Andhra Pradesh has fallen prey to regionalism as search for capital city continues, says historian

Acharya Nagarjuna University P.G. Centre holds a seminar on ‘Regionalism and Regional Movements in South India’

Andhra Pradesh has become a victim of regionalism as its search for the capital city continues, noted historian B. Ramachandra Reddy from the Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Post-Graduate Studies and Research (KMCPGS), Puducherry has said.

Addressing a seminar sponsored by Indian Council for Social Science Research on ‘Regionalism and Regional Movements in South India’ organised by the Acharya Nagarjuna University P.G. Centre here on February 21 (Tuesday), Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said that thanks to regionalism, Telugu people, scattered all over the erstwhile composite Madras State, had lost their capital city of Chennai when the first linguistic State of Andhra was formed in 1953 in the wake of the sacrifice made by ‘Amarajeevi’ Potti Sriramulu.

The yearning for a capital city of their own by the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions continued since then as after a brief experiment with Kurnool as the capital city, they settled for Hyderabad, the City of Nizams developed it with decades of toil. After the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the search for a suitable capital city continued in the absence of consensus over its location at Amaravati, the administrative head since the time of Satavahanas, the earliest kings of Andhra, he said.

ICSSR Director Y. Ramesh said that regionalism spurred ‘fissiparous tendencies’ and needed to be curbed with an iron hand in the national interest.

Regionalism, a product of colonialism, had largely benefited the higher strata of the society rather than the lower strata, pointed out Priyadarshini Vijayasri of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.

Andhra Kesari University Vice-Chancellor Mareddy Anji Reddy said he was happy to take part in the first national seminar after bifurcation of the ANU to form a new varsity from Ongole.