Integration & Reorganization | Maharashtra State PSC (MPSC): Preparation - MPSC (Maharastra) PDF Download

 Page 1


 
 
127
11 
 
 
INTEGRATION & REORGANISATION 
 
 
a) Hydrabad Mukti Sangram 
b) Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
 
 
Unit Structure : 
 
11.0 Objectives 
11.1 Introduction 
11.2 Hyderabad Mukti Sangram 
11.3 Role of Swami Ramananda Teerth  
11.4 Reorganisation of State on Linguistic Basis 
11.5 Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
11.6 Conclusion 
11.7 Questions 
 
11.0 OBJECTIVES 
 
After the study of this unit, the student will be able to : 
 
 
INTRODUCTION  
 
 The first Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, 
moved a proposal of forming the All India Federation in which the 
British Provinces were to join it automatically, whereas the Princely 
States were also to join the federation but after signing the 
Integration	&	Reorganization
Page 2


 
 
127
11 
 
 
INTEGRATION & REORGANISATION 
 
 
a) Hydrabad Mukti Sangram 
b) Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
 
 
Unit Structure : 
 
11.0 Objectives 
11.1 Introduction 
11.2 Hyderabad Mukti Sangram 
11.3 Role of Swami Ramananda Teerth  
11.4 Reorganisation of State on Linguistic Basis 
11.5 Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
11.6 Conclusion 
11.7 Questions 
 
11.0 OBJECTIVES 
 
After the study of this unit, the student will be able to : 
 
 
INTRODUCTION  
 
 The first Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, 
moved a proposal of forming the All India Federation in which the 
British Provinces were to join it automatically, whereas the Princely 
States were also to join the federation but after signing the 
Integration	&	Reorganization
 
 
instrument of Accession. The all India federation came into 
existence by the Government of India Act of 1935. The British 
provinces joined the federation but the princely states did not join it 
because some of the British officials advised them that their 
position would be better if they kept out of the federation. This 
made the princely states not to sign the instrument of Accession 
and join the federation. The Cabinet Mission, which visited India in 
1946 and announced that the rule of British India would come to an 
end and the Independent Government, would come to power. This 
implied that the relations of the Princely States would depend on 
the succeeding Government.  
 
 In order to integrate all Princely States Pandit Nehru invited 
them to work together in the Committees as the Union Power 
Committee and the Fundamental Rights Committee, which were set 
up by the Constituent Assembly. Some of the Princely States like 
the Maharaja of Bikaner and the Maharaja of Patiala responded 
favourably, where as some states like the Nawab of Bhopal refused 
to join the committees and function together. This led Nehru to 
declare that the states refuse to act collectively in the Constituent 
Assembly would be treated as hostile states. Liaquat Ali Khan, a 
Muslim League leader critised Nehru for his approach towards the 
Princely States. Barrister Jinnah supported Liaquat Ali Khan and 
declared that the Princely States would join either India or Pakistan 
constituently Assembly or remain independent after the termination 
of the British rule in India.  
 
 The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 
on 18
th
 July, 1947 and on 15
th
 August, 1947 the two dominion 
states i.e. Independent India and independent Pakistan came into 
existence. The Act also left the Princely States to their own 
discretion either to join India or Pakistan but not empowered them 
to be separate international entities. The states like Travancore and 
Hyderabad declared themselves to be independent after the Act 
was passed, which led Sardar Patel to make a patriotic appeal to 
the Princely States to join India. Lord Mountbatten supported 
Sardar Patel and asked the states to consider the same appeal 
seriously. Consequently, except Hyderabad, Junagad and Kasmir 
all other states joined either India or Pakistan. To integrate the 
states of Junagad and Hyderabad, the Government of India was 
forced to take appropriate action against their rulers and the 
process of integration was completed under the able leadership of 
Sardar Patel. 
  
HYDERABAD MUKTI SANGRAM  
 
 The state of Hyderabad was located at the heart of India and 
occupied the Deccan plateau and covered 92,698 square miles. It 
Page 3


 
 
127
11 
 
 
INTEGRATION & REORGANISATION 
 
 
a) Hydrabad Mukti Sangram 
b) Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
 
 
Unit Structure : 
 
11.0 Objectives 
11.1 Introduction 
11.2 Hyderabad Mukti Sangram 
11.3 Role of Swami Ramananda Teerth  
11.4 Reorganisation of State on Linguistic Basis 
11.5 Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
11.6 Conclusion 
11.7 Questions 
 
11.0 OBJECTIVES 
 
After the study of this unit, the student will be able to : 
 
 
INTRODUCTION  
 
 The first Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, 
moved a proposal of forming the All India Federation in which the 
British Provinces were to join it automatically, whereas the Princely 
States were also to join the federation but after signing the 
Integration	&	Reorganization
 
 
instrument of Accession. The all India federation came into 
existence by the Government of India Act of 1935. The British 
provinces joined the federation but the princely states did not join it 
because some of the British officials advised them that their 
position would be better if they kept out of the federation. This 
made the princely states not to sign the instrument of Accession 
and join the federation. The Cabinet Mission, which visited India in 
1946 and announced that the rule of British India would come to an 
end and the Independent Government, would come to power. This 
implied that the relations of the Princely States would depend on 
the succeeding Government.  
 
 In order to integrate all Princely States Pandit Nehru invited 
them to work together in the Committees as the Union Power 
Committee and the Fundamental Rights Committee, which were set 
up by the Constituent Assembly. Some of the Princely States like 
the Maharaja of Bikaner and the Maharaja of Patiala responded 
favourably, where as some states like the Nawab of Bhopal refused 
to join the committees and function together. This led Nehru to 
declare that the states refuse to act collectively in the Constituent 
Assembly would be treated as hostile states. Liaquat Ali Khan, a 
Muslim League leader critised Nehru for his approach towards the 
Princely States. Barrister Jinnah supported Liaquat Ali Khan and 
declared that the Princely States would join either India or Pakistan 
constituently Assembly or remain independent after the termination 
of the British rule in India.  
 
 The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 
on 18
th
 July, 1947 and on 15
th
 August, 1947 the two dominion 
states i.e. Independent India and independent Pakistan came into 
existence. The Act also left the Princely States to their own 
discretion either to join India or Pakistan but not empowered them 
to be separate international entities. The states like Travancore and 
Hyderabad declared themselves to be independent after the Act 
was passed, which led Sardar Patel to make a patriotic appeal to 
the Princely States to join India. Lord Mountbatten supported 
Sardar Patel and asked the states to consider the same appeal 
seriously. Consequently, except Hyderabad, Junagad and Kasmir 
all other states joined either India or Pakistan. To integrate the 
states of Junagad and Hyderabad, the Government of India was 
forced to take appropriate action against their rulers and the 
process of integration was completed under the able leadership of 
Sardar Patel. 
  
HYDERABAD MUKTI SANGRAM  
 
 The state of Hyderabad was located at the heart of India and 
occupied the Deccan plateau and covered 92,698 square miles. It 
 
 
was established in 1724 by Nizam-ul-Mulk. As per the 1941 
census, it had 16.34 million population out of which 85% was 
Hindus and 12% was Muslims. It was a multilingual state which 
consisted of 48% Telugu speaking, 26% Marathi speaking and 12% 
Kannada speaking people but its ruler was Muslim. In the revenue 
collection, Hyderabad was the richest state among the 565 Princely 
States of India.  
 
 After the British terminated its power over India, Nizam 
declared that Hyderabad would be independent sovereign state. 
Nizam never prepared to sign the instrument of Accessions on the 
contrary he indulged in anti- Indian activities with the help of 
Pakistan. Nizam advanced Rs. Two Hundred millions to Pakistan 
and appointed a Pakistani as Prime Minister of Hyderabad on the 
advice of Jinnah. He approached the United Nations and requested 
to protect his right to be independent sovereign state. He also 
requested the American President to mediate in the dispute 
between Hyderabad and India. In a nutshel, he did everything to 
keep Hyderabad independent and began to import arms and 
ammunitions from Pakistan and other European countries to fight 
against India.   
 
 In addition to this, Nizam encouraged Qasim Rizvi to 
terrorise the Hindu population in Hyderabad state. Qasim Rizvi was 
the leader of a radical Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party. It 
had a two lakhs voluntary militia of Muslims called the Razakars, 
who has sworn to uphold Islamic domination in Hyderabad in any 
circumstances. The Razakars indulged in attacking trains in transit, 
robbed the passengers, killed men, women and children in cold 
blood. They abducted women and girls raped and killed them very 
bruttally. They continued looting and arson for several days and 
terrorized the people all over the state. In order to protest against 
the regime of terror of Razakars, the Hyderabad Congress 
launched a powerful satyagrah movement. The Nizam instead of 
democratizing the state of Hyderabad jailed almost all satyagrahis. 
During the same period a powerful communist led peasants 
struggle developed in Telangana, in which farmers attacked big 
landlords and distributed their land to the landless people.  
 
Although, several rounds of negotiations carried out with the 
Indian Government, they failed due to unreasonable demands of 
Nizam. When the activities of Razakars assumed dangerous 
proportions, the Indian Government decided to take appropriate 
action against Nizam. It sent armed forces to Hyderabad on 13 
September, 1948 under the command of Major-General J. N. 
Chaudhari. This operation was called the Hyderabad Police Action, 
in which there was a pitched battle for first three days and defeated 
the Nizam forces at Naldurga, Jalkot, Umarga, Tuljapur and Kohara 
by the Indian forces under J. N. Chaudhari whereas Lt. General 
Page 4


 
 
127
11 
 
 
INTEGRATION & REORGANISATION 
 
 
a) Hydrabad Mukti Sangram 
b) Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
 
 
Unit Structure : 
 
11.0 Objectives 
11.1 Introduction 
11.2 Hyderabad Mukti Sangram 
11.3 Role of Swami Ramananda Teerth  
11.4 Reorganisation of State on Linguistic Basis 
11.5 Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
11.6 Conclusion 
11.7 Questions 
 
11.0 OBJECTIVES 
 
After the study of this unit, the student will be able to : 
 
 
INTRODUCTION  
 
 The first Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, 
moved a proposal of forming the All India Federation in which the 
British Provinces were to join it automatically, whereas the Princely 
States were also to join the federation but after signing the 
Integration	&	Reorganization
 
 
instrument of Accession. The all India federation came into 
existence by the Government of India Act of 1935. The British 
provinces joined the federation but the princely states did not join it 
because some of the British officials advised them that their 
position would be better if they kept out of the federation. This 
made the princely states not to sign the instrument of Accession 
and join the federation. The Cabinet Mission, which visited India in 
1946 and announced that the rule of British India would come to an 
end and the Independent Government, would come to power. This 
implied that the relations of the Princely States would depend on 
the succeeding Government.  
 
 In order to integrate all Princely States Pandit Nehru invited 
them to work together in the Committees as the Union Power 
Committee and the Fundamental Rights Committee, which were set 
up by the Constituent Assembly. Some of the Princely States like 
the Maharaja of Bikaner and the Maharaja of Patiala responded 
favourably, where as some states like the Nawab of Bhopal refused 
to join the committees and function together. This led Nehru to 
declare that the states refuse to act collectively in the Constituent 
Assembly would be treated as hostile states. Liaquat Ali Khan, a 
Muslim League leader critised Nehru for his approach towards the 
Princely States. Barrister Jinnah supported Liaquat Ali Khan and 
declared that the Princely States would join either India or Pakistan 
constituently Assembly or remain independent after the termination 
of the British rule in India.  
 
 The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 
on 18
th
 July, 1947 and on 15
th
 August, 1947 the two dominion 
states i.e. Independent India and independent Pakistan came into 
existence. The Act also left the Princely States to their own 
discretion either to join India or Pakistan but not empowered them 
to be separate international entities. The states like Travancore and 
Hyderabad declared themselves to be independent after the Act 
was passed, which led Sardar Patel to make a patriotic appeal to 
the Princely States to join India. Lord Mountbatten supported 
Sardar Patel and asked the states to consider the same appeal 
seriously. Consequently, except Hyderabad, Junagad and Kasmir 
all other states joined either India or Pakistan. To integrate the 
states of Junagad and Hyderabad, the Government of India was 
forced to take appropriate action against their rulers and the 
process of integration was completed under the able leadership of 
Sardar Patel. 
  
HYDERABAD MUKTI SANGRAM  
 
 The state of Hyderabad was located at the heart of India and 
occupied the Deccan plateau and covered 92,698 square miles. It 
 
 
was established in 1724 by Nizam-ul-Mulk. As per the 1941 
census, it had 16.34 million population out of which 85% was 
Hindus and 12% was Muslims. It was a multilingual state which 
consisted of 48% Telugu speaking, 26% Marathi speaking and 12% 
Kannada speaking people but its ruler was Muslim. In the revenue 
collection, Hyderabad was the richest state among the 565 Princely 
States of India.  
 
 After the British terminated its power over India, Nizam 
declared that Hyderabad would be independent sovereign state. 
Nizam never prepared to sign the instrument of Accessions on the 
contrary he indulged in anti- Indian activities with the help of 
Pakistan. Nizam advanced Rs. Two Hundred millions to Pakistan 
and appointed a Pakistani as Prime Minister of Hyderabad on the 
advice of Jinnah. He approached the United Nations and requested 
to protect his right to be independent sovereign state. He also 
requested the American President to mediate in the dispute 
between Hyderabad and India. In a nutshel, he did everything to 
keep Hyderabad independent and began to import arms and 
ammunitions from Pakistan and other European countries to fight 
against India.   
 
 In addition to this, Nizam encouraged Qasim Rizvi to 
terrorise the Hindu population in Hyderabad state. Qasim Rizvi was 
the leader of a radical Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party. It 
had a two lakhs voluntary militia of Muslims called the Razakars, 
who has sworn to uphold Islamic domination in Hyderabad in any 
circumstances. The Razakars indulged in attacking trains in transit, 
robbed the passengers, killed men, women and children in cold 
blood. They abducted women and girls raped and killed them very 
bruttally. They continued looting and arson for several days and 
terrorized the people all over the state. In order to protest against 
the regime of terror of Razakars, the Hyderabad Congress 
launched a powerful satyagrah movement. The Nizam instead of 
democratizing the state of Hyderabad jailed almost all satyagrahis. 
During the same period a powerful communist led peasants 
struggle developed in Telangana, in which farmers attacked big 
landlords and distributed their land to the landless people.  
 
Although, several rounds of negotiations carried out with the 
Indian Government, they failed due to unreasonable demands of 
Nizam. When the activities of Razakars assumed dangerous 
proportions, the Indian Government decided to take appropriate 
action against Nizam. It sent armed forces to Hyderabad on 13 
September, 1948 under the command of Major-General J. N. 
Chaudhari. This operation was called the Hyderabad Police Action, 
in which there was a pitched battle for first three days and defeated 
the Nizam forces at Naldurga, Jalkot, Umarga, Tuljapur and Kohara 
by the Indian forces under J. N. Chaudhari whereas Lt. General 
 
 
Rudra captured Hospet and surrounding areas from the Razakars. 
The Indian forced brought under their control Osmanabad, 
Aurangabad and Jalna on 14 September, 1948. They moved 
further on 15 September to Latur, Mominabad and Narkatpalli 
towns. On 15 September, they captured Zahirabad and on 17 
September, 1948 Nizam came to know that Hyderabad army and 
Razakars were totally routed. On the same day he announced 
ceasefire and broadcasted his surrender. In this Police Action, India 
lost 32 soldiers and 97 were wounded where as Hyderabad lost 
1,863 soldiers, wounded 122 and surrendered 3,558 soldiers. All 
Razakars were dealt according to the law of the land and Nizam 
was permitted to settle in Pakistan. He was sanction a life long 
pension of five million ruppes and allowed to keep with him the 
huge exchequer of the earstwhile Hyderabad state.  
 
ROLE OF SWAMI RAMANAND TEERTH  
 
India became independent of the British rule on the 15th 
August 1947. Most of the Princely States merged with the Indian 
Union but some remained adamant and refused to dissolve their 
states and accept merger and adopt democratic rule. Hyderabad 
was such a State. One ascetic from this State approached the 
Government of India and demanded that the state be dissolved and 
merged with the Indian Union. It must adopt democracy. He 
organized a major freedom struggle and fought for it till the Nizam 
State of Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union. This ascetic was 
none other than Swami Ramananda Teerth. He is known as the 
father of Hyderabad Mukti Sangram. 
 
Early Life 
 
Swami Ramananda Teerth was Wyankatesh Bhagavanrao 
Khelgikar before he undertook ascetism. He was born at village 
Sindagi in the Vijapur district on the date of 3rd October 1903. His 
father also had been an ascetic, but at his Guru’s insistence he 
reverted back to family life. He worked as a teacher and later 
became headmaster in their village Sindagi. Swamiji had his 
primary education in Sindagi but later he joined a government high 
school in Solapur for secondary education. To make ends meet, he 
worked as a waiter in an inn, since the family’s financial situation 
was weak. He became an avid reader during this period. After 
reading the biographies of great men like Swami Ramateerth 
Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda, he was tempted to 
renounce family life and live an ascetic’s life. Later he was 
influenced by the thoughts of Lokamanya Tilak and Mahatma 
Gandhi. He was driven by intense patriotism. Once when Mahatma 
Gandhi was to pass through Solapur during his journey, he took 
great efforts to meet him. Catching up with the Mahatma in his train 
Page 5


 
 
127
11 
 
 
INTEGRATION & REORGANISATION 
 
 
a) Hydrabad Mukti Sangram 
b) Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
 
 
Unit Structure : 
 
11.0 Objectives 
11.1 Introduction 
11.2 Hyderabad Mukti Sangram 
11.3 Role of Swami Ramananda Teerth  
11.4 Reorganisation of State on Linguistic Basis 
11.5 Sanyukta Maharashtra Movement 
11.6 Conclusion 
11.7 Questions 
 
11.0 OBJECTIVES 
 
After the study of this unit, the student will be able to : 
 
 
INTRODUCTION  
 
 The first Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, 
moved a proposal of forming the All India Federation in which the 
British Provinces were to join it automatically, whereas the Princely 
States were also to join the federation but after signing the 
Integration	&	Reorganization
 
 
instrument of Accession. The all India federation came into 
existence by the Government of India Act of 1935. The British 
provinces joined the federation but the princely states did not join it 
because some of the British officials advised them that their 
position would be better if they kept out of the federation. This 
made the princely states not to sign the instrument of Accession 
and join the federation. The Cabinet Mission, which visited India in 
1946 and announced that the rule of British India would come to an 
end and the Independent Government, would come to power. This 
implied that the relations of the Princely States would depend on 
the succeeding Government.  
 
 In order to integrate all Princely States Pandit Nehru invited 
them to work together in the Committees as the Union Power 
Committee and the Fundamental Rights Committee, which were set 
up by the Constituent Assembly. Some of the Princely States like 
the Maharaja of Bikaner and the Maharaja of Patiala responded 
favourably, where as some states like the Nawab of Bhopal refused 
to join the committees and function together. This led Nehru to 
declare that the states refuse to act collectively in the Constituent 
Assembly would be treated as hostile states. Liaquat Ali Khan, a 
Muslim League leader critised Nehru for his approach towards the 
Princely States. Barrister Jinnah supported Liaquat Ali Khan and 
declared that the Princely States would join either India or Pakistan 
constituently Assembly or remain independent after the termination 
of the British rule in India.  
 
 The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 
on 18
th
 July, 1947 and on 15
th
 August, 1947 the two dominion 
states i.e. Independent India and independent Pakistan came into 
existence. The Act also left the Princely States to their own 
discretion either to join India or Pakistan but not empowered them 
to be separate international entities. The states like Travancore and 
Hyderabad declared themselves to be independent after the Act 
was passed, which led Sardar Patel to make a patriotic appeal to 
the Princely States to join India. Lord Mountbatten supported 
Sardar Patel and asked the states to consider the same appeal 
seriously. Consequently, except Hyderabad, Junagad and Kasmir 
all other states joined either India or Pakistan. To integrate the 
states of Junagad and Hyderabad, the Government of India was 
forced to take appropriate action against their rulers and the 
process of integration was completed under the able leadership of 
Sardar Patel. 
  
HYDERABAD MUKTI SANGRAM  
 
 The state of Hyderabad was located at the heart of India and 
occupied the Deccan plateau and covered 92,698 square miles. It 
 
 
was established in 1724 by Nizam-ul-Mulk. As per the 1941 
census, it had 16.34 million population out of which 85% was 
Hindus and 12% was Muslims. It was a multilingual state which 
consisted of 48% Telugu speaking, 26% Marathi speaking and 12% 
Kannada speaking people but its ruler was Muslim. In the revenue 
collection, Hyderabad was the richest state among the 565 Princely 
States of India.  
 
 After the British terminated its power over India, Nizam 
declared that Hyderabad would be independent sovereign state. 
Nizam never prepared to sign the instrument of Accessions on the 
contrary he indulged in anti- Indian activities with the help of 
Pakistan. Nizam advanced Rs. Two Hundred millions to Pakistan 
and appointed a Pakistani as Prime Minister of Hyderabad on the 
advice of Jinnah. He approached the United Nations and requested 
to protect his right to be independent sovereign state. He also 
requested the American President to mediate in the dispute 
between Hyderabad and India. In a nutshel, he did everything to 
keep Hyderabad independent and began to import arms and 
ammunitions from Pakistan and other European countries to fight 
against India.   
 
 In addition to this, Nizam encouraged Qasim Rizvi to 
terrorise the Hindu population in Hyderabad state. Qasim Rizvi was 
the leader of a radical Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party. It 
had a two lakhs voluntary militia of Muslims called the Razakars, 
who has sworn to uphold Islamic domination in Hyderabad in any 
circumstances. The Razakars indulged in attacking trains in transit, 
robbed the passengers, killed men, women and children in cold 
blood. They abducted women and girls raped and killed them very 
bruttally. They continued looting and arson for several days and 
terrorized the people all over the state. In order to protest against 
the regime of terror of Razakars, the Hyderabad Congress 
launched a powerful satyagrah movement. The Nizam instead of 
democratizing the state of Hyderabad jailed almost all satyagrahis. 
During the same period a powerful communist led peasants 
struggle developed in Telangana, in which farmers attacked big 
landlords and distributed their land to the landless people.  
 
Although, several rounds of negotiations carried out with the 
Indian Government, they failed due to unreasonable demands of 
Nizam. When the activities of Razakars assumed dangerous 
proportions, the Indian Government decided to take appropriate 
action against Nizam. It sent armed forces to Hyderabad on 13 
September, 1948 under the command of Major-General J. N. 
Chaudhari. This operation was called the Hyderabad Police Action, 
in which there was a pitched battle for first three days and defeated 
the Nizam forces at Naldurga, Jalkot, Umarga, Tuljapur and Kohara 
by the Indian forces under J. N. Chaudhari whereas Lt. General 
 
 
Rudra captured Hospet and surrounding areas from the Razakars. 
The Indian forced brought under their control Osmanabad, 
Aurangabad and Jalna on 14 September, 1948. They moved 
further on 15 September to Latur, Mominabad and Narkatpalli 
towns. On 15 September, they captured Zahirabad and on 17 
September, 1948 Nizam came to know that Hyderabad army and 
Razakars were totally routed. On the same day he announced 
ceasefire and broadcasted his surrender. In this Police Action, India 
lost 32 soldiers and 97 were wounded where as Hyderabad lost 
1,863 soldiers, wounded 122 and surrendered 3,558 soldiers. All 
Razakars were dealt according to the law of the land and Nizam 
was permitted to settle in Pakistan. He was sanction a life long 
pension of five million ruppes and allowed to keep with him the 
huge exchequer of the earstwhile Hyderabad state.  
 
ROLE OF SWAMI RAMANAND TEERTH  
 
India became independent of the British rule on the 15th 
August 1947. Most of the Princely States merged with the Indian 
Union but some remained adamant and refused to dissolve their 
states and accept merger and adopt democratic rule. Hyderabad 
was such a State. One ascetic from this State approached the 
Government of India and demanded that the state be dissolved and 
merged with the Indian Union. It must adopt democracy. He 
organized a major freedom struggle and fought for it till the Nizam 
State of Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union. This ascetic was 
none other than Swami Ramananda Teerth. He is known as the 
father of Hyderabad Mukti Sangram. 
 
Early Life 
 
Swami Ramananda Teerth was Wyankatesh Bhagavanrao 
Khelgikar before he undertook ascetism. He was born at village 
Sindagi in the Vijapur district on the date of 3rd October 1903. His 
father also had been an ascetic, but at his Guru’s insistence he 
reverted back to family life. He worked as a teacher and later 
became headmaster in their village Sindagi. Swamiji had his 
primary education in Sindagi but later he joined a government high 
school in Solapur for secondary education. To make ends meet, he 
worked as a waiter in an inn, since the family’s financial situation 
was weak. He became an avid reader during this period. After 
reading the biographies of great men like Swami Ramateerth 
Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda, he was tempted to 
renounce family life and live an ascetic’s life. Later he was 
influenced by the thoughts of Lokamanya Tilak and Mahatma 
Gandhi. He was driven by intense patriotism. Once when Mahatma 
Gandhi was to pass through Solapur during his journey, he took 
great efforts to meet him. Catching up with the Mahatma in his train 
 
 
bogie, he bowed down and touched the feet of the Mahatma 
Gandhi in obeisance. The Mahatma caught hold of him by his 
shoulders and straightening him, asked him to do something for the 
country. This made him sure of his future path and he followed it 
throughout his life. Subsequently he completed college education in 
Amalner and Pune. He acquired his Master’s degree from Tilak 
Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. The subject for his dissertation was The 
Development of Democracy. Meanwhile he also addressed the 
problems of labourers. 
 
Struggle against Nizam 
 
In June 1929 he joined a Gurukul (residential school) started 
by a group of nationalists at Hipperga in the Osmanabad district. 
He liked the institution because of the atmosphere there; the 
teachers were idealists, wore Khadi clothes, conducted daily flag 
hoisting ceremony, and held extra-curricular intellectual discussions 
that furthered cultural development. So he started working there 
without any remuneration. The institute subsequently attained a 
status as a centre for the independence movement. He worked for 
a while as the headmaster of the school. However he was 
increasingly drawn to his original interest in philosophy. As a result, 
on 14th January 1930 he was initiated to ascetism by Swami 
Narayan Teerth, a disciple of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa. 
He was re-named as Swami Ramananda Teerth. Meanwhile in 
1935 he restarted the Yogeshwari Nutan Vidyalaya at Ambejogai. 
This region was under the Nizam’s reign, and therefore the medium 
of instruction in all schools was strictly Urdu. This made it difficult 
for Marathi speaking students to acquire education. Through the 
Yogeshwari Nutan Vidyalaya, he provided an alternative as a 
school that used Marathi as the medium of instruction.  
 
The influence of radical Islam was growing in the region. The 
people were becoming increasingly unhappy against the growing 
radicalization. In 1937 he resigned from the headmaster’s post and 
entered the political arena in the Nizam State. He was an 
acclaimed political leader in the region of the Marathwada, 
Telangana and the region where Kannada was predominantly 
spoken under the Nizam’s rule. A movement based in Marathwada 
called Maharashtra Parishad was active to liberate Marathwada 
from the Nizam’s rule. Swamiji was working as secretary of 
Maharashtra Parishad. For this, he started operating from 
Hyderabad. In the Nizam State, people speaking three languages, 
Marathi, Telugu and Kannada, came together and formed a single 
organization called Hyderabad State Congress. This organization 
was banned by the Nizam even before its first convention was held. 
From that day onwards the struggle for independence from the rule 
of the Nizam began under the leadership of Swami Ramananda 
Teerth.