For many, the demand for a separate state of Telangana was something new when they first heard of it in 2009. It was perhaps out of context, given that school textbooks also barely mentioned the name.

However, the origins of Telangana's creation and demand as a separate state in fact go back to when the state was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, which was under the Nizams.

To understand how, from there, the state was first merged with the Andhra areas and then became separate, host Yunus Lasania speaks to Prof Kodandaram, who led the statehood struggle as chairman of the Telangana Joint Action Committee, and with Vijay Burgula, son of Burgula Narsing Rao, a freedom fighter from the Nizam era who was a staunch pro-Telangana voice.

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