Lost Glory

The Nizams were India’s wealthiest royal family. Not any more

- Lalita Iyer

No one really knows where all the wealth has gone. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad (1911-1967), was considered the richest man in the world with a fortune of $2 billion. The Time magazine put him on the cover of its February 22, 1937 issue. For long his family wanted to know where all the money had gone. Now they are fighting for what is left. “The fight is between two grandsons of the Nizam, Prince Mukarram Jah, the crown heir, and his brother Prince Muffakham and the rest of the family,” said Nawab Najaf Ali Khan, one of the grandsons of Mir Osman Ali Khan. He is also the president of the Nizam Family Welfare Association. The family has nominated him to take care of the legal aspects of the dispute.

“I look after the untouched issues, which are pending in the form of assets and money,” he said. “I have been given absolute mandate from the 120 or so whom I am representing in the UK High Court, claiming the Nizam's money, which has been deposited with North Westminster Bank, now called Royal Bank of Scotland. This wealth is also being claimed by the two grandsons and the governments of Pakistan and India.”

Moin Nawaz Jung, who was Mir Osman Ali Khan's finance minister, transferred one million pounds to North Westminster Bank a day before Operation Polo, the military action that annexed Hyderabad to the Indian Union in September 1948. Currently the amount has grown to 36 million pounds. “It has been in litigation since 1956,” said Nawab Najaf.