Congress, BRS & 'Reddy Rajyam': Decoding the Rise of the Community in Telangana

To understand the politics of the 'Reddy Rajyam', we must take a closer look at Telangana's history.

(Photo: The Quint)

To his critics, the terms dora and gadi symbolise the decade-long rule of Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), the first and former chief minister of the newly carved state of Telangana. Contrarily, the Congress – which toppled KCR's government in the 2023 Assembly elections – has been terming its own rise to power as a step towards praja palana or people's governance.

In Telangana, doras are typically feudal lords, predominantly from upper castes like Reddy, Velama, and Brahmin communities. Gadi refers to the "residence of doras" – the hallmark of their wealth and power. In the run-up to the Assembly elections, KCR, who hails from the Velama community, was accused of acting like a dora – and this dominated anti-incumbency sentiments in the state.

What propelled the Congress to power, on the other hand, was the rise of Revanth Reddy – a former Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader and the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) – as a mass leader. This was coupled with the consolidation of Reddy votes, primarly due to Revanth's own identiy, but also due to the fact that Reddys have traditionally been loyal to the Congress.

When an alleged "dora-led" BRS was defeated in the Assembly elections, it led to increased political aspirations among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Castes communities, given their demographic domination in the state (the upper castes are numerically marginal in contrast to the political hegemony they exercise).

After all, the Congress government had promised "people's governance."

But these aspirations were short-lived. In a landscape marred by caste disparities and political favouritism, the incumbent Congress government, too, appears to be furthering a 'Reddy Rajyam'.

This piece argues that the populist terms used by the Congress, like prajala palana, merely serve as a cover to echo the institutional compulsions or sustenance of party politics. In reality, the voices of Dalits and OBCs are drowned out by the echoes of power consolidation of the upper castes.

But to understand the politics of the 'Reddy Rajyam', we must take a closer look at Telangana's history.

A Brief History of the Rise of Reddys

Karle Srinivasulu, former Professor of Political Science at Osmania University, wrote in 2002 that the Telangana peasant struggle of 1946-1951 – a significant agrarian struggle against the excessive taxation of landlords and the exploitative vetti system (bonded labour that affected all the marginalised castes to varying degrees) – was an important way to understand the dynamics of political articulation in the region.

He rightly pointed out that though every section in Telangana (in united Andhra Pradesh) was involved in the peasant struggle in Nizam's Hyderabad – which was a feudal monarchy – it aspired to end feudalism by adopting the grand narrative of land distribution to the tiller.

Post the peasant struggle, it was the panch committees that were assigned the responsibility of redistribution of the doras' lands. The committees, dominated by Reddys, distributed those lands asymmetrically. As a result, fertile lands of the doras were distributed to Kapu-Reddy farmers and tenants, while waste and barren lands were given to Dalits.  

Dogmer Bernstroff, a former lecturer of Political Science at the University of Munich, wrote in Asian Survey journal in 1973 that the land reforms of the early 1950s, particularly the abolition of the Jagirdari system, played a significant role in undermining the traditional elite's power.

This shift transmuted and created the right circumstances for emerging power structures, notably the Reddy community, along with other dominant castes like the Velama and Brahmins. The peasantry, mainly from the Reddy, Kapu, and Velama castes, were beneficiaries of this abolition of landlordism.

The newly enacted Panchayati Raj system in 1957 accommodated the aspirations of the newly emerged peasantry castes. Additionally, the Reddys, being dominant in positions within local self-government, had control over the distribution of funds devolved to them by the state government.

Though the Green Revolution had limited impact in the initial phases on the land-owning Reddy caste in Telangana, it was the Maoist movement that made a few of them flee from villages. As a result of this, the upper castes who were exiled from villages sold land to their next intermediary castes – such as the OBCs in Telangana. In turn, they purchased properties in and around Hyderabad city.

In the later phases of the Green Revolution in Telangana, the network of upper castes, through their access to credit and irrigation, transformed agriculture into a high-value endeavour; meanwhile, farming turned high risk to lower castes who engaged in agriculture because they were landless and lacked institutional credit support.

In the Neoliberal Era

The Patel-Patwari system strengthened the power of Reddys in Telangana. Patels, in charge of maintaining land records and land-related transactions, wielded significant power in the administration related to land holdings. Reddys leveraged their influence within the system to consolidate their land ownership.

In the neoliberal era, land prices were driven by speculation across the country. Purendra Prasad, Professor of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad, and Ravi Teja, PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, observed two significant things from the 1990s to 2014 about the rise of economic prosperity among Reddys.

The first one is former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajashekara Reddy's (YSR) neoliberalist populist schemes such as Aarogyasri, fee reimbursement, and the Jala Yagnam water project, patronised by Reddy contractors with the help of public finances.

Second, projects like the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Hyderabad contributed to Reddys' economic prosperity. The ORR Project, which largely came into operation under the then chief minister YSR, could facilitate many of the Reddys in Telangana to venture into real estate land transactions, property development, and other infrastructural projects.

The Reddys in Telangana soon became a core support base for the Congress party.

Reddys Under KCR Rule  

Telangana emerged as the 29th state of India after a long struggle for four decades in 2014, and BRS supremo KCR became the first chief minister of the state. Reddys played a significant role in KCR's administration, despite their negligible participation in agitations that rocked the erstwhile state over the demand for bifurcation. 

During KCR's tenure, Reddys never had less than six cabinet positions. This paved the way for them to wield their social power with political power at the state level. Besides the home ministry, Reddys have had more than adequate representation in institutions like the Telangana Public Service Commission (TSPSC).

Additionally, the mega irrigation project of the BRS government, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, which drew accusations of large-scale corruption and irregularities despite its fame as the world's largest lift irrigation project, was also entrusted to the companies that are known to belong to Reddys. 

KCR, who has banked on the lowest social rungs to embolden the Telangana sentiment, seemingly relied on Reddys for the sustenance of his reign by placating them through schemes and sops, such as the Rythu Bandhu, an agricultural assistance scheme aimed at benefiting the landed farmers, but more so the landholding communities like the Reddys.  

The scheme drew huge flak from policy analysts who claimed it would merely benefit the traditional landlords further to consolidate their economic dominance and influence in the state.  

What About the Congress Government?  

Before coming to power in Telangana, the Congress had announced six guarantees that aimed to address various issues related to welfare, development, and economic support for the state's citizens. This was to be implemented within 100 days, as per the party's election manifesto.

But close to six months of its governance, only one of the six guarantees is in action. The remaining have been delayed, citing reasons of debt and the model code of conduct due to the Lok Sabha elections.  

Nevertheless, it is crucial to discern the direction in which we are progressing.

It is worth mentioning that one-third of Telangana farmers are tenants and the elected Congress government got significant political support from these sections. However, after being elected to power, this regime has continued the BRS' Rythu Bandhu policy – and not a single step has been taken towards addressing the extension of Rythu Bandhu to tenant farmers. 

Moreover, establishing a 'Reddy corporation' alongside those for socially and economically disadvantaged communities blurs the objectives meant for each social welfare corporation.  

The Reddy corporation is meant for a community with 43 legislators across parties; notably, the chief minister also hails from the same community. Remarkably, despite a decade under KCR's administration, there hasn't been a 'Velama corporation'.  

This, therefore, sets a worrisome precedent, especially when contrasted with corporations for marginalised groups. It undermines the fundamental concept of economic justice and dilutes the essence of distributive justice, violating the spirit of the Constitution by privileging upper-caste corporations.  

The Congress government in Telangana announced a list of nearly 39 positions for various corporations, yet only one position was allocated to SCs. It is ironic that out of the six MLC positions allotted by the Congress government, not a single one was allocated to the community.

Furthermore, out of the 12 positions allotted for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, seven were given to Reddys, excluding significant SC communities like Madigas – the single-largest community in Telangana.

In other words, Dalit-Bahujan exclusions from the power corridor and the elevation of Reddys are nothing but a vantage point to reinforce the traditional elite as the modern elite, which essentially results in de facto power.

(Pottepaka Sandeep Kumar is a Hyderabad-based independent researcher. His research interests include geopolitics, caste politics, and public policy. He is a former member of the International Public Policy Association. You can connect with him at https://twitter.com/Sandeepottepaka.)

(This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)