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Nalgonda

Town in southern Telangana, head of a district of the Nizam's Dominions. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1909 describes its fort, its market of Osmanganj and the Telugu-speaking district around it, which gained Cherial (Jangaon) and Kodar in 1905. The district suffered in the famines of 1877 and 1899–1900, and in 1946–48 it was a centre of the peasant struggle and of Razakar raids.

Nalgonda is a town in southern Telangana. Under the Nizams it was the head of a district that reached south to the Krishna river.1 Most of its people spoke Telugu.2 The district lived through famines and revenue reforms, and in the 1940s it became a centre of armed conflict in the villages.34

The town

The Imperial Gazetteer of India volume on Hyderabad (1909) describes Nalgonda as lying between two hills.5 A tomb of a Muslim saint, Shah Latif, stands on the northern hill.5 A strong fortress with a masonry wall stands on the southern one.5 The gazetteer says the town was once called Nilgiri and took its present name after its conquest by Ala-ud-din Bahman Shah, the first Bahmani king.5 It had a large rest house (sarai) built by the minister Mir Alam, a busy market called Osmanganj, a jail, a dispensary and schools for boys and girls.5 In 1901 the town had 5,889 people.5

The district

The district had 699,799 people in 1901.6 About 91 per cent of them spoke Telugu.2 The gazetteer counts the Kapus (farmers) as the largest caste.2 Rice was grown on land watered by tanks (storage ponds) and channels from the Musi and other rivers.7 Weavers at Charlapalli and Pangal made fine silk cloth, and potters at Bhongir made light drinking vessels for sale in Hyderabad.8

The gazetteer gives a short history of land revenue in the district:39

  • Until 1821, an estimator (anchanadar) valued the standing crops for every ten villages.3
  • In 1821, revenue managers (ziladars) made ten-year agreements with the village headmen.3
  • From 1835, groups of villages were let out to zamindars (revenue contractors) under the sarbasta (contract) system.9
  • In 1866, when regular districts were formed, the contract system ended and fixed rates per bigha (three-quarters of an acre) were set.9

By 1909 the revenue survey of the district was not yet finished.9 Only the Nalgonda and Miryalaguda (then Devalpalli) taluks had been newly settled, and their revenue rose by more than 16 per cent.9

Roads, railway and the changes of 1905

The road from Hyderabad to Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) crossed the district.8 Madras Sappers and Miners built it for the army in 1832.8 The Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway (the company line from Wadi to Vijayawada (then Bezwada)) ran through Bhongir taluk for 21 miles, with five stations.8 Three feeder roads from Nalgonda, including those to Devarakonda and Nakrekal, were made as famine works in 1877–78.3

In 1905 the state redrew its districts.10 Nalgonda moved from the Warangal Division to the new Medak Gulshanabad Division.11 It also gained the Cherial taluk, with its new headquarters at Jangaon, and the Kodar sub-taluk, which became the Pochamcherla taluk.21213 The census of 1931 still lists Nalgonda in the Medak suba (division).14

Famines

The gazetteer lists the famines that struck the district.3

  • In 1790, grain sold at one seer (a small measure of weight) to the rupee.3
  • In 1877, grain sold at four seers to the rupee, and the district lost more than 34,000 cattle.3
  • The famine of 1899–1900 was less severe, but its effects lasted nearly two years.3

The census of 1931 names Nalgonda among the districts that suffered most in 1899–1900.15 Nalgonda was also one of eight districts partly struck by the famine of 1918–20.16 In 1921 parts of the district were again declared famine-stricken.17

The struggle of the 1940s

Sarojini Regani’s history of the freedom movement is written from the Congress side.4 She says the communists began a violent struggle against landlords in the Jangaon and Bhongir taluks from October 1946.4 She lists Razakar raids on Nalgonda villages in 1948, including Suryapet and its neighbourhood.18 She also says that 20 customs posts on the district’s borders closed down.18 By her account, Congress and communist workers were said to have destroyed 13 of them, and the government closed the rest.18 At Renikunta in Bhongir taluk, on 4 March 1948, she writes, 26 villagers died fighting the Nizam’s forces and the Razakars.19

The new government’s own account, Hyderabad Reborn (1949), describes the communists of Nalgonda and Warangal very differently.20 It calls them a menace and says that in one district alone they had killed more than 200 people.20 The later story of the peasant struggle is told on the Movements page. See also Bhongir, Devarakonda, Panugallu and Suryapet.

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), pp. 150–151 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 153 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 156 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh, p. 208 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 160 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 152 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 154 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 155 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), pp. 156–157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 121 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 122 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 158 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 159 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Census of India 1931, Vol. XXIII: H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, Part I: Report (1933), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  15. Census of India 1931, Vol. XXIII, Part I (1933), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. Report on the Famine Relief Operations in H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions during 1918–19 and 1919–20 (1923), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  17. Census of India 1931, Vol. XXIII, Part I (1933), p. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  18. Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 219 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  19. Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  20. Hyderabad Reborn (Government of Hyderabad, 1949), p. 21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

People

Ravi Narayana Reddy

1908 CE

Telangana leader who went to jail in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of 1938. He led the left wing that took control of the Andhra Mahasabha in 1944, and was a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad during the Telangana armed struggle. Congress and government sources of the time describe that struggle in sharply different terms.

Arutla Ramachandra Reddy

1909 CE

Worker of the Arya Samaj and the Andhra Mahasabha from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district, born in 1909. He was beaten in police custody during the Vandemataram movement of 1938, confined to his village in 1945, and held for a year as an undertrial prisoner. The Razakars looted his house in 1947–48. He joined the Communist Party in 1952.

Renukunta Rami Reddy

1915–1948 CE

Landlord and Andhra Mahasabha worker of Renukunta, in Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district (born 1915). He trained and led the village's armed squad against the Razakars and the Nizam's police, and was killed when they besieged the village on 4 March 1948 after a fight of about twelve hours. Government, Congress-side and communist sources all record the fight but differ on how he died and how many were killed.

Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao

1917–1984 CE

Communist leader of Nalgonda district (1917–1984) and historian of the Telangana armed struggle. Expelled from Osmania University in the Vandemataram strike, he joined the Communist Party in 1939, led its Nalgonda district committee and joined its state secretariat in March 1948. He sat in the Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1962, later led a revolutionary communist group, and spent long years underground and in jail. His Telugu history of the struggle was published in 1988, after his death.

Arutla Lakshminarasimha Reddy

1918–1976 CE

Lawyer and communist leader from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district (1918–1976). He organised campaigns against the jagirdars in Nalgonda in 1936–37, led a batch in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of October 1938 and was jailed until April 1939. He joined the Communist Party in 1940, sat on the working committee of the Andhra Mahasabha, and was wanted by the Nizam's government in 1947. He later served in both houses of the Andhra Pradesh legislature.

Arutla Kamala Devi

1921 CE

Communist worker from Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district, born in 1921. She was general secretary of the Hyderabad Women's Association in 1942–44 and worked underground in the Telangana struggle of 1946–48, organising women against the Razakars. She was later a member of the Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh legislative assemblies from 1952 to 1967.

Gottimukkala Gopal Reddy

1926–1948 CE

Communist squad leader from Atmakur in Suryapet taluk of Nalgonda district (born about 1926). A poor farmer's son, he joined the struggle against the Nizam in 1946 and rose to lead a guerrilla squad. He was killed with four companions when soldiers and Razakars surrounded his squad at Patarlapadu (Patarlapahad), in Suryapet taluk, in 1947–48.

Vattikota Alwar Swamy

Telugu writer and publisher from Nalgonda district who rose from poverty without schooling. In 1938 he founded the Desoddharaka Granthamala, which published small books to spread national feeling. He ran the arrangements for the Andhra Mahasabha's session at Chilkur, became its organising secretary at Bhongir in 1944, and moved from nationalism to the Communist Party.

References

Sources (5)
  1. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 48–49, 121–122, 150–160. [Public domain]
  2. Khan, Gulam Ahmad, Census of India 1931 vol.23 H.E.H. the Nizamʼs dominions (Hyderabad State); pt.1- Report (opens in a new tab), 1933, pp. 1, 16, 19–20. [Public domain]
  3. Famine Commissioner, H.E.H. the Nizam's Government, Report on the Famine Relief Operations in His Exalted Highness the Nizam's Dominions during 1918–19 and 1919–20 (1328, 1329 and Azur 1330 Fasli) (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Hyderabad, 1923, pp. 1, 4. [Public domain]
  4. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (opens in a new tab), Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1956, pp. 208, 219–221. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  5. Director of Information, Government of Hyderabad, Hyderabad Reborn: First Six Months of Freedom (September 18, 1948 - March 17, 1949) (opens in a new tab), Government of Hyderabad, 1949, pp. 21. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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