Formation of Andhra Pradesh – 1947 to 1956
Hyderabad state (outlined in red color) superimposed on today's India map.There are a lot of myths and huge ignorance surrounding the formation of Andhra Pradesh. People generally assume that it was historically one through time. However, Andhra Pradesh witnessed many changes before it emerged as the first linguistic state on November 1, 1956. The years 1947 to 1956 were very crucial in the history of Andhra Pradesh. When India got independence on August 15, 1947, the three main regions of Andhra Pradesh – Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana were not part of Andhra Pradesh state.
Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema belonged to Madras Presidency as a province of British India. Telangana was part of Hyderabad state, which was an independent native Indian state. Though, there were 568 native Indian states, Hyderabad State was the most important native state and was administered directly by the Governor General of India.
Madras Presidency (in green color) - 1909. The area in darker shade of green represents Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions
The ruler of Hyderabad State was considered the most senior or superior native Indian ruler. Hyderabad state included Telangana, 4 Kannada districts in Gulberga division & 4 Marathi districts in Aurangabad division.
There was a big difference between these two regions. Unlike Madras Presidency, Hyderabad state was not under direct British rule. The law of Madras Presidency rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament. In contrast, Hyderabad state had its own law. English was the official language of Madras Presidency, where as it was Urdu for Hyderabad state. Which means all records were kept only in Urdu (for this reason the old land records are in Urdu). The maintenance of all records in Urdu is symbolic of the differences between the two vastly different administrative systems. Urdu was a compulsory subject in Hyderabad state and almost all educated people knew Urdu like people know English today.
Hyderabad state had its own financial, military, judicial, police, general, public works and revenue departments. The administration of Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra mostly followed the current system in India that was derived from British administration systems. Whereas Hyderabad State followed the Moghul administration systems (with changes made over time).
The Formation of Andhra Pradesh
However, Telugu speaking people demanded for their long cherished Visalandhra formation, but people of Hyderabad state were unanimous in their demand for splitting the state into three parts. The States Reorganization Commission headed by Syed Fazal Ali heard the views of different people and organizations. Based on the Commission’s conclusions, the Congress Party High Command preferred Visalandhra and enlarged the state by including nine Telugu speaking districts of Hyderabad state to eleven districts of Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh with 20 districts. In the process, the Hyderabad state was split among Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra State. Aurangabad division merged with Maharashtra and Gulbarga division merged with Karnataka. The rest of the two divisions of the state – Gulshanabad or Medak and Nizamabad merged with Andhra State.
Thus, the state of ‘Andhra Pradesh’ emerged merging all the districts of Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana on November 1, 1956, with Neelam Sanjiva Reddy as the Chief Minister and C.M Trivedi as the Governor.
