Thread by @lasaniayunus

THREAD:
Today, 17 Sep marks 72 years since the erstwhile state of Hyderabad, ruled by its last Nizam, was merged with India through 'Operation Polo', a military takeover.
A communist-led peasant rebellion in Telangana preceded it.
Here's the whole story/sequence of events.

In its last stages, the Hyderabad state comprised 16 districts, half were in #Telangana , 5 in Maharashtra and 3 in Karnataka. The last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, was one of the richest men in the world. It was a multilingual state, with 84% Hindus, and about 50% Telugu people.

What a people don't realise is that the entire state was pretty much run on tax collections, often forced, from peasant farmers by state-appointed landlords or Jagirdars.

Osman Ali Khan and Hyderabad's (city/state) was in fact the biggest landlord, owning about 10% of the state

And much before independence itself political consciousness grew. The Hyderabad State Congress was set up by 1938, and then of course about a decade earlier in 1927, the Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was set up by Mahmud Nawab Khan.

Next tweets detail all imp players

By 1940, the Hyderabad state had an active MIM, state Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Arya Samaj and other small groups.
A mild Nizam's League was also to be set up by a bunch of loyalists, asking for reforms. Never went through.

The Cong and CPI were banned later.

More importantly, the districts of Telangana were run by oppressive Jagirdars, who were essentially indulging in Vetti Chakiri (bonded slavery), and forced tax collections.

This gave the CPI leverage to start a peasant rebellion - the Telangana Armed Struggle in 1946

The Armed Struggle 1st began after Chakali Ailamma, a dhobi and peasant farmer, revolted against the local landlord Visnuru Ramchander Reddy. He apparently owned 40,000 acres of land.
The murder of Doddi Komaraiah and Shaikh Bandagi are 2 other incidents which sparked it

1946 was an imp year as that was when the fanatical Qasim Razvi, a failed lawyer from Latur in MH, took over its reins
The MIM in fact had a very powerful orator - Bahadur Yar Jung, who died in 1944 suspiciously (supposed death).
Jung had in fact floated a theory (cont. next)

Bahadur Yar Jung's theory was 'An-al-Malik', meaning 'we are the kings' - it essentially meant to keep intact the Muslim monarch, with the Nizam or monarch being only a nominal head. This of course didn't go down well with the Nizam. This is a photo ot Jung

After Jung's death, MIM had a few other presidents, and it still didn't rabid overtones until Qasim Razvi finally took over. And trouble began around 1947 after he started the Razakar group.
Before independence, CPI workers and peasants here were basically fighting the razakars

The issue of Hyderabad's annexation finally came to the fore in 1947, after the British left. They did a crafty thing by giving princely states the choice to join India, Pak, or to stay independent.

Hyderabad, the biggest,Kashmir, and a few other states wanted to remain free

In fact, Hyderabad in 1947 was very modern. Under Osman Ali Khan, it built its own railways, stamps, currency (Halia Sikka), Osmania Uni, Kachiguda rail station, a bus corporation, modern markets etc.

The underbelly of the state was its rural areas run by oppressive landlords.

Osman ALi Khan (1911-48), finally decided that he wanted to stay independent in 1947 after Indian independence. And that's when trouble began.

One of the major reasons behind Police Action is believed to be the fanatical Qasim Razvi, who started the Razakars.

Author Omar Khalidi in his book ‘Hyderabad: After The Fall’ notes that, “Under Razavi’s charge the organisation (MIM) fairly quickly became a militant and somewhat frenzied party, accused, not without cause, of being fascist in both spirit and structure.”

There are several accounts of Razakar atrocities being committed, in all parts of the state. In Telangana however, the Razakars were met with stiff resistance by CPI and peasants, who basically began violently driving out landlords from villages.

In fact, Syed Ahmed El-Edoros, the last commander of the Hyderabad state army in his book also wrote that Telangana's rural areas were complete control of the CPI, which had a greater intelligence network than even the police. THis was due to wide support from people.

After 1947 August, the Indian govt and the Nizam's govt began negotiating. Former Home Minister Sardar Patel wanted to tackle it quickly, and PM Nehru however didn't want to use force initially. Nehru in fact wanted a smooth transfer of power. But this is where it got complicated

You see, a whole bunch of PMs has changed quickly in Hyderabad, because they were acceptable to the MIM or Razvi, who was getting more and more powerful.

Finally, a former industrialist, who had connections with MIM folks and Hindus, was appointed (Him in pic).

Laiq Ali, though appointed by the Nizam, was pretty pally with the MIM, and towards the end even supplied arms to the Razakars, thinking it could take on the army towards the end.

Before getting ahead: India and Hyd signed the Standstill Agreement in Nov 1947 for 1 year

Basically the standstill agreement was supposed to be a temporary measure to negotiate terms. India had sent KM Munshi as its Agent-General to have a point person in Hyd. Laiq Ali and Munshi pretty much never got along, often accusing each other of various tactics.

The Indian side, from early Jan 1948 closed its borders, or had an economic blockade for Hyd, and there are accounts of Arya Samaj (then v strong) from the MH border indulging in 'raids'. Both sides had people causing trouble. THis continued.

The last dist collector of Osmanabad, Mohd Hyder, who was the brother-in-law of Hyd police comm Deen Yar Jung, in his book October Coup recounts what happened in the Mh border areas.

His conversation with razvi, also shows the MIM chief's rabid and communal outlook.

Razvi, according to Hyder, had talked of Muslim supremacy in the state. The Osmanabad collector of course disapproved.

In my 4 years of research, I have met people who faced Razakar violence and felt betrayed by the last Nizam for allowing Hindus to get harmed by the Razakars

It may be noted that towards the end, the Nizam pretty much lost control, and I can say to some extent that he was even manipulated, both by Razvi and Laiq ALi the PM.

In fact, Edroos even writes that he offered the Nizam a chance to put down Razvi, but it was not heeded.

Finally, things start to summer in August of 1948, when two major incidents happen.

First, a letter signed by 7 people, including Fareed Mirza, a Tahsildar, asked the Nizam to disband the Razakars and tackle the law and order (less) situation.
Details:
siasat.com/hyderabad-1948…

The other incident was the murder of pro-India journalist Shoaibullah Khan, who was shot dead by the Razakars on Aug 22 1948. The late B Narsing Rao was an eyewitness

Details here: siasat.com/police-action-…

His murder, and the departure of Lord Mountbatten, former viceroy, were two major flashpoints that led to Operation Polo.

The Indian govt essentially lost its patience. The Razakars were doing what they wanted and negotiations weren't working

The Indian govt after Hyderabad's annexation reopened the case and investigated for many many days.

Imroze, where Shoaibullah Khan worked as editor, was run from B. Ramakrishna Rao's home. He was the first chief min of Hyd state in 1952 and a Congress leader

Meanwhile in Telangana, the Armed Struggle was going on strong. The CPI started the Comrades Association of Hyd as a front, and ran its activities.

The biggest leaders from TS were: Ravi Narayan Reddy (in pic), Makhdoom Mohiuddin (2nd pic), Baddam Yella Reddy, Ch Rajashwar Rao

One crucial aspect people miss is that the Telangana Armed Struggle in fact continued well after Operation Polo, until 1951 21 Oct. It was finally called-off, as the CPI then entered the mainstream.

After Hyd's merger, there was also a split in the party (Cont)

A good chunk of the Telangana leaders including Ravi Narayan Reddy had wanted to stop the Armed Struggle and join the mainstream, while others wanted to contie it.

Many Andhra CPI leaders also led it, like Sundarayya, Basavapunnaiah, Chandra Rajeshwar Rao ect

In fact, 4 CPI leaders went and met Stalin to ask for support - to start a separate communist commune, of course it was rejected.
CPI was so strong in TS that the joke during the 1st election was - 'if you point to a lamppost and say it is a communist it would win the election'

The biggest win in the first Lok Sabha election was of Ravi Narayan Reddy in 1952, whose margin of victory was higher than Nehru's, which is why he inaugurated the Lok Sabha.
Because the CPI continued the Armed struggle, over 4000 of its cadres were in jail. Many others killed

That is the reason the Indian army stayed back in Telangana after Operation Polo, and many CPI leaders till date maintain that Op Polo was in fact done to stop the CPI's peasant rebellion.

I have personally met and interviewed some CPI leaders who went underground then

One of them was a landlord, called Dora in Telugu, from Siddipet dist. Like him, many former landlords even chose to help peasants and gave up their lands to the poor and to also stop bonded slavery.

This was the foundation of Telangana. We ought to be proud of it.

However, Dalits continued to be marginalized even then. One of the best books to understand the landlord oppression is My Father Baliah by YB Satnarayana, whose family originally cme from Karimnagar dist, to Hyd.

Finally, coming to the conclusion.

On 13 Sept, the Indian govt under Nehru and Patel (under whom VP Menon worked, who had a major part to play), finally sent its army to take over Hyderabad.
It may be noted that after the Kashmir fiasco, Patel was wary of another problem.

The Hyderabad side under Osman Ali Khan had previously tried to buy arms from Czechoslovakia and had even sent Edroos abroad once to buy weapons.

The attempts were mostly unsuccessful. Laiq Ali, who was close to Pakistan's founder Mohd Ali Jinah, tried to get Pak's help.

Jinnah basically refused to intervene. Why would he? Acc to his own 2-nation theory, Hyd should have gone to India. Or else then he also had no rights to say Pak is a Muslim country.Hyd had a Hindu majority and Kashmir had a Muslim majority.Hyd's administration was heavily Muslim

The Nizam, in all fairness however, I would say was not communal. One could say he was heavily misguided. Most of the Razakar trouble can be tracked down to Razvi. The Nizam towards the end was more or less powerless.

But he did make mistakes, which cost lives. Laqi Ali had overlooked Razakar atrocities, especially in the MH and KN areas. Eyewitnesses there during my interviews recalled how things got bad only after the Razakars came. Many of them were simply stealing and looting people

Razakar violence against Hindus (and anyone opposed to Hyderabad’s independence), and Communist-backed uprisings by peasants against landlords in Telangana’s rural areas meant that the political situation in 1948 was in turmoil

While the Hyderabad administration, under its last Prime Minister Laik Ali, gave the Nizam the impression that things were going well, that was not the case. Finally, the Indian army came marching, with Police Action starting on 13 September 1948.

it officially ended on 17 September 1948.El-Edroos, the last commander of the Hyderabad State Army, in his book Hyderabad Of The Seven Loaves, narrates the entire event.

He knew the Hyd side was no match for the Indian army, and asked his men to withdraw, himself surrendering

Edroos was initially arrested for a few months, accused of having worked with the MIM, but his name was eventually cleared. He was a practical person. Hyd state was annexed to India on 17 Sept 1948

Laiq Ali was put under house arrest and Razvi was jailed

In fact, in 1950, Laqi Ali managed to wear a Burkha and sat in a car and snuck out to bombay. He finally got on to a plane and left for Pak where he wrote his side of the events in the book 'The Tragedy of Hyderabad'

The Indian govt's side can be understood through different books. VP Menon has also penned a book, while KM Munshi's 'End of An Era' also gives his perspective.

CPI leaders from here many believe that the Nizam was aware of Op Polo and had struck a deal with India

After Operation Polo, the biggest issue however the following communal violence and targetted killings of Muslims, especially in the MH and KN areas.

The Pundit Sunderlal Committee (appointed by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru to look into atrocities) was sent to look into it.

Acc to the Sunderlal Committee report, 27000-40,000 Muslims were killed in districts like Gulbarga, Osmanabad, Bidar, etc.
This is the harsh reality of Op Polo, which scarred generations of Muslims in Hyderabad city and state. Mass displacement, led by discrimination followed.

Also, Makhdoom's poem 'Jang-e-Azadi' was baacially a clarion call for the oppressed. It was also unfathomable for many Muslims, that a Muslim man who would rise & speak out against the Nizam. Makhdoom was truly a revolutionary. Many only remember him for his poems today.

#operationpolo #September17 @serish

Finally, if all of you want some context to look at operation follow along with partition and also get some perspective from the Indian government side, you can listen to my latest podcasts for be on Charminar:

sunoindia.in/beyond-charmin…

Apart from him, 60% of lands were run by Jagirdars, and 30% were private lands. It is said for example, that 11 landlords ran about 259 villages in Jangaon

Congress leaders who were powerful then were Swami Ramanand Tirtha, Burugula Ramakrishna Rao and others. The party's maij demand was for a 'Responsible Govt', basically more democratic.
The MIM however used this to create fear among muslims that it was majoritarian Hindu 'rule'

Also, this year marks 73 not 73 years. My apologies**

Also, small error. Today marks 73 years since Operation Polo,not 72.

My apologies

Who were unacceptable to Razvi*

Nawaz Khan*

Mohd Hyder was the son-in-law of Deen Yae Jung**