ANDHRA PRADESH

 Andhra Pradesh, once industrially underdeveloped, has in the latter half of the twentieth century become one of the most highly industrialized states in India. Industries such as shipbuilding, aeronautics, and the manufacture of electrical equipment, machine tools, and drugs have been -established in the Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad areas. Private enterprises, many of them located in the Vijay-awada-Guntur region, produce chemicals, textiles, cement, fertilizers, processed foods, petroleum derivatives, and cigarettes. An oil refinery is located in Visakhapatnam, as is the largest shipbuilding yard in the country. Mining and manufacturing industries, however, account for a small percentage of the state's income. There is a mammoth steel plant at Visakhapatnam, where there is easy access to raw materials and port facilities. In recent years the phenomenal increase in power generated by hydroelectric and thermoelectric projects augurs well for industrialization and irrigation. With its long coastline and many rivers, the state also has a significant and expanding fishing industry.

TRANSPORTATION

There are four airports in the state - at Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam. There is an extensive road and rail system, which connects Andhra Pradesh with all major states of the country. Bus transportation, a large share of which is privatized, offers facilities for express travel between various cities. The river canals in coastal areas, especially the saltwater Kommamur (Buckingham) Canal running parallel to the coast from the Krishna river to Chennai, are used for cargo transportation. Visakhapatnam is a major international seaport.

ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

Andhra Pradesh is a constituent unit in the Indian Union. A governor, appointed by the president of India, is the executive head of the state administration, but the real power is in the hands of a chief minister and the council of ministers responsible to the state legislature. The state has a unicameral legislature consisting of a Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elected by adult suffrage from territorial constituencies.

The administration is conducted by various ministries and departments, each under the direction of a minister are assisted by a staff of permanent civil servants. The state Secretariat at Hyderabad supervises the administration of the state's 23 districts. Local administration in each district is the responsibility of a district collector. Rural local government has been democratically decentralized by the introduction of a system in which local authorities operate at the village, block (a unit consisting of a group of -villages), and district levels. Municipal bodies govern the urban areas.

The regional committees for Telangana and Rayalaseema are a special feature of state government; the duty of the committees is to ensure that the views of the people of Telangana and Rayalaseema are given adequate consideration. The committees were established when the regions joined Andhra Pradesh in 1956, in order to protect regional interests, since the areas were economically and educationally less advanced than the coastal Andhra areas. The disparities of development that existed at the regional level in Andhra Pradesh gave rise, in the early 1970s, to the formation of Telangana Praja Samithi (Telugu: Telangana People's Committee), a political party demanding Telangana statehood. In the following decade, organizers of Telugu Desam (Land of Telugu) advocated a reduced role for the national government in state affairs. Telugu Desam ruled Andhra Pradesh from 1983 to 1989, when it was defeated and became an opposition party. In 1994 the Telugu Desam came to power again only to be defeated a decade later by the Congress in 2004.

The state judiciary is headed by a High Court, located in Hyderabad; the High Court has original jurisdiction in some cases and exercises appellate and administrative control over the district and lower level courts. The High Court is itself subject to the appellate authority of the Supreme Court of India in certain matters. The Secunderabad cantonment, north of Hyderabad, comprises a number of defence establishments, and Visakhapatnam is the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command.

HEALTH 

Medical and health facilities, under the supervision of the director of Medical and Health Services, have expanded rapidly in recent years. Under the Primary Health Centres scheme, medical help, both curative and preventive, is being brought to rural areas. Urban medical centres, such as the Osmania Hospital at Hyderabad and the King George Hospital at Visakhapatnam, have undergone expansion and upgrading; and new institutes, including those for treating particular diseases, have been opened. There is also a family-planning programme. Medical aid is free for low-income groups, and several medical-insurance schemes cover various categories of employees.

EDUCATION

The literacy rate stands at nearly 61 per cent. The state's educational system provides for 10 years of schooling followed by a two-year junior college course leading to undergraduate and postgraduate education. Primary education has been free and compulsory since 1961. High school education, primarily the concern of local bodies, is also free. The state has 20 universities. A number of institutions provide postgraduate instruction and research facilities. The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages is at Hyderabad. For several years technical education has been receiving special attention in order to meet the demands of industrialization. Various industrial-training institutes offer vocational training, while the engineering colleges of the universities train advanced technical personnel. Privately run facilities also operate at all levels.

WELFARE 

Before independence, social-welfare work was mainly undertaken by private agencies. After independence, however, the magnitude of the problem and scarcity of resources, both organizational and financial, led the government to accept primary responsibility in this field. Public investment in social welfare accounts for a large proportion of all that is spent on planning. There are social-welfare programmes for disabled and handicapped persons, Scheduled Castes (formerly called untouchables), and tribal or other groups that are not fully integrated into the social structure. Social programmes include those for education, economic advancement, health, and housing. Scholarship programmes are available for all Scheduled Caste, tribal, and other disadvantaged groups in all educational institutions that receive substantial financial assistance from state and federal agencies. In addition to the policy of reserving places for these groups in educational institutions and in employment, other ameliorative measures include housing and land-distribution schemes. Progress towards social advancement has, nevertheless, been rather slow. A separate government department addresses issues of women's welfare. There are also many private social organizations, including the Andhra Mahila Sabha, an organization that promotes women's welfare.

CULTURAL LIFE

Andhra’s contribution to India's cultural heritage is substantial. Architecture and painting have been highly developed arts in the region since ancient times. The Kuchipudi style of dance is unique in the Indian tradition, while Carnatic (south Indian) music has derived much from Andhra roots. Many of southern India's major classical composers have been Andhras, and Telugu has been the language of most of the compositions. Telugu, one of the four literary languages of the Dravidian family, occupies a prestigious place among Indian languages, being renowned for its antiquity as well as for its mellifluous quality. Andhras also are prominent in the modern Indian literary renaissance, and their writing reflects the impact of the contemporary revolution in literary forms and expression. There are many periodicals in English, Telugu, and Urdu. Muslim culture in the Telangana region further enriches the state's cultural diversity.

Before independence, arts and literature thrived mostly under the sponsorship of royal patrons and private organizations, many of which still function. The state has also created autonomous academies to revive, popularize, and promote fine arts, dance, drama, music, and literature.

The conscious pursuit of culture is more an urban than a rural phenomenon, for cultural performances, literary meetings, and religious discussions occur mostly in towns or cities. In rural areas, folk culture predominates. Cultural evolution in different parts of the state, under different historical circumstances, resulted in the occurrence of recognizable variations in dialect, in the caste structure, and in habits, thus diversifying the folk arts. Folk media such as minstrel-ballad performances, puppet shows, and mythological storytelling are indigenous to the area; use of these media in social and political communication is also common. The penetration of the mass media, especially of radio and television, to rural parts has helped in bringing an awareness of classical culture to the rural folk and of folk arts to the urban population. Andhra Pradesh is among the few major moviemaking states of India.

HISTORY

Although Sanskrit writings, dating to about 1000 BC, contain references to a people called "Andhras" living south of the central Indian mountain ranges, definitive historical evidence of the Andhras dates from the times of the Maurya dynasty, which ruled in the north in the third century BC. The great Maurya emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 265-238 BC) sent Buddhist missions to the Andhras in the south. About the first century AD, the Satakarni (or Satavahanas), one of the most renowned of the Andhra dynasties, came to power. Its members ruled over almost the entire Deccan plateau and even established trade relations with Rome. They were patrons of diverse religions and were also great builders: their principal city, Amaravati, contained Buddhist monuments inaugurating a new style of architecture.

Experts ascribe parts of the famous paintings in the Ajanta caves of the Deccan to the Andhra painters of that period. Buddhism prospered under the Andhras, and in their capital flourished the great Buddhist university of antiquity, where Nagarjuna (c. AD 150-250), the founder of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, taught. The ruins of the university at Nagarjunakonda still attest to its former glory. In the eleventh century, during the reign of the eastern Chalukyas, a dynasty that unified most of the Andhra area, the first of the Telugu poets, Nannaya, began translating the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, into Telugu, thus inaugurating the birth of Telugu as a literary medium. The dynasty of the Kakatiyas of Warangal in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries extended Andhra power, militarily and culturally; it was during their regime that the commercial expansion of the Andhras towards Southeast Asia reached its peak.

By this time, however, the Muslims had established themselves in the north, and their invasion of the south led to the fall of Warangal in 1323. But the rise of the kingdom of Vijayanagar, to the southwest of Warangal, arrested the expansion of Muslim power for some time. Acclaimed as the greatest kingdom in Andhra history, and as one of the greatest in Indian history, Vijayanagar, under the rule of its great king, Krishna Deva Raya (reigned 1509-29) became synonymous with military glory, economic prosperity, good administration, and artistic splendour. During this period, Telugu literature flourished. The formation of an alliance between the various neighbouring Muslim principalities, however, led to the fall of Vijayanagar in 1565, leaving the Muslims in control of the Andhra areas.

In the seventeenth century, English and French traders began to involve themselves in Indian politics. As a result, successive nizams (rulers) of Hyderabad, seeking to consolidate their kingdom against rivals, obtained first French, and later, British support. In exchange for their help, the British acquired from the nizam, the coastal Andhra districts lying to the north of Madras, and later, the hinterland districts. Thus, the major part of the Andhra country came under British rule. Part of the Telugu-speaking areas, known as the Telangana region, remained under the nizam's dominion, and the French acquired a few towns.

During the nineteenth century, which -witnessed the rise of Indian nationalism, the Andhras came to the forefront of the -movement. Leaders such as Kandukuri Veerasalingam pioneered social reform. In the struggle against British rule, Andhra leaders played decisive roles. Pride in their historical and linguistic achievements led them to demand a separate province. Simultaneously, a movement was also organized to unite the Telugu-speaking peoples living under British rule and those under the nizam's administration. The Andhras' demand for separate statehood became so insistent that, when the central government refused to comply, a local leader, Potti Sreeramulu, fasted to death in 1953 to dramatize the issue. The government finally acceded to the people's request by creating on October 1, 1953, the Andhra state, which included the Telugu-speaking districts of former Madras, thus paving the way for the formation of linguistic states throughout India in 1957.

The erstwhile state of Hyderabad, which had joined independent India in 1949, was split up, and its nine Telugu-speaking districts (constituting Telangana) were joined to the Andhra state on November 1, 1956, to form the new state of Andhra Pradesh. In 1960, 573 sq km in the Chingleput and Salem districts of Madras (now Tamil Nadu) were transferred to Andhra Pradesh in exchange for 1062 sq km from Chittoor district. Population (2001) Total 76,210,007; Rural 55,401,067; Urban 20,808,940.