By: Konatham Dileep
This article gives four “options” on how Hyderabad city could be shared between Telangana and Seemandhra. The juvenile and impractical “options” presented in the article closely resemble Option 4 of Srikrishna Committee, which also suggested creating an “expanded Union Territory” by joining some areas in Nalgonda and Mahabub Nagar districts to Hyderabad city.
Photo: One of the Paint Brushed “Options” in The Hans India article
I term these ideas juvenile, because the maps shown along with these these “options” look like they were done by a fourth grader using Paint Brush on a computer. Only an arrogant and ignorant specimen can come up with such absurd proposals on Hyderabad status.
These “options” also remind me of how colonial rulers divided Indian sub-continent, and African continent.
Prior to granting independence, the Britishers had appointed Cyril Radcliffe, to draw the border between India and Pakistan in 1947. Radcliffe, who knew nothing about the cultural, historic, ethnic, or social background of India, just drew the border on a map sitting in his office.
The result – there were instances where the border was drawn leaving some parts of a village in India and others in Pakistan. There were even instances where the country border passed through a single house with some rooms in India and others in Pakistan!
Photo: The colonial “straight line” borders of Africa, which were drawn on the map.
Even in the case of Africa, the country borders were drawn on the map by European colonial rulers. That is why you find so many country borders looking like straight lines. These borders artificially lump together peoples whose histories were not the same and who, left to themselves, would have chosen different paths to nationhood.
That is the precise reason why Africa has become a unending cauldron of ethnic conflict, leading to tragic loss of millions of lives.
Borders between countries and states should be drawn based on peoples aspirations. They should be drawn by people, who have a sound knowledge of history, and understand the importance of ethnicity.
Only people with a colonial mindset and a gross disrespect towards peoples’ aspirations try to draw such borders on maps.
I am really surprised how The Hans India’s editorial team thought it fit to publish such utter nonsensical “options” on Hyderabad status.