Hyderabad State
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Hyderābād and Berar pronunciation (Telugu: హైదరాబాదు Urdu: حیدر آباد) under the Nizams, was the largest princely state in the erstwhile Indian Empire. The Berar region of present day Vidarbha in Maharashtra was merged with the Central Provinces in 1903, to form Central Provinces and Berar.
Hyderabad state was located in south-central Indian subcontinent from 1724 until 1948, ruled by a hereditary Nizam. During partition of India in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad declared his intentions of not joining either newly formed India or Pakistan. Sensing trouble, India launched Operation Polo which resulted in the absorption of Hyderabad into the Indian Union, in 1948.
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[edit] History
Main Article: History of Hyderabad
Hyderabad was founded by the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda. In 1686 the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb campaigned in the Deccan to overcome the Marathas and conquer the independent Deccan states. Before the campaign, the Mughals had controlled the northwestern Deccan, including Khandesh and Berar, but Mughal control ended at the Godavari River. Aurangzeb conquered Golconda and Bijapur in 1687, extending Mughal control south of the Krishna River.
The Mughal Empire began to weaken during the reign of Aurangzeb's grandson, Muhammad Shah. A Mughal official, Asif Jah, treacherously defeated a rival Mughal governor to seize control of the empire's southern provinces, declaring himself Nizam-al-Mulk of Hyderabad in 1724. The Mughal emperor, under renewed attack from the Marathas, was unable to prevent it.
The Nizams patronized Islamic art, culture and literature and had a railway system called The Nizam's Government State Railways. Sharia-The Islamic Religious Law Code, was the guidng principle of the Nizams' official machinery.
[edit] During the British Raj
The seniormost (21-gun) princely state in British India, Hyderabad was an 82,000 square mile (212,000 km²) region in the Deccan ruled by the Asif Jahi dynasty, who had the title of Nizam and was bestowed the title of His Exalted Highness by the British Empire. The Nizam had a penchant for setting up institutions in the name of the dynasty. He set up schools, colleges, madrasas (Islamic Seminaries) and a University that imparted education in Urdu. Inspired by the elite and prestigious ICS (Indian Civil Service), he started HCS (Hyderabad Civil Service). The pace with which he amassed wealth made him to be the world's richest men in the 1930s, (Time cover story Feb. 22, 1937). Carrying a gift, called Nazrana in the local dialect, in accordance with one's net worth while meeting Nizam was a de facto necessity.
[edit] After the British Raj (1947-48)
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When India gained independence in 1947, the British, left the choice of independence or unification up to the local rulers of the princely states. The Muslim ruler of Hyderbad, the last Nizam, wished to remain independent. First he tried to declare Hyderabad as a part of Pakistan but the British government did not allow this. Later in the same year, he announced his intention to become independent.
Qasim Razvi's armed militias known as Razakars had moral support of Pakistan and the Nizam thought that he could rule with the help of this militia. The Razakars troubled the Hindus in every conceivable way.
Some people of the Hyderabad state rebelled against the Nizam. The Communist Party of India succeeded in organizing some peasants. The Telangana peasant armed struggle was successful in driving out local Muslim landlords called Zamindars, and distributing their land to the landless. Nizam sought the help of Razakars, a local Muslim rogue militia, to suppress the rebellion. Qasim Rizvi, also known as Kasin Razvi, the ring-leader of Razakaars, had also stated at one point of time that he "aims to hoist the Islamic flag on Delhi's Red Fort." In 1947-48, Rizvi unleashed his forces in support of the Nizam’s claims to independence and thousands — both Hindus and Muslims opposed to Osman Ali Khan — were killed before the Indian Army swept into the State in September 1948.
The 'Police Action' (officially Operation Polo) by Indian forces neutralized the Razakars, paving the way for absorption of Hyderabad into India.
There was widespread violence against the Muslims as an aftermath of the Police Action and Nehru had a committee investigate the pogrom against Muslims, but the resulting Sundarlal Report was never made public.
[edit] Hyderabad Today
In 1956 during the Reorganisation of the Indian States, the state of Hyderabad was split up between Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, died in 1967.
Administratively, Hyderabad State was made up of sixteen districts, grouped into four divisions. Aurangabad division included Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded, and Parbhani districts; Gulbargah (Gulbargah) division included Bidar District, Gulbarga, Osmanabad District, and Raichur District; Gulshanabad District or Medak division included Atraf-i-Baldah, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda (Nalgundah), and Nizamabad districts, and Warangal division included Adilabad, Karimnagar, and Warangal districts.
Telugu, Hindi, Hindustani, (essentially Hindi but with an Urdu flavour), Marathi and Kannada are the important languages spoken in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh today. Biryani, a spicy dish made of rice and meat, is among the remnants of the Nizami cuisine.
The political party MIM (Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen, with Qasim Rizvi as one of the founders, is considered by many as the de-facto successor of the Razakaars. The Owaisi family presently leads MIM.
[edit] See also
- Hyderabad (India) for the city.
- Nizam for a list of Nizams and other information.
- Operation Polo the military operation that resulted in the unification of Hyderabad state into India.
[edit] References
- Zubrzycki, John. (2006) The Last Nizam: An Indian Prince in the Australian Outback. Pan Macmillan, Australia. ISBN 978-0-3304-2321-2.
(1911)
[edit] External links
- Hyderabad: A Qur'anic Paradise in Architectural Metaphors
- From the Sundarlal Report - Muslim Genocide in 1948
- Of a massacre untold
- Manolya's legal fight
- About Razakars and Islamic ambitions
- Hyderabad
- Guide to Contemporary Hyderabad
- Genealogy of the Nizams of Hyderabad
- Article on some aspects of life in erstwhile Hyderabad state
- Renaming villages by the Nizam
