"Jai Andhra!"

At the village of Sher Mohammed Pet, on a main thoroughfare leading into the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, all traffic must come to a halt these days. A handmade green-and-yellow flag flutters over the makeshift roadblock as youths wearing badges demanding statehood for Andhra step out to tax the traveler: "Hey, you pay two rupees for Andhra." The traveler pays or he does not pass. Shouts of "Jai Andhra! Jai Andhra!" (Hail Andhra) go up as he is waved on.

The roadblock is a highly visible symbol of the latest of many statehood movements that have plagued India since it won independence from Britain in 1947. In recent months, separatists in the twelve coastal districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh have been demanding the right to break away from the interior region of Telangana and form a new state to be known as Andhra Desa (Andhra Land). The rebel lion has mushroomed into a popular movement with the support of an estimated 99% of the people in the area.

Andhras separatism has brought sporadic but growing violence and a total breakdown in local authority. The city of Vijayawada has been virtually closed down by a general strike since November. Electric power has been intermittently shut off. Schools and colleges are shuttered, hospitals are minimally staffed and judges have even refused to hold court. Scores of demonstrators have been killed and many more injured in clashes between police and protesters. Two weeks ago, New Delhi imposed "President's rule" over the state, a procedure by which the federal government temporarily assumes control of state affairs. But the action failed to stem the tide of dissent, and last week Indian troops were rushed into the area to quell disorders.

The issue behind the separatist rebellion is primarily economic. The more affluent Andhras charge that the economically depressed Telanganans have demanded special privileges for themselves ever since the two areas were joined together in 1956 to form the state of Andhra Pradesh. The discontent came to a head when the Indian Supreme Court ruled last October that a series of antiquated laws known as the "Mulki rules" were constitutional. The laws, enacted in 1918 to preserve jobs for local workers when the Nizam of Hyderabad was importing help from other parts of India to staff his princely concerns, give preference in government jobs to the citizens of the capital city of Hyderabad and the surrounding districts of Telangana. Said one Andhras villager: "We are second-class citizens in our own capital city."

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi offered a compromise plan to phase out the laws by 1980, but the rebels rejected it. So have 114 state legislators from Mrs. Gandhi's own Congress Party who resigned in support of the separatists. "I have never said that I will not listen to the voice of the people," said Mrs. Gandhi last week. "But violence has not paid and will never pay."

Mrs. Gandhi fears that if the Andhras are allowed to have their own separate state, it will open a Pandora's box of similar demands in other states plagued by economic disparities. Already, factions in her home state of Uttar Pradesh, as well as in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, have made known their intention to seek realignment along economic lines. On the other hand, dividing Andhra Pradesh into two states may be the most equitable solution, since the Telanganans are as eager to have a separate state of their own as the Andhras are.

Late last week, the separatists announced that if statehood was not granted by Feb. 5 they would take unspecified "revolutionary measures." Undoubtedly mindful that Andhra was originally created in 1953 after a follower of Mohandas Gandhi fasted until he died to plead for statehood, a separatist leader, Subba Reddy, declared that if necessary he would immolate himself to achieve the same goal.

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