Integration of Hyderabad

17th September is being  observed as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’. On this day in 1948, Hyderabad was freed from the clutches of the Nizam and merged into India.

Even before the country got independence on 15 August 1947, the Nizam was trying to make Hyderabad an independent country. Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan issued a decree on 3 June 1947 declaring Hyderabad an independent country.

When talks were going on to merge Hyderabad with India, Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan had rejected the request for merger with India. He was assured by Razakar leader Qasim Rizvi that if India takes any kind of military action to annex Hyderabad, then Razakars under his leadership will fight the Indian Army.

To intimidate the Indian leadership, the cruel Razakars and Nizam’s soldiers under the leadership of Qasim started oppressing the Hindus of the state. Not only this, Qasim Rizvi threatened that if India tried to take any military action against it, it would get nothing except the bones and ashes of 1.40 crore Hindus. VP Menon has mentioned this in his book ‘The Integration of States’.

The Indian Army started Operation Polo on 13 September 1948 and annexed Hyderabad to India on 17 September. In the five-day action, 1373 Razakars and 807 soldiers of the Hyderabad state were killed. At the same time, 66 soldiers of the Indian Army also attained martyrdom.

In the end the Nizam and the Razakars, an organisation of fundamentalist Muslims, surrendered. After this Rizvi was arrested and put in jail and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was banned. After being kept in jail for almost a decade, Qasim Rizvi was released on the condition that he would go to Pakistan within 48 hours. Rizvi was given asylum by Pakistan.

Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar had expressed his clear views regarding the Hyderabad Liberation Movement. He had said that the people living under the tyrannical rule of the Nizam started a big movement against the Nizam. Many heroes sacrificed their lives in this. Apart from Dr Ambedkar, the Scheduled Caste Federation also openly opposed the Nizam.

The first rally by Dr Ambedkar against the Nizam was organised on 30 December 1938 at Makranpur in Kannada district. In the same rally in Aurangabad, Bhausaheb More had given the slogan of ‘Jai Bhim’ before Dr Ambedkar. This rally played a big role in the Hyderabad liberation movement.

In fact, the Nizam had crossed the limits of oppression of Dalits. The Nizam’s rule had become infamous for its atrocities against Hindus and people began to rebel against his rule. Due to this the Nizam got many leaders of the Scheduled Caste Federation murdered. In protest against this, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar also came in support of the Dalit leaders.

Baba Saheb was hurt by the atrocities on Dalits and their conversion. The condition of Dalits was even worse in Marathwada, which came under the rule of the Nizam. Dalits were discriminated against on a large scale and were also deprived of education.

This is the same Marathwada whose liberation was opposed by the leaders of Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM. AIMIM MPs were also absent from the tricolor hoisting programme on Marathwada Liberation Day. This is the same AIMIM, which is related to the Razakars’ MIM and Owaisi’s ancestors were associated with it. In this way, those who hate Dalits from within are talking about ‘Jai Bhim Jai Meem’ for the sake of politics.

[Contributed]

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Frontier
Vol 56, No. 15, Oct 8 - 14, 2023