1. At last, after 20 years delay, we ore able to place
this book on "Telangana People's Struggle and Its Lessons" in the
hands of readers. Our effort has been to give the reader a
comprehensive narration of the development of this struggle, and
all the relevant details available to us, in order to point out the
most important political lessons that emerge from the experience
of this movement.
2. We are conscious that many other details of actions
of people and of guerrillas and cadre which should hove found
a place in this book may not be there. It is due to lock of those
details with us, due to the failure of all those participants in that
great struggle, to record their experiences, their knowledge
of people's reactions and their own feeling during the period
or later.
3. Whenever those accounts become available, It will
not be difficult to include them and have a fullerr and more com-
prehensive history of the Telangana People's Struggle. In this
narrative, there may be many factual discrepancies with regard
to minor details but those, too. can be corrected, If the partici-
pants or readers point them out.
4. We hove avoided narrating the activities and the
role of various participants, their positive end negative features,
especially of most of the living personnel, for obvious reasons,
except when it becomes absolutely essential to pinpoint political
generalisations and that, too, in very general terms.
5. Certain colleagues of ours have pointed out to us
that the narrative and the book could hove been more vivid
and graphic and this book does not faring out fully the rich ex-
viiperience and the heroism of the movement. We are acutely
conscious of this weakness but it can be remedied only if the
participants themselves write out or recount their experiences,
even after this lapse of time.
6. There has been criticism that there are too many
minor details, many a repetition, and some accounts appear to
be exaggerated and appear
unreal.
The exact number of
killed and wounded and number of participants in many an
encounter cannot be verified
now
after the passage of so
much time, when the Government records are not yet avai-
lable, and the truth is sought to be suppressed by the authorities.
We have not tried to edit the narration of the events, as given by
some of the chroniclers, or as recorded in the available reports
from the lower units to higher centres.
It was difficult even at
that time of actual occurrence, leave alone now, to verify the
exact details.
So we tried to stick to chroniclers' narrations and
to the recorded reports in the files without going into them
deeply.
We feel that if we tried to avoid giving many details or
"repetitions", it would have made this narration too general
without bringing the mood, the feelings of the participants and of
the people at that time, or of what they felt and believed then.
7.
In giving brief sketches of Martyrs, we tried to give
whatever was available in the records and from accounts com-
rades have given us. There are many omissions of many key
cadre, squad members, whose deeds and activities need special
narration. We would appeal to all those old participants to
compile the reminiscences of all those Martyrs, so that the future
generations can be educated by their example.
8. Similarly, though it is generally estimated that about
4,000 were killed by police, military and landlord terror during
1946-51, excluding thousands of koya people who died of diseases
in concentration camps, some investigators say that the figure is
nearer 6,000. We do not hove the names of all of them, nor
even the names of villages from where they were picked up and
shot dead. We hope comrades and people will collect, even
now, the names and number of those killed, village after
viiivillage, in the struggle. We ore giving whatever names are
available with us.
9. Comrade M. Basavapunnaiah helped me to improve
this book by many of his suggestions.
10. I have to specially mention the services of Comrade
Unnikrishnan, our Central Committe steno-typist, without whose
patient typing and re-typing again and a g i n , I could not have
completed this book; and of Comrade Ramdass, our Central
Committee member, who took all the trouble and responsibility of
going through the manuscript again and a g i n and got it ready
for the press and brought it out, ploughing through all the proofs.
-P. SUNDARAYYA
this book on "Telangana People's Struggle and Its Lessons" in the
hands of readers. Our effort has been to give the reader a
comprehensive narration of the development of this struggle, and
all the relevant details available to us, in order to point out the
most important political lessons that emerge from the experience
of this movement.
2. We are conscious that many other details of actions
of people and of guerrillas and cadre which should hove found
a place in this book may not be there. It is due to lock of those
details with us, due to the failure of all those participants in that
great struggle, to record their experiences, their knowledge
of people's reactions and their own feeling during the period
or later.
3. Whenever those accounts become available, It will
not be difficult to include them and have a fullerr and more com-
prehensive history of the Telangana People's Struggle. In this
narrative, there may be many factual discrepancies with regard
to minor details but those, too. can be corrected, If the partici-
pants or readers point them out.
4. We hove avoided narrating the activities and the
role of various participants, their positive end negative features,
especially of most of the living personnel, for obvious reasons,
except when it becomes absolutely essential to pinpoint political
generalisations and that, too, in very general terms.
5. Certain colleagues of ours have pointed out to us
that the narrative and the book could hove been more vivid
and graphic and this book does not faring out fully the rich ex-
viiperience and the heroism of the movement. We are acutely
conscious of this weakness but it can be remedied only if the
participants themselves write out or recount their experiences,
even after this lapse of time.
6. There has been criticism that there are too many
minor details, many a repetition, and some accounts appear to
be exaggerated and appear
unreal.
The exact number of
killed and wounded and number of participants in many an
encounter cannot be verified
now
after the passage of so
much time, when the Government records are not yet avai-
lable, and the truth is sought to be suppressed by the authorities.
We have not tried to edit the narration of the events, as given by
some of the chroniclers, or as recorded in the available reports
from the lower units to higher centres.
It was difficult even at
that time of actual occurrence, leave alone now, to verify the
exact details.
So we tried to stick to chroniclers' narrations and
to the recorded reports in the files without going into them
deeply.
We feel that if we tried to avoid giving many details or
"repetitions", it would have made this narration too general
without bringing the mood, the feelings of the participants and of
the people at that time, or of what they felt and believed then.
7.
In giving brief sketches of Martyrs, we tried to give
whatever was available in the records and from accounts com-
rades have given us. There are many omissions of many key
cadre, squad members, whose deeds and activities need special
narration. We would appeal to all those old participants to
compile the reminiscences of all those Martyrs, so that the future
generations can be educated by their example.
8. Similarly, though it is generally estimated that about
4,000 were killed by police, military and landlord terror during
1946-51, excluding thousands of koya people who died of diseases
in concentration camps, some investigators say that the figure is
nearer 6,000. We do not hove the names of all of them, nor
even the names of villages from where they were picked up and
shot dead. We hope comrades and people will collect, even
now, the names and number of those killed, village after
viiivillage, in the struggle. We ore giving whatever names are
available with us.
9. Comrade M. Basavapunnaiah helped me to improve
this book by many of his suggestions.
10. I have to specially mention the services of Comrade
Unnikrishnan, our Central Committe steno-typist, without whose
patient typing and re-typing again and a g i n , I could not have
completed this book; and of Comrade Ramdass, our Central
Committee member, who took all the trouble and responsibility of
going through the manuscript again and a g i n and got it ready
for the press and brought it out, ploughing through all the proofs.
-P. SUNDARAYYA