Members at the First Andhra Conference pose in front of the Town Hall.
Demand for separate Andhra state on linguistic basis was first raised at the meet
The historical town is in the cusp of another milestone as it is gearing
up to celebrate the centenary of the First Andhra Conference held in
1913. It was in this conference that the demand to create a separate
province for Telugu speaking people on linguistic basis was first
announced. The conference was held on the premises of Edward VII
Coronation Memorial Town on May 26, 1913.
The conference was attended by about 800 delegates and 3,000 visitors
from the Telugu speaking districts of Madras Presidency. Eminent leaders
including, Desabhakta Konda Venkatappaiah, Bogaraju Pattabhi
Seetharamaiah, Mutnuri Krishnarao and Pingali Venkaiah, were present at
the conference. B.N. Sarma, the then member of the Legislative Council
of Madras, took the lead in organising the conference, which saw a
vociferous appeal by the members to create a separate state for Telugu
speaking people. Leaders like Nyayapathi Subba Rao Pantulu, M.
Adinarayanaiah and Mocherla Ramachandra Rao wanted the conference to
tread cautiously on the issue, but Vemavarapu Ramadas Pantulu moved a
resolution at the open session in favour of a separate state.
Emotional speeches
The emotional speeches stirred up the feelings of the members to put up a united fight to achieve the goal.
They argued that though Telugu districts accounted for 40 per cent of
the people and 58 per cent of the Madras Presidency, Andhras had no
effective voice in the politics of the region and were treated as second
class citizens in the composite province. “With considerable effort and
after going through excerpts of the struggle in various books, we
managed to bring a book on the conference. We are also planning to
celebrate the centenary in a big way and release a commemorative stamp
to mark the occasion,’’ said convenor of Forum for Better Bapatla P.C
Saibabu.
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