Telangana turns two on June 2 and the State government is pulling out all stops to make it memorable. The Telangana Formation Day also gives us an opportunity to revisit some of the key events that led to the creation of the 29th State of India. The seeds of Telangana struggle were sown in 1955 when the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission to retain Hyderabad as a separate State went unheeded. Telangana leaders accused the people of Andhra of "colonising the region" by grabbing their jobs and land, and the government of not investing in the region's infrastructure. On November 1, 1956, Telangana merged with the State of Andhra, carved out of erstwhile Madras, to form Andhra Pradesh, a united state for the Telugu-speaking populace. The main reason for emergence of the movement for separate state is the formation of Andhra Pradesh state based on linguistic formula. State Re-organization Commission too stated that language alone should be the basis of state reflecting the democratic aspirations of people. There are several districts socio-economic variations among the people who speak same language. The commission also recognised the variations during the colonial times also. Hence, the commission suggested that the distinctive historical specificities have to be considered in the formation of states. However, as the centre could not consider these suggestions in the formation of linguistic states, two different regions become a single state. This led to the situation where developed regions exploited the backward regions.

Keywords: JACs; NGOs; TRS Party; Sagara Haram.