<<–2/”>a href=”https://exam.pscnotes.com/5653-2/”>p>Just as the constitution came into force, the political situation in Hyderabad began to take a new direction. In December 1949, the Military Governors administration ended, and M.K. Vellodi replaced Major-General Chaudhuri at the head of the new civilian administration in Hyderabad. Vellodi toured the Telangana districts and found that the authorities stationed in the area had not dealt with the communist cause with any understanding. He testified that, 'the villagers who had been alternately beaten up by the Military and the Police and the communists had a haunted look. This section examines how the civil administration won the war with a combination of more responsive policing, and more aggressive programmes of development.
Though the communists were branded terrorists in public, the government quietly learned lessons from them. It was clear that the communists had earned the support of the people because they had tapped into grievances which the Indian government in the state had not begun to address. Assessing the achievements of the communists in the field of social and economic uplift, the Intelligence Bureaus Deputy Director deemed them positive and in some cases great.
Members of the government in India were not ignorant of the significant influence of agrarian uplift on the political situation. Indeed, Nehru encouraged the Ministry of States to view the problems of the peasantry in Hyderabad in the context of the great agrarian revolution taking place over these vast areas of Asia. In Light of the communist uprisings in Burma, Malaya and Indonesia in 1948, it was obvious to the more discerning members of Indias governing class that the communist movement appealed to those in Telangana who suffered under conditions of socio-economic distress. Indeed, soon after the police action, Swami Ramananda Tirtha and his group in the State Congress cautioned Nehru that the use of force against communists would have to be supplemented with agrarian reforms in order to strike at the root cause of the movement.
As the states first Chief Minister, Vellodi initiated a number of more nuanced military measures designed to disrupt the communist movement. He replaced the Brigadier in charge of the Telangana area, who spoke no Telugu, with Captain Nanjappa of the Indian Civil Service, who acted as Special Commissioner in the region.Review committees were constituted to consider the cases of prisoners who were elderly, infirm, or were no threat to security. Within a year over 5000 detenus were freed. Nanjappa substituted the sweeping and heavy-handed operations of the military with small police parties which worked on the basis of intelligence. Home guards and village patrols were organised to assist the police. In the beginning of 1951, Nanjappa gave secret instructions to start a whispering campaign to let it be known that those who laid down their arms voluntarily would have their cases favourably considered.
The authorities also began to build or repair Infrastructure-2/”>INFRASTRUCTURE from roads and wells to dispensaries and schools. They passed a Tenancy Act, which was designed to improve the rights of tenants by capping landholdings, opening the market to cultivators, and protecting tenants from ejection. Although land reforms were not implemented in a uniform manner, and they did not go far enough in many areas, the Act went some way to recognising peasant grievances. A Tribal Reclamation Scheme was introduced in Warangal, under which two teams of Social Service Officers were constituted to redress grievances and create contentment amongst the inhabitants of the area.123 To this end, they travelled through rural areas, and tried to settle any outstanding disputes, and alleviate all major difficulties in the lives of the villagers. These officers aimed to see that vacant government land was allotted, tenants rights confirmed, disputes with absentee landlords settled, land taken by moneylenders restored and debts reconciled.
Having been allotted a lump sum of two lakhs, and an annual budget of 1.38 lakhs, they arranged for the supply of essential commodities such as cloth, kerosene and iron at subsidised prices.124 Police and Revenue officials who visited tribal people distributed medicines, sold cheap cloth, and handed out free dhotis, sarees, soap, slates and books. As a result, noted the Deputy Central Intelligence officer with a hint of surprise, their cooperation with the forces of law and order in this division is most spontaneous. They were even helping to capture communists.