Name: Boga Srinu
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Vol-11, No.2, July-Dec-2026
Page Number: 227-240
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22326869

This paper examines the dynamics of social and political mobilization that culminated in the creation of Telangana as India’s twenty-ninth state on 2 June 2014. Drawing on social movement theory, resource mobilization frameworks, and regional political economy, the study traces the evolution of the Telangana movement from the early agitations of 1969 through the decisive legislative phase of 2009–2014. The paper argues that the formation of Telangana was not merely a political event engineered by electoral parties, but rather the outcome of a sustained, multi-layered mobilization involving students, civil society organizations, Joint Action Committees (JACs), cultural activists, caste associations, and labour groups. The study foregrounds the roles of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), student organisations and the JAC platforms in sustaining momentum across six decades of intermittent agitation. Theoretically, the paper engages with Charles Tilly’s resource mobilization model, Rokkan’s cleavage-structure framework, and Langman’s five-element theory of social mobilization to explain the movement’s resilience and eventual success. The findings suggest that effective political mobilization requires not only organizational infrastructure but also the fusion of emotive identity politics with substantive developmental grievances. The Telangana case offers significant comparative lessons for sub-national movements seeking statehood within democratic federal systems.

Keywords: Telangana, Social Mobilization, Political Mobilization, Statehood Movement, Regionalism