Table Of Content

2 ifm A $ o f m i ( T i'l 3 1 THE END OF AN ERA ¥** . 1 % < i | ■ ■, * • M f . I *.* \ .. ‘' b| ! ■ ■ C P »• (SL * \; ■ * /' * 1 \ BY THE SAME AUTHOR The author has written forty-seven books—social novels, historical plays and autobiographical works in Gujarati. The following are his works in English : 1. Gujarat and Its Literature. 2. I Follow The Mahatma. 3. Early Aryans in Gujarat. 4. Akhand Hindustan. 5. The Changing Shape of Indian Politics. 6. The Aryans of The West Coast. 7. The Imperial Gurjaras (History of Gujarat). 8. Bhagavad Gita—An Approach. 9. Bhagavad Gita and Modern Life. 10. The Ruin That Britain Wrought. 11. The Creative Art of Life. 12. Gandhi, The Master. 13. Linguistic Provinces and The Future of Bomray. * : 14. Somnath, The Shrine Eternal. 15. Sparks from The Anvil (A Collection oi Pen Portraits). 16. Our Greatest Need and Other Addresses. 17. Janu’s Death and Other Kulapati’s Letters : Volume 1. 18. City of Paradise and Other Kulapati's Letters : Volume 11 19. Won Boy and Other Kulapati's Letters . Volume III. V 20. To Badrina tii. 21. Saga oi Indian .Sculpture. 111 *SL A ^ ,rTrN ^ V ----------------------- «---------------------------- - Is • ' '•' - . ,.K ■ iVEOkBmmiks>, / \ & j£ . ......v * * w ^O jr ’•. vHeWMjMy.if.i'f-jCr y . aQuunBir * ''vlilnKHMH^-«^<>\ " ':jm^ ^ S uS B r Jr ii^V, .'<** ' wlit • i U M :»#^ ,:' 'lyiii i j i^ ; -f • -■ ^ Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel [Photo by Margaret Bourke-White — Courtesy : TIME Inc] HI- • 4 * • \ . • 1 n r END OF AN ERA HYDERABAD MEMORIES . A / \ / '.'?M / \ 1 / r *k I \ > 14 / j ' vi js! #i 1 l s l > // | x -----------^ • 1 K. M. MUNSHI BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN i BOMBAY 10 5 7 JL± ■' i ■ < • " * }* h |l|' <SL All Rights Reserved •018841 CA a„ > l / S ^7 V o & f l j' 1 vy\^.. - — F/m Edition”. November 1957 - | & - M o ? )'2* ft Ua. ^ « v » - ft Price Ks. 17*50 > 11 * X • f* J / - ' V ® * * » ** , PRINTED BY P. H. RAMAN Ar 1HI ASSOCIATED ADVERTISERS * PRINTER- VS ARTHLR ROAD, TAROEO, BOMBAY-7, AND PUBLISHED BY S. RAM A KRISHNA N REGISTRAR, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN, I HAUPATTI ROAD, BOMBAY-7. I r s s 'SL i V, • > , CONTENTS t Chapter ** age Pr e f a c e ........................................................................IX ' Introduction - - - - - XI -I My Arrival In Hyderabad 1 II His Exalted Highness - - - - 11 III Towards A Muslim State - - - 19 IV Bid For Independence 30 V The Rise Of Kasim Razvi - • - - - 36 VI Sardar's Chess Board 42 VII The Ceihatari Delegation - - - 51 VIII Razvi Wins - - - - - 57 IX The Laik Ali Ministry - - - \ - 67 X The Situation As I Found It - - * 73 XI Negotiation : First Stage XII The Communists On The Move - - - 86 XIII Breaking The Ring Fence - - . 93 • XIV The Great Martyrdom - - - - 103 XV Tempo Of The Razakars - - - - 110 XVI My Life At Bolarum - - - > 1 1 6 XVII Persona Non-Grata - - - - 121 XVIll Between The Devil- — - - - - 127 ' X IX ------And The Deep Sea - f JL., j i , I , <SL vi THE END OF AN ERA Chapter Page XX The Mystery Speech Of Razvi - - - 139 XXI Monckton’s Formula And Its Fate - - 146 XXII Panditji Speaks - - - - - 151 XXIII Campbell-Johnson Pays A Visit - - 157 XXIV More Concessions - - - - 165 XXV Lord Mounibatten Leaves India - - 173 XXVI Demoralisation - - - - - 181 XXVII Crisis In The King Kothi - - 188 XXVIII Demoralisation In Our Camp - - - 195 XXIX As The Net Closes - - - 203 XXX The Sten-Gun Incident - - - - 217 XXXI The Co l l a p s e ..........................................................225 XXXII How The Country Took It 235 XXXIII The End Of The Adventure - - - 243 XXXIV Strange Casualties - - - 247 XXXV Epilogue—The End Oi An Era - - - 254 Appendices - - - - - - 263 Index - - - - - - 283 i ! l ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece Sardar Vallabhbkai Patel Between pages 32 and 33 1. Lord Mountbatten 2. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Between pages 64 and 65 3. The Nizam I 4. Mir Laik Ait Between pages 96 and 97 5. The Author’s Arrival At Hakimpeth Airport on January 5, 1948 6. The Author and His Staff in The Lawns of Dakshina Sadan 7. Flag Salutation At Bolarum Residency 8. The Author Speaking at The Citizens Reception In His Honour At Secunderabad Race Course, Swami Ramananda Tirtha Presiding Between pages 160 and 161 9. Nawab Moin Nawaz Jung, The Author and Mir Laik Ali At a Garden Party 10. Sri N. T. Raju, Sri Pingle Venkatrama Reddl Mir Laik All The Author, Nawab Moin Nawaz Jung. Nawab Ali Yavar Jung, Nawab Dein Yah Jung and Sri J. V. Josiu 11. Kasim Razvi Between pages 245 and 246 12. Major-Gf.nerai Chaudhury, The Author and Swami Ramananda Tirtha 13. The Author Being Carried From The Aeroplane on a Stretcher At Santa Crlv Airport On September 22. 1948 ; ( P R E F A C E T HIS work deals with my experiences between January 5 and September 21, 1948, when I was the Agent-General of the Government of India in Hyderabad. I am in the habit of preserving correspondence, papers, notes and what I call ‘diary note’, that is, irregularly and hastily recorded impressions of talks, incidents and reflections on events as they occur. I felt that this material, together with further impressions of the events which have been left on my mind, deserves to be put into shape. Almost all impor tant documents and reports of the happenings relating to the negotiations with the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1947-48 and the Police Action, which followed in September 1948, have been published from time to time. The Government of India and the Nizam’s Government published White Papers in 1948. In addi tion, documents, press notes, speeches and interviews connect ed with most of the incidents appeared in the press at the time. Several notable persons connected with the affair have since recorded their impressions in works already published. Sri V. P. Menon, in his recently published book The Story of the Integration of the Indian States, has drawn largely upon sources, some of which I have also used. I have thus been able to recall my own experiences with some degree of vividness. "In places the narrative may appear egotistic. If so, I beg to be excused. 1 can define the reasons for this in no better language than that used by Somerset Maugham in The Partial View: 1 must write as though 1 were a person of importance, and indeed I am—to myself. To myself ,1 am the most important person in the world; though I do not forget that, not even taking into consideration so grand a conception as the Absolute, but from the standpoint of commonsense. I am of no consequence whatever. It would have made small difference to the universe if I had never existed. Though I may seem to write as though significance mubt necessarily be attached to certain of my works, I mean only that they are of moment to me for the purpose of any discussion during which 1 may have occasion to mention I them. In recreating the incidents of this tumultuous year. 1 had sometimes to rely upon oral reports which were not'rtjro^Ud ® i < l THE END OF AvI'ERA until a few days afterwards. It is possible, therefore, that these reports were not entirely accurate, although mjst of them had been verified at the time in so far as it was possible to do so. But, if in relying upon them I have done injustice to any of the persons mentioned, I beg to be forgiven; i have referred to them only when it has been necessary to recall my personal impressions and the way I reacted to them. Mission with Mountbatten by Mr. Campbell-Johnson pre sents the picture as seen by the staff of Lord Mountbatten. The Story of the Integration of the Indian States by Sri V. P. Menon closely follows the records of the States Ministry, which up to June 1948 meant the policy which Lord Mount- batten pursued towards Hyderabad. The scope of this work is however different. It tries to pre sent a connected account of what exactly happened in Tj Jera- bad during that fateful year which followed Indian Ino pen- dence. This narrative of events, I hope, will give the other side of the picture, the picture of what the people of Hyderabad were passing through; of how Sardar Patel viewed and.: dealt with the situation; of how the actions of the Government of India became an imperative necessity. This narrative^ seen and recorded by one on the spot, might also be source material for the future. I am indebted to a number of friends who have been good enough to look through the portions of the book relating to them to see that, in so far as their impressions went, my narra tive is accurate. Other friends have gone through this book and made valuable suggestions; I am deeply grateful to them. India was a ‘Dominion’ up to January 26, 1950; only thereafter it became the ‘Union’. But throughout this book I have used the word ‘Union’ for ‘Dominion’ as this was the term commonly used in correspondence and in my discus sions with those representing the Hyderabad Governmer }, d Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, MTTMQm Bombay : MUNSHI November 4, 1957. 'Ln ( \ | Cl # •* i