Liberation Day or Integration Day? Political parties naming of September
17 aimed at gaining votes
BJP and the Congress have decided to celebrate September 17 as ‘Liberation Day’, while BRS and ally AIMIM are calling it
‘National Integration Day.’
By C R Gowri Shanker
Published on 17 Sept 2023 8:00 AM
Hyderabad: September 17 is not only heating up the political environment but also dividing parties over the naming of a major
event in the annals of Indian history, especially in Telangana State!
More so this year because it happens to be the 75th
anniversary of the liberation of Princely Nizam State of Hyderabad and its merger into the Indian Union, and it also happens to
be an election year!
Depending on political advantage in and out of power, appeasement politics, parties use different nomenclature for the
liberation/invasion of Nizam’s Hyderabad State. But the sound and fury are more now since it happens to be an election year. Political parties are trying to take maximum political advantage and win over people! Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have decided to celebrate September 17 as ‘Liberation Day’, while Bharat Rashtra
Samithi (BRS) and ally AIMIM are calling it ‘National Integration Day.’ Communists are calling it the Telangana Armed Struggle
etc.
The environment in Hyderabad is politically heated up with an array of political events.
“It’s a liberation day. The Indian forces under the direction of then Union Home Minister Sardar Patel liberated Nizam’s
Hyderabad State. We will celebrate Hyderabad Liberation Day officially in Telangana State once the party comes to power. It’s
an important event in the annals of Indian history,” asserts G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister and state BJP president.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC), under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, is
holding its Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Hyderabad on September 17, besides celebrating Hyderabad
Liberation Day.
Congress, while holding its Vijaybheri rally, also plans to announce a Karnataka-type winning formula of six guarantees in the
poll-bound Telangana State.
“It’s a political drama. Congress has been celebrating the event since day one. All our national
leaders will be in the state,” says Addanki Dayakar, AICC general secretary.
BRS MLA Mallaiah Yadav supports his party’s decision to go with ‘National Integration Day’ saying that the Congress is on the
downslide and any attempt to revive it is futile. “We gave issue-based support to national parties. We go by what is good for
Telangana and the country. People have immense faith in chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the BRS.”
Amit Shah to attend Hyderabad Liberation Day meet
Parties are doing their best to gain the voters’ attention. All political parties have planned rallies and public meetings to mark
the important day. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a public meeting at the Parade Ground in Secunderabad to
mark the Hyderabad Liberation Day while CM KCR announced Rs 400 crore Mukhyamantri Alpahara (CM’s breakfast scheme) on
October 24 as a Dasara gift to students of government schools.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which has decided to celebrate the event as National Integration Day, planned a
bike rally and a public meeting. MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi maintains that old wounds should not be reopened since
thousands of people from both communities were killed during that period.
In the undivided Andhra Pradesh too, parties celebrated the historic event with different names according to their political
convenience.
‘Police Action’
Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan, the monarch of Hyderabad State or Nizam State, surrendered to the Indian Army on September
17, 1948, in the military operation named Operation Polo and Operation Caterpillar. However, it was called ‘Police Action’ from
September 13 to September 18, 1948.
Though it was a military action, it was called Police Action to prevent international ramifications since Nizam was debating
whether to join the Indian Union or Pakistan or remain independent.
Karnataka and Maharashtra officially observe September 17 as Hyderabad-Karnataka Liberation Day and Marathwada Mukti
Sangram Diwas, respectively.
Apart from the merger issue, the rise of Razakars — a private militia led by Kasim Rizvi opposing accession to India — and the
peasant uprising in the Telangana region led by communists against Zamindars complicated the matters.
Razakars swore to uphold Islamic domination in Hyderabad and the Deccan plateau opposing the then-growing public opinion
among the majority Hindu population favouring the accession of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.
This led to the deaths of people from both communities, forcing the Government of India, under the leadership of then Union
home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to step in and launch a military action to protect the people.
The Indian government sent troops to Hyderabad State from Solapur in Maharashtra, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and other
places.
Indian Army runs down opponents
Nizam's army was no match to Indian troops and they surrendered on September 17. At 5 pm, the Nizam announced a
ceasefire, thus ending the armed action. He also went on the radio on September 23, 1948, and addressed the public. General
Chaudhari of the Indian Army led an armoured column into Hyderabad at around 4 pm on September 18 and the Hyderabad
army, led by Major General El Edroos, surrendered.
Soldiers guard atop a building
Begumpet Airport, Secunderabad
Kasim Rizvi
Indian troops welcomed at the Hyderabad State border
Women soldiers given firearms
Indian troops on the way to Hyderabad
British Residency, Koti, Hyderabad
Tanks roll into Hyderabad
Photos Courtesy LIFE
There once was a Hyderabad!
MOHAN GURUSWAMY
ON the morning of 13 September 1948 five infantry battalions and an armoured regiment of the battle hardened Indian Army under the command of Maj. Gen. J.N. Chaudhry entered the princely state of Hyderabad, over a year after independence and after the patience of the new Indian Union was tested beyond endurance.
The Nizam of Hyderabad like the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir too entertained notions of an independent state and had so far managed to avoid accession. In the meantime, the Nizam sought to widen the issue by moving the United Nations, took the advice and assistance of Pakistan, and began stockpiling arms.
The Times, London, on 9 August 1948 reported that the Hyderabad army was strengthened to 40,000 and supplies of arms were being received, presumably from Pakistan. The Prime Minister of Hyderabad, Mir Laik Ali, boasted that ‘If the Indian government takes any action against Hyderabad, 100,000 men are ready to fight. We also have a hundred bombers in Saudi Arabia ready to bomb Bombay!’
Within the Nizam’s realm, militant Razakars led by Kasim Razvi had stepped up their campaign of terrorizing Hindus and whipping up religious sentiments among the Muslims. Within five days the ‘police action’, actually a military operation, was all but over and the Hyderabad army commanded by Maj. Gen. El-Edroos formally surrendered.
The Indian Army’s ‘police action’ was as violent as it was swift. It killed 1373 Razakars and captured 1911. In addition the Hyderabad State Army lost 807 killed and 1647 captured. The Indian Army’s losses were never officially revealed but a figure of less than 10 killed is commonly accepted. It was a sudden and crushing end to a movement that had vowed to hoist the Asafia flag on the Red Fort.
At the time of India’s independence, Hyderabad was the largest Indian princely state in terms of population and GNP. Its territory of 82,698 sq miles was more than that of England and Scotland put together.
The 1941 census had estimated its population to be 16.34 million, over 85% of whom were Hindus and with Muslims accounting for about 12%. It was also a multilingual state consisting of peoples speaking Telugu (48.2%), Marathi (26.4%), Kannada (12.3%) and Urdu (10.3%).
Its diversity and broad heritage could be seen in the historical monuments at Ajanta, Ellora and Daulatabad in Marathawada, Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga, Anegondi and Kampili in Karnataka, and Warangal and Nagarjunakonda in Telangana.
Hyderabad city’s history goes back to the 11th century when the Kakatiya kings of Warangal built the fort that later became famous as Golconda.
Mohammed Quli Qutab Shah founded the capital city that we now know in 1590. Quli Qutab Shah was quite a romantic and first called the city Bhagyanagar after his Hindu born Queen Bhagmati. Bhagmati later took the name Haider Mahal and hence Hyderabad. Haider Mahal also inspired him to pen the immortal lines: ‘piya baaj pyaala piya jaaye na, piya yakthil jiya jaaye na.’ This romanticism suffused the spirit of Hyderabad through most of its existence.
Hyderabad not only had its own army, but also its own railways, airline, postal service, broadcasting network and currency.
The Nizam and his court ruled over it with the British Resident keeping a close and watchful eye over everything. The British Army also had a permanent garrison, just in case the ‘faithful ally of the King Emperor’ was found lacking in faith. Incidentally this regiment, the 13 Hyderabad consisting of Ahirs from Mewat, was raised by Lord Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington who won everlasting renown at Waterloo. After accession, 13 Hyderabad became the 13 Kumaon, whose C company won lasting fame in 1962 for its heroism at Rezang La.
As can be imagined it was a Muslim dominated state. Typically in 1911, 70% of the police, 55% of the army and 26% of the public administration were Muslims. In 1941 a report on the civil service revealed that of the 1765 officers, 1268 were Muslims, 421 were Hindus, and 121 others, presumably British, Christians, Parsis and Sikhs.
Of the officials drawing a pay between Rs 600-1200 pm, 59 were Muslims, 38 were ‘others’, and a mere five were Hindus. The Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the kingdom. Quite clearly it was too much of a good thing for so few and the time for its end had come.
The Asaf Jah dynasty came into being in the waning years of the Mughal Empire. Mir Qamruddin, a Muslim general of Indian origin, was first appointed Governor of the Deccan in 1707. He was called the Nizam-ul-Mulk.
He returned to Delhi soon after as uncertainty and turmoil overtook the house of Babar. Qamruddin, after a brief stint as the Mughal wazir, returned to the Deccan in 1723 to carve out an independent domain for himself.
He was now Asaf Jah I. On his death in 1748, his second son and a grandson, who secured the support of the French and British respectively, contested the succession. The French won this time, but in 1761 they were all but beaten by the British in the Carnatic wars.
In 1798 Hyderabad came under the dominance of the English when Asaf Jah II entered into a Subsidiary Alliance with the East India Company, which made sure that Hyderabad remained under the Nizam’s rule, but under their guidance.
As can well be imagined there was absolutely no political activity in the kingdom for most of this period. The faithful ally remained just that while the British waged war on the Marathas, Sikhs and then, by introducing the Doctrine of Lapse, gobbled princely state after state. Even the 1857 war passed Hyderabad by.
The first stirrings began in 1927 when the Majlis-e-Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen was formed to unite various Islamic sects for ‘the solution of their problems within the principle of Islam’, and to protect the economic, social and educational interests of the Muslims.
In 1933 an association of mulkis or local born Hindus and Muslims called the Nizam’s Subjects League was formed as a reaction to the continued domination of non-mulkis in government, even though most of them were Muslims. This was soon to be known as the Mulki League.
It was the Mulki League that first mooted the idea of a responsible government in Hyderabad. In 1937 the Mulki League split between the more radical elements who were mostly Hindus and the more status quo inclined. This led to the formation of the Hyderabad Peoples Convention in 1937, a prelude to the establishment of the Hyderabad State Congress the following year. With this the movement for political and constitutional reform picked up momentum.
The Hyderabad State Congress agitation coincided with a parallel agitation led by the Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha of V.D. Savarkar on Hindu civil rights. To a large extent the interests of the Congress and Hindu organizations coincided.
This put them squarely against the Majlis that was now led by Bahadur Yar Jung who was also the founder of the Anjuman-i-Tabligh-i-Islam, a proselytizing Muslim organization whose prime activity was the conversion of Hindus. Bahadur Yar Jung was a charismatic figure who became popular among the Muslims. He also had the ear of the Nizam, Osman Ali.
The main thrust of Bahadur Yar Jung was to establish that Hyderabad was separate from the rest of India and that it should be declared a Muslim state. The Majlis also considered British style parliamentary democracy as unsuitable to India in general and Hyderabad in particular. Bahadur Yar Jung summed this up very succinctly: ‘The Majlis policy is to keep the sovereignty of His Exalted Highness intact and to prevent Hindus from establishing supremacy over Muslims.’
The Majlis still exists as a formidable political force with a strong presence in Hyderabad’s old city area. The party has been winning the Hyderabad parliamentary seat since 1967.
The strong presence of the Majlis in Hyderabad contributed to the rise of RSS, and the BJP today has a formidable presence in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. In the recent months the BJP has been actively espousing the formation of a Telangana state comprising of the Telugu speaking districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state. Ironically the Majlis is also wedded to this cause.
The leadership of the Congress took more nationalist overtones after the arrival of Swami Ramanand Tirtha on the scene. Tirtha hailed from Gulbarga, now in Karnataka, and as a young man became a sadhu. He became President of the Hyderabad Congress in 1946 and attracted around him several young men who rose to prominence in independent India.
Foremost among these was P.V. Narasimha Rao. Others were former Home Minister and Maharashtra Chief Minister, S.B. Chavan, former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerendra Patil, and former Andhra Chief Minister M. Channa Reddy. By doing so, Tirtha transformed the Congress from a party dominated by Marathi speakers and Arya Samajis into a broad-based organization representing the diversity of Hyderabad.
Even as the Congress was gaining strength, the Communists were also active in the Telugu speaking areas. They captured the Andhra Mahasabha that was formed in 1921 to represent the interests of the Telugu speaking people in 1942. Unlike the Hyderabad Congress, which took its cue from Mahatma Gandhi and launched a movement for democratic rights in the state to run parallel to the Quit India movement, the Communists joined hands with the Majlis to support the Nizam, who being a faithful ally of the British was fully immersed in the war effort.
When World War II ended, the Communists, now following the militant line of B.T. Ranadive, took to the path of armed revolution. It is said that when they went to Stalin for help in 1948, he took one look at the map and decided that armed insurrection was impossible to sustain in landlocked Telangana. The CPI was accordingly advised to seek other ways of coming to political power.
The advent of the Indian Army brought in its wake great changes that were sought ever since political activity began in the state.
The Muslim elite soon found itself marginalized and many migrated to Pakistan. Others like Ali Yavar Jung made a smooth transition into the new order. A new bureaucratic elite was rapidly installed even as the Communist insurrection was being quelled.
The Nizam soon came to terms with the new circumstances and became the Rajpramukh of the newest state of the Indian Union. Nothing reflected the handing over of the baton better than the transition in the Secunderabad Club seen in its picture gallery of past Presidents.
The Club was for long the citadel of power, prestige and privilege in the state and always had a senior British officer as its President. Maj. Gen. El-Edroos, C-in-C of the Hyderabad State Army, became its first non-British President in 1947.
In March 1949 he made way for Maj. Gen. J.N. Chaudhry, Military Governor. A galaxy of prominent Hyderabadi’s, a number of whom were top civil servants, followed Chaudhry. Since the last decade or so businessmen from the coastal Andhra region have started appearing on the gallery. The times have changed; Hyderabad and the pictures truly reflect this!
The story of Hyderabad, which is also of how a state became a city, doesn’t end here. The States Reorganization Bill of 1956 saw the Marathi speaking areas go to Maharashtra, Kannada speaking areas to Karnataka, while Hyderabad city and Telangana were absorbed into Andhra Pradesh. Now with the proposed emergence of a Telangana state – a real possibility – Hyderabad may regain some of its lost cosmopolitan character.
Usmansaab Morve
Osmanabad, Maharashtra
March 15, 2023 to March 15, 2024
In September 1948, the Indian Army decided to conduct a secret operation called 'Operation Polo'. The operation was named 'Polo' as there were more 'Polo' playing fields in Hyderabad. The Nizam wanted to merge this state into Pakistan. But that was impossible. He had taken a bold decision to rule by relying only on his ordinary army. But the Indian government was not happy with his decision.
Hyderabad State was known as a very rich state during that time. With the support of the Nizam, the 'Razakar' organization was oppressing the common people living in this state. Examples of atrocities on Hindus are also found. The Razakar also included some Hindus who joined the organization specifically for their own benefit. The Razakar organization was infamous as an oppressive organization.
In 'Operation Polo', the Nizam surrendered in just four to five days of action and the Hyderabad State was merged with India. During this time, large-scale communal riots took place in the state of Hyderabad and many people lost their lives. Arson and looting took place in the region.
The repercussions of the atrocities committed by the 'Razakars' were profound. Many Muslims were robbed of their property, massacres took place and many Muslims left their homes and fled to other places.
Among such, one family was also found in riots. Usmansab Alisab Morwe was a reputed cloth merchant from a city named Osmanabad which was located in princely state of Hyderabad. He owned biggest clothing store and it was located in Morway Building on Dargah Road in Osmanabad city. He also had the largest flour mill in the entire Osmanabad district.
Usmansaab Morwe had very good relations with politicians. Fulchand Gandhi, a great leader of the Congress at that time, was his close friend. His grandfather used to help poor people for weddings, all the people respected him. His family consisted of 30 to 35 people.
During Operation Polo, a big riot broke out in the city and village gangs started mass murdering Muslims. Property started to be looted. Fearing for his life, Usmansaab started to go to Hyderabad in a truck with his family, his truck was stopped when he reached Dargah Road to Deshpande Mill. At that time the Indian army had entered the city. Morwe got out of the truck alone to divert the mob and find a safe hiding place and never returned. After a few days, it was learned that the village goons had killed him.
The entire gold and jewellery in the truck was looted. Fearing for her life, Usmansaab's wife took the entire family to a safe place and returned home. The house was destroyed. Property was damaged by breaking the lock. Usmansaab's younger brothers used to live in Barshi at that time and they had a big bicycle shop, they came the next day and took everyone to Barshi. As Barshi was under British control, there was no riot, there was no Operation Polo. Morwe family somehow survived the riots but the property was a complete loss.
Many people are witnesses of all these incidents even today. Usmansaab's son would literally bring tears to his eyes while narrating the story of the family's condition during the riots and our looted property.
Even today when we hear stories about how the Hindus saved the Muslims in the riots. An example of humanity could be seen in the rural areas during that time as well. Old people still tell the stories of those who killed innocent people and those who saved them.
It has been more than 70 years since the overthrow of the Nizam but the wounds are still fresh when old stories are heard. Families like Morwe choose to trust the concept of a liberal, secular India. They laid the true foundation of the biggest democracy on the planet.
Source: Babita Khanderao Mahanur, Contributor for CCRT (Based on Oral history)
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