ABSTRACT
The State of Telangana lies in southern India, a landlocked territory inland from the Bay of Bengal on the central plateau region of India known as the Deccan. Telangana (‘land of the Telugus’) forms a rough triangle, the southern base of which angles northeastwards, with Andhra Pradesh (the state that Telangana was part of until 2 June 2014) south of that border. The easternmost tip of the state forms a short border with Odisha (formerly Orissa). To the north-east is Chhattisgarh, while the northern apex of Telangana has Maharashtra to the north-east, north and north-west. The western border is with Karnataka. The western and southernmost part of the border with Andhra Pradesh is with the inland region of Rayalaseema, while further east is coastal Andhra; those two regions, together known as Seemandhra, constitute the residual Andhra Pradesh state. Also Telugu-speaking, Telangana had been part of the ‘land of the Andhras’ since it was formed on 1 November 1956, uniting the southern regions with the bulk of the former princely state of Hyderabad (the Dominions of the Nizam, which had only entered the Indian Union in 1948). Telangana is the 12th largest state in India, with an area of some 114,840 sq km (44,340 sq miles).
