TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 19 this oppression and these levies on the poorer sections and forced the officers to collect them, in many cases, from the richer sections. Our activity for relief of the poor and small income groups from war burdens helped us maintain our influence, increase our strength and later develop big mass movements in the post-war situation. „ NOTES ON THE BOOK 0 ^ f Considering it my elementary duty in which I failed during the last two decades at least to outline the rich and varied revolutionary experiences and lessons of this glorious struggle, I have tried to narrate the story of the Telangana struggle, basing myself mainly on the factual material contained in reports that were received from different area organisers of the struggle at that time; and on the personal experiences ofjnany of those leading comrades who were and even now are in the thick of the movement. Our effort has been to give the reader a comprehensive narration of the development of this struggle, and all the relevant details available to us, in order to point out the most important political lessons that emerge from the experience of this movement. We are conscious that many other details of actions of the people and of guerrillas and cadre which should have found a place in this book are not included. This is due to the lack of those details with us; due to the failure of all the participants in that Druggie to record their experiences, their knowledge of people's^ reactions and their own feeling during the period or later. Whenever these accounts become available, it will not be difficult to include them and have a fuller and more comprehensive history of the Telangana People's Struggle. 9 In this narrative, there may be factual discrepancies with regard to minor details; these too can be corrected, if the participants or readers point them out. Certain colleagues have pointed out to us that the book does not bring out fully the rich experience and the heroism of the movement. We are 'acutely conscious of this weakness; but it can be remedied only if the participants themselves write out or recount their experiences, even after this lapse of time. Regarding accuracy on one point: the exact number of those killed and wounded and the number of participants in many an encounter cannot be verified now after the passage of so much time; when the Government records are not yet available, and the truth is sought to be suppressed by the authorities. We have not tried to e4?t the narration of the events, as given by some of the chroniclers, or as recorded in the available reports from the lower units to higher centres. It was difficult even at that time of actual occurrence, let alone now, to verify the exact details. We have based ourselves on the chroniclers' narration and on the recorded reports in the files. , ' ^ In giving brief sketches of martyrs, we have tried to give whatever was 'available in the records and from accounts comrades have given us. There are omissions of many key cadre, squad members, whose deeds and activities need special narration. We appeal to all those old participants to compile their 'reminiscences of all these martyrs, so that future generations can be educated by their example. It is generally estimated that about 4000 communists and peasant militants were killed by police, military and landlord terror during 1946-51, excluding thousands of kqya people who died of disease in concentration camps. Some investigations put the figure nearer 6000. We do not have the names of all those killed; nor even the names of the villages from where they were picked up and shot dead. We hope comrades and people will collect, even now, the names and number of those killed, village after village. P SUNDRAYYA