“My name is Ramulu and I have been a shepherd and farmer for more than 84 years now. When India became independent in 1947, I was a teenager and our state was still under the control of the Nizam and that eventually lead to the revolutionary movement against the rulers by the peasants.

I still remember how a group of armed men (razzakars) from the private militia of the Nizam came rushing towards our neighboring thanda on horses. We were getting ready for our day’s work in the fields and suddenly we could hear screams of the villagers being attacked for dominance and power. They had warned everybody who was fighting for freedom back then and would kill the people who revolted against their rule. Many of us climbed onto the mud forts to take shelter and revolted against the Razzakars along with the support of communist leaders.

Despite all the grandeur and wealth of the Nizam and the aura of the Hyderabad state, majority of people in the rural areas were poor and backward. A small section of landlords owned most of the lands. Such was the oppression of the peasantry during those days that a large section of peasants in Telangana took up arms against the landlords and later the Nizam government.

With struggle and revolution for almost two years, we had managed to shove them, and that enraged Qazim Rizvi who was controlling the Razzakars. The whole village burst into celebrations on 17th September 1948 when independent India’s government launched police action and merged the Nizam State into Indian Union. While it’s been more than 73 years since then, many of us still carry those memories of the movement.”