On September 3, the Government of India announced year-long commemoration of the Hyderabad Liberation Day starting from September 17, 2022. In an official press release, the Ministry of Culture said that the inauguration of the program would be done by Home Minister Amit Shah, who will be the chief guest at the inaugural program that is scheduled to take place at Parade Grounds in Hyderabad. Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka have been invited to the program.
The year-long commemoration will pay tribute to all those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Samsthan and its merger with the India Union. Notably, it took over a year for Hyderabad to get its independence from Nizam’s rule after the Independence of India. On September 17, 1948, Hyderabad officially joined Indian Union.
The press release noted, “History is replete with illustrations of struggles in the entire freedom movement including the struggle of Ramji Gond against the British; the fight of Komaram Bheem; the valour of Turrebaz Khan in 1857 who wanted to hoist the Indian national flag on the residence of the British Resident Commissioner at Koti in Hyderabad city.”
Following the Indian independence, the people of Hyderabad started the struggle for the merger of samsthan into the Indian union. It took the shape of a massive people’s movement leading to Operation Polo led by then-Home Affairs of India minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Timely action by the home ministry at that time ensured the merger.
Regions including Telangana, the Marathwada region in Maharashtra that included the districts of Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani and
districts of Kalaburagi, Bellary Raichur, Yadgir, Koppal, Vijayanagara and Bidar in current day Karnataka were under the state of Hyderabad under the Nizam. Notably, Maharashtra and Karnataka officially observe September 17 as Liberation Day.
The blood-tainted history of Razakars
When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan was formed, the British gave the remaining princely states a choice to merge with either union or stay independent. One of the largest princely states within the Indian union was Hyderabad, a Hindu-majority region ruled by a Muslim Nizam.
The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, was in a dilemma on whether he should join the Indian union or stay independent. On the other hand, the Majlis-e-Itihadul Muslimeen (precursor of present-day AIMIM) was adamant about the Nizam merging with Pakistan instead of being Independent. Being no more than a puppet to the MIM, the Nizam agreed to keep Hyderabad independent of either union.
Though the Nizam tried to legitimise the Princely state of Hyderabad by appointing trade officials in European countries and sending delegations to the UNSC, there were civil movements within his territory led by Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha and Hyderabad State Congress to fight for Hindu rights in Hyderabad and merge the state with the Indian Union.
Nizam feared there would be an uprising by the majority-Hindu community, so he sanctioned the creation of Razakars led by Kasim Razvi, which was to be a paramilitary wing of the MIM. Razakars were empowered by Nizam to suppress Hindu uprisings and movements by whatever means possible. Following the green signal from Nizam, the ethnic genocide of Hindus in Rural Telangana began. The Razakars were committed to mass conversions of Hindus to Islam in an attempt to make Hyderabad a Muslim-majority province. The Razakars went village to village and mass-murdered, raped and kidnapped several Hindu villagers.
One such incident is that of Veera Bairanpalli, a village in Telangana which was at the receiving end of the Razakars. The Jihadi forces had tried to enter the village to mass convert Hindu residents thrice but were unsuccessful when the residents chased the invaders with slings and other crude weapons.
However, the Razakars, led by Kasim Razvi, managed to infiltrate the village with the help of the Nizam on their fourth attempt during the festival of Bathukamma. At the borders of the village lay a mud fort which the villagers used to guard themselves against the Jihadis, the Razakars shot all the guards at point blank range and proceeded to massacre the unarmed villagers.
On entering the village premises, the Razakars stripped Hindu girls off their clothes and paraded them naked, followed by making them dance to their tunes as a sign of submission and surrender to Islamic superiority. Hindu women were raped mercilessly, and the men were shot dead. Several villagers jumped into open wells present in agricultural fields to escape the terror. Many temples were also plundered by the Razakars.
Some of the Razakar forces were shot dead by the villagers, which enraged Kasim Razvi and escalated the massacre. The Razakars rounded up the villagers and shot them dead after lining them up in an attempt to save bullets. A survivor of this incident, N. Mallaiah, told The Hindu in 2016, “They plundered everything. The armed men molested women, killed sheep and killed able-bodied men just for pleasure. They looted every village en route.”
“To save bullets, they lined us up and shot. The bullet missed me and went through my left hand. Thinking that I am dead, they threw me on the heap of dead bodies”, he further said. A resident named Dasari Pulliah added to Mallaiah’s statement, “Many of us climbed onto the mud fort which has been there since times immemorial. We took shelter and fired at the Razakars. We killed some of them, and that enraged Kazim Rizvi, who was controlling the Razakars”. Several survivors narrated similar stories.
The Razakars continued their barbaric campaign till the Indian army routed their forces with Operation Polo in 1948, leading to the liberation of Hyderabad from Nizam’s control and accession to the Indian Union. These incidents highlight the sacrifices made by Telangana villagers to ensure the survival of Hinduism in present-day Telangana. Remembering their sacrifices will honour those who lost their lives in these barbaric attempts to erase Hinduism from the face of Deccan India.
Operation Polo and the merger of Hyderabad in the Indian Union
Over 150 villages in rural Telangana were pushed to Islamic brutality, and over 40,000 civilians fled to the Central Provinces of India from Telangana for refuge. These refugees then retaliated against the murderous Razakars through frequent raids to reclaim their land in the bordering areas of Central Provinces and Telangana.
After receiving the details of the exodus of Hindus by the Nizam of Hyderabad, India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was afraid that any attack on the princely state would attract retaliation from West and East Pakistan. Nehru was hesitant to decide to storm into the state and annexe it.
On the insistence of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Nehru hesitantly agreed to the annexure of Hyderabad and ordered the Indian Army to annexe the state of Hyderabad and storm into the state from all fronts.
On September 13 1948, the Indian Army launched an attack on Hyderabad; this operation was named ‘Operation Polo’. The Indian Army, in a 5-day battle, annexed Hyderabad from the Nizam and integrated it into the territory of India.
Despite the Indian Army having only 35,000 soldiers dispatched for this operation, it suffered only 35 casualties, whereas the Hyderabad State suffered 5,738 casualties despite having an army of 2,20,000 soldiers. The Indian Army had a sweeping victory over the Nizam and annexed the state.
Aftermath and surrender of Nizam to India
After the embarrassing defeat, the Nizam of Hyderabad surrendered to the Indian Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and agreed to accede Hyderabad to India. Qasim Razvi was jailed from 1948-1957, after which he took asylum in Pakistan.
Nizam surrendered to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Razvi gave the responsibility of the MIM to Abdul Wahid Owaisi, thus letting the Owaisi family run what remained of the MIM. The MIM was banned for a brief period in 1948, after which it changed its name to AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Itihadul Muslimeen) and contests elections to this day.
