Vignettes From The Liberation Of Hyderabad, 1948

Indian army displayed an ‘in and out’ professionalism, later repeated in freeing Goa and Bangladesh

- Arjun Subramaniam

In mid-1948, impatient with the progress made by the Indian army in evicting the Pakistan army and the tribal Lashkars from Jammu & Kashmir, India’s home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pressed PM Nehru to authorise the use of force to compel the Nizam of Hyderabad to accede to the Union of India. Orchestrating the accession of J&K and Hyderabad, two of the largest princely states in colonial India, into the Union within a year of Independence was at the top of Patel’s nation-building priority list.

A pleasure-loving Nizam and his hardline Razakars: A weak ruler, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Sir Mir Osman Ali Khan Siddiqui Asaf Jah VII, had emerged as one of the world’s richest men – because of his ability to retain control over the rural population, extract huge taxes, exploit the fertile cotton and sugarcane belts of the region, and send the produce to Great Britain and Europe in return for unimaginable wealth.

Such control would not have been possible had it not been for the existence of hundreds of Arab and Pathan militia in the Nawab’s army – recruited in the early 20th century – not only to beef up the Nizam’s security forces but also to support the ulema (holy men) in forcible conversions and spreading the Islamic faith amongst a predominantly Hindu populace.