[This
article is intended for the audience who are outside Andhra Pradesh and trying
to figure out why this new state is being formed.]
Demand for Telangana is a sixty year old demand. It has
erupted in major agitations and movements over the last six decades in various
forms. The current movement spanning
the last four years happens to be the greatest and biggest people’s movement in
India after the Independence Movement.
It has galvanized millions of people into participating in thousands of
rallies and protests, in hundreds of major agitations which saw outpouring of
people in lakhs. It also resulted in nearly
thousand suicides.
If you think Anna Hazare Movement saw outpouring of youth
onto streets of India for a genuine cause, then imagine a movement which is
thousand times bigger spread over four years.
If you think Indian Independence Movement touched the common man, then
imagine a movement which has reached grass roots far more extensively than that,
touching almost every man, every woman, and every village in the region.
