Andhra Pradesh
(2001 pop. 75.7 million). Andhra Pradesh is the fourth-largest state in India, having a population of 75.7 million and covering 275,068 square kilometers in the southeastern part of India. It has the longest coastline of all Indian states— 970 kilometers along the Bay of Bengal. It is flanked by the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Orissa on three sides apart from the long eastern coastline. Andhra Pradesh was the first state in India to be formed on a purely linguistic basis in 1953 with the merger of Telugu-speaking areas of the Nizam's Dominions and Madras State, subsequently expanded to include more such territory in the aftermath of the States Reorganization Act of 1956.
Andhra Pradesh has twenty-three administrative districts, which can be divided into three distinct regions: Andhra, incorporating nine coastal districts; Rayalaseema, incorporating four districts in the interior; and Telengana, incorporating ten districts, including the capital, Hyderabad. Because of its heterogeneous composition, Andhra Pradesh has grappled with the problem of regional imbalance in different forms. The state has a unicameral legislature with 295 seats. It has a representation of eighteen seats in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and forty-two seats in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) of the Indian Parliament. Historically, Andhra Pradesh has been associated with the reign of successive Indian dynasties, beginning with the Mauryas in the fourth century BCE and continuing, most notably, with the Kakatiyas in the thirteenth century and the Vijayanagar kings in the next two centuries. Later, it came under the rule of the Qutb Shahis and the Asaf Jahis, Muslim rulers of the Deccan who created the modern city of Hyderabad and struck an alliance with the advancing British colonial power. Traces of this legacy still exist in the form of monuments and architectural ruins.
A key feature of the state's terrain is the fertile coastal plain in the east. The two major rivers of the state, Godavari and Krishna, flow from the west to the east into the Bay of Bengal and form deltas. This fertile delta region supports extensive rice cultivation, which is the main crop, along with millet, groundnuts, chili, turmeric, tobacco, and sugarcane. Agriculture is the main occupation of the people, although a few major industries like machine tools, shipping, fertilizers, and electronics supplement income and employment. In recent times, Hyderabad has turned into a hub of economic activities, with particular emphasis on the growth of software technology. The state was the first to float the idea of e-governance in India through the use of computers in day-to-day administration. Among the main tourist attractions, the Golconda fort at Hyderabad, the Venkataswara temple at Tirupati, and the Nagarjuna Sagar dam are prominent.
Further Reading
Robinson, Marguerite S. (1988) Local Politics: The Law of Sishes: Development through Political Change in Medak District, Andhra Pradesh (South India). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Tapper, Bruce E. (1987) Rivalry and Tribute: Society and Ritual in a Telugu Village in South India. Delhi: Hindustan Publishing.
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