Author:

Rajat Kumar Tirkey & Punam Kujur
Junior Research Fellow (UGC),Ph.D. Scholar (UGC)
Department of History
University of North Bengal
Darjeeling, West Bengal, India

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Abstract:: 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.

Key Words::Left-wing, Peasant, Uprising, Andhra mahasabha, Telangana, Razakars etc.