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Suryapet

Town on the old Hyderabad–Masulipatam road in Nalgonda district, head of a taluk of the Nizam's Dominions. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1909 records its rice lands and a fast-growing population; in 1948, according to Sarojini Regani's Congress-side history, villages of the taluk were the scene of a no-tax campaign and of killings by Razakars and the Nizam's police.

Suryapet is a town in Nalgonda district, on the old road from Hyderabad to the coast at Machilipatnam. Under the Nizams it was the head of a taluk (sub-district). In 1948 its villages were caught up in the conflict between the Razakars and armed village squads.123

The taluk in 1901

The Imperial Gazetteer of India volume on Hyderabad (1909) calls the town Suriapet.1 The taluk had 175,436 people in 1901, up from 148,103 in 1891.1 It was then the most densely peopled taluk of Nalgonda district.4 The town itself had 4,418 people.1 Rice was grown widely with water from tanks, wells and channels.1

The gazetteer names an old fort at Orlakonda in Suryapet taluk and a fine temple at Talalmari.5 The white cattle bred in the Suryapet and Miryalaguda (then Devalpalli) taluks, it says, were handsome animals.6

The road and the changes of 1905

The road from Hyderabad to Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) ran through the taluk.2 Madras Sappers and Miners built it for the army in 1832.2 It ran for 71 miles inside the district, as far as Gumpal in Suryapet taluk.2 Traffic for the south of the district went to Hyderabad along this road.2

In 1905, 15 villages of Suryapet taluk went to the new Pochamcherla taluk.17 Suryapet, Nalgonda and Pochamcherla taluks were placed under the district’s headquarters Third Talukdar (assistant district officer).8

1948

Sarojini Regani’s history of the freedom movement, written from the Congress side, describes several clashes in the taluk.9 She lists Suryapet among the places in Nalgonda raided by Razakars.9

At Patarlapahad in Suryapet taluk, on 28 August 1948, she writes, 17 people died in a fight with the Razakars and the Nizam’s police over a no-tax campaign.3 She also describes a procession that was fired on, killing six people, at Suryapet, which she places in Warangal district.10 Suryapet lay in Nalgonda district, so the place she meant is not certain.1 The sources used for this page give no account of these events from the Nizam’s government. See Nalgonda and the Movements page.

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 158 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 155 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  5. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 152 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

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

  8. Imperial Gazetteer: Hyderabad (1909), p. 156 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh, p. 219 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 221 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

People

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.

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.

References

Sources (2)
  1. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 152–159. [Public domain]
  2. 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. 219–221. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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