Post Independence

When India became independent from the British Empire in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad did not want to merge with the Indian Union and wanted to remain independent under the special provisions given to princely states. He even asked for a corridor, a passage from India. The rebellion had started throughout the state against the Nizam’s rule and his army, known as the Razakars. The Government of India annexed Hyderabad State on 17 September 1948, in an operation by the Indian Army called Operation Polo which government called Police action. When India became independent, Telugu-speaking people were distributed in about 22 districts, 9 of them in the former Nizam’s dominions of the princely state of Hyderabad, 12 in the Madras Presidency (Northern Circars), and one in French-controlled Yanam.

The Central Government appointed a civil servant, M. K. Vellodi, as First Chief Minister of Hyderabad State on 26 January 1950. He administered the state with the help of bureaucrats from Madras State and Bombay State. In 1952, Dr. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was elected Chief Minister of Hyderabad State in the first democratic election. During this time there were violent agitations by some Telanganites to send back bureaucrats from Madras state and to strictly implement rule by natives of Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Telugu-speaking areas in the Northern Circars and Rayalaseema regions were carved out of the erstwhile Madras state on the fast unto death by Potti Sri Ramulu to create Andhra State in 1953, with Kurnool as its capital.