It’s a bustling crowd at the Prajasakthi Book House, Hyderabad that’s dominated by Civils aspirants who trail in one by one to pick their copy of the Telangana history book for the exam. Meanwhile, the Navayuga Book House is also buzzing with the crowd lapping up books that throw in various perspectives of the Telangana struggle. The owners of both stores agree on the gradual rise of the cultural consciousness among readers, albeit for different reasons. They also admit that there’s more ‘quantity’ than ‘quality’ in terms of books and writers, because of the regional fervour that’s still very fresh even two years after the formation of the Telangana State.
B.N. Sastry and Kurra Jitendra Babu are considered authorities on the Telangana movement and history and are the hot favourites among readers. Sunkireddy Narayana Reddy, a recipient of the B.N. Sastry memorial award and the writer of Telangana Charitra mentions that a lot of writers, in view of the demand for more Telangana literature, plagiarise the content of the books written by these veterans write and pass it off as their own works.
Rajeneesh, a literary enthusiast points out inaccuracies in many of these books. “As writers from Telangana and Andhra write about the formation of the new state, history and the movement, the facts only are twisted according to regional convenience. For instance, the Dravidian movement brought about a lot of honest literature in Tamil Nadu that readers have equally appreciated. That kind of objectivity is yet to arrive here,” he says. He adds that the demand for works of Kaloji and Ravuri Bharadwaja is high among Telangana readers.
It was only last week, on the occasion of the second anniversary of Telangana State formation day, that the government honoured artistes, writers for their contributions. Writer Kuppili Padma who predominantly writes on Hyderabad asks us to see this in a positive light. “Which government has encouraged writers with so much focus?” she asks. Padma says it’s too early to analyse the quality of contemporary Telangana writers.
“Be it Karimnagar, Nizamabad or Warangal, there are lots of short stories coming up. In fact, many writers from Coastal Andhra, who’ve settled in this region too are contributing to the literary scene. The rise in the number of books is a fact we can afford to be happy about. There have been many writer societies that have formed in these two years and are pushing this ‘literary’ movement forward,” she substantiates.
Sunkireddy Narayana Reddy though pushes a caution button here. “If we go by what Telangana has contributed to overall Telugu literature, there’s a lot of work to be done — in experimenting with poems and historical tales of the region. Mostly the focus is always on Rudrama Devi, why doesn’t something come up on Pratapa Rudrudu too? Telugu Akademi’s move to publish more Kaloji and Dasaradhi works is a welcome move though.”
Rajeneesh says the readers for these books are divided between literary elites and masses. While the former are doing their bit to be more aware, the common man isn’t savouring this much, he states.
For the common man , awareness of Telangana literature is more as a stepping stone to a livelihood as most government exams demand familiarity with the region’s history and culture; rather than a cultural pride. Kuppili Padma though says, this trend in fact is positive enough. “If readers are touching upon Telangana history for academic reasons, it’s not a bad trend at all. Knowledge will never go waste. Over the years this will prove very crucial for a better understanding of customs and culture.”
