Things are heating up here with an increase of violence in Hyderabad from the Telangana supporters. If you have read my previous post “Civil Unrest”, you already know that there is a division between the people in favor of the formation of the state Telangana and the people in favor for a united Andhra Pradesh. A two day bandh was called starting yesterday so the city is shut down and most classes are canceled. On our campus there are groups of people who beat drums and shout “Jai Telangana”, which is a call in support for the formation of a separate state. Things have been pretty calm on campus but it has picked up after the suicide on Tuesday of a student in the nearby Osmania University. He lit himself on fire because he felt that the formation of the state was being delayed. Yesterday, Wednesday, three more people committed suicide for the Telangana cause. On the campus of Osmania University, there are reports of clashes between protesters and police and also a few vehicles were lit on fire. Our campus hasn’t seen that kind of activity but there have been road blocks put in place by students.
This picture was taken from the roof of my dorm, only a few minuets after I had gone down there in an attempt to go to class. There were many more students there when I was there but most of them had gotten on the bus. I’m guessing they went either to a large tent, which seems to be their base, or to the front gate, which is where they protest. The light green building in the top of the picture is where my classes are, and a classmate of mine and I went down to see if classes we on. When we got to the roadblock we were told that classes were canceled. We hung around for a bit to see what was going down. The head administrator of the building came and he did not look happy. He really couldn’t do anything and just hung around, he didn’t try to get past the protesters.
My roommate went to class yesterday and her class ended up being crashed by protesters. Her professor decided to have class so a group of students who were beating a drum came. My roommate said that they gave a lecture to the two American girls (she is one of them) in the class on why their should be a separate state. The professor said he only needed a few minuets to end the class so the protesters left. Instead, the professor continued the lecture and an hour later the protesters were back. Some started flipping over chairs and were rowdy. The professor ended the class and the protesters stayed to ensure that the students left.
Also around campus, signs that have Andhra Pradesh written on it were crossed out and now it says Telangana.
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