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At the time of India’s independence, Hyderabad was the largest Indian princely state in terms of population and GNP. Its territory of 82,698 sq miles was more than that of England and Scotland put together. The 1941 census had estimated its population to be 16.34 million, over 85% of who were Hindus and with Muslims accounting for about 12%. It was also a multi-lingual state consisting of peoples speaking Telugu (48.2%), Marathi (26.4%), Kannada (12.3%) and Urdu (10.3%). Its diversity and broad heritage could be seen in the historical monuments at Ajanta, Ellora and Daulatabad in Marathawada, Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga, Anegondi and Kampili in Karnataka, and Warangal and Nagarjunakonda in Telangana. Hyderabad state had a domestic product greater than that of Belgium. Its ruler, the Nizam was the richest man in the world at that time. He had over eleven thousand servants and famously used the 185-carat Jacob Diamond as a paperweight.
Hyderabad, not only had its own Army, but also had its own Railways, Airline, Postal Service, Radio Broadcasting network and currency. The Nizam and his court ruled over it with the British Resident keeping a close and watchful eye over everything. The British Army also had a permanent garrison, just in case the “faithful ally of the King Emperor” was found lacking in faith. The Nizam was the first to sign the Subsidiary Alliance with the British and had remained steadfastly loyal to the empire. Even during the Mutiny of 1857, he managed to keep his state free from uprisings.
As can be imagined it was a Muslim dominated state. Typically in 1911, 70% of the police, 55% of the army and 26% of the public administration were Muslims. In 1941 a report on the Civil Service revealed that of the 1765 officers, 1268 were Muslims, 421 were Hindus, and 121 others, presumably British, Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. Of the officials drawing a pay between Rs.600–1200 pm, 59 were Muslims, 38 were “others”, and a mere 5 were Hindus. The Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the kingdom.
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, the man of iron of India.
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 latter 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'.
The Nizam encouraged the Razakars, a fanatical relegious band under Kasim Rizwi who terrorized the Hindus of the state through organised massacres, rape, loot and arson while also conducting raids across the border. The Nizam had dreams of hoisting the Asafia flag on red fort.
In Hyderabad, the popular agitation against Nizam was gaining strength with the Congress, RSS and other organisations actively participating in both armed and unarmed struggle against the Razakars and Nizam’s atrocities. In Hyderabad proper, the entire Telugu press and a section of Urdu press was also vocal against the razakars and majlis ittaihadul musalmeen. Shoaibullah khan was one of those patriotic urdu press men who fearlessly wrote against the Nizam and razakars. He was brutally murdered as a consequence of his boldness.
The Nizam had advanced Rs 20 crore as help to Pakistan and stationed a bomber plane there. In fact, the then British Chief of Indian Army, Sir Rob Lockhart, had told Nehru that Pakistan would invade India and Hyderabad too had built up a strong military forces under his pal Gen. El Droos so that it could resist Indian forces for many months. Nizam also made unsuccessful attempts at making President Truman and UNO to back his scheme of independence with the support of Pakistan.
But nothing would stop the iron will of the indomitable Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was then the Home Minister of India. Despite heavy opposition from his own cabinet colleagues and even Pandit Nehru at times, he decided that Hyderabad had to be liberated at whatever cost to ensure safety of the innocent millions being massacred in Hyderabad. He considered an independent Hyderabad state as an ulcer in the heart of India which had to be removed, even surgically. He is said to have told the Hyderabad Prime minister who threatened India with dire consequences if Hyderabad was attacked-“don’t threaten us with violence, swords will be met with swords”.
As long as Lord Mountbatten was in India he did not allow armed intervention in Hyderabad. But once he left, and the Nizam wanted an agreement with India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel told publicly, “agreement has gone to England” Twice he had to postpone the date fixed for the operation. He finally fixed September 13th 1948 as the date of launching operation. And he stuck to the date even as he faced strong resistance even from his colleagues in the govt as Jinnah had expired the previous evening.
On the morning of September 13, 1948 five infantry battalions and an armored regiment of the battle hardened Indian Army under the command of Maj Gen J N Chaudhry entered the princely state of Hyderabad, over a year after Independence and after the patience of the new Indian Union was tested beyond endurance. The mighty army of the Nizam surrendered by 18th September, 1948. Indian army suffered hardly a dozen casualties while over 2000 nizam troops and razaakars were killed and more were captured. Hyderabad was liberated and Gen .J.N.Chowdhury was appointed military governor of Hyderabad.
That was Operation Polo, or the Police Action as it is popularly called. It liberated Hyderabad from the tyrannical rul of the Nizam and merged it with the mainland India.
I dread to think that I would have been born in the state of Hyderabad and not India. And it is because of the will of one man, the great Sardar and the might of Indian Army and Air force that today I proudly say I am an Indian and a true Hyderabadi.
The entire matter was handled so efficiently by him and the operation itself was finished by the army so swiftly that world hardly had time to react. By the time Pakistan and other allies woke up, the issue was presented as a fait accompli. No serious discussion ever took place in any international forum about the accession of either Hyderabad or Junagadh as has been the case with Kashmir.
Patel treated the Nizam, whose Razakar lashkars were dreaming of conquering Red Fort, reasonably generously. He was kept as Rajpramukh of the State till the reorganisation of States in 1956.Ironically, this courtesy was not extended to Maharaja Hari Singh who had not fought India like the Nizam, but had merged the State willingly. He was forced to abdicate in June, 1949, and leave the State permanently and reside in Bombay at Sheikh Abdullah's pressure, despite promises of fair treatment to him prior to accession. Many attribute this to the Pandit Nehru-Abdulla axis which prevented Maharaja Hari Singh from acceding to India, though he was willing.
It just makes me ponder often, have we missed the bus in Kashmir?
With thanks to the sources from where some of the information was taken.
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Operation Polo - Liberation Of Hyderabad.
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