title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: In the weeks leading up to the film's release, advance ticket sales outpaced "The Dark Knight Rises", "The Avengers", and "Furious 7". Worldwide, it was estimated to gross between $300–340million in over 35,000 screens in its opening weekend. It passed the $50million mark in IMAX ticket sales on its second weekend, grossing a total of $53.4million from 571 IMAX screens. Warner Bros. US distribution chief Jeff Goldstein described the film's box office performance as a "fantastic result, by any measure". Box office analyst Jeff Bock said "Still, outside of Christopher Nolan's two "Dark Knight" movies, and Tim Burton's "Batman" films when you adjust for inflation, this is the highest-grossing property in DC's bullpen thus far. It tops "Man of Steel" by more than $200million," and that "overall, "BvS" successfully relaunched DC's cinematic universe." The film needed to reach $800million in revenue at the box office to "recoup its investment" according to financial analysts. Despite surpassing this amount, it was considered "a disappointment" for failing to reach $1 billion. This resulted in Warner Bros. creating DC Films in May 2016, giving a dedicated executive team responsibility for films based on DC Comics, similar to the dedicated Marvel Comics focus of Marvel Studios within the larger Walt Disney Studios group. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" grossed $330.4million in North America and $543.3million in other territories for a worldwide total of $873.6million, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2016 behind "", "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", "Finding Dory", "Zootopia", "The Jungle Book", and "The Secret Life of Pets". "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $105.7million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Following reports of pre-tickets sales in both the United States and Canada on February 29, many insiders and analysts predicted an opening weekend haul between $120–140million for "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", with projections as high as $185million. However, Warner Bros. insiders were more conservative in their estimates projecting in the lower range of $110million. According to Deadline Hollywood, an undisclosed rival studio box office analyst indicated that if the film is truly pacing in tandem with "The Dark Knight Rises", then "Dawn of Justice" could possibly be looking at a $180million+ debut. The film also became Fandango's top pre-selling superhero film ever, beating "The Dark Knight Rises" and "", representing 90% of the site's weekend's ticket sales. A survey carried out showed that the introduction of Wonder Woman is a primary draw for moviegoers. It pre-sold around $20–25million worth of advance tickets. "Dawn of Justice" made $27.7million in Thursday previews from around 3,800 theaters which is the biggest of 2016, the biggest Easter weekend preview, the second-biggest for a superhero film (behind "The Dark Knight Rises"), and the seventh-biggest of all time of which $3.0million came from IMAX showings, also a new record for Easter weekend.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: On its opening day, it earned $81.59million from 4,242 theaters, including previews, marking the biggest pre-summer opening day of all time, the second-biggest superhero Friday opening and the fourth-biggest opening-day and fourth-biggest single-day gross, with $9million coming from IMAX showings. Excluding the Thursday previews, it earned $53.89million on Friday which is the fifth-biggest ever. It fell 37.8% on Saturday, which is the second-worst superhero opening Friday-to-Saturday drop, only behind the 40% drop of "The Dark Knight Rises." In total, it earned $166million for its debut weekend, setting records for the biggest March and pre-summer openings, the biggest Easter opening, the second-biggest opening for Warner Bros., the biggest for a DC Comics property, and the eighth-biggest opening of all time. (Some of these records have since been broken by "Beauty and the Beast".) Conversely, the film holds the record for the worst superhero Friday-to-Sunday drop with a 58% decline, eclipsing the previous 48% decline record held by "Fantastic Four" in 2015. IMAX comprised 11% or $18million of the weekend's gross from 388 theaters which is the fifth-biggest of all time (a record it shares with "Age of Ultron") and 3D represented 40% ($68million) of the total ticket sales. RealD 3D comprised $47million of the opening gross. Premium large formats generated $17.6million (10%), with $3.6million of that coming from Cinemark XD auditoriums from 475 theaters.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Following its record breaking opening weekend, it posted the biggest March Monday with $15.05million, a drop of 55% from its Sunday gross. This broke "The Hunger Games" previous record of $10.8million, and also the biggest March Tuesday with $12.2million. It made $209million in its first week full which stands at the eleventh-biggest opening week of all time and surpassed the lifetime total "Batman Begins". Despite earning $15.35million in its second Friday, the film dropped 81.2% and broke the record for the biggest Friday-to-Friday drop for a comic book adaptation film, not including $27.7million worth of previews which represented an even larger decline. It fell precipitously by 69.1% in its second weekend, grossing $51.3million from 4,256 theaters (an addition of 14 cinemas) due to poor reviews and mixed word of mouth, establishing itself an infamous record for the seventh steepest drop for a superhero/comic book adapted film and the steepest decline since the -69% posted by "" in 2009, despite facing little to no competition or new wide-releases and having the added benefit of 30% K–12 schools off, and 9% of colleges on break, per ComScore. The steep drop also marks the fourth-biggest for a film that opened above $100million (tied with ""). In its third weekend it was overtaken by the comedy "The Boss" after falling 54% with $23.3million.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" proved to be front-loaded, failing to generate significant revenue after its opening weekend/week release. It earned just 1.99 times ($330million) its opening weekend numbers ($166million), which is lower than "Man of Steel"s 2.28 multiplier. Like other DC films, such as "Watchmen", "Green Lantern" and "Man of Steel", it opened to record breaking numbers but then dropped the following weekend onward due largely to bad critical reception and mixed word of mouth from audiences. A similar result was followed by DC's third superhero film, "Suicide Squad" released in August 2016, although "Suicide Squad" became less front-loaded than "Dawn of Justice".


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Internationally, it was projected to open between $180–200million; however, Deadline.com pointed out that these figures were only early predictions pegged to the performance of similar films in their respective territories. It opened in ten countries on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, earning $7million and debuting at No. 1 in all markets on approximately 5,900 screens. The following day, the film was released in 38 additional countries, earning $33.1million on 19,700 screens for a two-day total of $44million. On March 25, it opened in the remaining 17 countries delivering $67.2million in revenue, for a three-day total of $115.3million in 62 countries on more than 30,000 screens. Through Sunday, March 27, it earned an opening-weekend total of $256.5million from 66 countries on over 40,000 screens, making it the biggest superhero opening weekend of all time, the biggest overall March opening, the second-biggest opening ever for Warner Bros., and the fifth-biggest international opening on record. The film's accomplishments also included the second-biggest IMAX opening record of $18million, behind only "Jurassic World" which tallied $23.5million. 3D accounted 59% or $149.86million of the weekend gross led by China (98%), Germany (88%), Brazil (81%), Russia (55%), and France (51%). As with North America, the film witnessed a steep decline in its second Friday internationally, falling 72% to $19.2million, with the biggest decline in the U.K. (77%) and China (87%). Its second weekend earnings fell 66% overall to $85.25million. Despite the decline, the film topped the box office for three consecutive weekends.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: In Mexico, it had the biggest opening day for Warner Bros. and the second-biggest of all time with $5.8million, including record-breaking midnight showings. It also scored the biggest opening day of all time in Brazil ($3.5million) and the biggest opening day for a superhero film in Germany ($2.8million). Elsewhere, it opened in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($9million), Australia ($2.5million), India ($2.54million), Russia ($1.9million), South Korea ($1.7million), Japan ($1.2million), the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong ($1.1million respectively). In China, it earned $21.22million on its opening day, including around $1.34million worth of previews, which is the biggest for Warner Bros. and the sixth-biggest Hollywood opening day of all time. However, other Chinese sources have the film open to around $20million. In terms of opening weekends, the biggest openings were recorded in China ($57.2million), the United Kingdom and Ireland ($20.7million), Mexico ($18.2million), Brazil ($12million), South Korea ($10.2million), Australia ($9.9million), France ($8.6million), Germany ($8.1million), Russia ($7.7million), India ($6.6million), Spain ($6.1million) and Japan ($4.5million). It broke all-time opening record in Brazil and Warner Bros. opening records in Mexico, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it benefited from the long Easter weekend holiday and despite a distinctly mixed bag of reviews in the U.K. press, it posted an opening £14.62million or $20.7million from 612 theaters, a record for 2016 so far and for a superhero title on straight Friday to Sunday, but fell short of "The Avengers" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron", when accounting for previews.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: In Japan, it opened in third place, behind two local films, "" and "". In South Korea, it scored the biggest March opening after opening on a Tuesday and dominating 68.3% of the market share with $10.2million. In China, after scoring the biggest Hollywood opening Friday (behind ""), it earned an estimated $57.2million from approximately 16,000 screens in its opening weekend, besting all other DC Comics adaption film just by its weekend haul except for "Man of Steel" and gave Warner Bros. its biggest three day opening there with $7million coming from 557 IMAX screens. However, the opening figure fell below analysts projections of $70–80million. It held the top spot for its first seven days only, after which it faced stiff competitions from local productions, and fell dramatically from then onwards in accruing revenue. As a result, it fell to third place in its second weekend after falling enormously by 78% to $12.7million, a record for a superhero film.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: It became the Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film of all time in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It also crossed $100million Latin American markets, making it Warner Bros.' second highest-grossing film there. In total earnings, its biggest markets outside of North America are China ($95million), followed by the UK ($52.1million), Mexico ($36million) and Brazil ($35.5million).


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: ""Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" smothers a potentially powerful story – and some of America's most iconic superheroes – in a grim whirlwind of effects-driven action." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to critics' reviews, gave the film an average score of 44 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. It earned "B−" from men, "B" from women, a "B" from those under 25 and a "B−" from those over 25. According to PostTrak, 73% of audiences graded the film "very good" or "excellent", with a 60% giving it a "definite recommend". BBC News reported that "the film had been widely praised by fans after its first screening in New York".


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Lindy West in "The Guardian" described the film as "153 minutes of a grown man whacking two dolls together", asking "[h]as the definition of 'movie' changed from 'motion picture story that a human wrote on purpose' to '700 only tangentially related 12-second grey and red vignettes'?" A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" wrote: "The point of "Batman v Superman" isn't fun, and it isn't thinking, either. It's obedience. The theology is invoked [...] to buttress a spectacle of power. And in that way the film serves as a metaphor for its own aspirations. The corporations that produce movies like this one, and the ambitious hacks who sign up to make them, have no evident motive beyond their own aggrandizement." Writing in "The Telegraph", Robbie Collin called the film "humourless" and "the most incoherent blockbuster in years". Cynthia Fuchs of "PopMatters" said, "As you're watching this movie, you might also contemplate your own part, in being swayed into consuming so much of what you've consumed before", adding, "Wonder Woman remains "Batman v Superman" most compelling story, precisely because it's untold." Matt Patches of "Thrillist" wrote "what "Batman v Superman" can do, it does, at the cost of coherency and thrills. The movie is bat-shit crazy. A dour, disdainful demeanor, plus a gluttony of complex plot twists, dissipates most of the contact high." Michael Philips of "Chicago Tribune" wrote, "A near-total drag, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" plays like a loose, unofficial quarter-billion-dollar remake of "The Odd Couple", in which Oscar and Felix are literally trying to kill each other." On his podcast "Hollywood Babble-On", film director Kevin Smith, a long-time friend and collaborator of Affleck, praised Affleck's performance but panned the film, commenting that it "didn't really have a heart" and was "humorless", arguing that "there seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding of what those characters are about. It's almost like Zack Snyder didn't read a bunch of comics, he read one comic once, and it was "Dark Knight Returns", and his favorite part was the last part where Batman and Superman fight." On a second viewing, however, Smith via his Instagram lightened his stance.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Taking a softer tone, David Betancourt of "The Washington Post" and Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" praised the film's visual spectacle and performances from Affleck and Gadot, though Mendelson also called the film "an utter mess of thinly sketched characters, haphazard plotting, surprisingly jumbled action". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called the film "better than "Man of Steel" but below the high bar set by Nolan's "Dark Knight"," adding that ""Dawn of Justice" is still a colossus, the stuff that DC Comics dreams are made of for that kid in all of us who yearns to see Batman and Superman suit up and go in for the kill." Jake Coyle of Associated Press wrote, "it hurtles not with the kinetic momentum of "Mad Max: Fury Road" nor the comparatively spry skip of a Marvel movie, but with an operatic grandeur it sometimes earns and often doesn't." Mark Hughes of "Forbes" called it "the follow-up to "The Dark Knight" that many viewers and fans wanted or hoped for", adding that it's "visually stunning, with powerful emotional storytelling and awe-inspiring action spectacle." Andrew Barker of "Variety" said "as a pure visual spectacle... "Batman V Superman" ably blows the hinges off the multiplex doors." Charles Koplinski of the "Illinois Times" called it "a brooding, but most importantly intelligent take on the seminal figures of our 20th century pop culture mythology, a movie that at once pays tribute to these characters' roots while offering up modern incarnations of them that ring true for our times." Nicolas Barber of the BBC called the film "a four-star epic" praising Affleck's performance as Batman and the visual grandeur of Fong's cinematography. Jordan Hoffman of "The Guardian" gave an ambivalent review; he especially criticized the "very bad writing", but conceded "there are a lot of moments... that work" and praised Affleck and Gadot's performances, calling Gadot as Wonder Woman the best thing in the film.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Multiple commentators criticized Eisenberg on the grounds that his interpretation of Lex Luthor hewed too close to character traits associated with another DC Comics villain, the Joker. Even before the film was released, Affleck compared Eisenberg's performance to that of Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight". Once the film came out, critics lambasted Eisenberg's take on Luthor. Sonny Bunch of "The Washington Post" lamented that "As the film progresses, Lex degenerates into a gibbering mad man, some strange mix of the Riddler and the Joker with a little bit of Mark Zuckerberg added for flair." Charlie Jane Anders of "Gizmodo" wrote that "Someone clearly told Jesse Eisenberg that this movie is the Dark Knight to Man of Steel's Batman Begins, and he's doing his damndest to give a Heath Ledger-esque performance... Watching the trailers, I had thought Eisenberg's loopy acting might be this movie's saving grace – but a concentrated dose of his faux mania actually turns out to be the worst thing." Andy Scott of "Grunge", in an article titled "How Jesse Eisenberg Ruined Batman v Superman," wrote that "Eisenberg's speech patterns and mannerisms felt almost entirely lifted from Ledger's iconic performance, to the point where he walked the dangerous grey line between respectful homage and downright thievery." Eisenberg responded to the critiques by saying he attempted to "make these people real and relatable and interesting and engaging, not just, you know, a surface bad person."


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Writer Chris Terrio said the decision to remove 30 minutes for the theatrical cut was an act of sabotage. In June 2018, "Mise-en-scène: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration" published the article "Applying Suspense to Archetypal Superheroes: Hitchcockian Ambiguity in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"," which argued that the film "warrants analysis as a particularly ambitious development within the evolving superhero genre. It applies a remarkable amount of Hitchcockian thrills to a story pitting two protagonists against one another within a villain’s conspiracy to create the first live-action Hitchcockian superhero thriller featuring branded, culturally established characters. By displacing its protagonists from their inherently justified positions, it creates a critical moral ambiguity that directly deconstructs the assumptions at the heart of Western society’s two most archetypal superheroes."


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: An extended cut of the film dubbed the "Ultimate Edition" was released on home media platforms, alongside the theatrical cut. This version received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, for more violence than the PG-13 rated theatrical cut, and is longer by 31 minutes. With the release of the "Ultimate Edition", which was the director's original version of the film before additional editing, critics noted that the film would have likely been better received with the additional footage. Ben Kendrick of "Screen Rant" stated that while it was more "intelligible", character portrayal was not "fundamentally changed" and "for viewers who didn't like "Man of Steel" or "Batman v Superman" for larger reasons, such as tone, approach, and the darker characterization of DC's most iconic heroes, the "Ultimate Edition" is only a longer... version of a film that... is likely to remain divisive, even if the final product is a better film." Phil Owens of "TheWrap" called it an improvement upon the original cut, writing, "Lo and behold somehow "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" has become something that approaches a functional movie. In the process, it only makes the original cut even more inexplicable and terrible."


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: On the home video sales chart, the film debuted in first place for the week ending July 24, 2016. In the United States, it made $23,4million in DVD sales and $58,9million in Blu-ray sales, for an estimated total of $82.4million.


title: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

text: Despite being shot partially on IMAX film and released to IMAX theaters with select scenes in either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1, the initial Blu-ray release only featured the fixed 2.39:1 aspect ratio that was used for non-IMAX screenings. However, on December 12, 2020, Snyder revealed that he is working to restore the IMAX ratio to the film for an upcoming re-release in 2021. On March 4, 2021, Warner Bros. announced that a remastered version of the "Ultimate Edition" (with the IMAX scenes presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.43:1) would be released on to digital platforms and HBO Max on March 18, 2021 (the same day "Zack Snyder's Justice League" releases), and would also be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray several days later on March 23.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 35,193,978 residents as per 2011 census. On 2 June 2014, the area was separated from the northwestern part of Andhra Pradesh as the newly formed state with Hyderabad as its capital. Its other major cities include Warangal, Nizamabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and Ramagundam. Telangana is bordered by the states of Maharashtra to the north, Chhattisgarh to the northeast, Karnataka to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the east and south. The terrain of Telangana consists mostly of the Deccan Plateau with dense forests covering an area of . As of 2019, the state of Telangana is divided into 33 districts.


title: Telangana

text: Throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, the region now known as Telangana was ruled by multiple major Indian powers such as the Mauryans, Satavahanas, Vishnukundinas, Chalukyas, Cholas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas, Delhi Sultanate, Bahmani Sultanate, Golconda Sultanate. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the region was ruled by the Mughals of India. The region is known for its "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb" culture. During the 18th century and the British Raj, Telangana was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1823, the Nizams lost control over Northern Circars (Coastal Andhra) and Ceded Districts (Rayalseema), which were handed over to the East India Company. The annexation by the British of the Northern Circars deprived Hyderabad State, the Nizam's dominion, of the considerable coastline it formerly had, to that of a landlocked princely state with territories in the central Deccan, bounded on all sides by British India. Thereafter, the Northern Circars were governed as part of Madras Presidency until India's independence in 1947, after which the presidency became India's Madras state.


title: Telangana

text: The Hyderabad state joined the Union of India in 1948 after a police action. In 1956, the Hyderabad State was dissolved as part of the linguistic reorganization of states and Telangana was merged with the Telugu-speaking Andhra State (part of the Madras Presidency during the British Raj) to form Andhra Pradesh. A peasant-driven movement began to advocate for separation from Andhra Pradesh starting in the early 1950s, and continued until Telangana was granted statehood on 2 June 2014 under the leadership of K. Chandrashekar Rao.


title: Telangana

text: The economy of Telangana is the seventh-largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of and has the country's 6th-highest GSDP per capita of . Telangana ranks 22nd among Indian states in human development index. The state has emerged as a major focus for robust IT software, industry and services sector. The state is also the main administrative Centre of many Indian defence aerospace and research labs like Bharat Dynamics Limited, Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Defense Research and Development Organization and Defence Research and Development Laboratory.


title: Telangana

text: Hyderabadi cuisine and Kakatiya architecture both from Telangana, are on the list of creativity UNESCO creative city of gastronomy and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cultural centers of Telangana, Hyderabad and Warangal, are noted for their wealth and renowned historical structures – Ramappa Temple (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Charminar, Qutb Shahi Tombs, Falaknuma Palace, Chowmahalla Palace, Warangal Fort, Kakatiya Kala Thoranam, Thousand Pillar Temple and the Bhongir Fort in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. The historic city Golconda in Hyderabad established itself as a diamond trading Centre and, until the end of the 19th century, the Golconda market was the primary source of the finest and largest diamonds in the world. Thus, the legendary name Golconda Diamonds became synonymous with Golconda itself. Religious edifices like the Lakshmi Narasimha Temple in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad, the ancient Bhadrakali Temple and Govinda Rajula Gutta in Warangal, Alampur Jogulamba Temple in Jogulamba Gadwal district and Medak Cathedral, Kondagattu Anjaneya Swamy Temple, Kondagattu Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Lord Shiva temple in Vemula Wada of Rajanna-Sircilla district are several of its most famous places of worship. Buddhism also flourished in the region and many Aramams can be found.


title: Telangana

text: A popular etymology derives the word "Telangana" from "Trilinga desa" ("land of three lingas"), a region so-called because three important Shaivite shrines were located here: Kaleshwaram (in present day Telangana), Srisailam and Draksharama (in present day Andhra Pradesh). According to Jayadhir Thirumala Rao, a former director of Andhra Pradesh Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre, the name Telangana is of Gondi origin. Rao asserts that it is derived from "Telangadh", which according to him, means "south" in Gondi and has been referred to in "Gond script dating back to about 2000 years".


title: Telangana

text: One of the earliest uses of a word similar to Telangana can also be seen in a name of Malik Maqbul (14th century CE), who was called the "Tilangani", which implies that he was from Telangana. He was the commander of the Warangal Fort ("Kataka Pāludu").


title: Telangana

text: During the just reign of Ibrahim Kootb Shah, "Tulingana", like Egypt, became the mart of the whole world. Merchants from Toorkistan, Arabia, and Persia resorted to it; and they met with such encouragement that they found in it inducements to return frequently. The greatest luxuries from foreign parts daily abounded at the king's hospitable board.


title: Telangana

text: The word "Telinga" changed over time to "Telangana" and the name "Telangana" was designated to distinguish the predominantly Telugu-speaking region of the erstwhile Hyderabad State from its predominantly Marathi-speaking one, Marathwada. After Asaf Jahis ceded the Seemandhra region to the British, the rest of the Telugu region retained the name Telangana and the other parts were called Madras Presidency's Circars and Ceded.


title: Telangana

text: The Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE–220 CE) became the dominant power in this region. It originated from the lands between the Godavari and Krishna rivers and was based at Amaravathi and Dharanikota. After the decline of the Satavahanas, various dynasties, such as the Vakataka, Vishnukundina, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta and Western Chalukya, ruled the area.


title: Telangana

text: The Telangana area experienced its golden age during the reign of the Kakatiya dynasty, which ruled most parts of the present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from 1083 to 1323 CE. Rudrama Devi and Prataparudra II were prominent rulers from the Kakatiya dynasty. The dynasty weakened with the attack of Malik Kafur in 1309 and was dissolved after the defeat of Prataparudra by the forces of Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1323.


title: Telangana

text: The area came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century, followed by the Bahmani Sultanate. Quli Qutb Mulk, a governor of Golconda, revolted against the Bahmani Sultanate and established the Qutb Shahi dynasty in 1518. On 21 September 1687, the Golconda Sultanate came under the rule of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after a year-long siege of the Golconda fort.


title: Telangana

text: During the early seventeenth century a strong cotton-weaving industry existed in Telangana. Large quantities of cotton were produced for domestic and exports consumption. High quality plain and patterned cloth made of muslin and calico was produced.


title: Telangana

text: In 1712, Qamar-ud-din Khan was appointed by emperor Farrukhsiyar as the viceroy of Deccan with the title "Nizam-ul-Mulk" (meaning "Administrator of the Realm"). He was later recalled to Delhi, with Mubariz Khan appointed as the viceroy. In 1724, Qamar-ud-din Khan defeated Mubariz Khan to reclaim the "Deccan suba," establishing it as an autonomous province of the Mughal empire. He took the name "Asif Jah", starting what came to be known as the Asaf Jahi dynasty. He named the area Hyderabad Deccan. Subsequent rulers retained the title "Nizam ul-Mulk" and were called Asif Jahi Nizams or nizams of Hyderabad. The Medak and Warangal divisions of Telangana were part of their realm.


title: Telangana

text: When Asif Jah I died in 1748, there was political unrest due to contention for the throne among his sons, who were aided by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial foreign forces. In 1769, Hyderabad city became the formal capital of the Nizams. The Nizam Nasir-ud-dawlah, Asaf Jah IV signed the subsidiary alliance with the British in 1799 and lost its control over the state's defence and foreign affairs. Hyderabad State became a princely state among the presidencies and provinces of British India.


title: Telangana

text: In 1787, heavy flooding killed over 20,000 causing a plague which killed about 10,656,000 Telugus again in Telangana.


title: Telangana

text: When India became independent from the British Empire in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad did not want to merge with the Indian Union and wanted to remain independent. The Government of India annexed Hyderabad State on 17 September 1948 after a military operation called Operation Polo. It appointed a civil servant, M. K. Vellodi, as first chief minister of Hyderabad State on 26 January 1950. He administered the state with the help of English-educated bureaucrats from the Madras and Bombay states, who were familiar with British systems of administration unlike the bureaucrats of Hyderabad State who used a completely different administrative system. The official language of the state was switched from Urdu to English.


title: Telangana

text: In 1952, Dr. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was elected chief minister of the Hyderabad State in its first democratic election. During this time, there were violent agitations by some Telanganites to send the Madras state bureaucrats back and implement a rule by the natives ("mulkis") of Hyderabad (Syed Alam Sharjil) was elected chief minister of Hyderabad after (Dr. Burgula Ramakrishana Rao) for one year after he resigned from the post.


title: Telangana

text: The Telangana Rebellion was a peasant revolt supported by the communists. It originated in the Telangana regions of the Hyderabad State between 1946 and 1951, led by the Communist Party of India (CPI).


title: Telangana

text: The revolt began in the Nalgonda district against the feudal lords of Reddy and Velama castes. It quickly spread to the Warangal and Bidar districts. Peasant farmers and labourers revolted against the local feudal landlords ("jagirdars" and "deshmukhs") and later against the Nizam Osman Ali Khan. The violent phase of the movement ended after the government of India's Operation Polo. Starting in 1951, the CPI shifted to a more moderate strategy of seeking to bring communism to India within the framework of Indian democracy.


title: Telangana

text: In December 1953, the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was appointed to form states on a linguistic basis. An agreement was reached between Telangana leaders and Andhra leaders on 20 February 1956 to merge Telangana and Andhra with promises to safeguard Telangana's interests. After reorganisation in 1956, the region of Telangana was merged with Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh.


title: Telangana

text: Following this Gentlemen's agreement, the central government established the unified state of Andhra Pradesh on 1 November 1956. G.O 553 of 1959 from the united Andhra Pradesh state moved two revenue divisions of Bhadrachalam from East Godavari and Aswaraopeta from West Godavari to Khammam for administrative convenience.


title: Telangana

text: There have been several movements to revoke the merger of Telangana and Andhra, major ones occurring in 1969, 1972, and 2009. The movement for a new state of Telangana gained momentum in the 21st century by an initiative of Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao from Telangana Rashtra Samithi later joined by Telangana Political Joint Action Committee, TJAC including political leadership representing the Telangana area. On 9 December 2009 the government of India announced the process of formation of the Telangana state. Violent protests led by people in the Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions occurred immediately after the announcement, and the decision was put on hold on 23 December 2009.


title: Telangana

text: The movement continued in Hyderabad and other districts of Telangana. There have been hundreds of claimed suicides, strikes, protests and disturbances to public life demanding separate statehood.


title: Telangana

text: On 30 July 2013, the Congress Working Committee unanimously passed a resolution to recommend the formation of a separate Telangana state. After various stages the bill was placed in the Parliament of India in February 2014. In February 2014, Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 bill was passed by the Parliament of India for the formation of Telangana state, comprising ten districts from north-western Andhra Pradesh. The bill received the assent of the president and was published in the Gazette on 1 March 2014.


title: Telangana

text: The state of Telangana was officially formed on 2 June 2014. Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao was elected as the first chief minister of Telangana, following elections in which the Telangana Rashtra Samithi party secured majority. Hyderabad will remain as the joint capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a period, not more than ten years after that period Hyderabad shall be the capital of the state of Telangana and there shall be a new capital for the state of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh picked Amaravati as its capital and relocated its secretariat in 2016 and its legislature in 2017.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana is situated on the Deccan Plateau, in the central stretch of the eastern seaboard of the Indian Peninsula. It covers . The region is drained by two major rivers, with about 79% of the Godavari River catchment area and about 69% of the Krishna River catchment area, but most of the land is arid. Telangana is also drained by several minor rivers such as the Bhima, the Maner, the Manjira, the Musi, and the Tungabhadra


title: Telangana

text: The annual rainfall is between 900 and 1500 mm in northern Telangana and 700 to 900 mm in southern Telangana, from the southwest monsoons. Telangana contains various soil types, some of which are red sandy loams (Chalaka), Red loamy sands (Dubba), lateritic soils, salt-affected soils, alluvial soils, shallow to medium black soils and very deep black cotton soils. These soil types allow the planting of a variety of fruits and vegetable crops such as mangoes, oranges, coconut, sugarcane, paddy, banana and flower crops.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana is a semi-arid area and has a predominantly hot and dry climate. Summers start in March, and peak in May with average high temperatures in the range. The monsoon arrives in June and lasts until September with about 755 mm (29.7 inches) of precipitation. A dry, mild winter starts in late November and lasts until early February with little humidity and average temperatures in the range.


title: Telangana

text: The Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests ecoregion covers much of the state, including Hyderabad. The characteristic vegetation is woodlands of "Hardwickia binata" and "Albizia amara". Over 80% of the original forest cover has been cleared for agriculture, timber harvesting, or cattle grazing, but large blocks of forest can be found in Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve and elsewhere. The more humid Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests cover the Eastern Ghats in the eastern part of the state.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana has three National Parks: Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park in Hyderabad district, and Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park and Mrugavani National Park in Ranga Reddy district.


title: Telangana

text: Wildlife Sanctuaries in Telangana include Eturunagaram Wildlife Sanctuary and Pakhal Wildlife Sanctuary in Warangal District, Kawal Tiger Reserve and Pranahita Wildlife Sanctuary in Adilabad district, Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary in Khammam district, Manjira Wildlife Sanctuary in Medak district, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts, Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary in Medak and Nizamabad districts, Shivaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Karimnagar district.


title: Telangana

text: Sacred groves are small areas of forest preserved by local people. Sacred groves provide sanctuary to the local flora and fauna. Some are included within other protected areas, like Kadalivanam in Nagarjunsagar–Srisailam Tiger Reserve, but most stand alone. There are 65 sacred groves in Telangana—two in Adilabad district, thirteen in Hyderabad district, four in Karimnagar district, four in Khammam district, nine in Mahbubnagar district, four in Medak district, nine in Nalgonda district, ten in Ranga Reddy district, and three in Warangal district.


title: Telangana

text: Telugu one of the classical languages of India is the official language of Telangana and Urdu is the second official language of the state. About 75% of the population of Telangana speak Telugu and 12% speak Urdu. Before 1948, Urdu was the official language of Hyderabad State, and due to a lack of Telugu-language educational institutions, Urdu was the language of the educated elite of Telangana. After 1948, once Hyderabad State joined the new Republic of India, Telugu became the language of government, and as Telugu was introduced as the medium of instruction in schools and colleges, the use of Urdu among non-Hyderabadi Muslims decreased. Both Telugu and Urdu are used in services across the state, such as the Telangana Legislature website, with Telugu and Urdu versions of the website available, as well as the Hyderabad metro, wherein both languages are used on station names and signs along with English and Hindi. The Urdu spoken in Telangana is called Hyderabadi Urdu, which in itself is a dialect of the larger Dakhini Urdu dialects of South India. Although the language is spoken by most Hyderabadi Muslims, the language in a literary context has long been lost, and standard Urdu is used. Hindi is spoken mainly in Hyderabad, as well as some other urban areas like Warangal. Lambadi, a language related to Rajasthani dialects, is spoken throughout the state. Marathi is predominant in regions bordering Maharashtra, especially in the old Adilabad district, while Kannada is spoken by significant minorities along some parts of the Karnataka border. The old Adilabad district has a large number of speakers of tribal languages such as Gondi and Kolami, while Koya is a language spoken by significant numbers in Bhadradi Kothagudem district and along the Chhattisgarh border.


title: Telangana

text: According to the 2011 census, Hindus form 85.1% of the State's population. Muslims form 12.7% and Christians form 1.3%.


title: Telangana

text: According to the 2011 census, Telangana's literacy rate is 66.46%. Male literacy and female literacy are 74.95% and 57.92%, respectively. Hyderabad district has the highest literacy rate with 80.96% and Mahabubnagar district has the lowest with 56.06%.


title: Telangana

text: In a 2019 report, the "Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India", by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Telangana has a literacy rate of 72.8% which is the fourth lowest of large states. It also has the second lowest literacy rate among rural women at 53.7%. 37.1% of the population aged 3–35 years received free education at pre-primary and higher levels in Telangana.


title: Telangana

text: The state is divided into 33 districts. The latest two new districts, Mulugu and Narayanpet, were formed on 17 February 2019. The districts are divided into 70 revenue divisions which are further divided into 584 mandals.


title: Telangana

text: There are a total of 12 cities in the state. Hyderabad is the biggest city in the state and 4th largest city in India. There are 13 municipal corporations and 132 municipalities in the state.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana is governed by a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. There are three branches of government.


title: Telangana

text: Auxiliary authorities known as "panchayats", for which local body elections are regularly held, govern local affairs. The state contributes seats to Lok Sabha.


title: Telangana

text: The main players in the regional politics are the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, All India Forward Bloc, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress. Following the Telangana Legislative Assembly Election in 2014, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi under Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao was elected to power.


title: Telangana

text: providing irrigation. Farmers in Telangana mainly depend on rain-fed water sources for irrigation. Rice is the major food crop. Other important crops are cotton, sugar cane, mango, and tobacco. Recently, crops used for vegetable oil production such as sunflower and peanuts have gained favour. There are many multi-state irrigation projects in development, including Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects and Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the world's highest masonry dam.


title: Telangana

text: The state has also started to focus on the fields of information technology and biotechnology. Telangana is one of top IT-exporting states of India. There are 68 Special Economic Zones in the state.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana is a mineral-rich state, with coal reserves at Singareni Collieries Company. The Golconda region has produced some of the world's most famous diamonds, including the colourless Koh-i-Noor (United Kingdom), the blue Hope (United States), the pink Daria-i-Noor (Iran), the white Regent (France), the Dresden Green (Germany), and the colourless Orlov (Russia), Nizam and Jacob (India), as well as the now-lost diamonds Florentine Yellow, Akbar Shah and Great Mogul.


title: Telangana

text: Rice is the major food crop and staple food of the state. Other important crops are maize, tobacco, mango, cotton and sugar cane. Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. The Godavari and Krishna rivers flow through the state, providing irrigation. Apart from major rivers, there are small rivers like Tunga Bhadra, Bima, Dindi, Kinnerasani, Manjeera, Manair, Penganga, Pranahitha, peddavagu and Taliperu. There are many multi-state irrigation projects in development, including Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects and Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the world's highest masonry dam.


title: Telangana

text: Andrew Flachs, an environmental anthropologist from Purdue University, wrote an article on his fieldwork in India. The article, In "Planting and performing: Anxiety, aspiration, and “scripts” in Telangana cotton farming", was a way to help better understand the aspects of cotton farming, which remains a big market in India. Fachs's research demonstrates how the facets of cotton farming in India are a big example of “a growing neoliberal instability in rural India’s agrarian political economy.” For starters, Flachs recognizes that so much societal and financial pressure is put onto small cotton farmers. Because of this, cotton farmers in Telangana are at risk for “suicide and indebtedness”. According to Flachs, what drives most, if not all cotton farmers is what he refers to as “manci digubadi,” which translates to “I’m hoping for a good yield.” This saying is what the farmers refer to as a “script”. A “script” can be defined as a means for farmers to justify their decisions when it comes to seed planting and farming. Flachs claims that “scripts reveal how farmers are conditioned to follow rules and norms”. One major issue in Indian cotton farming is the lack of seed knowledge the farmers retain. Flachs affirms that each season is driven by the GM seed market. The privatization of this market has caused an influx of seeds and an immoral market. Each year the cotton farmers are purchasing the newest seeds with no previous knowledge or reference to empirical data. Because the cotton farms are considered in determining the validity of the farmer, farmers tend to just purchase seeds that their neighbors have had previous success with, despite existing confounding variables such as irrigation, weather, and pesticide use. While many of the cotton farmers have adapted to the constantly changing seed market in hopes to achieve a “good yield”, others have in turn abandoned agriculture altogether, or have even committed suicide to protest against the “Indian agribusiness”. Overall, Flachs asserts that “Manci digubadi” goes much deeper than achieving good yields, saying that this “script” is the result of cotton farmers seeking “social recognition, personal satisfaction, relief, and affirmation”.


title: Telangana

text: Several major manufacturing and services industries are in operation mainly around Hyderabad. Automobiles and auto components, spices, mines and minerals, textiles and apparels, pharmaceutical, horticulture, and poultry farming are the main industries in Telangana.


title: Telangana

text: In terms of services, Hyderabad is nicknamed "Cyberabad" due to the location of major software industries in the city. Prior to secession, it contributed 10% to India's and 98% to Andhra Pradesh's exports in the IT and ITES sectors in 2013 With Hyderabad in the front line of Telangana's goal to promote information technology in India, the city boasts the HITEC City as its premier hub. IT companies have also been set up in Warangal and Khammam.


title: Telangana

text: The state government is in the process of developing industrial parks at different places, for specific groups of industries. The existing parks are Software Park at Hyderabad, HITEC City for software units, Apparel Park at Gundlapochampalli, Export Promotion Park at Pashamylaram, Biotechnology park at Turkapally.


title: Telangana

text: Hyderabad is also a major site for healthcare-related industries including hospitals and pharmaceutical organisations such as Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Yashoda Hospitals, LV Prasad Eye Care, Akruti Institute of cosmetic and plastic surgery, Fever Hospital, Durgabai Deshmukh, Continental Hospitals and Apollo Hospitals. Many pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical-related companies like Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Shantha Biotechnics and Aragen (Formerly GVK BIO) are based out of Hyderabad.


title: Telangana

text: In addition, Hyderabad-based healthcare non-profits include the Indian Heart Association, a cardiovascular disease NGO.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) is a state government agency which promotes tourism in Telangana. Telangana has a variety of tourist attractions including historical places, monuments, forts, waterfalls, forests and temples.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana state has won CNBC-TV18's Promising State of the Year Award for the year of 2015. The Jury for the India Business Leader Awards (IBLA) has collectively chosen Telangana for the award.


title: Telangana

text: The print media mainly consists of Telugu and English newspapers. "Nava Telangana", "Sakshi", "Andhra Jyothi", "Eenadu" and "Namaste Telangana" are all Telugu newspapers. Mainly in English newspapers are "Deccan Chronicle", "The Times Of India", "The Hindu", and "The Hans India". Notable Urdu newspapers include "Etemaad Daily", "The Munsif Daily", and "The Siasat Daily".


title: Telangana

text: Hydel and thermal power projects in the state meet the power requirements of the state. A number of new power projects are coming up in the State which is expected to generate additional power capacity in the state.


title: Telangana

text: The state is well connected with other states by means of road, rail and airways. The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is the major public transport corporation that connects all the cities and villages. Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (M.G.B.S) in Hyderabad is one of the largest bus stand in Asia. Jubilee Bus Station in Secunderabad serves inter city bus services.


title: Telangana

text: The history of railways in this region dates back to the time of Nizam of Hyderabad in 1874. The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, which had its beginnings in a line built privately by the HEH the Nizam. Much to the dismay of the British authorities, The Nizam bore all the expenses for the construction of the line.


title: Telangana

text: It operates under the auspices of the South Central Railway founded in 1966. The landmark building Rail Nilayam in Secunderabad is the Zonal Headquarter office of South Central Railway. Secunderabad and Hyderabad are the main divisions of the South Central Railway that fall in the state.


title: Telangana

text: Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad is an international airport serving the city of Hyderabad. It is the largest airport in the state and one of the busiest airports in the country. The government has plans to upgrade Warangal Airport, Nizamabad Airport and Ramagundam Airport. It also plans to construct airports in Ramagundam and Kothagudem.


title: Telangana

text: Warangal has a domestic airport in Mamunooru which was established in the year 1930 during the Nizam period. All the exports and imports of Azam Jahi Mills, Warangal were done through the Warangal Airport.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana culture combines cultural customs from Persian traditions, embedded during the rule of the region by the Mughals, Qutub Shahis and Nizams, with prominent and predominantly south Indian traditions and customs. The State has a rich tradition in classical music, painting and folk arts such as Burra Katha, shadow puppet show, and Perini Shivatandavam, Gusadi Dance, Kolatam and Bathukamma.


title: Telangana

text: Medieval forts such as the Bhongir Fort, Khammam Fort, and Rachakonda Fort are spread across the state. Among the notable ones is the Warangal Fort, which served as the capital of the Kakatiya dynasty. The Kakatiya Kala Thoranam within the fort has become a symbol of Telangana, and features on the state emblem. The fort complex, along with the Ramappa Temple and Thousand Pillar Temple are on the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.


title: Telangana

text: The Qutb Shahi dynasty established the city of Hyderabad as their capital. The Charminar, Golconda Fort, and Qutb Shahi tombs in Hyderabad were built by the Qutb Shahi dynasty.


title: Telangana

text: The Nizam era saw the construction of palaces such as the Chowmahalla Palace and Falaknuma Palace, as well as elaborate public buildings such as the Osmania General Hospital, all in Hyderabad.


title: Telangana

text: Hindu worship destinations include Bhadrachalam Temple, Gnana Saraswati Temple, Yadagirigutta Temple, Ramappa Temple, Vemulawada Raja Rajeswara temple, the Thousand Pillar Temple, Statue of Equality (Ramanuja).


title: Telangana

text: The Muslim worship destinations such as Makkah Masjid near Charminar, Khairtabad Mosque, Koh-e-qaim, Mian Mishk Masjid, Toli Masjid and Spanish Mosque.


title: Telangana

text: Christian worship centres include the Diocese of Dornakal of the Church of South India, Bahe Church of South India, and Medak Cathedral. There are also some Buddhist destinations, such as Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Phanigiri and Kolanpaka.


title: Telangana

text: Telugu cinema, also known by its sobriquet as Tollywood, is a part of Indian cinema producing films in the Telugu language, and is centred in the Hyderabad, Telangana neighbourhood of Film Nagar. In the early 1990s, the Telugu film industry had largely shifted from Chennai to Hyderabad. The Telugu film industry is the second-largest film industry in India next to Bollywood. In the years 2005, 2006 and 2008 the Telugu film industry produced the largest number of films in India, exceeding the number of films produced in Bollywood. The industry holds the Guinness World Record for the largest film production facility in the world.


title: Telangana

text: Indigenous art forms of Telangana include the Cheriyal scroll painting, Nirmal paintings, and Karimnagar Silver Filigree. A distinctive Persianate style of painting, called Deccan painting developed in the region during the medieval period.


title: Telangana

text: Notable museums in the state include the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, which is one of the largest in India. Other museums include the Telangana State Archeology Museum, City Museum, and Nizam Museum in Hyderabad, Warangal Museum in Warangal, and Alampur Museum in Alampur.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana has multiple institutes of higher education universities along with numerous primary and secondary schools. The Department of Higher Education deals with matters relating to education at various levels in the state of Telangana.


title: Telangana

text: According to a 2019 report, the state has a literacy rate of 72.8%, which is one of the lowest in India. Schools in Telangana are run by the state government or private organisations, which include religious institutions. Some specialized schools such as the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are run by agencies of the central government. , there are 41,337 schools in the state, with about 70% of them being government schools.


title: Telangana

text: Telangana is home to 27 universities, which include 3 central universities, 17 state universities, 2 deemed universities, and 5 private universities. The Osmania University in Hyderabad, established in 1918, is the oldest modern university in the state, and one of the largest university systems in the world. The University of Hyderabad consistently ranks among the top universities in the country. Apart from these, specialised institutes of national importance in the state include AIIMS Bibinagar, IIT Hyderabad, and NIT Warangal.


title: Telangana

text: Other notable institutions include Indian School of Business, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Kakatiya University, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, NALSAR University of Law, Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, National Institute of Fashion Technology Hyderabad, Footwear Design and Development Institute, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad, and Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Basar, among others.


title: Telangana

text: The Hyderabad FC is a professional football club based in Hyderabad and plays in top-tier league of India, the Indian Super League. The home ground of the club is G.M.C Balayogi Athletic Stadium, in Gachibowli.


title: Telangana

text: The Hyderabad cricket team is represented in the Ranji Trophy and has won twice. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, an Indian Premier League franchise, is based in Hyderabad and has won the trophy once. Deccan Chargers, a currently defunct franchise from Hyderabad, also won the Indian Premier League once. The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium is the home ground of both Hyderabad cricket team and Sunrisers Hyderabad. It hosts international as well as domestic matches. The Hyderabad Hunters, a Premier Badminton League franchise; the Telugu Titans, a Pro Kabaddi League franchise; the Hyderabad Sky, a UBA Pro Basketball League franchise and the Telugu Tigers, a Premier Futsal franchise are also based in Hyderabad. Hyderabad Hunters are previous winners of the Premier Badminton League title.


title: Telangana

text: Other stadiums include G. M. C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium and Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger". After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed slaves find work. Tubman met John Brown in 1858, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She was active in the women's suffrage movement until illness overtook her, and she had to be admitted to a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped to establish years earlier. She became an icon of courage and freedom.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross to enslaved parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross. Rit was enslaved by Mary Pattison Brodess (and later her son Edward). Ben was enslaved by Anthony Thompson, who became Mary Brodess's second husband, and who ran a large plantation near the Blackwater River in the Madison area of Dorchester County, Maryland.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: As with many slaves in the United States, neither the exact year nor place of Tubman's birth is known, and historians differ as to the best estimate. Kate Larson records the year as 1822, based on a midwife payment and several other historical documents, including her runaway advertisement, while Jean Humez says "the best current evidence suggests that Tubman was born in 1820, but it might have been a year or two later". Catherine Clinton notes that Tubman reported the year of her birth as 1825, while her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone lists 1820.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman's maternal grandmother, Modesty, arrived in the US on a slave ship from Africa; no information is available about her other ancestors. As a child, Tubman was told that she seemed like an Ashanti person because of her character traits, though no evidence has been found to confirm or deny this lineage. Her mother, Rit (who may have had a white father), was a cook for the Brodess family. Her father, Ben, was a skilled woodsman who managed the timber work on Thompson's plantation. They married around 1808 and, according to court records, had nine children together: Linah, Mariah Ritty, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Rit struggled to keep her family together as slavery threatened to tear it apart. Edward Brodess sold three of her daughters (Linah, Mariah Ritty, and Soph), separating them from the family forever. When a trader from Georgia approached Brodess about buying Rit's youngest son, Moses, she hid him for a month, aided by other slaves and freedmen in the community. At one point she confronted her owner about the sale. Finally, Brodess and "the Georgia man" came toward the slave quarters to seize the child, where Rit told them, "You are after my son; but the first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." Brodess backed away and abandoned the sale. Tubman's biographers agree that stories told about this event within the family influenced her belief in the possibilities of resistance.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman's mother was assigned to "the big house" and had scarce time for her own family; consequently, as a child Tubman took care of a younger brother and baby, as was typical in large families. When she was five or six years old, Brodess hired her out as a nursemaid to a woman named "Miss Susan". Tubman was ordered to care for the baby and rock the cradle as it slept; when the baby woke up and cried, she was whipped. She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. She carried the scars for the rest of her life. She found ways to resist, such as running away for five days, wearing layers of clothing as protection against beatings, and fighting back.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: As a child, Tubman also worked at the home of a planter named James Cook. She had to check the muskrat traps in nearby marshes, even after contracting measles. She became so ill that Cook sent her back to Brodess, where her mother nursed her back to health. Brodess then hired her out again. She spoke later of her acute childhood homesickness, comparing herself to "the boy on the Swanee River", an allusion to Stephen Foster's song "Old Folks at Home". As she grew older and stronger, she was assigned to field and forest work, driving oxen, plowing, and hauling logs.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: As an adolescent, Tubman suffered a severe head injury when an overseer threw a metal weight at another slave who was attempting to flee. The weight struck Tubman instead, which she said: "broke my skull". Bleeding and unconscious, she was returned to her owner's house and laid on the seat of a loom, where she remained without medical care for two days. After this incident, Tubman frequently experienced extremely painful headaches. She also began having seizures and would seemingly fall unconscious, although she claimed to be aware of her surroundings while appearing to be asleep. This condition remained with her for the rest of her life; Larson suggests she may have had temporal lobe epilepsy as a result of the injury.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: After her injury, Tubman began experiencing visions and vivid dreams, which she interpreted as revelations from God. These spiritual experiences had a profound effect on Tubman's personality and she acquired a passionate faith in God. Although Tubman was illiterate, she was told Bible stories by her mother and likely attended a Methodist church with her family. She rejected the teachings of white preachers who urged slaves to be passive and obedient victims to those who trafficked and enslaved them; instead she found guidance in the Old Testament tales of deliverance. This religious perspective informed her actions throughout her life.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Anthony Thompson promised to manumit Tubman's father at the age of 45. After Thompson died, his son followed through with that promise in 1840. Tubman's father continued working as a timber estimator and foreman for the Thompson family. Several years later, Tubman contacted a white attorney and paid him five dollars to investigate her mother's legal status. The lawyer discovered that a former owner had issued instructions that Tubman's mother, Rit, like her husband, would be manumitted at the age of 45. The record showed that a similar provision would apply to Rit's children, and that any children born after she reached 45 years of age were legally free, but the Pattison and Brodess families ignored this stipulation when they inherited the slaves. Challenging it legally was an impossible task for Tubman.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Around 1844, she married a free black man named John Tubman. Although little is known about him or their time together, the union was complicated because of her enslaved status. The mother's status dictated that of children, and any children born to Harriet and John would be enslaved. Such blended marriagesfree people of color marrying slaveswere not uncommon on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where by this time, half the black population was free. Most African-American families had both free and enslaved members. Larson suggests that they might have planned to buy Tubman's freedom.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman changed her name from Araminta to Harriet soon after her marriage, though the exact timing is unclear. Larson suggests this happened right after the wedding, and Clinton suggests that it coincided with Tubman's plans to escape from slavery. She adopted her mother's name, possibly as part of a religious conversion, or to honor another relative.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In 1849, Tubman became ill again, which diminished her value in the eyes of the slave traders. Edward Brodess tried to sell her, but could not find a buyer. Angry at him for trying to sell her and for continuing to enslave her relatives, Tubman began to pray for her owner, asking God to make him change his ways. She said later: "I prayed all night long for my master till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me." When it appeared as though a sale was being concluded, "I changed my prayer", she said. "First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way. A week later, Brodess died, and Tubman expressed regret for her earlier sentiments.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: As in many estate settlements, Brodess's death increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family broken apart. His widow, Eliza, began working to sell the family's slaves. Tubman refused to wait for the Brodess family to decide her fate, despite her husband's efforts to dissuade her. "[T]here was one of two things I had a right to", she explained later, "liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other".


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from slavery on September 17, 1849. Tubman had been hired out to Anthony Thompson (the son of her father's former owner), who owned a large plantation in an area called Poplar Neck in neighboring Caroline County; it is likely her brothers labored for Thompson as well. Because the enslaved were hired out to another household, Eliza Brodess probably did not recognize their absence as an escape attempt for some time. Two weeks later, she posted a runaway notice in the Cambridge "Democrat", offering a reward of up to $100 each for their capture and return to slavery. Once they had left, Tubman's brothers had second thoughts. Ben may have just become a father. The two men went back, forcing Tubman to return with them.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Soon afterward, Tubman escaped again, this time without her brothers. Before leaving she sang a farewell song to hint at her intentions, which she hoped would be understood by Mary, a trusted fellow slave: "I'll meet you in the morning", she intoned, "I'm bound for the promised land." While her exact route is unknown, Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad. This informal system was composed of free and enslaved black people, white abolitionists, and other activists. Most prominent among the latter in Maryland at the time were members of the Religious Society of Friends, often called Quakers. The Preston area near Poplar Neck contained a substantial Quaker community and was probably an important first stop during Tubman's escape. From there, she probably took a common route for people fleeing slaverynortheast along the Choptank River, through Delaware and then north into Pennsylvania. A journey of nearly by foot would have taken between five days and three weeks.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman had to travel by night, guided by the North Star and trying to avoid slave catchers eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves. The "conductors" in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. At an early stop, the lady of the house instructed Tubman to sweep the yard so as to seem to be working for the family. When night fell, the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house. Given her familiarity with the woods and marshes of the region, Tubman likely hid in these locales during the day. The particulars of her first journey are unknown; because other fugitives from slavery used the routes, Tubman did not discuss them until later in life. She crossed into Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe, and recalled the experience years later:


title: Harriet Tubman

text: After reaching Philadelphia, Tubman thought of her family. "I was a stranger in a strange land," she said later. "[M]y father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and "they" should be free." She worked odd jobs and saved money. The U.S. Congress meanwhile passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which heavily punished abetting escape and forced law enforcement officialseven in states that had outlawed slaveryto assist in their capture. The law increased risks for those who had escaped slavery, more of whom therefore sought refuge in Southern Ontario (then part of the United Province of Canada) which, as part of the British Empire, had abolished slavery. Racial tensions were also increasing in Philadelphia as waves of poor Irish immigrants competed with free blacks for work.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In December 1850, Tubman was warned that her niece Kessiah and her two children, six-year-old James Alfred, and baby Araminta, would soon be sold in Cambridge. Tubman went to Baltimore, where her brother-in-law Tom Tubman hid her until the sale. Kessiah's husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. Then, while the auctioneer stepped away to have lunch, John, Kessiah and their children escaped to a nearby safe house. When night fell, Bowley sailed the family on a log canoe to Baltimore, where they met with Tubman, who brought the family to Philadelphia.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Early next year she returned to Maryland to help guide away other family members. During her second trip, she recovered her brother Moses and two unidentified men. Tubman likely worked with abolitionist Thomas Garrett, a Quaker working in Wilmington, Delaware. Word of her exploits had encouraged her family, and biographers agree that with each trip to Maryland, she became more confident.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In late 1851, Tubman returned to Dorchester County for the first time since her escape, this time to find her husband John. She saved money from various jobs, purchased a suit for him, and made her way south. Meanwhile, John had married another woman named Caroline. Tubman sent word that he should join her, but he insisted that he was happy where he was. Tubman at first prepared to storm their house and make a scene, but then decided he was not worth the trouble. Suppressing her anger, she found some slaves who wanted to escape and led them to Philadelphia. John and Caroline raised a family together, until he was killed 16 years later in a roadside argument with a white man named Robert Vincent.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Because the Fugitive Slave Law had made the northern United States a more dangerous place for those escaping slavery to remain, many escapees began migrating to Southern Ontario. In December 1851, Tubman guided an unidentified group of 11 fugitives, possibly including the Bowleys and several others she had helped rescue earlier, northward. There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and formerly enslaved Frederick Douglass. In his third autobiography, Douglass wrote: "On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada. It was the largest number I ever had at any one time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter. ... " The number of travelers and the time of the visit make it likely that this was Tubman's group.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Douglass and Tubman admired one another greatly as they both struggled against slavery. When an early biography of Tubman was being prepared in 1868, Douglass wrote a letter to honor her. He compared his own efforts with hers, writing:


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Over 11 years, Tubman returned repeatedly to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, rescuing some 70 slaves in about 13 expeditions, including her other brothers, Henry, Ben, and Robert, their wives and some of their children. She also provided specific instructions to 50 to 60 additional fugitives who escaped to the north. Because of her efforts, she was nicknamed "Moses", alluding to the prophet in the Book of Exodus who led the Hebrews to freedom from Egypt. One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents. Her father, Ben, had purchased Rit, her mother, in 1855 from Eliza Brodess for $20. But even when they were both free, the area became hostile to their presence. Two years later, Tubman received word that her father was at risk of arrest for harboring a group of eight people escaping slavery. She traveled to the Eastern Shore and led them north to St. Catharines, Ontario, where a community of former slaves (including Tubman's brothers, other relatives, and many friends) had gathered.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman's dangerous work required tremendous ingenuity; she usually worked during winter months, to minimize the likelihood that the group would be seen. One admirer of Tubman said: "She always came in the winter, when the nights are long and dark, and people who have homes stay in them." Once she had made contact with those escaping slavery, they left town on Saturday evenings, since newspapers would not print runaway notices until Monday morning.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Her journeys into the land of slavery put her at tremendous risk, and she used a variety of subterfuges to avoid detection. Tubman once disguised herself with a bonnet and carried two live chickens to give the appearance of running errands. Suddenly finding herself walking toward a former owner in Dorchester County, she yanked the strings holding the birds' legs, and their agitation allowed her to avoid eye contact. Later she recognized a fellow train passenger as another former master; she snatched a nearby newspaper and pretended to read. Tubman was known to be illiterate, and the man ignored her.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: While being interviewed by author Wilbur Siebert in 1897, Tubman named some of the people who helped her and places that she stayed along the Underground Railroad. She stayed with Sam Green, a free black minister living in East New Market, Maryland; she also hid near her parents' home at Poplar Neck. She would travel from there northeast to Sandtown and Willow Grove, Delaware, and to the Camden area where free black agents, William and Nat Brinkley and Abraham Gibbs, guided her north past Dover, Smyrna, and Blackbird, where other agents would take her across the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to New Castle and Wilmington. In Wilmington, Quaker Thomas Garrett would secure transportation to William Still's office or the homes of other Underground Railroad operators in the greater Philadelphia area. Still is credited with aiding hundreds of freedom seekers escape to safer places farther north in New York, New England, and present-day Southern Ontario.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman's religious faith was another important resource as she ventured repeatedly into Maryland. The visions from her childhood head injury continued, and she saw them as divine premonitions. She spoke of "consulting with God", and trusted that He would keep her safe. Thomas Garrett once said of her, "I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul." Her faith in the divine also provided immediate assistance. She used spirituals as coded messages, warning fellow travelers of danger or to signal a clear path. She sang versions of "Go Down Moses" and changed the lyrics to indicate that it was either safe or too dangerous to proceed. As she led fugitives across the border, she would call out, "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"


title: Harriet Tubman

text: She carried a revolver, and was not afraid to use it. The gun afforded some protection from the ever-present slave catchers and their dogs; however, she also purportedly threatened to shoot any escaped person who tried to turn back on the journey since that would threaten the safety of the remaining group. Tubman told the tale of one man who insisted he was going to go back to the plantation when morale got low among a group of escapees. She pointed the gun at his head and said, "You go on or die." Several days later, he was with the group as they entered Canada.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Slaveholders in the region, meanwhile, never knew that "Minty", the petite, , disabled slave who had run away years before and never come back, was responsible for so many escapes in their community. By the late 1850s, they began to suspect a northern white abolitionist was secretly enticing away the people they had enslaved. Though a popular legend persists about a reward of for Tubman's capture, this is a manufactured figure. In 1868, in an effort to entice support for Tubman's claim for a Civil War military pension, a former abolitionist named Salley Holley wrote an article claiming $40,000 "was not too great a reward for Maryland slaveholders to offer for her". Such a high reward would have garnered national attention, especially at a time when a small farm could be purchased for a mere and the federal government offered $25,000 for the capture of each of John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators in President Lincoln's assassination in 1865. A reward offering of $12,000 has also been claimed, though no documentation has been found for either figure. Catherine Clinton suggests that the $40,000 figure may have been a combined total of the various bounties offered around the region.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Despite the efforts of the slaveholders, Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured. Years later, she told an audience: "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, an insurgent who advocated the use of violence to destroy slavery in the United States. Although she never advocated violence against whites, she agreed with his course of direct action and supported his goals. Like Tubman, he spoke of being called by God, and trusted the divine to protect him from the wrath of slaveholders. She, meanwhile, claimed to have had a prophetic vision of meeting Brown before their encounter.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Thus, as he began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders, Brown was joined by "General Tubman", as he called her. Her knowledge of support networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware was invaluable to Brown and his planners. Although other abolitionists like Douglass did not endorse his tactics, Brown dreamed of fighting to create a new state for those freed from slavery, and made preparations for military action. He believed that after he began the first battle, the enslaved would rise up and carry out a rebellion across the slave states. He asked Tubman to gather the formerly enslaved then living in present-day Southern Ontario who might be willing to join his fighting force, which she did.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: On May 8, 1858, Brown held a meeting in Chatham, Ontario, where he unveiled his plan for a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. When word of the plan was leaked to the government, Brown put the scheme on hold and began raising funds for its eventual resumption. Tubman aided him in this effort and with more detailed plans for the assault.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman was busy during this time, giving talks to abolitionist audiences and tending to her relatives. In late 1859, as Brown and his men prepared to launch the attack, Tubman could not be contacted. When the raid on Harpers Ferry took place on October 16, Tubman was not present. Some historians believe she was in New York at the time, ill with fever related to her childhood head injury. Others propose she may have been recruiting more escapees in Ontario, and Kate Clifford Larson suggests she may have been in Maryland, recruiting for Brown's raid or attempting to rescue more family members. Larson also notes that Tubman may have begun sharing Frederick Douglass's doubts about the viability of the plan.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: The raid failed; Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and inciting a slave rebellion, and he was hanged on December 2. His actions were seen by many abolitionists as a symbol of proud resistance, carried out by a noble martyr. Tubman herself was effusive with praise. She later told a friend: "[H]e done more in dying, than 100 men would in living."


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In early 1859, abolitionist Republican U.S. Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York, for . The city was a hotbed of antislavery activism, and Tubman seized the opportunity to deliver her parents from the harsh Canadian winters. Returning to the U.S. meant that those who had escaped enslavement were at risk of being returned to the South and re-enslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law, and Tubman's siblings expressed reservations. Catherine Clinton suggests that anger over the 1857 Dred Scott decision may have prompted Tubman to return to the U.S. Her land in Auburn became a haven for Tubman's family and friends. For years, she took in relatives and boarders, offering a safe place for black Americans seeking a better life in the north.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Shortly after acquiring the Auburn property, Tubman went back to Maryland and returned with her "niece", an eight-year-old light-skinned black girl named Margaret. There is great confusion about the identity of Margaret's parents, although Tubman indicated they were free blacks. The girl left behind a twin brother and both parents in Maryland. Years later, Margaret's daughter Alice called Tubman's actions selfish, saying, "she had taken the child from a sheltered good home to a place where there was nobody to care for her". Alice described it as a "kidnapping".


title: Harriet Tubman

text: However, both Clinton and Larson present the possibility that Margaret was in fact Tubman's daughter. Larson points out that the two shared an unusually strong bond, and argues that Tubman – knowing the pain of a child separated from her mother – would never have intentionally caused a free family to be split apart. Clinton presents evidence of strong physical similarities, which Alice herself acknowledged. Both historians agree that no concrete evidence has been found for such a possibility, and the mystery of Tubman's relationship with young Margaret remains to this day.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In November 1860, Tubman conducted her last rescue mission. Throughout the 1850s, Tubman had been unable to effect the escape of her sister Rachel, and Rachel's two children Ben and Angerine. Upon returning to Dorchester County, Tubman discovered that Rachel had died, and the children could be rescued only if she could pay a bribe of . She had no money, so the children remained enslaved. Their fates remain unknown. Never one to waste a trip, Tubman gathered another group, including the Ennalls family, ready and willing to take the risks of the journey north. It took them weeks to safely get away because of slave catchers forcing them to hide out longer than expected. The weather was unseasonably cold and they had little food. The children were drugged with paregoric to keep them quiet while slave patrols rode by. They safely reached the home of David and Martha Wright in Auburn on December 28, 1860.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman saw a Union victory as a key step toward the abolition of slavery. General Benjamin Butler, for instance, aided escapees flooding into Fort Monroe in Virginia. Butler had declared these fugitives to be "contraband"property seized by northern forcesand put them to work, initially without pay, in the fort. Tubman hoped to offer her own expertise and skills to the Union cause, too, and soon she joined a group of Boston and Philadelphia abolitionists heading to the Hilton Head district in South Carolina. She became a fixture in the camps, particularly in Port Royal, South Carolina, assisting fugitives.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman met with General David Hunter, a strong supporter of abolition. He declared all of the "contrabands" in the Port Royal district free, and began gathering formerly slaves for a regiment of black soldiers. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, however, was not prepared to enforce emancipation on the southern states, and reprimanded Hunter for his actions. Tubman condemned Lincoln's response and his general unwillingness to consider ending slavery in the U.S., for both moral and practical reasons:


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman served as a nurse in Port Royal, preparing remedies from local plants and aiding soldiers suffering from dysentery. She rendered assistance to men with smallpox; that she did not contract the disease herself started more rumors that she was blessed by God. At first, she received government rations for her work, but newly freed blacks thought she was getting special treatment. To ease the tension, she gave up her right to these supplies and made money selling pies and root beer, which she made in the evenings.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Tubman considered it an important step toward the goal of liberating all black people from slavery. She renewed her support for a defeat of the Confederacy, and in early 1863 she led a band of scouts through the land around Port Royal. The marshes and rivers in South Carolina were similar to those of the Eastern Shore of Maryland; thus, her knowledge of covert travel and subterfuge among potential enemies was put to good use. Her group, working under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, mapped the unfamiliar terrain and reconnoitered its inhabitants. She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery, and provided him with key intelligence that aided in the capture of Jacksonville, Florida.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Later that year, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. When Montgomery and his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River, Tubman served as a key adviser and accompanied the raid. On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies. When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that they were being liberated. Tubman watched as those fleeing slavery stampeded toward the boats, describing a scene of chaos with women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents' necks, which she punctuated by saying: "I never saw such a sight!" Although those who enslaved them, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were nearly useless in the tumult. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of people escaping slavery took off toward Beaufort.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: More than 750 slaves were rescued in the Combahee River Raid. Newspapers heralded Tubman's "patriotism, sagacity, energy, [and] ability", and she was praised for her recruiting efforts – most of the newly liberated men went on to join the Union army. Tubman later worked with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the assault on Fort Wagner, reportedly serving him his last meal. She described the battle:


title: Harriet Tubman

text: For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated people, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia. She also made periodic trips back to Auburn to visit her family and care for her parents. The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865; after donating several more months of service, Tubman headed home to Auburn.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: During a train ride to New York in 1869, the conductor told her to move from a half-price section into the baggage car. She refused, showing the government-issued papers that entitled her to ride there. He cursed at her and grabbed her, but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help. While she clutched at the railing, they muscled her away, breaking her arm in the process. They threw her into the baggage car, causing more injuries. As these events transpired, other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train. Her act of defiance became a historical symbol, later cited when Rosa Parks refused to move from a bus seat in 1955.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Despite her years of service, Tubman never received a regular salary and was for years denied compensation. Her unofficial status and the unequal payments offered to black soldiers caused great difficulty in documenting her service, and the U.S. government was slow in recognizing its debt to her. Her constant humanitarian work for her family and the formerly enslaved, meanwhile, kept her in a state of constant poverty, and her difficulties in obtaining a government pension were especially difficult for her.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn, tending to her family and other people in need. She worked various jobs to support her elderly parents, and took in boarders to help pay the bills. One of the people Tubman took in was a farmer named Nelson Charles Davis. Born in North Carolina, he had served as a private in the 8th United States Colored Infantry Regiment from September 1863 to November 1865. He began working in Auburn as a bricklayer, and they soon fell in love. Though he was 22 years younger than she was, on March 18, 1869, they were married at the Central Presbyterian Church. They adopted a baby girl named Gertie in 1874, and lived together as a family; Nelson died on October 14, 1888, of tuberculosis.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman's friends and supporters from the days of abolition, meanwhile, raised funds to support her. One admirer, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, wrote an authorized biography entitled "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman". The 132-page volume was published in 1869 and brought Tubman some $1,200 in income. Criticized by modern biographers for its artistic license and highly subjective point of view, the book nevertheless remains an important source of information and perspective on Tubman's life. In 1886 Bradford released a re-written volume, also intended to help alleviate Tubman's poverty, called "Harriet, the Moses of her People". In both volumes Harriet Tubman is hailed as a latter-day Joan of Arc.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Facing accumulated debts (including payments for her property in Auburn), Tubman fell prey in 1873 to a swindle involving gold transfer. Two men, one named Stevenson and the other John Thomas, claimed to have in their possession a cache of gold smuggled out of South Carolina. They offered this treasure – worth about $5,000, they claimed – for $2,000 in cash. They insisted that they knew a relative of Tubman's, and she took them into her home, where they stayed for several days. She knew that white people in the South had buried valuables when Union forces threatened the region, and also that black men were frequently assigned to digging duties. Thus the situation seemed plausible, and a combination of her financial woes and her good nature led her to go along with the plan. She borrowed the money from a wealthy friend named Anthony Shimer and arranged to receive the gold late one night. Once the men had lured her into the woods, however, they attacked her and knocked her out with chloroform, then stole her purse and bound and gagged her. When she was found by her family, she was dazed and injured, and the money was gone.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: New York responded with outrage to the incident, and while some criticized Tubman for her naïveté, most sympathized with her economic hardship and lambasted the con men. The incident refreshed the public's memory of her past service and her economic woes. In 1874, Representatives Clinton D. MacDougall of New York and Gerry W. Hazelton of Wisconsin introduced a bill (H.R. 2711/3786) providing that Tubman be paid "the sum of $2,000 for services rendered by her to the Union Army as scout, nurse, and spy". The bill was defeated in the Senate.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: The Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890 made Tubman eligible for a pension as the widow of Nelson Davis. After she documented her marriage and her husband's service record to the satisfaction of the Bureau of Pensions, in 1895 Tubman was granted a monthly widow's pension of , plus a lump sum of to cover the five-year delay in approval. In December 1897, New York Congressman Sereno E. Payne introduced a bill to grant Tubman a soldier's monthly pension for her own service in the Civil War at . Although Congress received documents and letters to support Tubman's claims, some members objected to a woman being paid a full soldier's pension. In February 1899, the Congress passed and President William McKinley signed H.R. 4982, which approved a compromise amount of $20 per month (the $8 from her widow's pension plus $12 for her service as a nurse), but did not acknowledge her as a scout and spy. In 2003, Congress approved a payment of of additional pension to compensate for the perceived deficiency of the payments made during her life. The funds were directed to the maintenance of her relevant historical sites.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: In her later years, Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. A white woman once asked Tubman whether she believed women ought to have the vote, and received the reply: "I suffered enough to believe it." Tubman began attending meetings of suffragist organizations, and was soon working alongside women such as Susan B. Anthony and Emily Howland.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: Tubman traveled to New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. to speak out in favor of women's voting rights. She described her actions during and after the Civil War, and used the sacrifices of countless women throughout modern history as evidence of women's equality to men. When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting.


title: Harriet Tubman

text: This wave of activism kindled a new wave of admiration for Tubman among the press in the United States. A publication called "The Woman's Era" launched a series of articles on "Eminent Women" with a profile of Tubman. An 1897 suffragist newspaper reported a series of receptions in Boston honoring Tubman and her lifetime of service to the nation. However, her endless contributions to others had left her in poverty, and she had to sell a cow to buy a train ticket to these celebrations.