It is now 20 years since the Telangana peasants armed struggle was withdrawn on October 21, 1951. There is no authentic narration, even in outline, of how this struggle developed in that Nizam-governed feudal Hyderabad State into a peasants and people's armed revolt, the intervention by the Indian Army on September 13, 1948, and the heroic armed resistance put up by the peasant masses for three years to defend the lands they gained earlier from being seized by the landlords backed by the Nehru Government armed forces. Avowed enemies and hostile critics of this great movement have produced tons of literature denouncing the struggle as Communist “violence, banditry and anarchy”.

The right Communists are vociferous in depicting it, particularly the stage of the partisan resistance during the years 1949–51, as sectarian, dogmatic and individual terrorism in the main. The Naxalite leaders are busy carrying on the smear campaign that the leadership of the Telangana struggle betrayed it in calling it off in October 1951.

To present, in brief, an overall balance sheet of this heroic peasant uprising: it exacted tremendous sacrifices from the fighting peasantry of Telangana and the Visalandhra state unit of the Communist Party which was destined to lead this popular peasant uprising.