In the year 1947 a generation witnessed the dawn of a whole new era and celebrated the Independence of India.

In the year 2014, a day is going to be designated as the day the new state of Telangana is born and the people of the region  finally will have managed to ‘free’ themselves from the yokes of their fellow Telugus from the Seemandhra Region.

Is there anything common in the struggle? Is there anything at all similar in the way demands were made and results achieved? This is a debate and discussion that can go on ad nauseam. And quite frankly I am not so much of an academic to be interested in that.

But it is the realist in me that is concerned. Perhaps it starts with the knowledge that inspite of the fact that Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as the Father of the Nation and credited with being the single most significant individual responsible for the Freedom of India, reality may have a different story to tell.

There is a school of thought that suggests that Freedom was not something earned by Gandhi and his cronies, but something that was given away, albeit quite unwillingly, to our country simply because the powers that be in Great Britain had ceased to see the benefit of being rulers of foreign lands such as ours.

Gandhi perhaps was not by nature someone to hog the attention he did not deserve and in any case he died so soon after independence that it was left to Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress descendants to use the Gandhi Legacy for political gains lasting a few decades.

But the times have changed. And I can see how many people are going to lay claim to the leadership label on the basis of having won for Telangana its long awaited independence.

And along with the labels the search for perks and rewards will begin. Starting from plum political positions to rewards ranging from pension to perks, all in the name of the Freedom Struggle. Many years from now the families who can trace their antecedents to the struggle will be seen as families that are more equal than others, much like the people who landed up in the USA on the Mayflower, and much like a generation of Freedom Fighters who enjoyed land grants, free train travel and other such advantages.

But I am not unduly worried about that. I am only concerned that the state of Telangana should actually benefit from the separation. The people should enjoy the benefits, the farmers should…industry should flourish and Hyderabad should regain its lost luster.

If that happens and the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh benefits more than just the selfish politicians and the conniving political parties then I will be a happy man.

I will be elated that my voice was used for many a presentation or documentary on the plight of Telangana and its people…that I was literally the ‘English’ Voice of the agitation.

If not, I shall be disappointed. If I see a few years from now that the benefits have not accrued to the people, I shall be truly disappointed. And maybe it will be the turn of someone else to raise his voice again.

Jai Telangana!!!