UNITED WE STAND
but divided we fall – this axiom of age-old distilled wisdom not only applies to all diverse nationalities and communities inhabiting a country, in our case India, but also to the Telugus of different regions inhabiting our united State. The people of Telangana especially, who fought a glorious struggle for the overthrow of a feudal autocratic monarchy and for the unity of the Telugu motherland, must learn from their own history that there is absolutely no need for brothers to separate, that Telangana stands in the relation of an elder brother, and an elder brother normally never desires, and is invariably never expected, to partition the family but rather advises and persuades any recalcitrant younger brothers to maintain family unity and honor. The present agitation of lawyers of different regions of Seemandhra for separate benches of the High Court, apart from its merits, shows that it is only Telangana which is the real cementing factor for unity. One should not forget that Telangana means the entire Telugu land, and should not be limited to just 10 districts of the present united state. But for the historical accident of a large chunk of Nizam’s dominions given up by the Nawab and gulped by the British, the present coastal and Rayalaseema districts would have been a part of Telangana all along and so there is no need to treat the dark interregnum of about 200 years feudal oppression and Nizam’s autocracy as lending any viable separate identity to the people of the ten districts. Above all, it would be a matter of utmost stupidity for a people to forego their access to the second longest coastline in India and the vast natural gas reserves and withdraw into a cocoon, when landlocked states anywhere in the world are sorely craving for such access. For these among many other reasons, on the eve of the glorious day of emergence of the united Telugu state, this editor once again gives a call for unity and amity between different regions and appeals to all separatists to shun their misguided path and heartily work together for the prosperity and welfare of the entire State §§§