There are about 80 million Telugu speaking people living in India and outside India , equivalent to the population of Germany. It's extremely difficult to arrive at the exact population of Telugu people since they are wide spread not only in all many States of India but also in many Countries of the World. Telugu population is said to be more than 120 million according to some estimates.
Telugu vaishyas migrated to vidarbha, part of Maharashtra, many decades back and are called by the Surname '' Wars'' such as '' Regundwar''. Many Telugu Padmasalis have settled in Solapur, Maharashtra. Similarly there are many Telugu people settled in Mumbai(Maharashtra), Kharagpur(West Bengal), Kolkata(West Bengal), Odisha , Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh etc. in India.
More than a million Telugu people are said to have settled in America. A large population of Telugu people can be found in Countries like Mauritius and U.K. A size-able population of Telugu people can also be found in Singapore, Malaysia, Countries in Middle East, Canada, Australia, etc.
Andhra Pradesh is the first State to be formed on 1st November 1956 on the basis of language in India. Andhra Pradesh has 2nd largest coastal line (972 kilometres.), 4th largest in area (275,045 square kilometres) and 5th largest population (84.655 million) in India according 2011 census. Many people in the State speak other languages. Andhra Pradesh comprises 23 districts (10 in Telangana region, 4 in Rayalaseema region and 9 in Coastal Andhra region). Official language of the State is Telugu. Telugu people outnumber the population of many Countries in the World. Telugu is not given proper recognition at the National level mainly due to infighting among two different regions of Telugu people and indifference of politicians of the State. The identity of Telugu people is a big question mark itself due to frequent infighting among two regions, indifference of politicians and caste politics.
There are three regions in Andhra Pradesh. They are Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions. Rayalaseema and Telangana are backward regions. There were four Chief Ministers from Telangana region and the rest of the Chief Ministers came from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions since the formation of Andhra Pradesh State. Out of 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh only Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are industrially developed. Visakhapatnam is a port city. Eastern Naval Command has its head quarters here. There are some big industries set up by Central Government in Visakhapatnam. Some small scale industries are also located here. Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh, is developed industrially much better than Visakhapatnam. Chandrababu Naidu former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh gave a big boost to Information Technology in Hyderabad. Rich people from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema made huge investments in Hyderabad. People from other districts of the State shifted their base to Hyderabad for seeking better employment opportunities and also for providing better education to their children especially higher education.
Before independence Coastal Andhra people were governed by East India Company of the British Government. The official language was English. So people learnt English. Telangana region was under Nizam Nawab. Official language was Urdu. After independence and after formation of Andhra Pradesh State those who were conversant in English got jobs and Urdu language was relegated to the second position in Andhra Pradesh. Telangana people could hardly find employment. Further Coastal Andhra region has fertile lands due to Krishna, Godavari, Penna and Tungabhadra rivers. People there are comparatively rich when compared with Telangana people due to the fertility of land. One acre of farming land there is approximately equal to 5 times the cost of farming land in Telangana. They sold their land and purchased much bigger land for the same cost in Telangana region and developed them with their farming skills and became super rich.
The political leaders of Andhra Pradesh have not planned the development of the State properly. They did not resort to district oriented industrialization like Maharashtra politicians. There is no choice left for the people of all the 23 districts of the State but to seek employment in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad. Coastal Andhra people always felt they speak better Telugu when compared with those from Telangana region. They insinuated Telangana people in general because of their Telugu accent and also due to their educational and economic backwardness. Further the Chief Ministers from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions did not implement the gentleman’s agreement of 1956. They never bothered to appoint Deputy Chief Minister from Telangana region and also did not give much importance for the development of the Telangana region. Further they did not give importance for developing Rayalaseema region either. Even the four Chief Ministers from Telangana region Marri Chenna Reddy( twice chief minister), P.V.Narasimha Rao, T.Anjaiah and Jalagam Vengal Rao did not develop either of the backward regions in the real sense. Therefore the gap widened many fold between the people of Coastal Andhra and Telangana regions. They started behaving like bitter enemies.
The present Telangana agitation complicated the matters further due to the behaviour of certain Telangana political leaders. Some time ago they demolished statues of eminent Telugu personalities in Hyderabad on the pretext that statues of eminent personalities from Telangana region were not installed. Who prevented them from installing them?. They could have installed them either with their own money or with the public money. Further the same elements are insulting the official song of Andhra Pradesh " Ma Teugu talliki mallepoo danda". This song literally praises the Telugu language. Ironically these people also speak Telugu with a different accent. It is like insulting the mother. This reflects badly about the sorry state of affairs of the administration. It is completely administrative lacuna.
Interestingly there was a question asked in the popular American TV Programme ‘Jeopardy’ twice, the second time on 11th February 2012, about a Telugu word. The question is ‘Which American word got it from Telugu word ‘ Pandikokku’. No one could tell the answer. The host gave the answer ‘Bandicoot.’
Telugu people are too good in cutting the branch of a tree on which they stand. They are also very good in caste politics. I am keeping my fingers crossed and wonder when better sense will prevail among my people since I am also part of the sinking ship.
Another disturbing trend observed among Telugu people is the negligence of their language and culture mainly by the middle class and rich urban parents and their children in their fascination to learn English. There is nothing wrong in learning English but ignoring their language and culture is pretty bad to say the least.
I pity the Telugu youth who have neglected their glorious Telugu culture and have aped the negative side of the western culture and are crazy about the present day ridiculous Telugu and Hindi movies in a big way. How can they ignore
1) Padyam(Poem/Poetry)
2) Gadyam(Prose)
3) Lalitha Sangeetham(Light Music)
4) Jaanapada Sangeetham(Folk Music)
5) Telugu Sahityam(Telugu Literature)
6) Ashtavadhanam(A Poet meeting the challenge of 8 Poets in an unique way)
7) Satavadhanam(A Poet meeting the challenge of 100 Poets in an unique way)
8) Carnataka Sangeetham(Carnatic Music)
9) Kuchipudi Nrutyam(Kuchipudi Dance)
10) Harikatha and Burrakatha etc.( Narrating Mythological, Historical stories etc. in a typical dance form.
11) Jaanapada Nrutyam(Folk Dance)
12) K.Viswanath's Telugu aanimutya movies.
తెలుగు జాతిని,తెలుగు భాషను, తెలుగు సంస్కృతిని మరిచి యాదమరిచి నిద్దరోయి తెలుగు తల్లి నవమానించి తెలుగు విగ్రహాలు ముక్కచెక్కలు కావించి తెలుగోడిని కాను తెలాంగాణోడినన్న భ్రమలోనున్న తెలుగు సోదరీ సోదరులను, తెలుగు మాట్లడుటే బూతుగా భావించే తెలుగునాటి అన్య ప్రాంతీయులను దేశభాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స అని బహు చక్కగ పలికిన శ్రీకృష్ణదేవరాయలు మతిభ్రమించి అన్న మాటలివి కావని తెలుగోడు తనలోని తెగులుని విస్మరించి తెలుగు వెలుగుని జిగేల్ జిగేల్మనునట్లు జేయుటకు వుద్యమించుటకై సమయమాసన్నమైందని సవినయంగా మనవిజేయుచుంటి.
I happened to read a wonderful article. I thought it would be appropriate to share it with the readers. I am placing the link below.
Login
Search 
Home
Read original blog post
Print this Post 
Topic RSS 
