Right Word | Why 17 September needs to be called ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’

On 17 September 1948, Hyderabad was liberated from the clutches of the tyrannical Islamic rule and integrated with Bharat. It was a day of liberation for the non-Muslims as well as progressive Muslims in the state. That is why it needs to be celebrated as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’.

Towards a Muslim State

Hyderabad was ruled by the Asaf Jah dynasty that was founded in 1724 by Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah. The last ruler of this dynasty was Nizam Osman Ali Khan whose reign lasted from 1911 till the day Hyderabad was liberated.

During Osman Ali Khan’s rule, Hyderabad had 86 per cent Hindu population and 14 per cent Muslim population. But the condition of Hindus was pathetic. They were systemically thrown out of all important and influential government positions and the state was turned into a theocracy where a handful of radical Muslims brutalised the non-Muslims.

“Under official pressure, private harassment and threats of violence, Hindus were… prevented from building or repairing a temple in any locality where Muslims resided. Hindu temples were often desecrated but the culprits were rarely traced, never punished. Hindu religious teachers were prohibited from delivering discourses, while the Muslim divines, the members of Ittehad (Majlis-i-Ittehad-ul-Mussulmeen, a communal organisation set up in 1926 under the patronage of Nizam of Hyderabad) and the Deendars (preachers of another radical Islamic movement in Hyderabad) carried on a vigorous campaign of proselytising the Hindus,” revealed KM Munshi, the Agent General of India in Hyderabad from January 1948 to September 1948 in an autobiographical account Hyderabad Memoirs: The End of An Era.

Hyderabad had three linguistic belts comprising Telugu, Kannada and Marathi speaking districts. There was a miniscule population which used Urdu.

Munshi recounted in his memoirs first published in 1957, “The educational policy… was directed at supplanting the local languages by Urdu from the time Nizam came to the gaddi (seat of power). The state aided education could only be given through Urdu or English. In 1915, even the option of English was replaced by Urdu in schools of the state. In 1930, the proportion of Hindu and Muslim students in primary schools was 2:1 as against population which bore the proportion if 8:1.”

Besides pursuing the policy, the finance minister, Sir Akbar Hydari, who also held the post of the president of the Nizam’s Executive Council, lavishly financed the Osmania University. “Its primary object was to attract fanatic Muslim scholars and bring up a race of young educated Muslims indoctrinated with the Muslim conquistador spirit. It spent large sums of money to make Urdu a language of power,” added Munshi.

“A characteristic incident illustrative of the purpose and policy of the Osmania University happened in 1939. The Hindu students were prohibited from wearing dhotis and Kurtas; they had to wear the dress accepted by the Muslim students. When on Janmashtami day, very sacred among the Hindus, some students sang the song Vande Mataram, accepted universally as the prayer to the Motherland for over thirty years in the Hindu prayer hall, it was locked up and the students were served with an order prohibiting them from singing the song within the University precincts. Those who had sung it were given the alternative to tender an apology or suffer rustication. The Education Department, by a communique, also prohibited the singing of the song in schools. As a result, about 1,200 students were expelled from the Colleges and Schools.

On the other hand, on the festival of Milad-ul-Nabi celebrated by the Muslim students, the presiding professor said, “I am pained to see the inertness amongst Muslims when there still exist 22 crores of gobar-parast(dung worshippers)”; a term of vulgar abuse applied to Hindus.”

Role of MIM and Razakaars

Majlis-i-Ittehad-ul-Mussulmeen and its terror arm Razkaars played a key role in targeting non-Muslims in the state of Hyderabad from 1926 to 1948. One of the defining moments in the context of making Hyderabad officially an Islamic theocratic state was in 1938 when MIM revised its Constitution. The amendment said that the sovereignty of the state and throne of Hyderabad would be vested in Muslims and Islam and not the other way round. In other words, Hyderabad was a part of ‘Ummah’. Meanwhile MIM had set up armed militia in the form of ‘Rzakaars’ that had started targeting Hindus in the state. In 1944, the leadership of Razakaars was taken over by Kasim Rizvi who was now de facto ruling the state, of course, backed by Nizam. Rizvi, a notorious operator, was operating 52 command centres of Razakaars. They were equipped with weapons, aided by the Nizam’s establishment and their number had swelled to almost one lakh in 1947-48.

After Bharat became independent on 15 August, 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad unleashed a reign of terror on the Hindus of the state who wanted the state to accede to India. Massacres, rapes, loot, arson, forced conversions were carried out by Razakaars in every part of the state. There were innumerable such incidents, and many of them haven’t even come to the light. A mention of few of them here would reveal the extent of brutalities suffered by the Hindus in Hyderabad. These incidents have been painstakingly documented on the basis of first-hand accounts in ‘Nizam’s Rule Unmasked’ and ‘Liberation Struggle of Hyderabad… some unknown pages’ (both published by Samvit Prakashan).

Naked Bathukamma Dance (1947)

The unique floral festival worshipping the Mother Goddess Durga as Bathukamma during the nine-day Vijaydashami, in which women celebrate songs and dancing in open spaces, was sought to be eliminated by the Nizam. Attacks began on Bathukamma festival and during the Vijayadashami in 1947, when women celebrated Btahukamma and boarded the train at Wadi station, they were pulled out cruelly at Gandalpur and were herded forcibly into trucks and taken to nearby police station. The accompanied men were stopped by breaking their limbs. In the police station, women were disrobed, repeatedly beaten and forced to do Bathukamma dance.

Gorta Massacre (1948)

On 9-10 May, 1948, around 2000 Razakaars descended on this Hindu village where families were observing fasts and offering their prayers to their Gods on the occasion of a solar eclipse on Chaitra Amavsya. The Razakaars pulled out Hindus from their homes and started slaughtering them. Bhimrao, the Patel of the village pleaded with them to stop this violence by offering them 40 tolas of Gold. The head of Razakkars took the gold, and killed Bhimrao’s eldest son in front of him. Then they cut Bhimrao’s head with a sword. As the younger son started running away to save his life, they caught hold of him and beheaded him. Then they gathered the cow-dung cakes, lit a fire and put all the severed heads there.

The bloodbath didn’t stop at that. After finishing Patel’s family, the Razakaars dragged out village chiefs Ramarao Patwari and Naraynrao Muktedar. They were beheaded in the middle of the village in front of the temple of Goddess Kali. The Razakaars then desecrated the temple and the deity by smearing it with blood. After this, they went into Narayanrao’s house where his pregnant wife was hiding. They first caught hold of her younger brother and killed him as she pleaded to spare him. As she fell on her brother’s dead body crying, they pulled her and kicked her with their boots. She delivered the baby there itself and died with blood oozing out of her body.

Bhairavunipalli Massacre

Razakaars, Nizam’s troops and the district administration led by Deputy Collector Iqbal Hashim attacked Bhairavunipalli village in August, 1948. The Hindu population of the village had put up a stiff resistance but lost due to the superior firepower and weaponry with the attackers. After Nizam government’s officials, troops and Razakaar’s entered this village, they searched houses, tied up all the youth, raped all the women, looted all the houses and then burnt down the whole village.

In all 92 youngsters were brought outside the village. The officers decided to test their shooting skills at these hapless Hindus. The contest was about how many men can be killed with one bullet of a 303 rifle. The youngsters were tied in ropes like sacrificial animals, and made to stand in four rows, one behind the other.  First, an army officer fired and his bullet pierced through four young men who died instantly. The next was a police officer who killed three young men with a single bullet. Next came civilian officers to showcase their shooting skills! District Collector Hashim himself killed eight Hindu youth. All the youth were killed eventually. Their bodies were thrown into an unused well. The number of people killed in this village are not part of this body count. The bloodthirsty officials and Razakaar’s massacred another 25 Hindus at Kutigal village on their way back.

These are just glimpses of the atrocities suffered by Hindus in the state of Hyderabad. Thousands of such incidents had happened in the state of Hyderabad. It’s time to pay homage to millions of Hindus who suffered these atrocities and went down into this history unnoticed. It is also clear from the above that it was the integration of Hyderabad with Bharat that proved to be the liberation day for Hindus of Hyderabad. That is why it is appropriate to remember and celebrate 17 September as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day.’

The writer, an author and columnist, has written several books. He tweets at @ArunanandLive. Views expressed are personal

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