The Last Nizam and His People: Profiles and Sketches from Hyderabad

117 Pages·2022·3.261 MB·English

by  Narendra Chapalgaonkar

THE LAST NIZAM AND HIS PEOPLE
As a Princely State, Hyderabad was the largest in population among over
560 tributary states under British paramountcy in colonial India. This book
is a collection of profiles and sketches of some of the most important and
influential people from the erstwhile Hyderabad State during the first half of
the 20th century, which marked the last decades of its existence as a distinct
entity under the British Raj. It features profiles of Mir Osman Ali Khan,
the Seventh Nizam; Mir Laik Ali, the last Prime Minister of Hyderabad;
Kasim Razvi; some of the Nizam’s administrators and diplomats; as well as
Sir Walter Monckton, the Nizam’s British Constitutional Advisor; amongst
others. Unfolding the pages of history, the text gives an insight into the
administration and affairs of Hyderabad during this time, through an
examination of the lives of the people closely associated with it.
A unique contribution to the literature on modern Indian and colonial
history, this book will be indispensable for students and researchers of
history, modern Indian history, colonialism, imperial history, biography,
and South Asia studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in
the history of Hyderabad.
Narendra Chapalgaonkar, born in Beed, Maharashtra, India, in 1938,
received his school education at Beed, and college and university education
at Amaravati and Aurangabad. He taught at colleges in Latur and
Aurangabad for a few years before joining the Bar. He practised at Beed,
Aurangabad and Mumbai for over twenty-seven years. He was elevated as a
judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1990 and retired in April 1999.
He has written a number of books in Marathi, including a comprehensive
biography of Swami Ramananda Teertha, one of the foremost leaders of the
Hyderabad liberation struggle; a critical review of the Indian Constitution
and its working during its first fifty years; and an account of the Hyderabad
liberation struggle. He has, over the years, been associated with various
educational, cultural and literary institutions and organisations in various
capacities. He has also been Ford Professor in Public Law at the ILS Law
College, Pune, as well as Professor Emeritus in the Social Sciences at the
Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik.
Sharadchandra Panse, born in Pune in 1955, graduated in Political Science
from Fergusson College, Pune, India, and went on to study Law. He joined
the State Bank of India (SBI) as a Probationary Officer in 1979. After
serving in SBI for more than 22 years, he voluntarily retired in 2001 and
has been a freelance translator and editor since. He can translate from and
into Marathi, English and Hindi. He has completed four Marathi–English
translation projects. He has edited the typescripts of five books and has also
done other miscellaneous editing, as well as some occasional translations.
THE LAST NIZAM AND
HIS PEOPLE
Profiles and Sketches from Hyderabad
Narendra Chapalgaonkar
Translated by Sharadchandra Panse
First published in English 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Narendra Chapalgaonkar
The right of Narendra Chapalgaonkar to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Translated by Sharadchandra Panse
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Published in Marathi by Mouj Prakashan Griha 2013
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-48234-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-55399-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09333-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003093336
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
TO THE MEMORY OF
SAMI RAMANAND TIRTH
WHO LED THE PEOPLE OF HYDERABAD
IN THEIR FREEDOM MOVEMENT

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
1 Sunset on Asafjahi 8
2 Maharaja Kishan Prashad 17
3 Shamraj Bahadur Rayrayan 25
4 Justice Keshavrao Koratkar 31
5 Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung 38
6 Nawab Ali Yavar Jung 44
7 Kasim Razvi 51
8 Mir Laik Ali 62
9 Fareed Mirza 72
10 Sir Walter Monckton 78
11 Memories of a Bygone Culture 91
Select Bibliography 103
vii

PREFACE
My interest in the history of Hyderabad originated in my family back-
ground. I was born in a small town, also a district headquarters, having only
one high school, teaching all subjects in Urdu. My mother tongue Marathi
had no proper place in the school curriculum. I had to sing every morning
prayers wishing continuance of Nizam’s rule forever, and my father was
undergoing prison sentence or detention for agitating against the despotic
and feudal rule of Nizam.
About a year after Indian Independence, the atmosphere of fear ended
and the feeling that freedom has reached here changed our family life also.
My father and his colleagues were released from jail, and my school started
teaching us in Marathi, the mother tongue of most of the boys. The change
was teaching me the meaning of Independence. What was happening around
me made a deep impact on my mind. Years after it, when I began writing
profiles, people who had played a notable part in the history of the last days
of Nizam’s rule, were also in the proposed list.
I had written a biography of Swami Ramanand Tirth, who had led the
movement for democratic rule in Hyderabad and its accession to independ-
ent India. I had consulted relevant material from National Archives in Delhi
and Andhra Pradesh Archives in Hyderabad and many other sources. The
last Prime Minister of Hyderabad, Mir Laik Ali, has written an autobiog-
raphy Tragedy of Hyderabad giving some details, which were not available
elsewhere. Some Urdu books also are published, some of them defending
Nizam rule and his encouragement to communal organisations.
Commemorative volumes in honour of Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung and
Nawab Ali Yavar Jung are also available. Memoirs of Swami Ramanand
Tirth are also an authentic source. The Days of the Beloved, a biography of
Sixth Nizam written by Harriet Luton and Mohini Rajan, and some books
written by historians Narendra Luther and Rajendra Prasad are informative
and interesting. Anant Bhalerao, freedom fighter and editor of Marathwada,
a newspaper, has written an elaborate history of the freedom struggle in
ix