Amarajeevi Potti Sreeramulu

Amarajeevi Potti Sreeramulu.

In order to mark the Telugu New Year, Let’s dive in to the life of a man who played a pivotal role for Telugu. India is a nation known for its diversity. The Bharat being a sub-continent is home to hundreads of languages, thousands of traditions, lakhs of dialects and many. In such a diverse country, It’s always pertinent to promote regional aspirations. Regional aspirations does not in any way mean the idea of separatism. We need not expect uniformity in everything. But, its always undeniable to be unified as ‘Indian’. If the diversity is lost, India loses its own identity. In order to keep the diversity more vigilant, promoting and recognizing regional aspirations is inevitable. The work of Sri. Potti Sreeramulu is one such remarkable in the history of modern India.

Staunch Gandhian:

Sri. Potti Sreeramulu was a civil engineer by profession. He had long thriving thought towards Indian freedom. He was driven by the dharmic thoughts of Mahatma Gadhiji. He met Gandhiji in 1929 at the sabarmathi ashram. He had strong conviction on the ideals of satyagraha. Though he was educated with the modern education on engineering, His conscious always traced to the roots of Bharatiya wisdom. His strong love towards his mother tongue and his conviction in ideals of satyagraha made him achieve his cause later.

"If I had only eleven more followers like Sreeramulu,

I would have won freedom from British rule in a year."

The above statement from Gandhiji conveys the strong hold and belief of Sreeramulu on satyagraha.

Man with a mission:

Once India got its freedom and there were discussions across the ruling people on how to demarcate the territories of India. Though there were many demands from the several regional leaders across the nation, the demand of Potti Sreeramulu caught the attention of the power centre. His demand was to demarcate the boundaries of the state based on language. His protest was to separate Telugu speaking people from the then Madras presidency and declare a special state “Andhra” for them. This triggered the debates and voices across the nation. Many regional leaders stood along the lines of Potti Sreeramulu.

The then government formed several committees like S K Dhar Committee, JVP committee(Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, Pattabhi Sitaramayya) to discuss this issue and arrive at a solution. Both these committees rejected the demand of Potti Sreeramulu and declared that demarcation of boundaries of the states based on language would threaten the unity of India. The demarcation should only based on administrative and geographical aspects. This decision does not stop Sreeramulu from protesting for his cause.

Moving further, Sreeramulu declared his fast unto death on 19^th October 1952 demanding separate state for Telugu speaking people. His protest was gaining momentum across the nation. Many regional leaders endorsed his cause. Atlast, The life of this great soul ended on 15^th December 1952 during his protest. His 58 days satyagrahic protest sent a strong message to the people in the power. His death urged the Government of India to form a committee. The Committee under the leadership of Fazl Ali noded for demarcation of state boundaries based on the languages. It also rejected the idea of ‘One language one state’ which means no state should restrict any other language in order to promote its own. The committee prioritised unity and security of the nation above all. The cause behind the sacrifice of a great life was fulfilled and thus ‘Andhra’ the first state to be carved based on language arose. Subsequently all the states were demarcated based on the language.

The life of great satyagrahic fighter gives us more strength and zeal in taking our vision ahead. As said earlier, India’s Unity lies in its diversity. Diversity lies in the promotion and protection of regional aspirations. Once again wishing all the Telugu Bharathiyas a very happy new year!