Just seventy years ago it had a population of more than sixteen million people, land area greater than that of England and Sctoland combined and a domestic product greater than that of Belgium.  Its ruler was the richest man in the world at the time. He had over eleven thousand servants and famously used the 185-carat Jacob Diamond as a paperweight.

Today the erstwhile State of Hyderabad remains an intriguing entry in India’s tumultuous past. The last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, died in 1967 putting an end to a princely heritage of unimaginable wealth, exemplary public administration and a unique Deccani culture. The last of his treasures were purchased by the Indian Government in 1995. Some of it is on display in museums in Hyderabad and the rest is still locked up safely in the vaults of the Reserve Bank of India. The treasure continues to evoke awe and wonder when it is periodically displayed at venues around the country.

In 1947 the infant Republic of India offered a simple choice to the erstwhile princely states that thronged the length and breadth of the nation. They were free to join the Union or declare independence themselves. A brief glance at the Indian map today is enough to show that the latter was not a popular choice among the rajahs and nizams. Today not a single princely state remains independent. They, all five hundred and sixty-five of them, were merged into the Republic under the masterful and rather persuasive supervision of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

Some of these states did not go down without a fight however. Travancore, Jodhpur and Indore signed up after protracted political wrangling. Conflict situation arose in both Junagadh and Kashmir. The later continues to have repercussions in modern Indian politics. But the most violent of all the accession operations was the one that occurred between the 12th and 18th of September, 1948. The invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army which lasted less than a week was codenamed ‘Operation Polo’.

Machinations

Post-independence the State of Hyderabad did not immediately declare independence. The Nizam first tried to join Pakistan but when this was ruled out he tried to broker a deal with the Empire so as to remain a dominion the British Commonwealth. When the British refused Hyderabad declared independence and rejected Sardar Patel’s instrument of accession.

However for the Sardar this was unacceptable. He considered Hyderabad even more important than Kashmir as, without the princely state, he would have a gaping hole right in the middle of his fledgling nation. Political manipulation ensued. At first Patel and Lord Mountbatten signed a Standstill Agreement with Hyderabad that ensured that the status quo would continue. Unlike other states Hyderabad did not have to guarantee, under this agreement, that they eventually accede. Merely that they would not join or cooperate with Pakistan.

Subsequent exhortations to accede fell on deaf ears and the atmosphere quickly deteriorated into one of accusations and counter-accusations. While the Nizam accused India of trying to economically isolate Hyderabad, the Indians accused Hyderabad of shipping in weapons from Pakistan and arming fundamental islamist militia called the Razakars. These Razakars, under the leadership of the fire-brand political leader Qasim Razvi, were accused of terrorising Hindus and raiding villages across the border.

For a while the situation looked precarious. Conflict looked imminent and in early 1948 the Nizam even tried to get the United Nations and President Truman to intervene. Both attempts were unsuccessful and for a while there was an impasse. Sardar Patel however continued to withhold use of armed forces. While this may have been a strategic move it could very well also be because, unlike the other states, Hyderabad had a sizeable standing armed force of forty thousand and several thousand more of Razvi’s Razakars.

Things seemed to have thawed when in June 1948 when the Heads of Agreement deal was signed and Hyderabad was offered very favourable terms including the freedom to raise a parallel government, status of a dominion and even the provision to declare independence at a later stage.

Police Action

Exactly what provoked the move on India’s side is unclear. Some reports indicate it was Razakar raids of trains passing through Hyderabad. Some say it was merely Patel’s frustration at the Nizam’s constant reneging of agreements and the impasse in general.

On September 12th 1948 thirty thousand troops of the Indian Army under the command of Major General Joyonto Nath Chaudhuri surrounded the State and attacked the Nizam’s forces from all fronts. They expected tough resistance from the Hyderabad forces and Razvi’s two hundred thousand Razakars.

In an operation which is today referred to as ‘The Police Action’ in official records but was nothing less than a small war, the Indian forces secured Hyderabad in just five days. While the Indian Army lost less than two dozen men Hyderabad suffered much greater casualties in comparison. Over two thousand armed forces and Razakars were killed and thousands more injured in a an unequal battle where they faced the might of the Indian Army ably assisted by the Indian Air Force.

On September 18th Operation Polo was declared a success and Major Gen. Chauduri was installed as the Military Governor of Hyderabad. What followed was perhaps the darkest chapter in the history of the conflict and of the political unification of India as a whole.

Terror

Reprisal against the Muslim population and the Razakars was swift. Looting and rape was widespread and it was no secret that the Indian Army was party to the atrocities. Prime Minister Nehru, disturbed by the rumours of these excesses, appointed a commission to look into the aftermath of Operation Polo.

What arose, the ‘Sunderlal Report‘ made bleak reading:

"Almost everywhere in the affected areas communal frenzy did not exhaust itself in murder, alone in which at some places even women and children were not spared. Rape, abduction of women (sometimes out of the state to Indian towns such as Sholapur and Nagpur) loot, arson, desecration of mosques, forcible conversions, seizure of houses and lands, followed or accompanied the killing. Tens of crores worth of property was looted or destroyed. The sufferers were Muslims who formed a hopeless minority in rural areas. The perpetrators of these atrocities were not limited to those who had suffered at the hands of Razakars, not to the non-Muslims of Hyderabad state. These latter were aided and abetted by individuals and bands of people, with and without arms , from across the border, who had infiltrated through in the wake of the Indian Army. We found definite indications that a number of armed and trained men belonging to a well known Hindu communal organisation from Sholapur and other Indian towns as also some local and outside communists participated in these riots and in some cases actually led the rioters."

The report was quickly hidden only to resurface decades later in books and magazine articles . Estimates vary but there is no doubt that between twenty and fifty thousand died in the tumult that followed the ‘Police Action’.

The State of Hyderabad was quickly reorganized. Parts of the state were transferred into Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The Nizam was reinstated as a puppet Head of State and Qasim Razvi was placed under house arrest. A mass exodus of muslims to Pakistan followed.

In 1956 the State of Hyderabad was further divided along linguistic lines and officially ceased to exist. And with it went a heritage of some two centuries of statehood and a prosperity that was the envy of the world.

Aftermath

The State of Hyderabad , under the Nizam, was a well ruled entity. Over 11% of the budget was spent on education and several of the institutions, including the Osmania University, that dot the region today was a by-product of the Nizam era. Several institutions received the Nizam’s largesse including non-muslim ones like the Benaras Hindu University. Hyderabad also had an efficient Civil Service.

Operation Polo ended all that. The current Nizam, resides in Turkey, and much of the wealth has been appropriated by the Indian Government. Today all that remains of that splendour can be seen in the building around Hyderabad and occasional exhibitions in museums. A tame end to a rather regal, spectacular and intriguing history. That and the untold story of massacres and reprisals that continue to surface uncomfortably in the media challenging the ideals and methods of an Independent India.
 

(Sidin Sunny Vadukut is an avid blogger and proud author of a book which is currently undergoing a severe quality control program. He wishes to make it clear that he does not internalize too much. He once walked eleven kilometers in pouring rain because of a flash bus strike and the next day ate eighteen idlis with surprisingly little coconut chutney. You can read more of his work at http://sidin.blogspot.com)

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