| | The “linguistic principle” following the States
Reorganisation Act of 1956 was framed as a cultural
bond and administrative facilitator for socio-economic
prosperity. It has not only been challenged
intermittently but also contested as a unifying concept.
From the historical point of view, the emergence of the
current separate Telangana movement of Andhra
Pradesh is testimony to the failure or even death of
regional historiography or history consciousness, out of
which the Telugu people’s identity once sought to
evolve. The historical understanding of a small group of
Telugu intellectuals under colonialism finally developed
into an imagined common historiography of the Telugus
as Andhras. Giving the name “Andhra” to the Telugu
region in the 20th century was arbitrary and was due to
the intervention of a new historical consciousness
emerging among Telugu intellectuals. From the end of
the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century,
describing the Telugu people as Andhras and the
Telugu region as the A ndhra region was not a simple
matter of naming. It was an example of a particular
historical interpretation that was rooted in
colonialism and modernisation. The history of a
separate Telangana movement, in a sense, follows
a process to bid farewell to the colonial legacy of a
modern intellectual tradition formed around regional
language and history.
|
