Visvesvaraya- the Hyderabad Connection

Visvesvaraya- the Hyderabad Connection
By Narendra Luther

Mokshagundam Visvesaraya was one of those rare persons who dazzle the world by their versatility, vision and integrity. From the Sindh river (now in Pakistan) in the west to the Mahanadi river in the east; from the Ganga in the north to the Kaveri in the south he tapped many a river to quench human thirst, to irrigate parched tracts of land, and to supply energy to homes and to industries. From Aden to Hyderabad, he left the imprint of his giant strides in urban planning and renewal.

Born in 1962 to a Telugu family settled in Mysore, he lost his father at an early age and was brought up by an uncle. A topper in the University, he joined as an engineer in the Bombay Presidency. His technical knowledge, innovativeness, dedication and integrity were recognized and he earned out-of-turn promotions even over Europeans. However, realizing that he wouldn’t become chief engineer – a post reserved for the British -- he resigned two years before he was due to retire and proceeded to Europe for a tour.

The Musi Flood of 1908:

Meanwhile Hyderabad had its worst flood in history in 1908.
It occurred on Monday, the 28th September and was caused by a cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal. A cloud-burst developed at mid-night over an extensive area. Rain descended in sheets flooding small tanks and overburdening their weirs. Resultantly, 221 of the 788 tanks in the catchment area breached. In one day the rainfall recorded was 32.5 centimeters, which was more than double the maximum ever recorded earlier.

The flood rose about 16 feet in less than three-and-a-half hours. All the four bridges were over-topped and their parapet walls were carried away. The approaches to the oldest bridge, the Purana Pul were damaged but the bridge itself did not suffer any damage. The newest, that is, the Afzal Bridge suffered most.

More than two-and-a-half square kilometers of thickly populated area were devastated on the north bank and about half of that on the south bank. Nearly, 19,000 houses collapsed and about 80,000 people, roughly one quarter of the entire population of the city, were left homeless. About 15,000 lives were lost and property worth 3 crore rupees was destroyed.

The Nizam’s Gesture

An interesting sidelight of the tragedy was that the sixth Nizam, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan willingly performed the arti of goddess Bhawani to placate her since she was believed to have caused the flood. He also threw open his palaces to the victims and official feeding was organized for them.

Against the British move to send an English expert, it was decided to seek Visvesvarya’s advice on measures to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. A cable was sent to him in Italy to return to India.

He came on two conditions -- that he would be paid the same salary as an Englishman, and that he would be given full freedom to employ anyone he liked. Those conceded, he got down to the job with his customary thoroughness. He collected the data of rainfall in the neighbouring Bombay and Madras provinces and studied the figures of heavy rainfall in different parts of the world.

Visvesvaraya stayed in Hyderabad only seven months – one of the briefest stays anywhere.

Osman Sagar & Himayat Sagar

He submitted his report on 1st October 1909. In it he recommended permanent flood prevention works which included the bunding of the river. He also suggested the establishment of a City Improvement Board and recommended an allocation of 2 million rupees per year for the next six years for flood prevention and city improvement works. It was the first time since the founding of the city in 1591 that any scheme of urban renewal was undertaken. Most of the city walls were damaged in the floods were not reconstructed. Hyderabad, therefore, ceased to be a walled city and emerged into the open. The area between the Char Minar and the Musi was reconstructed. A wide bazar was planned and one can see the contrast, which the Pathargatti Bazar offers to the narrow 16th-century Lad Bazar standing perpendicular to it. A City Improvement Board was established in 1912 and that inaugurated the era of modern town planning.

From Hyderabad, Visvesvaraya went to Mysore where he was appointed chief engineer. After three years as chief engineer, he became the Dewan of Mysore and served the State in that capacity for six years – till 1918.

Reforms in Mysore

As Dewan he inaugurated an era of reforms and all-round development in Mysore. He established the Mysore University, the first in any Indian state, and the Mysore State Bank. He constructed the Krishnaraja Sagar dam -- then biggest in India. He initiated the scheme of free and compulsory primary education in 68 centres with the aim of doubling the number in five years. He advocated the concept of five-year planning with the objective of doubling the national income every decade. For India to progress, he suggested reduced dependence on agriculture and advocated industrialization of the country. To that end he prepared a scheme for the establishment of an automobile factory. The British thwarted this proposal. He protested. The aircraft industry in Bangalore owes its existence to his proposal. He organized the first Economic Conference in 1911, which became an annual feature thereafter. His crusade for development suffered a setback when he had to resign in 1918 due to differences with the Maharaja.

However, that did not end his career; on the other hand, it only expanded it. Now the whole country began to call upon his services from time to time. And he responded – without any fees or honorarium.

Visvesvarayya and Gandhi:

He differed with Mahatma Gandhi on the question of industrialization. He also advised the Mahatma to wear a better dress than his langoti. That led Rajaji to quip that tVisveswarayya’s clothes were so well ironed that one couldn’t say whether they were ironed before or after he got into them!

‘A Rough Guide to Wants’:

In 1930 submitted a comprehensive city development plan for Hyderabad. It covered an area of about 2/3rd of the present area of the Municipal Corporation. Unfamiliar with the latter-day jargon of town planners, he called it ‘ a rough guide to the wants that should be provided for’.

That report ushered in an era of comprehensive urban planning for the city. His ‘rough guide’ can be considered a precursor of the Master Plan of Hyderabad promulgated in 1975. It is interesting to note that most of the features of the statutory Master Plan and some of the schemes of the Mega City were forestalled by Visvesvaraya more than 60 years ago -- including ring roads, zoning plans and even the circular railway and the ‘necklace road’ around Hussain Sagar, though he did not used that term.

Salar Jung I modernized the administration of Hyderabad in the 19th Century. He was, however, not allowed even to blacktop the roads inside the walled city because of Nizam’s fear that it would facilitate the entry of the British into the city. It therefore fell to Visvesvaraya’s lot to herald the era of urban planning at the beginning of the 20th Century. Any one interested in the problems of the city can not but marvel at the insights and the farsight that he brought to bear upon his proposals to improve the prevailing urban situation. His signal contributions in various fields serve to underline the point that one doesn’t have to be an ‘expert’ to devise solutions to human problems.

India’s highest civilian honour, ‘Bharat Ratna’ was conferred upon him in 1955. It is one of the few instances in which the honour was fully deserved.

Loaded with honours, Visvsvesaraya lived to cross the Vedic span of 100 years. He died in 1962 at the age of 102. Very few people can boast of so much achievement and more fulfilled life.

Freedom from the cycle of birth and death is the ultimate aim of every Hindu. Once when Visvesavaya was asked if he would like to be reborn, he replied: “Yes, with pleasure”.

The pleasure would indeed be of the country and the community in which he is reborn. For, according, to the theory of rebirth, he would start from the level at which he left off in his previous birth.

It is not given to us to know when and where he would take his new birth. It doesn’t seem to have happened so far. Not in India at least!

***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

A Living Legend

Legends and anecdotes of Hyderabad-52

A Living Legend
By Narendra Luther

Raj Bahadur Gour belongs to a Kayasth family which had settled here some generations ago. Born in 1918, he was a very bright student who always stood first and earned scholarships in every class. Out of his scholarship money he started a reading room and a library in 1934. In 1939, he joined the Communist Party wen it was established in Hyderabad. The next year he became a member of the Comrades' Association. In 1941, when he was studying medicine, he was elected vice-president of the students' union and editor of his college magazine.

Medicine to politics

In October 1946, Raj Bahadur Gour participated in the Anti-Repression Day. Resultantly, along with many of his colleagues, he was arrested on November, 15, 1946.

Restless and impatient, he could not submit to the confines of the prison. A conspiracy was hatched. He and Jawad Razvi started complaining of recurrent fever. They were examined by Dr. Bankat Chander, who found apparently nothing wrong with them. However, he suggested that their teeth might be checked. Dr. Morris, the dentist at the Osmania Hospital, was asked to treat them. He said the equipment could not be brought to the jail and that the patient would have to be sent to the hospital. The dental clinic was on the ground floor and it opened onto the Begum Bazar from the back. They were taken to the clinic on 7th May, 1947.

That was the day Jaya Prakash Narayan was visiting Hyderabad and so most of the police were busy in that connection. A number of comrades in disguise stood in a queue as patients outside the clinic. When the escorting policemen tried to accompany the two detainees inside the clinic, those standing in the queue objected to their breaking the line. They also said the patients could go in but not the police men. The two patients were sent alone inside, and after the treatment, they escaped through the back door to Begum Bazar. There a car stood waiting for them. From there they were driven to Asif Nagar where the car was changed. There the two separated. From that day Raj remained underground for four years.

Escape and arrest

On 24 April, 1951 while drinking water from a pond in a jungle at Devarkonda, Raj was captured and he spent the next thirteen months in jail. During that period he was subjected to torture and was placed in the condemned prisoner's cell. For some times he was in the company of some of the officers who had been detained in the Central Jail after the Police Action. Raj, with some of them who were literary-minded, set up a 'Shaw's Corner' in the jail. There they used to discuss literary topics.

Raj was also one of those who were in favour of the withdrawal of the armed struggle after the Police Action, but once the Party decided otherwise, he scrupulously followed the line.

It was during the Telangana Armed Struggle that he met and married Brij Rani who was also a bold Party worker.

His house

A slum had developed in Chikkadpalli near the big drain. The authorities planned to evict the squatters when Brij Rani stepped in and stopped it. The grateful people offered one of the huts to Brij Rani and Raj, and that is how they got a roof over their head. In 1982, their daughter , Tamara, who is a Russia-trained physician, built a small pucca house there. Raj called it "Chambeli Ka Mandwa" after the famous poem of his friend and colleague, Makhdoom Mohiuddin. Once when communal riots broke out, Raj jumped between the two factions and said they could cross that point only over his dead body. Since then no incident has taken place there.
Trade unionism and literature are his two loves and when he is not settling labour disputes, he is either reading or writing. Since 1970, he has been vice-president of All India Trade Union Congress. Alongside, he has written three books of literacy criticism in Urdu. Raj rose to be a member of the Politbureau of the Party and was a member of the Rajya Sabha for a decade. But he remains rooted to his original slum and his people. Like Makhdoom, he has lead a very clean political life. He has no love for money.

Member of Parliament

When he was a member of Parliament, a visitor had come to offer him some money. At that point , Tamara, a child of eight, came asking for some money. Raj said he did not have any and asked her brusquely to go away. The visitor felt that there was an opening and gave her a rupee. "That was the only time that he ever slapped me " recollects Tamara. She adds that financially the family was in bad shape, but she did not miss money because 'Makhdoom uncle' always brought her whatever she needed. And she seldom needed anything costlier than a copy book or indulged in a greater a luxury than an ice-cream.

Raj got the Bahadur Shah Zafar Award in 1991 for his outstanding service to the cause of Urdu. He found that it carried a cash award of Rs. 25, 000 with it. Perplexed, he asked Tamara what he'd do with so much money!

She discreetly suggested that he could discharge some of his debts. That reminded him that he owned her some amount -- a loan which he had not been able to repay. There were other creditors too. He discharged all his debts and was still left with about Rs. 10, 000. That amount went to the Makhdoom Trust.

Makhdoom, ten years his senior, was his mentor and his bosom friend. They drank and sang and agitated together. There is not an occasion when Raj does not remember him till today. Like him he also loves to tease people and to dominate the company. He has a quick wit. He is blunt his words do not leave any bitterness even after he has said the harshest thing. He immediately cancels the hurt with a charming remark.

Raj looks back at his life and says, " How strange and stupid we were in so many situations." But that does not mean he has any regrets. He believes that the Telangana Armed Struggle was the confluence of three streams: economics, politics and cultural; and it was inevitable in those circumstance for it to come about and for young men and women to join it. He is still involved in his mission - of ameliorating the conditions of the working class. That struggle will never end for him.

He is now the Vice Chairman of the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language established by the Government of India. He travels extensively for various causes still dear to his heart

***

Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

Two Courageous Journalists

Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad-48

Two Courageous Journalists
By Narendra Luther

We have talked about a cross-section of Muslims who had the courage to oppose the razakars in the Hyderabad of 1940’s. Mention must be made of two prominent journalists who voiced their opposition boldly.

Qazi Abdul Gaffar

One of them was Qazi Muhammad Abdul Gaffar. He was born in a well-to-do family of Muradabad in UP in 1889. His ancestors were qazis under the Mughals. In 1857, for giving refuge to a Mughal prince his grand father was executed and his property was confiscated. Later, he was exonerated posthumously and the property was restored to the family.
Abdul Gaffar’s father was in the good books of the British and was awarded the title of Khan Bahadur. However, Abdul Gaffar did not like the British. After his studies, he took a job but fell out with his British superior and left it. Thereafter he took up import and export work but lost money in it. He then turned to journalism. In 1931 he came to Hyderabad and started an Urdu daily Payam. It was a progressive paper and was opposed both to the prevalent feudal system and the communalism of the Ittehad Party. Because of that he earned the enmity of the reactionary and communal elements in the State. But he remained steadfast in his views.
When Sir Mirza Ismail became the Prime Minister of Hyderabad in 1947, Qazi Abdul Gaffar was appointed Director of Information. But after the exit o Sir Mirza, he lost that job.

Warning to [Nizam]

He left Hyderabad in 1947. At the time of his departure, he wrote a letter to the Nizam running into in to twenty-one foolscap pages. In that he warned the Nizam against what he called the ‘dictatorship of the political charlatans’ who, under the guise of protecting the rights of their co-religionists were in fact trying to establish a Fascist domination over the Nizam. They were exploiting the Nizam as a pawn in their game of power politics. He said that his corrupt bureaucracy, was aligned with communal elements. Everything happening had the alleged backing and support of the Nizam. He recalled that he had pleaded with him for a fair and just government, but in vain. If the Nizam favoured one community, the Qazi warned, it would lead to civil war. Nothing less than responsible government could save the Nizam’s position .His refusal to do so would ‘mean utter disregard of public welfare’.

Referring to the fire-eating leader of the razakars, Kasim Razvi, he charged that his ‘constant provocation drenched in angry threats and dripping with humiliating ridicule and contempt has served as nothing else could have done to rouse the complaisant Hindu...The Hindu majority of the State has been goaded into action by constant pinpricks and reckless shouting of the Majlis leaders, who encouraged by Your Exalted Highness’s support and much advertised patronage and the deplorable inactivity of the Government, have gone too far to recede.’ He deplored the treatment meted out successively to Sir Akbar Hydari, the Nawab of Chhattari, and Sir Mirza Ismail. He prophesied ‘that the final outcome of the negotiations is not going to be much different from what Sir Mirza envisages.’
He concluded his forceful and brilliant analysis by advising the Nizam to adopt ‘the self-evident maxim that no ruler can rule without the support of the public opinion representing the majority of his subjects’.

It is easy to guess what would have happened to the author of such a letter if he were still in Hyderabad. But by the time the letter was delivered to the Nizam the redoubtable journalist was out of his reach. The Nizam fretted and fumed, but paid no heed to the contents of the letter. The consequence of that is now a part of history.

Shoebullah Khan

Amongst the journalists who did honour to their calling, and even went to the extent of laying down in his life for the cause that he espoused, was a young handsome journalist.
Shoebullah Khan, born in Hyderabad in 1920, was a fierce opponent of communal fanaticism. He had worked successively in the Urdu Taj weekly and the Rayyat daily, both of which were banned for championing the cause of responsible government in Hyderabad. He then started a daily, the Imroz through which he exposed the atrocities of the razakars and the police. Through his bold writings, he maintained the tempo of popular struggle against the government. He thus earned the ire of the Ittehad Party and the Razakars. In a speech on 19 August 1948 Kasim Razvi warned that any hand raised against the honour of Muslims would be cut off. Defying that threat, on 21 August 1948, Shoeb wrote an editorial criticizing the stand of the Ittehad and advocating the accession of the State with India. That night, when he and his brother-in-law, Isamil Khan were going home after work, some razakars accosted them. While two men engaged Shoebullah in conversation, another shot Shoebullah from behind with a revolver. Ismail was attacked with swords. Shoeb fell on the ground. Then, as if in fulfillment of Razvi’s threat, Shoebullah’s right hand was cut off.
That was the last great offering made in the struggle for the accession of Hyderabad to India. Less than a month later, Hyderabad became a part of India.
Till recently, his death anniversary was observed as the Martyr’s Day. But now he is forgotten.

Gaffar’s Frustration

Gaffar returned to Hyderabad after the Police Action. He then saw that the erstwhile underdogs had become got the upper hand. Some of them turned upon not only the earlier perpetrators of excesses but also on some innocent members of the minority community. They now sought protection. Some fled to safer places, and some migrated to Pakistan. Qazi Abdul Gaffar and Pandit Sunder Lal toured the State and conducted an inquiry into the alleged excesses committed against the minority community. Their report was submitted to the Government of India.

Qazi Abdul Gaffar expired in 1956 at Aligarh. None of his male offspring survived. Of his two daughters, one Fatima and her husband Alam Ali Khan, in their seventies, stay in Banjara Hills. Their three children are in Canada.
It is a different world today.

***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

The Tables Turned

Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad-50

The Tables Turned
By Narendra Luther

B.P.R. Vithal, an I.A.S officer who retired as principal secretary of the Finance Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and then served as a member of the 10th Finance Commission was, at the time of Police Action, a young man of 21, studying at Madras (now Chennai).

Arbitrary Removal

His father, Ram Narsu was an assistant professor in the Nizam College. He was an outspoken non-conformist and did not hesitate to utilize his lecture on British history to underline the justification of the aspiration for freedom amongst Indians. The principal, an Englishman called Turner, did not like him and terminated his service one day on the plea that post had ceased to exist.

Narsu’s wife was a good veena player and that had brought her close to Laila, wife of Hasan Latif, a chief engineer in the Hyderabad State. He was and father of Air Chief Marshall I.H. Latif, who became the Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force, and later served as governor of Maharashtra, and ambassador to France. She was the niece of Sir Akbar Hydari and, on the death of her father, had been brought up by him. She sought Sir Akbar’s intercession in the case of the termination of Narsu’s services. Seeing the injustice and arbitrariness on the part of the principal, Sir Akbar ordered Narsu’s immediate reinstatement.
Father or son

Vithal, meanwhile, had finished his schooling at the Aliya, and joined the Nizam College. A keen, sensitive student, Vithal became interested in politics and took part in the ‘Quit India’ Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942. He also used to wear khadi. The new principal of the college, Khader Hussain Khan did not approve of his conduct. His warning to Vithal having failed, he called Narsu and told him about his son’s ‘undesirable’ activities. He then gave him an ultimatum: ”One of you will have to leave the college -- you or your son.”

The father mentioned this to the son. Vithal said that the father needed to stay in Hyderabad to provide for the family. Therefore, he would go away. He then went and joined the Christian College at Madras. He found comparatively greater freedom to indulge in his innocent politics in the then British Indian Presidency of Madras.

Like some sensitive young people, Vithal started maintaining a private journal in which he recorded what seemed to be important incidents to him and his observation on various matters.

Safe-keeping

In Hyderabad and around, tension had started mounting in 1948. Razakars began to pose a threat to citizens who did not share their ideology of establishing an independent Islamic state in Hyderabad. Ram Narsu, anticipating the danger ahead, called a student of his, Makhdoom Ali Khan. He was an active member of the Razakar Party – the Majlis–e-Ittehad-ul-Mussalmeem. At that time he was its treasurer. Narsu asked him whether he would keep his jewelry and valuable in safe custody, just in case...

Makhdoom readily agreed. Narsu then gave him a packet.

“Don’t worry, Sir", replied Makhdoom respectfully, as he took the packet, "Insha Allah, everything will be alright."

From the newspapers in Madras in September 1948, Vithal gathered that something serious was in the offing. He therefore decided to pay a visit to his parents. He took the train from Madras on 11 September and found that train services from Vijayawada to Secunderabad had been cancelled. The train was diverted via Wadi. On the early morning of the 12th, three Razakars with third class tickets got into Vithal’s second class compartment at Wadi. No one objected. Vithal heard them say that Jinnah had died that day. Vithal reached home on the evening of the 12th to the mild surprise of his family.

The Police Action

The Indian forces moved into the State early next morning. Vithal was lucky. Now he wondered what would happen and how long he would be stuck in Hyderabad.
On the 17th when the Nizam read his surrender speech over the radio, Vithal noted in his journal that he tried to sound innocent as if he had been misled. ‘The Nizam is the villain of the piece, though Seshu (his cousin whom he later married) and Indu don’t agree.’

The next day Vithal went to the telegraph office to send a telegram to his relatives in Vijayawada to inform them that the family was safe. As he stood in a queue, a Muslim youth walked in nonchalantly to the head of the line. Vithal told him that there was a queue and that he should not break it. The young man quietly withdrew and stood behind Vithal. That night Vithal recorded the incident in his journal and added a comment: ‘Can you imagine my doing such a thing a few days ago!’

Return of the Trust

The same afternoon Makhdoom Ali Khan came to Ram Narsu. He returned the packet of jewellry, which had been in his safekeeping to his teacher. Then, rather sheepishly he handed Ram Narsu another packet.
“What is this?” the teacher asked in wonder.

“Sir, now it is my turn to request you to keep our jewellry in safe custody with you. If you don’t mind...”.

The gentle teacher’s voice choked as he accepted the packet and absorbed the implications of changed circumstances. He patted the young man reassuringly and said, ‘Don’t worry. With God’s grace things will be alright.’
In due course, the packet was returned to the owner in tact.

***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

Rival of the Seventh Nizam

Legend and anecdotes of Hyderabad - 49


Rival of the Seventh Nizam
By Narendra Luther

If the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan had not died at the comparatively young age of 43 in 1911, the history of Hyderabad would have been entirely different. Instead of Mir Osman Ali Khan, probably his half-brother, Mir Ahmed Mohiuddin, later known as Salabat Jah would have become the seventh Nizam.

The Ninth Son

The prince was born in 907 to Ujjala Begum, the favourite wife of the sixth Nizam. He had eight sons before Mohiuddin, but all of them except Mir Osman Ali Khan had died in their infancy. Mohiudddin also had a sister, Ahmedunissa Begum who was four years junior to him.

Mir Osman Ali Khan was born in 1886 and thus was 21 years older than his half-brother. It was widely held that Mir Osman Ali Khan was not the son of the sixth Nizam. since his mother was already carrying when the sixth Nizam took her into his harem. So when a son was born to the Begum, it was expected that he would be made the heir- apparent. Ujjala Begum demanded that from her husband. He put her off saying where was the hurry. She kept up her demand and one day was so insistent the decision be made without delay that the harassed husband stomped out of the Purani Haveli and drove off to the Falak Numa Palace. There he went into a drinking binge for three days. That resulted in a coma from which he never recovered. His death the age of 43 sealed the issue and the infant prince lost whatever chance he had of inheriting the gaddi.

Controversy about succession

Many nobles of the State also believed that Salabat Jah and not Mir Osman Ali Khan was entitled to succeed Nizam VI. On the latter’s death in 1911, a plea was made to the Viceroy that Salabat Jah was the rightful heir. Some signatures of nobles, including that of Maharaja Kishen Pershad were forged and appended to the petition. It was because of the alleged involvement of Maharaja Kishen Pershad in that ‘conspiracy’ that he lost his prime ministership on the accession of Mir Osman Ali Khan as the seventh Nizam.

Later, however, an inquiry revealed that the Maharaja and some others were not a party to the conspiracy. It was all the mischief of a junior police officer who wanted to curry favour with the new dispensation by vilifying some of the nobles. It took the Maharaja a quarter of a century to reestablish his credentials and regain his old job.

We have earlier seen how Nawab Shahab Jung helped the new Nizam establish his authority over the nobility. In that process the redoubtable Nawab himself became a victim and had to withdraw into a shell till his death.

Nizam’s treatment of the prince

The new Nizam then proceeded to strengthen his position. He was 25 and the pretender was an innocent infant of four. The Nizam ordered his step mother Ujjala Begum and her two children to move to a building in the compound of the King Kothi which was his residence so that he could keep a close watch over them.

The Nizam conferred the title of Salbat Jah on his infant half-brother and made arrangements for his education. The prince grew in a very restricted and ‘protected’ atmosphere. His visitors were screened and his mail was subjected to censor.

Prince’s girl friend

He grew into a handsome young man given to brooding and writing poetry. In his early youth a young Bengali girl, Leila Wellinker, charmed the prince. She was junior to him by eleven years. They were engaged, but the Nizam was opposed to the match and so the marriage had to be called off. The dejected prince then left on a trip to Europe.

Later, Salar Jung III, the founder of the Museum named after him fell in love with her. The chivalrous prince wrote: 'Never mind, I shall compose a sehra on the marriage!' However, that marriage also did not take place and Salar Jung too died a bachelor.

The prince was a dandy, a poet, and a singer with a weakness for the bottle. As a poet he sported the pen name of ‘Nashad’ Asifi- which means ‘the unhappy Asif Jah’.

Friendship with Mirza

The introvert prince found s friend in Aga Hyder Hasan Mirza, a man of regal bearing, and a professor of Urdu. He was descended from the royal Mughal family and could easily pass off as the last Mughal emperor. The prince used to pour out his heart to him in person and in letters. The Nizam did not approve of his meeting many people including the professor. They therefore had to be discreet. In order to be able to meet his friend more frequently and openly, once he had it proposed to the Nizam that the Mirza be appointed his tutor. The Nizam did not approve the proposal and instead advised the prince that he should meet him less often. The prince had therefore to resort to letter writing. Mirza kept those letters in safe custody . After his death, 78 letters were found amongst his papers. Of these, seventy were from the prince and six from Ujjala Begum to Mirza. Eleven of them are in English and the rest in Urdu. Mirza’s daughter, Mehrunissa Hussain has compiled these letters. That makes a good a portrait of the Prince and his times.

Sense of humour

The Prince had a good sense of humour. He derived comfort from the fact that his frustrations were not as great as those of the Nizam at not getting the Berars back from the British or of Mahatma Gandhi in not getting ‘Swaraj’. When he got an attack of piles in Europe, he wrote to Mirza that he had a visit from Nawab Bawaseer Jung. About his neglect by the Nizam, he wrote rather bitterly that, ‘Every dog is the tiger of his lane. If he is the Shah of his palace, this humble being too is the fakir of his hovel.’

The unhappy prince who might have been the Nizam of Hyderabad died at the age of 27 in 1934. His only sister died fifteen days later and that extinguished one line completely.

We are left wondering at the ironies of fate.

***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

Mehdi Ali’s Irony of Fate

Legends and anecdotes of Hyderabad—48

Mehdi Ali’s Irony of Fate
By Narendra Luther

One of the rare men of conscience in the civil service under the Nizam was Mehdi Ali. Born in 1917, he was educated at Aligarh and the joined the Hyderabad Civil Service in 1941. Things were hotting up in Hyderabad politically.

In 1948 he was posted as Deputy Collector at Madhira in the Khammam district. The razakars were every where and the administration also was afraid of them. They would enter trains, loot passengers and otherwise misbehave with them. Once they detained a group of Marwaris and accused them of smuggling gold in their jars which, on search, were found to contain only pickles. The police were on the side of the razakars and in spite of the intervention of Mehdi Ali, they were harassed or twelve hours before they were allowed to go.

Mehdi Ali’s boss was the Commissioner of Warangal. He was an Arab named Habeeb Mohammad. He had a good reputation, but soon after the ascendancy of the razakars, he became a fanatic Muslim. He used to declare that he would mix the blood of Hindus with the water of the Bay of Bengal. Mehdi Ali did not like his rabid views, but could not help because he was his subordinate.

The Hindu population was so terror-stricken that a large percent of it moved across into the neighbouring Indian territory.

Under the Nizam the Arabs guarded the treasury in the district and talukas. They were very good at their job and were fiercely loyal. With deteriorating conditions, they became a law unto themselves. One night they attacked Dindkur village, which was about five kilometers from Madhira. The indulged in loot arson and rape. They even removed the mangala sutras of women, which are held very sacred by every married woman. The next morning a silent procession of panic-stricken women came to Mehdi Ali to protest about that and demanding action against the guilty persons. The police station was just opposite the residence of Mehdi Ali. At that time the officer in charge of the Police Station was with Mehdi Ali. His name was Habeebullah.

Mehdi Ali ordered the apprehension of the Arabs. The Police did nothing. The Arabs freely moved around and waited for the train at the railway station. When the train came they quietly boarded it with all the loot. Mehdi Ali felt humiliation and pain at the incident. He wrote to the commissioner patenting about the lawlessness and the incident. The Commissioner felt enraged that the Deputy Collector should complain about his brethren in faith. He wrote to the Government asking for his immediate transfer.

Kasim Razvi also had written to Mehdi Ali accusing him of harassing Razakars unnecessarily, and threatened him with dire consequences unless he changed his ways. Razvi also added that if he did not mend his ways, he might soon se ‘Warangal’. Mehdi Ali did not understand the meaning of that expression. He learnt later that it meant that he would be sodomized.
Mehdi Ali was promptly transferred. However, luckily for him the Police action took place soon and Hyderabad became a part of India. He thus escaped the dire consequences threatened by the Razakar leader.

Soon thereafter, he resumed he resumed duty under the changed circumstances. When in 1949, his turn came for promotion as collector, he found that his name was missing from the list of eight officers who were promoted. All the promoted officers were Hindus. Thereupon Mehdi Ali contacted Mulla Basith Ali who was one of the seven ‘Mirzas’ who had opposed the policies of the Nizam and had advocated the establishment of responsible government, and accession to India. Both met the Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru and complained about the injustice and discrimination under the new dispensation. Nehru did not believe it. Basith showed hi a copy of the order. On seeing that Nehru was shocked. He immediately rang up the Chief Civil Administrator, Bakhle. Bakhle was naturally surprised on receiving a call from the Prim Minister of India. Nehru asked him if some officers had recently been promoted as collectors.

‘Yes, sir,’ replied Bakhle nervously.
‘How many’?
‘Eight, sir.’
‘ Any Muslim amongst them?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Why?’
We have done some screening, sir, and we are trying to redress the imbalance against the Hindus.’
‘This is too much and too sudden. Go slow. Let them not feel that we are discriminating.’
‘Yes, sir'. I shall review the decision.’

The list was revised. Three Muslims wee included in the new list. Mehdi Ali got his due promotion.

But he did not advance further. Some years when his name came up for promotion, he was overlooked. He could not imagine the reason. Vohra, an ICS officer who was trained along with him and who was in a high position in the Government of India told him confidentially that some superior officer of Mehdi Ali had recorded in his confidential roll that ‘his loyalties are divided.’

It was a most brutal cut. Such a remark against an officer who had the courage to oppose the razakars at the height of their power and who risked his entire career for the sake of justice to the oppressed! Thousands of Muslims had gone away to Pakistan after the Police Action. He too could have done that. But he stayed on. H was too shocked to appeal or agitate. How could a Muslim fight such an allegation? They were so vulnerable on that point. He just kept quiet and wondered at the irony f his fate.

When I met him some years ago, he was over eighty. He did not exhibit any trace of bitterness even if he felt any. He had a forgiving smile. Destiny plays strange games with human beings. Prejudice will never be eradicated from the human mind!


***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com

Afraid –neither of Nizam, nor of Indira

Legends & anecdotes of Hyderabad – 47


Afraid –neither of Nizam, nor of Indira
By Narendra Luther

As we have seen, there were many Muslims in Hyderabad who opposed the political policy of the last Nizam in the ‘40s, which were dictated largely by the razakars. These courageous men supported the demand of the majority of the population for responsible government, and accession to India.

Mir Akbar Ali Khan was one such outstanding person. He was born in 1899, to Mehboob Ali Khan, a minor jagirdar in Bidar and the commander of one of the irregular troops of the Nizam. In 1919 as a graduate student of the Aligarh Muslim University, he came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and gave up his studies to join the non-Cooperation Movement. Later he completed his graduation from the Osmania University. Thereafter, he went to England and became a barrister from the Middle Temple, London. He returned to Hyderabad and set up his practice in 1927.

Devout Muslim

He was a devout Muslim. Every Thursday he would get up at four in the morning and walk up to the Dargah-e- Yusufain to offer his Morning Prayer. For seventy-five years he attended without fail the annual urs at Ajmer. Yet he was without a trace of religious bias. He personified true secularism.

In 1929, as a reaction against the communal policies of the Nizam’s Government, he joined some others like Padmaja Naidu, B. Ramakrishna Rao, Baqar Ali Mirza, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Ali Yawar Jung, M. Ramachander Rao, M.H. Jafferi and Fazalur Rehman and set up a body called ‘Society of Union and Progress’. The name and inspiration for it was derived from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk of Turkey. No one belonging to any communal party was accepted as its member. The members signed a pledge affirming their belief in responsible government. It had a small membership, was moderate in its outlook, and had a limited impact.

Legislator

Akbar was elected Mayor of Hyderabad and later, a member of the State Legislative Council. He believed that the State was conservative but not communal till the advent of the Ittehad party, particularly under Kasim Razvi. He felt that there were a number of secular persons but they were not willing to take any risk to rectify the situation. Razvi was crude and insensitive but capable of rousing mass hysteria. Mir Akbar Ali Khan met the Nizam several times. The latter listened to him, but according to Akbar, did not react.

Razvi offered him the prime ministership of Hyderabad after the departures of the Nawab of Chhattari in 1946 on condition that he join the Ittehad party. Akbar turned down the offer.

In 1948, on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he organized a public meeting. Razvi disrupted the meeting and his razakars assaulted Akbar. For his protest against the atrocities of the razakars he was constantly harassed. Every evening a group of ruffians used to come and chant murdabad slogans outside his residence in Saifabad. But Akbar remained firm in his resolve.

Joins Congress

After the Police Action, when Hyderabad became part of India, Mir Akbar Ali Khan joined the Congress party. He was the Vice-President of the Reception Committee of the State Congress when its session was held in Hyderabad in 1949. In 1956 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and served for three consecutive terms spanning eighteen years. Out of that for eleven years he was its Vice-Chairman.

He was an ardent social worker and a builder of institutions. He started the Hyderabad Polytechnic by donating 15 acres of his land at Ramantapur, and 50000 rupees in cash. It was renamed after Jawaharlal Nehru after Nehru’s death. He was also one of the founder members of the Industrial Exhibition of Hyderabad. In 1975 he collected donations in cash and kind for the establishment of the ‘Yusuf Baba Ward’ in the Nampally Hospital. He also founded the ‘Old Boys Association of the Aligarh Muslim University. He used to organize help and relief for widowed women to last them for five years. He was awarded Padma Bhushan.

Strong principles

In 1972 he was appointed Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Mrs. Gandhi, the e Prime Minister felt that he was not helping her put down the then Chief Minister, Bahuguna. He was transferred to Orissa in 1974. In April 1976, his old friend and the renowned Socialist leader, Jaya Prakash Narayan visited Orissa. Akbar invited him for dinner at the Raj Bhavan. Mrs. Gandhi had clamped Emergency on the country and ‘JP’ was fiercely opposing it. Mrs. Gandhi considered him her enemy. One of her aides rang up the Akbar advising him to cancel the dinner. Akbar replied that he was inviting an old friend privately and could not cancel the dinner. He was told that the Prime Minister was not happy about it. He replied that he noted that. That evening the two friends had dinner together. The next morning Mir Akbar Ali Khan sent his resignation as the Governor of Orissa and returned to Hyderabad. He had the good grace not to give any reason.

In Hyderabad he continued to exhibit immense energy and goodwill and immersed himself in social, cultural and educational causes.

In 1994, just short of five years of a century of a life devoted to public causes, Nawab Mir Akbar Ali Khan passed away into history. He had four children out of whom three are alive. The eldest, Riazat Ali Khan served the UN and later took up business. He is settled in Switzerland.

The second daughter, Faizunissa became Hyderabad’s second lady advocate. She tended her father with great devotion after her mother’s death in 1960 and was his constant companion and hostess. She continues her father’s tradition of social service. Her son, Ishaq Anwar is an electronics engineer and runs an ad agency. The daughter, Waseem Kabir is an architect and an interior decorator.

The third, a daughter, Nayeem is a physician and is settled in Canada.

I had the privilege of knowing this man of great courage, rectitude -- and warm affection, and I cherish the association.


***
Archived by www.mygoldencopy.com