Celebration, and Lingering Tensions, as India’s 29th State Is Born

Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSupporters celebrating the formation of the new state of Telangana in Hyderabad on Monday.

Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Supporters celebrating the formation of the new state of Telangana in Hyderabad on Monday.

HYDERABAD, India — On Monday, the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh officially split in two, and India’s 29th state, Telangana, was born. President’s rule — the interim government of united Andhra Pradesh — lifted in the new state, and the first popular government of Telangana came into power.

Its new chief minister, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, took his oath of office in the morning at the governor’s residence in Hyderabad.  The newly elected Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, congratulatedhim on Twitter, and a city, at least in part, rejoiced.

In Hyderabad, which will serve as common capital for 10 years of both Telangana and the residual Andhra Pradesh, celebrations began early in the evening on Sunday. Pink — the color of Mr. Rao’s party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which championed the statehood movement — dominated the cityscape as frenzied supporters circled the city on motorcycles, waving pink flags.

At a celebration by thousands on one side of Hussain Sagar Lake at the heart of the city, a folk singer grabbed a microphone 30 seconds before midnight and counted down, accompanied by the revelers.  At the stroke of midnight, fireworks burst out over the lake and people embraced, yelling the slogan “Jai Telangana,” or “Hail Telangana.”

“It is real, our state,” said Chandra Reddy, a 29-year-old university student who had shouted so much in jubilation over the course of the evening that his voice was nearly gone. “I am now standing on my own land,” he said….

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