HYDERABAD,THE NIZAM DYNASTY 1591-1724
Sultan Quli, a governor of Golkonda, revolted against the Bahmani Sultanate and established the Qutb Shahi dynasty in 1518;[10] he rebuilt the mud-fort of Golconda and named the city "Muhammad nagar".[15][16] The fifth sultan, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, established Hyderabad on the banks of the Musi River in 1591,[
Established in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Hyderabad remained under the rule of the Qutb Shahi dynasty for nearly a century before the Mughals captured the region. In 1724, Mughal viceroy Asif Jah I declared his sovereignty and created his own dynasty, known as the Nizams of Hyderabad. The Nizam's dominions became a princely state during the British Raj, and remained so for 150 years, with the city serving as its capital. The city continued as the capital of Hyderabad State after it was brought into the Indian Union in 1948. Hyderabad was historically known as a pearl and diamond trading centre, and it continues to be known as the "City of Pearls". Many of the city's traditional bazaars remain open, including Laad Bazaar, Begum Bazaar and Sultan Bazaar
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| Mir Mahbub Ali Khan (1868-1911 |
During his rule, he had the Charminar and Mecca Masjid built in the city.[19] On 21 September 1687, the Golkonda Sultanate came under the rule of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after a year-long siege of the Golkonda fort.
Rule of the Nizams
A mill with a canal connecting to Hussain Sagar lake. Following the introduction of railways in the 1880s, factories were built around the lake.
In 1714 Farrukhsiyar, the Mughal emperor, appointed Asif Jah I to be Viceroy of the Deccan, with the title Nizam-ul-Mulk (Administrator of the Realm).[24] In 1724, Asif Jah I defeated Mubariz Khan to establish autonomy over the Deccan Suba, named the region Hyderabad Deccan, and started what came to be known as the Asif Jahi dynasty.
The death of Asif Jah I in 1748 resulted in a period of political unrest as his sons, backed by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial foreign forces, contended for the throne. The accession of Asif Jah II, who reigned from 1762 to 1803, ended the instability. In 1768 he signed the treaty of Machilipatnam, surrendering the coastal region to the East India Company in return for a fixed annual rent.[25]
the Nizam signed a subsidiary alliance with the East India Company in 1798, allowing the British Indian Army to occupy Bolarum (modern Secunderabad) to protect the state's capital, for which the Nizams paid an annual maintenance to the British.
After India gained independence, the Nizam declared his intention to remain independent rather than become part of the Indian Union.[25] The Hyderabad State Congress, with the support of the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India, began agitating against Nizam VII in 1948. On 17 September that year, the Indian Army took control of Hyderabad State after an invasion codenamed Operation Polo.
His takeover of Hyderabad in 1948 caused maybe 50,000-200,000 deaths. The Sunderlal report on this massacre has been kept an official secret for over 60 years. While other princes acceded to either India or Pakistan in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad aimed to remain independent. This was complicated by a Marxist uprising. The Nizam’s Islamic militia, the Razakars, killed and raped many Hindus. This incensed Sardar Patel and Nehru, who ordered the Army into Hyderabad. The Army’s swift victory led to revenge killings and rapes by Hindus on an unprecedented scale.
When India was partitioned in 1947, about 500,000 people died in communal rioting, mainly along the borders with Pakistan. But a year later another massacre occurred in central India, which until now has remained clouded in secrecy.
In September and October 1948, soon after independence from the British Empire, tens of thousands of people were brutally slaughtered in central India.
Some were lined up and shot by Indian Army soldiers. Yet a government-commissioned report into what happened was never published and few in India know about the massacre. Critics have accused successive Indian governments of continuing a cover-up.
The massacres took place a year after the violence of partition in what was then Hyderabad state, in the heart of India. It was one of 500 princely states that had enjoyed autonomy under British colonial rule.When independence came in 1947 nearly all of these states agreed to become part of India.
But Hyderabad's Muslim Nizam, or prince, insisted on remaining independent. This refusal to surrender sovereignty to the new democratic India outraged the country's leaders in New Delhi.Historians say their desire to prevent an independent Muslim-led state taking root in the heart of predominantly Hindu India was another worry.Members of the powerful Razakar militia, the armed wing of Hyderabad's most powerful Muslim political party, were terrorising many Hindu villagers. This gave the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, the pretext he needed. In September 1948 the Indian Army invaded Hyderabad.
In what was rather misleadingly known as a "police action", the Nizam's forces were defeated after just a few days without any significant loss of civilian lives. But word then reached Delhi that arson, looting and the mass murder and rape of Muslims had followed the invasion.
Determined to get to the bottom of what was happening, an alarmed Nehru commissioned a small mixed-faith team to go to Hyderabad to investigate.
It was led by a Hindu congressman, Pandit Sunderlal. But the resulting report that bore his name was never published.Historian Sunil Purushotham from the University of Cambridge has now obtained a copy of the report as part of his research in this field.
Pandit Sunderlal's team concluded that between 27,000 and 40,000 died
The Sunderlal team visited dozens of villages throughout the state.
At a number of places members of the armed forces brought out Muslim adult males... and massacred them
Sunderlal report
At each one they carefully chronicled the accounts of Muslims who had survived the appalling violence: "We had absolutely unimpeachable evidence to the effect that there were instances in which men belonging to the Indian Army and also to the local police took part in looting and even other crimes.
"During our tour we gathered, at not a few places, that soldiers encouraged, persuaded and in a few cases even compelled the Hindu mob to loot Muslim shops and houses."
The team reported that while Muslim villagers were disarmed by the Indian Army, Hindus were often left with their weapons. The mob violence that ensued was often led by Hindu paramilitary groups.
In other cases, it said, Indian soldiers themselves took an active hand in the butchery: "At a number of places members of the armed forces brought out Muslim adult males from villages and towns and massacred them in cold blood."
The investigation team also reported, however, that in many other instances the Indian Army had behaved well and protected Muslims.The backlash was said to have been in response to many years of intimidation and violence against Hindus by the Razakars.
In confidential notes attached to the Sunderlal report, its authors detailed the gruesome nature of the Hindu revenge: "In many places we were shown wells still full of corpses that were rotting. In one such we counted 11 bodies, which included that of a woman with a small child sticking to her breast. "
And it went on: "We saw remnants of corpses lying in ditches. At several places the bodies had been burnt and we would see the charred bones and skulls still lying there."
The Sunderlal report estimated that between 27,000 to 40,000 people lost their lives.No official explanation was given for Nehru's decision not to publish the contents of the Sunderlal report, though it is likely that, in the powder-keg years that followed independence, news of what happened might have sparked more Muslim reprisals against Hindus.
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| Razakars LEADERQasim Razvi,. |
It is also unclear why, all these decades later, there is still no reference to what happened in the nation's schoolbooks. Even today few Indians have any idea what happened.
The Sunderlal report, although unknown to many, is now open for viewing at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.
There has been a call recently in the Indian press for it to be made more widely available, so the entire nation can learn what happened.
It could be argued this might risk igniting continuing tensions between Muslims and Hindus.
"Living as we are in this country with all our conflicts and problems, I wouldn't make a big fuss over it," says Burgula Narasingh Rao, a Hindu who lived through those times in Hyderabad and is now in his 80s.
"What happens, reaction and counter-reaction and various things will go on and on, but at the academic level, at the research level, at your broadcasting level, let these things come out. I have no problem with that.
Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah 1724-1748
Nasir Jung 1748-1750
Muzaffar Jung 1750-51
Salabat Jung1751-62
Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah II1762-1803
Sikander Jah, Asaf Jah III 1803-1829
Nasir-ud-Daula, Asaf Jah IV1829-1857
Afzal-ud-Daula, Asaf Jah V 1857-1869
Asaf Jah VI 1869-1911
Asaf Jah VII 1911-1948
List of Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948)[edit]
| Image | Titular Name | Personal Name | Date of birth | Nizam From | Nizam Until | Date of death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah I نظامالملک آصف جاہ | Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan | 20 August 1671 | 31 July 1724 | 1 June 1748 | |
 | Nasir Jung نصیرجنگ | Mir Ahmed Ali Khan | 26 February 1712 | 1 June 1748 | 16 December 1750 | |
 | Muzaffar Jung مظفرجنگ | Mir Hidayat Muhi-ud-din Sa'adullah Khan | ? | 16 December 1750 | 13 February 1751 | |
 | Salabat Jung صلابت جنگ | Mir Sa'id Muhammad Khan | 24 November 1718 | 13 February 1751 | 8 July 1762 (deposed) | 16 September 1763 |
 | Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah II نظامالملک آصف جاہ دوم | Mir Nizam Ali Khan | 7 March 1734 | 8 July 1762 | 6 August 1803 | |
.jpg) | Sikander Jah, Asaf Jah III سکندر جاہ ،آصف جاہ تریہم | Mir Akbar Ali Khan | 11 November 1768 | 6 August 1803 | 21 May 1829 | |
 | Nasir-ud-Daula, Asaf Jah IV ناصر الدولہ ،آصف جاہ چارہم | Mir Farqunda Ali Khan | 25 April 1794 | 21 May 1829 | 16 May 1857 | |
| Afzal-ud-Daula, Asaf Jah V افضال الدولہ ،آصف جاہ پنجم | Mir Tahniyath Ali Khan | 11 October 1827 | 16 May 1857 | 26 February 1869 | |
 | Asaf Jah VI آصف جاہ شیشم | Mir Mahbub Ali Khan | 17 August 1866 | 26 February 1869 | 29 August 1911 | |
 | Asaf Jah VII آصف جاہ ہفتم | Mir Osman Ali Khan | 6 April 1886 | 29 August 1911 | 17 September 1948 (deposed) | 24 February 1967 |
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