Question

The death of _________ sparked off such violent protests that the government was forced to give in to the demand for the linguistic state of Andhra.

Answer 1

Answer: The answer is Potti Sriramulu.

• Potti Sriramulu went on hunger strike in the month of October in 1952, demanding the creation of Andhra state. He was a Gandhian. It gained momentum and bandhs, hartals were observed in many towns.
• Partition of the country based on religion created bitter experiences.
• Hence, after independence the Congress was against the creation of linguistic states.
• During the freedom struggle, the Indian National Congress had promised to create provinces for each major linguistic group.
• Marathi speakers, Malayalam and Kannada speakers were disappointed.
• However, the strongest protest came from the Telugu speaking districts of Madras Presidency.
• When Nehru was campaigning for general elections in 1952 he was met with protests for the creation of a separate Andhra state.
• Potti Sriramulu died on 15 December 1952. He had fasted for fifty-eight days. This resulted in complete chaos in the entire state of Andhra.
• Hence the Central Government was forced to create Andhra Pradesh on 1st October 1953.
• As a result, other states were also carved out based on language.