Veer Savarkar, renowned freedom fighter and Hindu revolutionary, a long serving President of Hindu Mahasabha, was unequivocally for the unity of all Telugus in one Andhra province. Let BJP and Hindu Mahasabhites who now may support the division of Andhra Pradesh, note this telling fact. Here is a historic statement by Savarkar on Andhra question:
THE HINDU DISTRICTS OF ANDHRA SHOULD BE REANNEXED TO ANDHRA
1-2-1942
“IT IS WELL-KNOWN that the Nizam had been claiming long since that the, port of Macchalipatam, along with some districts of the Andhra, should be handed over to him by the British. ‘ An insidious propaganda has also been conducted persistently long since by the Moslems in support of this claim. But now under the pressure of the war it seems from reports more or less reliable that the Nizam is pressing hard to get his claim conceded immediately on the ground that he has done much in helping the War efforts of the - Government and would do much more if the port and the districts were handed over to him. The time has consequently come when the Hindus should take up this question seriously and present an organized and powerful opposition to frustrate the efforts of the Nizam and the Moslems in general in this direction.
If the Nizam has offered some substantial help to the British in this War, the Hindu-Sikh States have done no less. Above all, the independent Hindu Kingdom of Nepal has openly allied herself with the British and its weight in this case counts incomparably more than the vassal state like-Hyderabad can ever do with its relatively puny military resources. If the question of recompense in the form of restoration of annexed territories is to be taken in hand by the British Government, the claims of the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal and the Hindu-Sikh States like Patiala, Gwalior, Baroda, Mysore, Travancore and several others must be considered along with those of the Nizam. Secondly, of all these claims, the Nizam in particular has forfeited his so-called right for the restoration of the Andhra Hindu districts to him by the notoriously fanatical persecution of Hindu subjects already under his rule. If any re-adjustment of territories in connection with the Nizam State is to be considered at all, equity and urgency requires that those Hindu districts of Andhra which were cut off in the past from the homogeneous Andhra Province and are now groaning under the Moslem oppression in the Hyderabad State should be liberated from the Nizam rule and re-annexed to Andhra so that the earnest and most justifiable desire of the Andhra people to form themselves into an integral and Unitarian Audhra Province should be fulfilled. [emphasis ours - IMS].
But in as much as such equity, hardly if ever, counts in such questions of practical politics and as organized and powerful pressure is the only factor that decides the fate of peoples especially in such warring times, I feel it my duty to sound a note of warning and urge Hindudom in general and our Andhra Hindus in particular that they should lose no time in setting on foot a public and powerful agitation against the claim pressed by the “Nizam and against any move on the part of the British Government also even to reopen the question.
The Andhra Mahasabha in the main which stands for united Andhra ought to take up this question in all seriousness as quickly as possible. At any rate the Hindu Mahasabhaites in Andhra should organise forthwith hundreds of meetings throughout the Andhra Province as a first step to denounce and protest against these intrigues on the part of the Nizam to have restored to him the Fort of Macchalipatum and the railway leading to it and make it quite clear to the British Government also that Andhra, at any rate the Hindus in Andhra will present an un-dying opposition to any such proposal to cut off and deliver even an inch of Andhra soil hack to the Nizam.
And this organized protest must be recorded immediately while it is not too late. it will he simply suicidal on the part of the Hindus in Andhra to ignore it till the reported diplomatic intrigue suddenly emerges out as a fait accompli."
THE HINDU DISTRICTS OF ANDHRA SHOULD BE REANNEXED TO ANDHRA
1-2-1942
“IT IS WELL-KNOWN that the Nizam had been claiming long since that the, port of Macchalipatam, along with some districts of the Andhra, should be handed over to him by the British. ‘ An insidious propaganda has also been conducted persistently long since by the Moslems in support of this claim. But now under the pressure of the war it seems from reports more or less reliable that the Nizam is pressing hard to get his claim conceded immediately on the ground that he has done much in helping the War efforts of the - Government and would do much more if the port and the districts were handed over to him. The time has consequently come when the Hindus should take up this question seriously and present an organized and powerful opposition to frustrate the efforts of the Nizam and the Moslems in general in this direction.
If the Nizam has offered some substantial help to the British in this War, the Hindu-Sikh States have done no less. Above all, the independent Hindu Kingdom of Nepal has openly allied herself with the British and its weight in this case counts incomparably more than the vassal state like-Hyderabad can ever do with its relatively puny military resources. If the question of recompense in the form of restoration of annexed territories is to be taken in hand by the British Government, the claims of the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal and the Hindu-Sikh States like Patiala, Gwalior, Baroda, Mysore, Travancore and several others must be considered along with those of the Nizam. Secondly, of all these claims, the Nizam in particular has forfeited his so-called right for the restoration of the Andhra Hindu districts to him by the notoriously fanatical persecution of Hindu subjects already under his rule. If any re-adjustment of territories in connection with the Nizam State is to be considered at all, equity and urgency requires that those Hindu districts of Andhra which were cut off in the past from the homogeneous Andhra Province and are now groaning under the Moslem oppression in the Hyderabad State should be liberated from the Nizam rule and re-annexed to Andhra so that the earnest and most justifiable desire of the Andhra people to form themselves into an integral and Unitarian Audhra Province should be fulfilled. [emphasis ours - IMS].
But in as much as such equity, hardly if ever, counts in such questions of practical politics and as organized and powerful pressure is the only factor that decides the fate of peoples especially in such warring times, I feel it my duty to sound a note of warning and urge Hindudom in general and our Andhra Hindus in particular that they should lose no time in setting on foot a public and powerful agitation against the claim pressed by the “Nizam and against any move on the part of the British Government also even to reopen the question.
The Andhra Mahasabha in the main which stands for united Andhra ought to take up this question in all seriousness as quickly as possible. At any rate the Hindu Mahasabhaites in Andhra should organise forthwith hundreds of meetings throughout the Andhra Province as a first step to denounce and protest against these intrigues on the part of the Nizam to have restored to him the Fort of Macchalipatum and the railway leading to it and make it quite clear to the British Government also that Andhra, at any rate the Hindus in Andhra will present an un-dying opposition to any such proposal to cut off and deliver even an inch of Andhra soil hack to the Nizam.
And this organized protest must be recorded immediately while it is not too late. it will he simply suicidal on the part of the Hindus in Andhra to ignore it till the reported diplomatic intrigue suddenly emerges out as a fait accompli."
