Mr. Vice-President, Sir, I am sorry to have to intervene in this debate which has proved to be a somewhat controversial one. But, as one intimately connected with that part of the country around which the controversy has centred, I feel it my duty to say what we all exactly feel in the matter. There appears to be little more in the controversy than appears on the surface. Whenever a controversial issue arises it is our habit of mind to say to the parties that the involved in it to come together, sit round a table and convince each other by easy arguments of love and not refer it to a third party for arbitration or adjudication. That is a noble principle. This noble principle has been adopted by the Andhra people. They are the second largest community in India, next to the Hindi-speaking people. Even leaving out the 85 lakhs of our people in the Nizam’s territory whom we do not want to absorb unless they want to come in–let there be no misunderstanding–we who form three crores in all are about eighteen million in the Madras presidency in the northern part thereof. The Madras presidency has Madras as its capital and there, nearly half the population is Andhra and the other half is in the south of the city. They speak four different languages. In the Legislature of Madras, there is a babel of tongues. People do not understand one another. But that is different matter.
