Potti Sriramulu

Potti Sriramulu (1901–1952) was an Indian freedom fighter, devoted Gandhian and Harijan-upliftment worker whose self-sacrifice forced the Government of India to concede the principle of linguistic reorganisation of provinces. Trained as a sanitary engineer, he participated in the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and the Quit India Movement of 1942, and was among the figures Mahatma Gandhi personally praised for his discipline and capacity for sacrifice. After independence, the demand for a separate state carved out of the Telugu-speaking districts of the multilingual Madras Presidency gathered force, championed by the Andhra movement and bodies such as the Andhra Mahasabha. Sriramulu emerged as the moral fulcrum of this agitation.

On 19 October 1952 Sriramulu began a fast-unto-death in Madras, demanding a separate Andhra State for Telugu speakers with Madras city as a contested claim. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who had earlier been cautious about conceding linguistic states for fear of fragmenting the young republic, held firm even as the fast lengthened. After 58 days of fasting, Sriramulu died on 15 December 1952. His death detonated violent agitation, hartals and rioting across the Telugu districts; several people were killed in police firing. Within days, on 19 December 1952, Nehru announced the formation of a separate Andhra State, which was formally inaugurated on 1 October 1953 with Kurnool as its capital and T. Prakasam as its first Chief Minister. Sriramulu is remembered as Amarajeevi ("the immortal being").

The chain of events set in motion by his martyrdom compelled the Centre to appoint the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in December 1953 under Fazl Ali, with H. N. Kunzru and K. M. Panikkar as members. Its 1955 report led to the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956, which redrew India's internal map largely along linguistic lines, replacing the Part A/B/C classification with 14 States and 6 Union Territories. Andhra State was merged with the Telangana region of Hyderabad State to form Andhra Pradesh on 1 November 1956. This vindicated the principle first articulated in the Congress's Nagpur session (1920) of organising provincial committees on linguistic lines, and revisited by the Dar Commission (1948) and the JVP Committee (Nehru, Patel, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, 1949), both of which had initially resisted immediate linguistic states.

For UPSC and other civil-service examinations, Potti Sriramulu is a high-yield topic in post-independence consolidation (GS Paper I, Indian History). Examiners typically test the causal sequence: his fast and death → Andhra State (1953) → SRC under Fazl Ali → States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Candidates should be able to date the fast (19 Oct–15 Dec 1952), name the SRC members, distinguish Andhra State (1953) from Andhra Pradesh (1956), and link the episode to the broader debate on whether linguistic reorganisation strengthened or threatened national unity—a recurring essay and mains analytical prompt.