Telangana State Movement: Student Suicide Sparks Protest, Boycott in India

Riane Menardi is reporting for The Cram while studying abroad in Hyderabad, India. Click here to read her first piece on the Telangana state movement.

HYDERABAD, India -- Hundreds of college students boycotted classes and forced businesses and transportation to shut down for about 48 hours last week after a fellow activist in the Telangana separatist movement committed suicide.

When Osmania University students refused to let K. Venugopal Reddy's body be cremated, police responded with tear gas and batons, and several students and police officers were injured.

This latest wave of unrest started last Tuesday, when students found the charred remains of Reddy, a 23-year-old student and Telangana supporter. Reports indicate that Reddy and other students have burned themselves because of delays in forming a separate Telangana State (pictured above: sketches at Osmania University memorializing students believed to have committed suicide to show their support for the Telangana state).

People in Telangana, one of three regions in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, want their own state. The Telugu people have long felt oppressed and exploited by the much wealthier neighboring region of Andhra. They feel they have been cheated out of natural resources, funding and representation in government, and the rancor has often spilled over into violence.

Across town, at the University of Hyderabad, pro-Telangana students last week disrupted classes and closed the gates to campus. They entered classrooms and asked students to support their movement by walking out on their studies. Several American students at the university said activists marched through academic buildings with drums, sometimes toppling chairs in the classrooms. Though some professors tried to continue teaching, more activists came and forced students and teachers to leave.

On Thursday, more than 50 activists blocked roads on campus and congregated at the main gate. While they blocked passage through the front gate, the protesters sang songs, played drums and chanted "Jai Telangana," meaning "victory and prosperity to Telangana."

In Hyderabad, activist leaders called the Joint Action Committee and sympathetic politicians have organized a "relay fast" in Indira Park through Thursday, Jan. 28 as they wait for myriad political parties in India's United Progressive Alliance, a coalition of members of parliament (MPs), to come to a consensus and grant Telangana statehood. Parliament is the supreme legislative body of India's central government (known as the Centre). Protesters are appealing to Sonia Ghandi, head of the UPA, to make an announcement by the end of the month. Ghandhi has immense power to enact legislation as the head of the UPA. Her support of Telangana state formation would likely ensure the process's success. (K. Venugopal Reddy's suicide note explicitly asked Ghandhi to grant the Telangana state).

If the Centre makes no Telangana announcement by Friday, Jan. 29, over 75 of the 295 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Andhra Pradesh's unicameral legislature are ready to resign their positions. Though the central government may delay its acceptance of the resignations, they would eventually hurl the state into a constitutional crisis and give the Centre temporary governing power. The JAC is urging more MLAs to submit letters of resignation, especially members of the ruling Congress party, which currently has 158 members. These members are caught between mounting pressure from Telangana protesters and their desire to retain ruling party status. Over 115 MLAs are from the Telangana region.

The JAC was created as a collaboration of Indian politicians in Andhra Pradesh to transcend party lines in support of Telangana. Officials from any party can join. Though it has no real power, leaders in the JAC have rallied the people and kept Telangana in the national spotlight for the past few months.

On the streets, student JAC members are organizing their own events. They are currently holding a Maha Padayatra march, which runs through Feb. 7. Activists will travel through the Telangana region, rallying people in villages and promoting their cause. About one million people are expected to convene the march in Warangal, 145 km northeast of Hyderabad, for a major Telangana meeting.