Book Review

Book Review of Battleground Telangana

By: Kungshuk Nag

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 978-93-5029-074-3

About Author

Kingshuk Nag has been journalist with the Times of India for the last eighteen years. Presently, he is the resident editor of the Hyderabad edition of the newspaper. He is the recipient of the Prem Bhatia award for his coverage of the Gujarat riots of 2002. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Double Life of Ramalinga Raju: The Story of India's Biggest Corporate Fraud.

Table of Contents

1. An Insoluble Problem
2. The Creation of Andhra Pradesh
3. The First Agitation
4. Paradigm Shift: NTR, Naidu & YSR
5. Cultural Heterogeneity
6. The State of Economy
7. TRS and the Electoral Battle for Telangana
8. Ten Days to Telangana
9. Taking a U-Turn
10. Caste, Political Parties & Telangana
11. Small is Beautiful: Is Hong Kong Model the Panacea?

Overview

In the preface of the book, he starts off by giving two contrasting examples of the two very different type of people whose interests are conflicting. He kicks off the book by giving the example of the current C.M. Of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Kiran Kumar reddy who hails from the Rayalaseema region but grew up in Hyderabad. For people like him, creation of Telangana means losing his home where he grew up and where all his childhood memories are contained. On the other hand, he says that for every KKR, there are thousands atleast like Srinivas, Lakshmi and Razia. Brought up in a lower-income quarters of Hyderabad or the harsh terrain of Telangana, prosperity and opportunities have eluded them in life. The prospect of a new state holds out an array of hope for them. They feel that in their 'their' independent Telangana state there will be jobs and prosperity for everyone and theirs will be a land where milk and honey will flow. By this kind of desctription, we can assume that he sympathises more with the second kind of people.

The book then takes a deep dive in the history to look upon the subtle reasons that has lead the India's third largest state in this state of peril. After discussing all the historical and political aspects of the issue, he then proposes a possible solution inspired from the Hong Kong model. Apart from that he strongly asserts that the current Status Quo maintained by the government is not at all the right way to deal with the burning issue and that some definite action must be taken as soon as possible to end this presumably never-ending chaos.

Review

1. Aim of The Book: The basic aim of the writer is to give the reader complete information about the background and development of the burning issue that has become a bone in the neck especially for the people of Hyderabad and the rest of Andhra. He analyzes all the cultural differences and political developments carefully and then tries to give solution for the problem by considering the facts and historical events.
2. Writing Style: Writing style is a quite formal but accurate. It very well conveys the message that it wanted to and the only drawback i can think of is that it's gets boring in the middle. The first two chapter and the last two chapters will apeal to an ordinary reader because it makes the reader think and engages him. But the seven chapters in the middle are so technical and factual that one feels sleepy the same way we all used to feel in our history classes.
3. Plus Points: Leaving the writing style and likability of the book apart. One thing that i really liked about the book is that the author underwent a huge pain in order to completely understand and get his facts straight in order to write a book on the issue. Usually when such a huge issue comes up, almost anyone who knows to write comes out with his verdict before he completely understand the issue himself. Hence it can be said that the author of this book is not only a good & famous journalist, but also a sensible and mature writer. If you ever come across this book, the first thing according to me that you will notice is the in depth description of every minute detail. In short, great book for someone who's researching or wants a concise and complete description of the dreaded Telangana Issue.
4. Negative Points: Surprisingly the points that go in favour of the book are the ones that simply goes against it. Actually it depends on the one who's reading it. For example, as i stated earlier, this book is great for someone who's researchig on the topic. But if you are the kind of guy/girl who likes a bit informal tone and wants to have some fun while reading it then this book is definitely not for you. I bet that you'll be bored to death while reading it because it feels like as if you're reading a 200 page long newspaper report.

Reviewer's Note

After reading the fourth point you might be thinking that to buy this book is perhaps not the greatest idea on the planet. Well, it was not meant to scare people off. All I was trying to do was to emphasize the point that it's not a novel that you would like to read to kill some time. But at the same time if you're genuinely interested in the issue and have a desire to find out some more then probably it's one of the finest book out in the market on this sensitive topic.

Reviewed By: Ranjit Nair

Roll No: EE10B032