Guwahati's Telugu Colony Carries Within Tale Of Resilience, Survival And Hope
The colony is a home away from home for the Telugu community, whose elders were pushed out of Burma during World War II.
Published : September 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM IST
Guwahati: Just behind the busy lanes of Guwahati's B. Barooah Road lies a quiet neighbourhood with an almost forgotten yet powerful story.
It is not just another locality in a sprawling city. Instead, it is a place that carries with it the story of the displaced Telugu population that walked barefoot to rebuild their lives here. The Telugu Colony is their home away from home.
For the Telugu population in war-torn Burma during World War II in the 1940s, everything changed within a short time.
“The Burmese government started pushing out foreigners. Our people had to flee as there was no choice,” pointed out T.B. Demudu Rao, one of the eldest and respected community elders.
It was not a planned migration and there were no means of transportation or any maps to guide them. Driven by fear and a will to survive, many families walked barefoot and starved through the forests, across rivers and mountains. They managed to reach India after three months.
“My parents were among those who walked all the way from Burma to Tinsukia. From there, 30 of them reached Guwahati by train,” recounted Rao.
The migrants settled near a forested area close to B. Barooah Road after clearing the land and building makeshift homes. Most of them found work as sanitation workers under the then Guwahati Panchayat.
Over a period of time, their relatives back home in Andhra Pradesh came to know about their survival and gradually, more families joined them.
“We started from the grassroots. Golap Choudhury, who led the panchayat then, helped us with quarters. Later, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and other authorities helped build more homes as our numbers grew,” Rao added.
The community that began with just 30 people has now grown to almost 50,000 strong, spread across 16 localities of Guwahati. They are working as engineers, government officers and shopkeepers.
Despite living thousands of kilometres away from their ancestral land, the Telugu community has preserved its culture and language. Cultural festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Nag Puja, and Sankranti are celebrated with warmth and unity. Preserving the language was a great struggle.
“There was a young man, Sanyasi Rao, who had studied Telugu back in Burma. He started teaching our children here. That’s how we held on to our language,” Rao disclosed.
Even now, while many can speak Telugu, a few can read or write it fluently. But community members are trying to address this concern.
Prakash Rao, a local teacher and second-generation resident, continues the work that his elders started.
“I teach children Telugu along with Assamese, Hindi, and English. Some of my students even got jobs in Andhra Pradesh because they knew their mother tongue,” he related.
“Though my father came from Burma, I married a woman from Visakhapatnam. Our son studies there now. This connection to our roots is still alive,” he added.
Presently, around 30% of the colony’s residents have their families residing in Andhra Pradesh. Although travel back home is rare, the emotional connection remains strong.
“My heart is still there,” said Chitti, a woman who moved to the colony after marriage. She was born and raised in a village near Visakhapatnam. She continues to miss her home, especially during Sankranti.
“But this is home now, too. We’ve built a life here together," he added.
Initially known as Morishali (graveyard), the locality came to be known as Madraji (term used for South Indians) Colony. But things changed when N.T. Rama Rao became the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in 1984 and later visited Guwahati.
“We told him that the people here called us ‘Madraji’. He said from the stage that these are Telugu people and should be called so. From then on, this came to be known as Telugu Colony,” disclosed Rao as he underlined that it wasn’t just a name but an identity and recognition.
The story of Telugu Colony is not just about migration but about the resilience of people who had lost everything but hope. It is a tale of a community struggling to find ways to hold on to its language, culture, and dignity. This community arrived here as survivors and is now a part of Assam’s history, culture and soul.
“We may speak Assamese now, but we dream in Telugu,” said Prakash Rao.
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