MahabubNagar, Gadwal People and Culture

PEOPLE & CULTURE

Unofficial name of Mahabubnagar and Gadwal is palamoor. Mahabubnagar the southern district of Telangana, have been ruled by Muslim kings for the last six hundred years. Though there were reputed sansthans like Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Kollapur, Amarchinta etc with leaders like Bregadiar Raja Rameswar Rao (whose regiment later became the famous 'Second Lancers' in Nizam's army), they have simply collected taxes by sucking the blood of poor people of palamoor to impress Nizam and develop Hyderabad for themselves and never cared for rural education or rural economic development. The feudal system under these rulers did not help our society. Today rural Telangana is decimated for lack of economic development. Instead of unite and fight for justice, Telangana people are divided on Caste and are prone to outside exploitation. The Naxalite violence in this region is one such good example. Though the world's civilization advanced dramatically, most of our village people are still living like the way people lived 2000 years ago: bullock carts, ploughs, carry weight on their heads, mop the floors with hands etc. There is very little change in their life style. After independence there were number of reputed politicians represented from this land to lok sabha, rajya sabha, state assembly and became ministers. Most of them were selfish, corrupted and never attempted to develop the most backward palamoor. Gadwal People of palamoor are very cool and hard working and majority of people's lifestyle is still comparable to slavery. Because of lack of proper employment and resources, severe draught conditions in the district, palamoor people tend to migrate to other places in India, thus became popular as palamoor labor in all over India. Despite the Krishna and Tungabhadra and 12 other rivulets flowing through here and the Jurala priyadarshini project, it has been chronically drought-prone. As a result, migration is a way of life for its people. Hargopal, member of the Committee Against Famine that has studied the drought situation in palamoor, says between 10-15 lakh people - “the largest migration anywhere in the world” - go out in search of work. The suicides here (Gangapur village witnessed five in one month) are driven by migration for jobs, finding no work and returning to commit suicide. The lack of rain (In the year 1999, 458 mm rainfall received which is 45 per cent deficient) forcing farmers to consume pesticide when they cannot repay the loan taken to invest in bore wells that do not work because the water table and the power voltage is low. Hargopal says the district has deliberately been rendered backward by the politicians. “Most Mahabubnagar politicians began life as labor contractors and were involved in labor export.” Unlike in other Telangana districts like Warangal where the youth spearheaded movements focusing on the people’s problems, here the migration has led to problems remaining unarticulated. There are few industries. Even those that exist, have not encouraged the hiring of local labor though labor from Palamoor in this district is reputed for good work and is much sought after in construction work in most parts of the country, including the north India.