Telangana Formation Day, also known as Telangana Day, is celebrated on June 2 every year to commemorate the formation of the state of Telangana in 2014. It is a day of great significance for the people of Telangana as it marks the birth of a state that has a rich history and its celebration is associated with multiple parades, political speeches, and ceremonies marking its distinct culture and traditions.
Origins of the Telangana Movement
June 2, 2014, is the day when Telangana was officially separated from the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the newest state of India and it corresponds to the Telugu-speaking portions of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad, which was previously an independent state but was later integrated after the Indian government went to war with it in 1948 and annexed it. It was merged with Andhra Pradesh by the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1956 which sought to divide and create states based on linguistic commonalities and lines.
Telangana, for long, has held an identity distinct from that of the rest of Andhra Pradesh and its coastal areas. The proponents of the state have long held that its territory generates a tremendous portion of Andhra Pradesh’s revenue, water resources, and jobs. Funds allocated to the Telangana portion of Andhra Pradesh were barely spent.
For example, since 1956, the Andhra Pradesh government established 11 new medical colleges in the state. 8 were in Seemandhra and only 3 were in Telangana. Telangana was not compensated for lost opportunities because of the inward migration of a lot of students into Hyderabad from Seemandhra. As of 2009, Telangana, as a result of this neglect, had the largest number of backward districts in Andhra Pradesh, something that was the cause of multiple protests in the preceding decades.
1990-Present
It was the 1990s when the first official resolution for the state’s bifurcation was proposed by the BJP and all major parties in the state soon started supporting the demand but it was not until 2009 when the Union Minister for Home Affairs, P Chidambaram, announced that the central government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly.
After many protests, non-cooperation movements, violence, mass resignations and reports were released, including a Telangana March similar to the Dandi March; the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution on July 30, 2013, to create Telangana which received Cabinet approval in October that same year. The bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on February 20, 2014, and became official in March 2014.
