Hyderabad - 1947-1948

 The euphoria of independence was short-lived as partition brought disastrous consequences for India in the wake of communal conflict. Partition unleashed untold misery and loss of lives and property as millions of Hindu and Muslim refugees fled either Pakistan or India. Both nations were also caught up in a number of conflicts involving the allocation of assets, demarcation of boundaries, equitable sharing of water resources, and control over Kashmir. At the same time, Indian leaders were faced with the stupendous task of national integration and economic development.

When the British relinquished their claims to paramountcy, the 562 independent princely states were given the option to join either of the two nations. Before independence, Mountbatten had made it clear to the Indian princes that they would have to choose to join either India or Pakistan at partition. In all but three cases, the princes, most of them ruling over very small territories, were able to work out an agreement with one country or another, generally a deal that preserved some measure of their status and a great deal of their revenue. A few princely states readily joined Pakistan, but the rest - except Hyderabad (the largest of the princely states with 132,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 14 million), Jammu and Kashmir (with 3 million inhabitants), and Junagadh (with a population of 545,000) - merged with India.

The issue of Kashmir, Hyderabad, and the small and fragmented state of Junagadh (in present-day Gujarat), remained unsettled at independence, however. The Muslim ruler of Hindu-majority Junagadh agreed to join to Pakistan, but a movement by his people, followed by Indian military action and a plebiscite (people's vote of self-determination), brought the state into India.

The State of Hyderabad, "Heart of the Indian Peninsula," occupied the centre of the continental lobe. Unusually fertile and desert free, it is dotted with artificial lakes and storage reservoirs, has no sea-coast - a grave disadvantage - but was well watered by a system of rivers on which floated many a quaint coracle.

India had no native state so rich, potent and extensive as Hyderabad, which was about the size of the United Kingdom. Ever since Hyderabad had stood aloof from the great Indian Mutiny of 1857, its Royal Family had been accorded by British Royalty special honors and the Nizam had the official status of "Faithful Ally." This gracefully implied that his exalted highness was not so much the inferior as the colleague of His Majesty the Emperor of India - and, during the Great War, the "Richest Man in the World" contributed to Britain some $100,000,000 cash plus untold supplies and Hyderabad army units.

During the troubled period of intrigue and assassination that followed on the death of Aurangzeb, Mohammedan foreigners rose to high positions as courtiers and generals, and succeeded in transmitting their power to their sons. The one was Chin Kulich Khan. His independence at Hyderabad in the Deccan dates from 1712. Chin Kulich Khan received the honorary title of Asof Jah, which, according to Muhammadan tradition, was the name of the minister of Solomon. But though he is often called Asof Jah he is best known by the title of Nizam-ul-mulk, or "regulator of the state," given to him on the accession of Farrukh Siyar; and as his successors, the Nizams of Hyderabad, were named after this title.

The relations of the British Government with the Nizam of the Dekhan, or Hyderabad territory, dated from the middle of the 18th century, and held a prominent place in the early history of the British empire in India. By the middle of the 18th Century the Nizam of Hyderabad ruled over a wealthy and extensive kingdom, and in recognition of his claim of suzerainty over the Garnatic had compelled the Madras Government in 1766 to sign a treaty acknowledging his authority, granting him a yearly tribute, and making an offensive and defensive alliance with him.

Addressing himself first to the weakest of the three native Treaty powers, the Nizam of Hyderabad, in 1798 Wellesley won a diplomatic success, which turned a possible rival into a subservient ally. The French battalions at Hyderabad were disbanded, and the Nizam bound himself by treaty not to take any European into his service without the consent of the British - a clause since inserted in every leading engagement with native powers.

By the treaty of 1801 the Nizam was bound to furnish a military contingent in time of war of 6,000 infantry and 9,000 horse. But the rabble Nizam's soldiery which he supplied during the subsequent wars proved to be worse than useless in the field. Accordingly it was agreed by mutual consent that a permanent force should be maintained by the Nizam, reduced to half the number of native troops, but to be disciplined and commanded by British officers. This new body of troops was known as the Nizam's Contingent, as distinguished from the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force.

From a very early period the Nizam had failed to provide the necessary funds for the maintenance of the Contingent. From time to time large advances were made by the British government to meet the current expenditure, until a debt accumulated of half a million sterling. The Nizam might have escaped this obligation by disbanding the Contingent; but this he repeatedly and obstinately refused to do, and indeed the force was necessary for the maintenance of peace and order in his own territories. Again, he might have disbanded the hordes of foreign mercenaries, Arabs and Rohillas, which he kept up under the name of an army, and which were a burden upon his treasury, a terror to his subjects, and useless for all military purposes. But he was as obstinate upon this point as upon the other. At last, in 1843, he was told by Lord Ellenborough that unless the debt was liquidated and the necessary funds were provided regularly for the future, the British government would take over territory and revenue as security for the payment.

By the treaty of 1800 the Subsidiary Force was to consist of eight battalions of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and the usual proportion of artillery; and subsequently by the treaty of 1853 it was agreed that there should never be less than five regiments of infantry, with one of cavalry, and a due proportion of artillery stationed within the Nizam's territory, unless with the express consent of His Highness. By the treaty of 1860 the Hyderabad Contingent was not to consist of less than five thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and four field batteries of artillery.

It will be sufficient to remark that the Nizam was in subsidiary alliance with the British Government, and could neither undertake wars, nor carry on negociations, excepting by the permission or through the mediation of the British Government. The Government of India, however, abstained from any interference in the internal administration of the Nizam, who exercised sovereign powers within his own territory; but a British Resident was stationed at Hyderabad, who afforded such friendly counsel as occasion may require for the maintenance of a good understanding between His Highness's Government and the Government of India. A Subsidiary Force was maintained by the British Government at Secunderabad in the neighborhood of Hyderabad in accordance with the treaty of 1800. The Force, known as the Hyderabad Contingent, was also cantoned in different parts of the Dekhan, and maintained under the treaties of 1853 and 1860 by the revenues of the assigned districts known as the Berars.

The largest of the armies of the Native States was that of the Nizam of Hyderabad, also a foreigner in the country belonging to him. It was so heterogeneous a body that it is difficult to state its numbers, but that part of it which may with some reason be called an army consisted of about 45,000 men by 1860. Many of these were foreign mercenaries from remote parts of India, and from the Afghan highlands beyond the northern frontier, who took service under the Nizam and his chiefs; they engaged in faction fights and raids within his territory, and had shown themselves ready to join any discontented men who may be willing to pay them for raiding into British districts. A considerable part of the Nizam's army had been reorganised and improved. While they perform no useful service to the Nizam, it was necessary to watch and overawe them, and the necessity was imposed on the treasury of always keeping a large force of British and Native troops at Hyderabad.

By 1910 the district of Hyderabad - larger than the states of New York and Pennsylvania put together, and consisting of eleven and a half million inhabitants - was known as the "Nizam's Dominions," under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad, a Musselman who, except the Sultan of Turkey, was the most powerful Moslem ruler in the world. Educated in England, the Nizam, although oriental in many ways, had broad, advanced ideas, and was loved and honored by the strange conglomeration of peoples that made up his subjects.

Indian rulers such as the Nizam had only limited power in their kingdoms. Without the consent of the British Government they cannot declare war or peace nor enter into agreements with other states, although they retained a certain military force of their own. In the case of the Nizam's Dominions, however, no European but the British Resident may reside in the state without special permission of the Nizam; and there is no British interference in the government except in case of excessive misrule. Not only did the Nizam of Hyderabad issue his own coinage and stamps, but also collected customs at the boundaries of his territory.

At the time of Partition in 1947, the Seventh and the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, a Muslim ruler of a Hindu-majority populace, tried to maneuver to gain independence for his very large and populous state, which was, however, surrounded by India. After more than a year of fruitless negotiations, India sent its army in a police action in September 1948, and Hyderabad became part of India. India successfully annexed Hyderabad and Junagadh after "police actions" and promises of privileges to the rulers.

The princely ruler of Hyderabad, the nizam, had attempted unsuccessfully to maintain Hyderabad as an independent state separate from India in 1947. His efforts were simultaneous with the largest agrarian armed rebellion in modern Indian history. Starting in July 1946, communist-led guerrilla squads began overthrowing local feudal village regimes and organizing land reform in Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad, collectively known as Telangana (an ancient name for the region dating from the Vijayanagar period). In time, about 3,000 villages and some 41,000 square kilometers of territory were involved in the revolt. Faced with the refusal of the nizam of Hyderabad to accede his territory to India and the violence of the communist-led rebellion, the central government sent in the army in September 1948.

In Junagadh it was a simple brigade-level confidence-building measure and the state acceded to the Union. Hyderabad dallied for one year attempting to declare independence outside the Indian Union. A situation of extreme tension prevailed byn June 1948. Jawaharlal Nehru conceded, "It is impossible for an independent state to have foreign territory right in its heart." The nizam requested the president of the United States of America to intervene; the request was refused. In late August 1948, a Hyderabad State delegation presented its case to the United Nations Security Council.

The Indian Army marched into Hyderabad on September 13, 1948. The State army surrendered four days later. A short 100-hour engagement was forced on the Army (at that time heavily engaged in Kashmir). 1 Armoured Division, commanded by Major General IN Chaudhuri one of the few formations available, along with some infantry units attached to it, entered the state and settled matters with minimal force.

The nizam gave in. He first released K M Munshi, India's agent-general, from house arrest, then withdrew his case from the UN on September 23, 1948. On November 23, 1949, the nizam issued a firman (edict) accepting the Constitution of India, to be formed by the Constituent Assembly of India then in session, as the constitution of Hyderabad State.

Hyderabad had been forced to accede to the Indian union, and, by October 1951, the violent phase of the Telangana movement had been suppressed. The effect of the 1946-51 rebellion and communist electoral victories in 1952 had led to the destruction of Hyderabad and set the scene for the establishment of a new state along linguistic lines. In 1953, based on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission, Telugu-speaking areas were separated from the former Madras States to form Andhra, India's first state established along linguistic lines. The commission also contemplated establishing Telangana as a separate state, but instead Telangana was merged with Andhra to form the new state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956.