Chakali ilamma biography of michael

At its peak, the Telangana Rebellion — a pivotal point in India’s history — saw the coming together of over 4,000 villages, covering almost the entire expanse of the region. 

Through armed struggle, villages controlled by communist peasant guerillas saw the abolishment of vetti (forced labour) and bonded labour, an increase in agricultural wages, and peasant owners earning their lands back.

“Women and men from the city of Hyderabad were drawn, or chose to be drawn, into [the movement] for it held the promise of freedom for cultural and intellectual oppression,” wrote the authors of ‘We Were Making History…’: Life Stories of Women in the Telangana People’s Struggle. 

The revolt began brewing in the Nalgonda district when peasant farmers stood up to feudal landlords (zamindars or deshmukhs) and quickly spread to Warangal, Bidar, and other areas. 

In the nearby Jangaon