United Andhra Pradesh


Andhra Pradesh, retrospectively referred to as either United Andhra Pradesh or Undivided Andhra Pradesh, was a state in India formed by States Reorganisation Act, 1956 with Hyderabad as its capital and was reorganised by Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The state was made up of three distinct cultural regions of Telangana, Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra. Telangana was part of Hyderabad State formerly ruled by Nizam of Hyderabad, where as Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra were part of Andhra State which was again formerly part of Madras state ruled by British Raj.

History

In an effort to gain an independent state based on linguistic identity, and to protect the interests of the Telugu people of Madras State, Potti Sreeramulu fasted to death in 1952. As Madras became a bone of contention, in 1949 a JVP committee report stated: "Andhra Province could be formed provided the Andhras give up their claim on the city of Madras ". After Potti Sreeramulu's death, the Telugu-speaking area of Andhra State was carved out of Madras State on 1 October 1953, with Kurnool as its capital city. On the basis of the gentlemen's agreement of 1 November 1956, the States Reorganisation Act formed Andhra Pradesh by merging Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking areas of the already existing Hyderabad State. Hyderabad was made the capital of the new state. The Marathi speaking areas of Hyderabad State merged with Bombay State and the Kannada speaking areas were merged with Mysore State which was later renamed as Karnataka.
In February 2014, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 bill was passed by the Parliament of India for the formation of the Telangana state comprising ten districts. Hyderabad will remain as a joint capital for not exceeding ten years. The new state of Telangana came into existence on 2 June 2014 after approval from the President of India. Number of petitions questioning the validity of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 is long pending for the verdict since April 2014 before the supreme court constitutional bench.