The Endgame at Hyderabad State

The Endgame at Hyderabad State
Syed Ali Mujtaba

Endgame of the princely state of Hyderabad continues to attract attention of not only scholars and researchers but also to writers that were witness to that era.

Hyderabad was one of the largest princely state in British India and its ruler the Nizam of Hyderabad was the richest man of the world.

On Sunday Sept 26, 2010, a function was organised in Chennai where a booklet written by SM Pasha, retired faculty of English, New College, was released.

The author chronicles the events before the ‘police action’ against Hyderabad state and about the communal carnage in the aftermath of the fall of the princely state.

The 81 years old author who worked as subeditor with ‘The Mail,’ the defunct English eveninger, owned by “The Hindu” group of newspapers, roundup his discussion talking about the role of the last Nizam, in the run up to the endgame at Hyderabad.

He narrates the drama enacted by Kaasim Rizvi, the man who tried to resist the march of democracy with strong arms means in Hyderabad.

Though partisan, the author discusses the role of Congress and Communist parties building the mass movement against the princely state.

The most candid narration is about the conman man who had nothing to do with the tumultuous events that fleet past them. The author rightly says that the ordinary people were made pawns in the endgame of the Hyderabad state.

The most chilling account of the booklet is the narration of the barbarity in the aftermath of the police action done against the ordinary Muslims of the Hyderabad state.

The narration if true is hauntingly inhuman. How barbaric a man could be, if the authors account is to be believed, puts the entire humanity into shame.

The author talks about the report commissioned by the government of India to asses the atrocities committed against the Muslims of Hyderabad state.

The commission headed by Pandit Sunder Lal and Kazi Abdul Ghaffar toured the state and submitted the report that was never published and still in wraps.

The author who has a wind of the official report, claim that 27000 Muslim lives were lost in the communal carnage in the aftermath of the police action in Hyderabad.


There are many other things that the author narrates in the booklet and needs a full-length piece for discussion.

Just to end this note I quote the preface that says; the wounds of Hyderabad will not heal until India seeks forgiveness of the victims of ‘police action’ and compensates them adequately for their losses of life and property.’

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com