On September 13, 1948, seventy years ago, a war broke out in the heart of India. The fighting was the latest leverage by which the Indian government decided to end forever the risk of a "new Pakistan" emerging right inside the Indian state.
As you know, a year before the events described, in 1947, the former British India was divided into independent states - Pakistan, which at first remained the British dominion, and the Indian Union. Until 1947, British India included 625 principalities ruled by Rajas and Maharajas (Hindu principalities) or Nawabs and Nizams (Muslim principalities). Each of them was given the right to independently choose which of the states to join. Naturally, the Hindu principalities became part of the Indian Union, the Muslim principalities of Punjab - into Pakistan.
But one of these relict state formations - the principality of Hyderabad and Berar in the very center of India (today it is the state of Telingana) - chose to declare the preservation of its sovereignty and refused to join the Indian Union. The reasons for this decision were explained quite simply.
The Principality of Hyderabad and Berar, spread over 212 thousand square meters. km in the very center of the Deccan Plateau, it was a fragment of the Mughal Empire. Before the conquest by the Great Moguls, here, on the Deccan plateau, there was the Sultanate of Golkond - a Muslim state formation created by immigrants from the Turkoman tribal union Kara-Koyunlu, who conquered the local population - Marathas and Telugu, who professed mainly Hinduism.
In 1712, Emperor Farouk Siyar appointed Mir Kamar-ud-din-khan Siddiqi, a descendant of a family from Samarkand, as the governor of the Dean. Mir Qamar ud-din-khan received the title "Nizam ul-Mulk" and began to rule Hyderabad as Asaf Jah I (pictured). So a dynasty of the Nizams, who professed Islam, reigned in Hyderabad. Almost all of Nizam's entourage were Muslims; merchants who professed Islam received all kinds of preferences in the principality.
Since 1724, Hyderabad actually turned into an independent principality, and in 1798 the British East India Company forced Nizam to sign a subsidiary agreement, according to which issues of foreign relations and defense were withdrawn to British India. The Nizams, however, retained all the fullness of internal power. The Nizams of Hyderabad received even greater privileges after they did not support the anti-British uprising of the Sepoys in 1857 and received for this the status of the most loyal allies of the British crown.
In general, life in Hyderabad was good under British colonial rule. The principality was rapidly developing economically, the Nizams grew rich, becoming one of the richest families in South Asia, and the British authorities did not particularly interfere in the internal affairs of the principality. In Hyderabad, rail and air services appeared relatively early, the Hyderabad State Bank was opened and its own currency was issued - the Hyderabad rupee.
By the time British India ceased to exist, the nizam Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (1886-1967) was in power in Hyderabad. He was the richest man in India - a dollar billionaire, whose fortune by the early 1940s. equaled 2% of US GDP. He was married to the daughter of the last Ottoman caliph (who was not the sultan at the same time) Abdul-Majid II. Contemporaries recalled Osman Ali as an educated person who strove not only for personal prosperity and preservation of his power, but also for the modernization of the principality. He ruled Hyderabad for 37 years, from 1911 to 1948, and during this time a railway, an airport, electricity, an Ottoman University and a number of schools and colleges were founded in the principality.
When it came to the division of British India into the Indian Union and Pakistan, the nizam turned to the British leadership with a request to grant independence to Hyderabad within the framework of the British Commonwealth. But London refused, and then the lower ranks, starting negotiations with the Indian leadership on the entry of the principality into India as an autonomy, at the same time established ties with Pakistan.
Asaf Jah, being a Muslim by religion, of course, sympathized with Pakistan and feared that if they joined the Indian Union, Muslims in Hyderabad would lose their privileged position. Meanwhile, according to the 1941 census, out of 16.3 million people living in the principality, more than 85% were Hindus and only 12% were Muslims. The Muslim minority controlled the state administration (among the top officials there were 59 Muslims, 5 Hindus and 38 Sikhs and others) and the armed forces (out of 1,765 officers of the Hyderabad army, 1268 professed Islam and only 421 were Hindu, and the remaining 121 were adherents of other religions). This situation was quite satisfactory for the Nizam and the Muslims, but the Hindu majority of the region's population was burdened by them.
Back in 1945, a strong peasant uprising began in the Telugu-populated areas of the principality, led by the local structures of the Communist Party of India. The Hindu peasants rebelled against the landowners - zamindars, among whom representatives of the Muslim aristocracy predominated, and began to redistribute land, redistribute livestock and increase the wages of agricultural workers by 100%. Representatives of the Indian intelligence service, carefully observing the events taking place in the principality, noted that the program of the local communists was indeed positive, meeting the interests of the peasant majority. Gradually, anti-government sentiments also grew in the principality - the communists agitated the peasants against the Nizam.
Although from different positions, Indian nationalists also opposed the rule of the Muslim dynasty. In December 1947, Narayan Rao Pavar of the Arya Samaj Hindu organization even made an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the Nizam. To ensure the retention of power in their hands, the lower ranks increasingly cooperated with Pakistan, and also began to form numerous militias and strengthen their armed forces.
Hyderabad, by the way, had its own fairly large and trained army, which included 1 cavalry regiment, 3 armored regiments and 11 infantry battalions, as well as garrison units and irregular infantry and cavalry detachments. The total strength of the Hyderabad army was 22 thousand people, and the command was carried out by Major General Syed Ahmed El-Edrus (1899-1962). An Arab by nationality, a native of the Hashemite family, El-Edrus was an experienced officer who went through both world wars as part of the 15th Cavalry Brigade of the Imperial Service, manned in Hyderabad, Patiyal, Mysore, Alwala and Jodhpur and was part of the troops of the Imperial Service, fielded by the Indian principalities. El-Edrus was one of the closest associates of Nizam, his siblings also served in the Hyderabad army in senior officer positions.
In addition to the army, the Nizam could rely on the numerous Muslim militia "Razakars", commanded by Kasim Razvi (1902-1970), a local politician, a graduate of the Muslim University in Aligarh (now Uttar Pradesh). But, unlike the military, the militia was poorly armed - 75% of its weapons were old guns and edged weapons. But the Razakars were determined to defend the interests of the Muslim population, the state system and the Nizam of Hyderabad to the end.
Kasim Razvi
Nizam, who maintained ties with Pakistan, did not rule out the possibility of an anti-Indian uprising, so Delhi decided to end the independence of Hyderabad faster than in the event of a conflict with Pakistan it would turn into a hotbed of hostility in the center of India itself. The reason for the outbreak of hostilities was given by the nizam itself. On September 6, 1948, the Razakars attacked an Indian police post near the village of Chillakallu. In response, the Indian command sent infantry units, staffed by Gurkhas, and tanks to help the police. The Razakars were forced to retreat to Kodar, to the territory of the Principality of Hyderabad, where the armored units of the Hyderabad army advanced to their aid. However, the Indian units were more prepared and knocking out one of the armored vehicles, forced the Kodar garrison to surrender.
After that, the Indian command began to develop a plan for a military operation to seize and annex Hyderabad. Since there were 17 polo fields in the principality, the operation was called "Polo". It was developed by the commander of the Southern Command, Lieutenant General E. N. Goddard, and the direct command of the forces involved in the operation was carried out by Lieutenant General Rajendrasinghji. The Indian army was to strike from two sides. From the west, from Solapur, the offensive was commanded by Major General Chaudhary, from the east, from Vijayawada - by Major General Rudra. To participate in the operation, significant military forces were concentrated, including the most combat-ready units of the Indian army.
The operation against Hyderabad began on September 13, 1948, on the second day after the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of independent Pakistan. On September 13, units of the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army broke the resistance of the 1st Hyderabad Infantry Regiment and went on the offensive, advancing 61 km deep into the territory of the principality. An armored column commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ram Singh quickly dispersed the poorly armed Razakars. The 1st Mysore regiment entered the city of Hospet. On September 14th, aviation cleared the way for the further advance of the Indian troops.
Razakar of Hyderabad
A violent clash occurred between the Hyderabad units and the 5th Gurkha Infantry Regiment of the Indian Army. The advance became quite difficult, as the Indian units, despite being outnumbered, faced serious resistance from Hyderabad forces. For example, in the city of Jalna, Hyderabad detachments stopped the advance of the infantry of the 2nd Jodhpur and 3rd Sikh regiments and tanks of the 18th cavalry regiment. True, in the Mominabad area, Indian troops managed to neutralize the resistance of the 3rd Golconda Lancers regiment rather quickly. On September 16, the armored column of Lieutenant Colonel Ram Singh approached Zahirabad, where the Razakar detachments offered great resistance to the Indian troops. Although the Muslim militias were weakly armed, they actively took advantage of the terrain and were able to delay the advance of Indian troops for a long time.
Nevertheless, the numerical superiority and superiority in armament did their job. On the night of September 17, 1948, Indian troops entered the city of Bidar. At the same time, the cities of Hingoli and Chityal were occupied. By the morning of September 17, the Hyderabad army had virtually lost its capacity for organized resistance. The troops of the principality suffered such massive losses that they could no longer resist the advancing Indian units. On September 17, 1948, Nizam of Hyderabad Asaf Jah VII announced a ceasefire. The five-day war between the Union of India and the Principality of Hyderabad is over. On the same day, Asaf Jah appealed to the Indian command, announcing the surrender of the principality, at 16:00, Major General Chaudhury, who commanded the advancing units of the Indian army, accepted the surrender of the Hyderabad army from the commander of the Hyderabad army, Major General El Edrus.
Major General El Edrus' surrender
The war lasted five days and, as expected, ended in complete victory for India. The Indian Armed Forces suffered 32 casualties and 97 wounded. The Hyderabad army and the Razakar lost a much larger number of fighters - 1,863 soldiers and officers were killed, 122 were wounded, and 3,558 were captured. After the surrender of Nizam in Hyderabad, riots and unrest broke out, accompanied by massacres and brutal suppression by Indian troops. during the riots, about 50 thousand civilians of the principality were killed.
The end of hostilities put an end to the centuries-old existence of Hyderabad as a semi-independent principality. It became part of India as the state of Hyderabad, but then, after the reforms of 1956, it was divided among neighboring states. Most of the territory of Hyderabad became part of the state of Andhra Pradesh, from which the new state of Telingana was allocated in 2014 with the city of Hyderabad proper. Former nizam Asaf Jah VII received the honorary post of Rajpramukh. Until the end of his days, he remained one of the richest people not only in India, but throughout South Asia and the world as a whole.
The annexation of Hyderabad was one of the first large-scale military operations in India to establish full control over its territory and eliminate foreign political entities. Subsequently, in the same way, India reunited the Portuguese colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu. For Pakistan, the incorporation of Hyderabad into India also became a serious nuisance, since the Pakistani leadership hoped to use the principality to their advantage. After its annexation, many Hyderabad Muslims chose to move to Pakistan for fear of persecution by the Hindus.
