The word ‘settler’ refers to a person who has migrated to another area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. This is the definition according to Wikipedia.
And this word is frequently used to refer to Seemandhra people in Hyderabad, by the Telanganites without understanding that it does not apply to people of the same ethnicity, tribe or nation.
In United States, settler refers to those people who have helped to settle new lands and usually, it results in displacement of the indigenous population. No such thing happened in Telangana.
The Americans were settlers and it resulted in the near extermination of the Red Indians, the Australians were settlers and their arrival almost wiped out the aborigines.
The list goes on. But in Telangana, calling an Andhra person, a ‘settler’, only goes to show the depth of ignorance of those using the term.
Even simplistically speaking, any Indian can work and earn property anywhere in the country. So, when a person is called a settler whether he be an Andhraite, Tamilian or a Punjabi, the user of the term is rejecting the common identity of being Indian or considering himself to be an alien.
Written By by Kiran Sharma
