertile for armed insurrection, procured arms from various parts of the country, and established regular armed squads all over Telangana. The Communist Party raised the slogan ‘land to the tiller’ and began to work against the landlords.
The Third Phase – Armed Struggle
By the end of 1947, it was believed that the Communists had succeeded in distributing the land of the rich landlords to the poor and establishing local rule in about 3,000 villages. The Congress was in favour of agrarian reform, but was certainly not in favour of class conflict in any form.
The Communists increased the number and strength of their squads. Village squads with about 10,000 members and regular guerrilla squads with more than 2,000 members were formed.
By about June 1948, civic life in Hyderabad State virtually came to a standstill. Between April 1947 and March 1948, approximately 250 villages in the State had been looted or burnt. 4,000 houses were set on fire, 500 persons got killed or wounded, and 450 women were molested by the Razakars.
A Government Report said that from 15th August 1946 to 13th September 1948, the Communists brutally murdered nearly 2,000 persons, attacked 22 police out-posts, attempted large-scale disruption of communications, and steadily and systematically adopted the technique of guerilla warfare using the resources at their disposal.
The Hyderabad Government lifted its ban on the Communists and put many Congress leaders behind bars. This further led to the growth of Communist power in the countryside. It was under these conditions that the Union Government took Police Action in September 1948 against the Nizam, and made the State of Hyderabad a part of the Indian Union.
