4 July 1997

Commemorating the Peasant Uprising of Telengana

The peasant rising in 1946 in Telengana (in Hyderabad, South India) was directed against forced labour and feudal oppression. Later it developed into an agrarian liberation struggle to eliminate the feudal landlords and the ruling dynasty in Hyderabad. The struggle continued up to 1951, even after the merger of Hyderabad State in the Indian Union.
The Indian Communist Party (CPI) had great influence in Hyderabad, it controlled one-sixth of the region in 1948. In this area the landlords were driven away, their lands seized, and one million acres of land were redistributed among the peasantry. After many communists and peasant activists had been killed or arrested by the army, they surrendered their arms in 1951. The struggle is regularly commemorated by the CPI.

See also:

•  Bengal collections
•  Bengal Oral History - Peasant uprisings

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