In the times of crisis and a pervasive sense of cynicism, some individuals stand out as symbols of hope and possibilities, and spread optimism that almost feels infectious. Scholar, teacher and activist, Keshav Rao Jadhav, was one such person. In a context characterised by a marked rise of narrow sectarianism, conscious attempts at polarisation and a conspicuous narrowing of the middle ground, Jadhav was one person who stood up to bring together the conscientious civil society elements in an attempt to regain, protect and expand this space that could hold out the hope of dialogue across divergent groups and points of view without compromising on the respective basic convictions and respecting their identities. With the passing away of Jadhav on 16 June 2018 after a prolonged illness, Hyderabad and Telangana have lost a symbol of hope and a beacon of civil society activism.
Jadhav is one of that rare class of scholar–teacher–activist who signified the importance of dialogue across political, ideological and cultural spectrum marked by differences of view, conviction and action. The imprint of his thought and practice is familiar to anybody who has even remote familiarity with the political and social life of Hyderabad. The qualities of openness, tolerance and persuasiveness made him affable and respectable to anybody who came in contact with him.
Jadhav belonged to the politico-ideological persuasion in Indian intellectual and political life that is identified with Ram Manohar Lohia’s socialism. The socialists along with communists had been quite influential in the Hyderabad state and in fact emerged as a major anti-Congress political combine in the first general elections but gradually lost the sheen as the electoral politics overrode social politics under consequent Congress regimes. Jadhav belonging this tradition played a critical role in the student movement by forming Hyderabad Students’ Union and later as a faculty member in Osmania University, he was active and in fact influential in the teachers’ movement, through Citizens for Democracy in the civil rights and Telangana state demand movement in the late 1960s and since the late 1990s.
Voice of the Subaltern
Jadhav’s life, in fact, is a reflection of the 20th and early 21st century public life in Hyderabad and Telangana. While the mainstream political life is the embodiment of or rather expression of the forces of dominance in religious, caste and class terms, Jadhav was a noticeable voice of the subaltern in varied forms. Subaltern politics and movements in Hyderabad, given their complex history, have been marked by religious plurality, linguistic diversity, cultural compositeness and socio-economic unevenness that is historically determined and inherited. In Jadhav’s life we see both a reflection of, and an effort to respond to this multifaceted reality.
Born in an Arya Samaj family, the early exposure to it in fact has its impact on him as he used to recollect how it in fact made him open or sympathetic to subaltern castes and even influenced him as he often fondly recollected and enabled him to graduate to socialist politics and develop a firm conviction in the “anti-caste project.”
Conversations with Jadhav were always marked by an excitement for rootedness of both ideas and practices and how they have evolved and transformed over a period of time. In this sense he saw Arya Samaj as an important initial step that could be transformed into anti-caste movement. In the specific context of the Nizam’s feudal Hyderabad state, Arya Samaj acted as a platform for expressing the rights of Hindus and a number of leaders initially influenced by it subsequently became prominent figures in the Congress, socialist and even communist politics.
Jadhav’s life encompassed all the liberatory and aspirational movements of the Hyderabad state and Telangana region. Born in 1933, in Hussaini Alam in the old city of Hyderabad, he came under the influence of his paternal and maternal uncles who were jailed for their role in the anti-Nizam struggle and were seen as a source of inspiration. He would admiringly recall the high value of public service they practised and as evidence he would cite their refusal to accept the freedom fighters’ pension even when it was offered.
Mulki Movement
His first major participation was in the agitation against non-mulkis (non-locals) in 1952 as a student of the elite Nizam college in Hyderabad. It may be noted that the dominant presence of non-mulkis in public employment has been a problem in the Hyderabad state since the early 20th century as the Nizam sought to import personnel knowledgeable in Persian and also experienced in running administration from north India. These people not only belonged to the Muslim community but also to Hindu religion like for instance the Kayasthas of north India. They in fact came to dominate liberal, professional and technical fields in the Hyderabad state. The local Muslims and of course also Hindus felt discriminated vis-à-vis these elite migrants in the public employment in terms of both entry and also promotions. This discontentment against the dominance of these migrants took agitational form periodically during the Nizam’s reign also later after the Hyderabad became part of the Indian union.
The “mulki” and “non-mulki” conflicts assumed a different and serious proportion after the integration of Hyderabad in the Indian union in 1948. This opened opportunities for the English educated elite from the Madras Presidency who obviously had an advantage over the traditional Urdu educated employees of Hyderabad state. With the formation of the Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in 1956 following the merger of Telangana with Andhra region had only further intensified the discontent resulting in the year-long movement for the separate state of Telangana in the late 1960s. Even the States’ Reorganisation Commission expressed serious apprehensions that the merger of backward Telangana with the advanced Andhra that was part of the British governed Madras…
