Thread by @IndicHistory

#HyderabadLiberationDay
#Thread

The Princely State of Hyderabad was ruled by Mir Osman Ali.
The Independence of India Act, 1947 offered the choice to the Princely States, of joining either IN or PK based on geographical contiguity & or the people's wishes. Hyderabad had none.

In a reverse of the situation in Kashmir, Hyderabad was a Hindu majority State ruled by a Muslim Nawab. There was no question of a referendum by the Nawab, since it was clear what the outcome would be.

The Nawab asked the British for a special status for HYD as a constitutional monarchy under the British Commonwealth. The request was denied.

The Nawab nevertheless went ahead with his own foreign policy by appointing agents in Europe.

The Nawab engaged with the Portuguese to lease land in Goa to get access to sea for his landlocked State.
Meanwhile the Nawab used an irregular army, AKA the Razakars (lit. volunteers). The Razakars were armed fanatics under the umbrella of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was formed in 1927 as a Pro Nizam party. In 1944 Qasim Rizvi was elected as the head of MIM. It was Rizvi who started the Razakar recruitment.

Rizvi & his Razakars wanted to resist accession of HYD to India & carve out an Islamic dominion in India & eventually accede to PK. There was a general state of unrest in the State. As the pressure on HYD started building up, the Razakars started communal violence.

According to an account by Mohammed Hyder, a civil servant in Osmanabad district, armed militant groups, including Razakars & Deendars & ethnic militias of Pathans & Arabs claimed to be defending the Islamic faith & made claims on the land.

"From the beginning of 1948 the Razakars had extended their activities from Hyderabad city into the towns and rural areas, murdering Hindus, abducting women, pillaging houses and fields, and looting non-Muslim property in a widespread reign of terror."

The violence was pushed by the MIM, which according to P V Kate's Marathwada under the Nizams, 1987 was formed to unite the Muslims in the State in support of Nizam & to reduce the Hindu majority by large-scale conversion to Islam.

The Police Action or Operation Polo by the Indian State eventually forced the Nizam to surrender & allowed the accession of HYD to India.
Rizvi was exiled to Pakistan. The Razakars were disbanded.

Before leaving for PK, Rizvi handed over the responsibilities of MIM to Abdul Wahed Owaisi, grandfather of Asaddudin Owaisi. Since the dream of an independent Islamic HYD was no longer possible. The MIM prefixed 'All India' to its name & became AIMIM.

An estimated 30,000 - 40,000 people, mostly Hindus were killed by the Razakars in the days preceding the liberation of Hyderabad. Thousands fled to the Indian territories from the border towns & villages of the State of HYD.

Jinnah warned of large scale violence & said, "If Congress attempted to exert any pressure on Hyderabad, every Muslim throughout the whole of India, yes, all the hundred million Muslims, would rise as one man to defend the oldest Muslim dynasty in India."

At the end the will power of a nation and Sardar Patel prevailed.