Hyderabad, May 14 -- By Raziuddin Ahmed

Long before Telangana became a reality, before slogans echoed across university campuses and political parties, there was M Kamaluddin Ahmed, who raised his voice for the region's forgotten villages and neglected people.

History is often unkind to people who speak early. Several prominent names have become synonymous with the decades-old "struggle" for a separate Telangana, but it was Ahmed who stood up first and raised the issue of neglected farmers.

A son of Telangana's rural soil, Ahmed carried the cause to Parliament, warning about the deep inequalities between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh decades before statehood was achieved.

And now, he is slowly fading away from the history books of Tela...