It Was 60 Years Ago Today

One of the most fascinating chapters in recent history is the sequence of events that led to the integration of the Nizam’s state of Hyderabad with the Indian Union. It’s odd that in all the years I’ve lived in Hyderabad, it never occurred to me to ask what precisely its 400 year old history was. Talking recently to a friend, a 70 year old gentleman whose family held various semi-official positions during the Nizam’s time, it occurred to me that the generation that lived through what is euphemistically called The Police Action of September 1948*, will soon no longer be able to share its stories.

Roughly, this is what happened. A whole year after Indian Independence, the fate of Hyderabad was still undecided. In November, the Indian Government had persuaded the Nizam to sign the Standstill Agreement, which gave him a year before he had to choose between accession and war (though the British Government had stated that all princely states could choose either to join India or Pakistan).

The Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, wealthy beyond belief and famously parsimonious,** had no idea what he wanted to do. Ideally, he would have liked the State of Hyderabad to be entirely Independent but this was something the British flatly refused to consider. He had to choose and it was a hard choice to make.

Sardar Patel, whose task it was to persuade the princely states to join India, had no intention of letting Hyderabad become a part of Pakistan; to have a large portion of the Deccan belong to another country – a newly created and hostile one at that – was simply not an option. Patel sent K M Munshi, freedom fighter, confidant, fellow-Gujarati (and – though this was slightly relevant in that it indicated his position on the political spectrum - founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), as Agent-General to the state of Hyderabad. For ten months, Munshi tried to persuade the Nizam and his Prime Minister, Laiq Ali Khan, of the wisdom of joining India.

Hyderabad, at the time, was curiously divided: there were the usual communal tensions that affected the rest of the sub-continent before, during and after Partition; the Razakars, led by Qasim Rizvi (a man who was usually described as ‘charismatic’), became an informal private army to the Nizam, and terrorised the Hindu population. Simultaneously, the The Telangana Rebellion – where farmers of the Telangana region were led by the then undivided CPI in an armed rebellion against the Nizam in order to obtain the redistribution of land – threatened the tenuous stability of the State of Hyderabad. Daily life, in the one year since Independence and the ten to eleven months since The Standstill Agreement, was uncertain and full of strife.

In August, when it became clear that India would not countenance an Independent Hyderabad or one that was a part of Pakistan, the Nizam began to simultaneously move his assets out to England*** and prepare for war.

July and August 1948 was a period of high intrigue, with spies and secret informants from the Nizam’s army****, aircrafts flying out in the dead of night, bounties and rewards offered. Frantic phone calls and telegrams flew between Munshi and Patel. These are excerpts from Munshi’s diary of the time*****

August 31, 1948:

Have sent a wireless to Sardar pressing for early military action, if not, at least for the complete sealing off of Hyderabad.

The Nizam’s Legislative Assembly started yesterday with all the pageantry of an independent parliament.

…

September 2, 1948:

…

Brown of the Daily Telegraph has sent a most vicious telegram about the situation comparing India with Nazi Germany, me with Ribbentrop and Hyderabad as the happy land of peace.

…

September 4^th, 1948:

Very much perturbed at the excellent international propaganda which Hyderabad is conducting.

…

September 5, 1948:

Laik Ali’s speech delivered yesterday is a declaration of independence. Though couched in polite terms there is a note of defiance throughout. Evidently, he is smarting under Sardar’s comparison of the Hyderabad delegation [to the UN] with the Zamindars of Madras.

…

September 7, 1948:

Panditji announced in Parliament the final demands made on the Nizam: (a) banning of the Razakars, and (b) reposting of army to Secunderabad.

…

At 4pm the Nizam signed a mobilisation order,

Later, another wireless from the States Ministry about the incident near Kodada. Indian Army men have been captured by some men of the Nizam’s Army and the Razakars. Sent a protest to Laik Ali at 9pm.

September 8, 1948:

…Hyderabad is in a panic.

On 13^th September 1948, the Indian Army entered Hyderabad territory. Operation Polo had begun. In five days, the Nizam’s army and the Razakars, were routed and at 4pm the Nizam sent for Munshi, indicating the Laiq Ali had resigned and he himself was ready to surrender. In his broadcast that evening, the Nizam said he had ‘ordered a ceasefire to [his] troops’, banned the Razakars and allowed ‘the Indian Union to occupy Bolarum and Secunderabad.’ Later, on the 22^nd, in an address to the Muslim Nations, he gave the world to understand that he had been put upon and had the Laiq Ali Ministry thrust on him; that he was helpless to prevent the excesses of the Razakars; that though he was a Muslim, his ‘ancestors never made any difference between the 86% Hindus and the 14% Muslims in the State’.

It took one day for Major-General J.N.Chaudhury to reach Hyderabad (he had to get past the mines that had been salted around the city; the person who was responsible for it said that he didn’t have a map of the mines and so had to lead the surrendering contingent past the mined area as punishment). On the 18^th, At Hyderabad Army surrendered, though the Nizam had already done so publicly on the 17^th.

There was looting and rape and the Indian Army’s hands were not especially clean at the end of it – whatever Munshi’s memoir says (Munshi’s memoir is by turns pious, self-serving, gossipy and illuminating. It is essential reading.)

Hyderabad was now a part of India. Eight years later, with Potti Sriramulu’s agitation for the reorganisation of states into linguistically determined entities, the Hyderabad of the Asaf Jahi dynasty ceased to exist: the Marathi, Kannada and Telugu speaking regions were reorganised, with Hyderabad City becoming the capital of Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana movement was postponed for five decades.

**************************

*The police had nothing to do with Operation Polo; the Indian Army, led by J.N.Chaudhury, invaded the Nizam’s territories and the Nizam finally surrendered on the 17^th of September, 2008 – 60 years ago today.

**One story goes that he refused to have his private rooms dusted. This way, he would know if any article of vertu precious to him went missing. Another story alleged that the money he received on his birthday – which the Nizam traditionally touched as a mark of acceptance and returned – he kept.

***A battle to recover these assets is still being fought in the courts, with both India and Pakistan claiming ownership of the money.

**** The ‘Sound Silent’ of the Nizam’s Army, it turned out, was one Reddy who knew what the Indian Army was trying to do and fed it exaggerated reports of the Hyderabad Army’s strength, with the consent of Major-General El Edroos.

***** from The End of an Ear: Hyderabad Memoirs. K.M.Munshi. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. 1957.

Other essential reading/viewing:

From Autocracy to Integration

Gautam Ghose’s Maa Bhoomi