Telengana region is an area of 1,14,840 sq.km. with a population of 35,286,757 which is 4`.6% of the Andhra state population. It has borders with the state of Maharashtra in the north and north west, Karnataka on the west, Chattisgarh on the north east, Orissa and Coastal Andhra on the east, the region of Rayalseema in the south. It has ten districts which are Adilabad, Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mehboobnagar, Medak, Nalgaonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal. The three rivers, Musi, Godavari and Krishna flow in this region from west to east.
The famous Kakatiya rulers reigned for over two hundred years under whom the Telugus came under one rule and during which time the Golconda Fort was constructed. Telengana came under the Mughal rule in the 14th century and by the 18th century when the Mughal empire was disintegrating, this area came under the Asaf Jahi or the Nizam's rule. In the British empire, the Nizam entered into a subsidiary alliance with the British, not directly under their rule and this did not include coastal Andhra or Rayalseema which was under the Madras Presidency British rule. There were peasants' revolts in 1946 and 1951 to rebel against bonded labour and the feudal lords and this was quelled by Osman Ali Khan Asif Jah VII. The State Reorganization Commission of the newly independent Government of India in 1953 thought to merge the Telengana and the Andhra regions and in 1956 with an agreement of power sharing between the Telengana and Andhra leaders the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed.
By 1969 Telengana people were not satisfied with the power sharing agreement implementation and they started an agitation through the Osmania University students and this spread quickly causing loss to the state in many ways. It came to an end in 1972 when the Telengana Praja Samithi merged with the Congress party. In the 1990s the BJP promised a Telengana state if they came to power. In 2001 the Telengana Rashtra Samithi TRS was formed by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao KCR with the intention of a separate Telengana state with Hyderabad as its capital. In 2004 the Congress promised a Telengana state and the TRS joined the Congress in a coalition government. In 2006 KCR withdrew support to the Congress for failure to provide a Telengana state. In November 2009 KCR started a fast unto death and was arrested by the AP government. There was chaos and mayhem, violence and bandhs in Hyderabad and by December 9, the central government promised a separate Telengana state so KCR called off his fast as the Srikrishna Commission was formed to look into the formation of the Telengana state by December 2010.
In early January 2011 the Srikrishna Commitee recommended that the state remained united as one and that the under developed parts of Telengana region be given funds to develop the area. Since then there have been a series of bandhs and much debate over this contentious issue. People of Hyderabad are fast becoming used to bandhs as a way of life.
A bund is a water body or an artificial man-made lake made to hold water from tributaries and rivulets for irrigation purposes. In Hyderabad the Tank Bund was built from the tributary of the Musi river, in 1562 during the Qutb Shah king - Ibrahim Quli Qutb. It was constructed by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali and the king called it Hussain Sagar to honour Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali who helped the king recover from illness. It is popularly known as Tank Bund and links Hyderabad to Secunderabad. The Tank Bund has been the promenade for the twin cities for decades. It has several scenic spots around the bund with the Necklace road on the opposite side. There are parks and clubs all around the bund. Right in the middle of it used to be a rock which was popularly called the 'rock of Gibralter'! In 1988 the Buddha statue was made from a single white granite rock. While transporting it into the Tank Bund, the statue slipped into the lake, killing a worker. For almost two years the statue lay on the bottom of Hussain Sagar until with Danish technology it was retrieved and erected in the middle where the rock of Gibralter used to be, at much cost to the state exchequer. Now it is an international tourist attraction.
