ABSTRACT
The book shows how globalization adversely affected the Telangana region and its people. While mainstream media was euphoric about prospects of global investments in Hyderabad, it ignored the distress the neoliberal reforms brought about. The privatization of lands created displacement. The peasants were brought into the vortex of global markets through genetically modified seeds sold by multinationals, expensive extraction of groundwater resources, exploitative microfinancing to fund resource intensive agriculture and so forth. But the teachers and students from the rural areas – either peasant background or artisan backgrounds – constructed their arguments in the backdrop and took them to the people on how the distress was leading to suicides. Through protests, revival of suppressed festivals, poems, songs, art and other performances, an affective nation was set in motion. The Telangana movement at its height encompassed all sections of Telangana society, including government workers, media persons, legal professionals, coal miners and so forth. While two trends are identified in the movement – for regional autonomy and for social justice or for empowerment of the marginal communities, the Telangana movement, it is argued, is the consequence of demands for social justice and empowerment among the marginal communities.
