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Oct 07, 2022
Amogh Manthalkar

The Story of Hyderabad Part 2

Another problem in the Hyderabad State was the communal disparities and differential treatment of different communities. Muslims were dominant in the State. Of the total population, 20,97,475 were Muslims, 1,33,09,649 were Hindus, 2,20,464 were Christians, and 7,10,946 were others. Even though Muslims constituted 11% of the total population, they dominated government jobs, whereas only Hindus had 20% of them. This was explained away by arguing that the State was an Islamic state, according to Anant Bhalerao, a journalist from Marathwada, in his book Hyderabadcha Swatantrya Sangram Aani Marathwada. Besides, Hindus had farms and land to till, and Muslims had few other sources of income. So, giving them govt jobs was necessary. Year % Hindus % Muslim 1901 88.6 10.4 1911 86.9 10.3 1921 85.4 10.4 1931 84 10.6 1941 81.4 12.8 Demography of Hyderabad State There were two main reasons for the waning trends of the Hindu population in Hyderabad State. Religious conversions were rampant in the State. The untouchables and lower castes were induced into converting to Islam by offering bribes. The other major factor was that Muslims from all over India were settled in the territory of the Hyderabad State. Even more egregious was the fact that in the 1941 census, the Hyderabad State official documents showed the Hindu population as 63.5%, excluding the untouchables and lower castes and recording them as non-Hindus. Even in matters like Sahukari (trading), the Hyderabad State had a communal policy to further a feudal hierarchy. Muslims were systematically favoured. Arabs, Rohillas, and Pathans were brought into the State for the same. Earlier, Nizam himself would take loans from such Arabs and Rohillas. These loans climbed up to Rs 2 crores, and Nizam had to put up a few districts of his kingdom as collateral. When Salar Jung I became Diwan in 1853, he somehow repaid these loans and got those districts back. By then, these Arabs and Rohillas had spread all over the State. When Sir Akbar Haidari was the Diwan in 1937, the license requirement for these Sahukars to operate was removed. This was done to curb the growing influence of the Independence movement among the masses. The situation of government jobs was worse. The Nizam administration would not let any records see the light of day, and any information had to be obtained in other ways. In 1941, the number of Muslims employed by the government was 1,12,737, and Hindus were 23,368. Departments Muslims Hindus Others Total Secretaries 10 1 1 12 Additional Secretaries 2 1 1 4 Joint Secretaries 3 0 0 3 Deputy Secretaries 9 3 0 12 Assistant Secretaries 55 8 0 63 Head of Departments 40 6 1 47 Subedars 4 0 0 4 Collectors 14 2 0 16 Revenue Board 2 0 0 2 Sub-Collectors 50 19 2 71 Tehsildars 75 40 4 119 High Court Judges 8 5 0 13 Magistrates and Munsifs 147 33 0 180 Police 73 12 6 91 Education Officers 237 65 27 329 Supply Officers 25 7 1 33 Total (%) 754 (75) 202 (20) 43 (5) 999 (100) Key government jobs in Hyderabad State These statistics, from Anant Bhalerao’s book, give an idea of the dominance of Muslims in government jobs in the State. This was done on purpose by interfering with the recruitment processes to obtain absolute control over the State. The last Nizam claimed himself to be the heir of the Mughal emperors and had ambitions of attaining unrestricted personal sovereignty. Pursuing this, he made all efforts to resist the idea of democracy and centralize all power with himself. As mentioned earlier as well, in 1914, he took over the administration by dismissing the Diwan, only to later buckle under pressure from the British and constitute an Executive Council to assist him in administration. But even there, he is reported to have interfered in its functioning, inviting interventions from the British Resident to empower the Council against him. The Nizam resented this control and when the British made it clear to withdraw paramountcy over British India, he saw it as an opportunity to assert his autocracy in the State. Hyderabad had a Legislative Council consisting of 20 members, of which only 4 were elected and the others were nominated or ex-officio, who served in an advisory capacity. The Nizam actively opposed all attempts to introduce a representative element in the Legislature. It was only in 1946 that a Hyderabad Legislative Assembly was constituted upon the recommendations of the Ayyangar committee. According to the system set up by the Nizam, out of the 132 members of the House, 76 were elected members and the rest were nominated and ex-officio members. Among the elected members, the Hindu and Muslim representation was to be equal, thus keeping the Muslims in a perpetual majority in the Council. The Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen and The Razakars The Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, also known as the Ittehad, was founded in 1926 by the Director of the State Ecclesiastical Department under the inspiration of Nizam Osman Ali Khan. It was formed to organize aggressive elements in the Muslim community to strengthen Nizam's feudal rule over the State. After the Government of India Act was passed in 1935, the Nizam Subjects' League was founded to establish a responsible government in Hyderabad. To counter this, the Ittehad functioned to maintain the political sovereignty of Muslims and Muslim culture, with the Nizam at its head, according to their creed. In 1938, Hyderabad State Congress was formed with the same objective of a responsible government by peaceful and legitimate means and with the motive of national unity. It was banned on October 24, 1938. Its members were arrested and sentenced. Around 400 people were jailed for their participation in Satyagraha. This ban was lifted in 1946 when Sir Mirza Ismail became the Diwan. During this time, civil liberties were severely limited and all popular movements towards democracy were brutally suppressed by the Ittehad, which was left free to continue its most aggressive fascist and communal activities. By 1947, it was clear that the British were going to quit India and that India was to be divided. In a Firman dated 26th June 1947, the Nizam declared that he did not want to join the Union of India. He claimed that the end of British paramountcy entitled him to declare his own. The Ittehad, with Qasim Rizvi as its leader, made its stance on the issues of accession to India and responsible government in Hyderabad known. A quasi-military organization was founded with those objectives was founded and it held demonstrations in favour of Hyderabad's independence, named the Razakar organization. The Nizam even prohibited the flying of the flag of the Indian Union anywhere in the State. "The Ittehad and the Razakars constitute a serious threat to the peace and tranquillity of India. Their activities threaten to provoke retaliation from those in India, who sympathize with the unhappy lot of the majority population in Hyderabad. By their constant efforts to appeal to the communal instincts of the Muslim minority in India, the Razakars are trying to subvert the loyalty of the Indian Muslims to the Dominion. The political structure of Hyderabad is the very antithesis of democracy; the Razakar ideology, which dominates Hyderabad, is automatically and irrevocably against popular freedom and democratic concepts." White Paper on Hyderabad, Government Press India, 1948 The Terrorist Tactics of The Razakars The stated objectives of the Ittehad and the Razakars have been mentioned previously. They were fanatical and feudal by ideology and medieval and fascistic in their operation in Hyderabad State. Their militarist demonstrations were aimed at influencing Muslims and incentivizing them to join their ranks. They also imparted military training in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Razakars pledged their lives for the cause of the Ittehad "to fight to the last to maintain the supremacy of the Muslim power in the Deccan." Over 70,000 men, women, and children underwent training, 1,50,000 members had already enrolled, and they were fast approaching the 5,00,000 target just between July 1947 and July-August 1948. The activities of the Razakars were classified in the White Paper of 1948 as the following: Staging frequent demonstrations all over the State Terrorizing individuals connected with pro-India and pro-democracy movements Inflicting costs, with or without the police or military, on individuals suspected of being pro-India Searching the luggage and belongings of rail and road passengers Preventing unofficial investigations into the internal situation of Hyderabad Terrorizing people through armed marches of uniformed volunteers and firing empty shots into the air Infiltrating the Indian territory with the aims of spying, smuggling arms and ammunition, recruiting volunteers from the Dominion, creating discord among Indian Muslims, and provoking them to carry on a Jihad (religious war against unbelievers). The Razakars were well-funded, and organized, and had their agents in several important organizations and businesses. They possessed ample means of transport (like jeeps and lorries, back when these vehicles were way more difficult to amass), an unrestricted supply of fuel, arms, and ammunition consisting of not just looted and locally manufactured guns, but also modern weapons obtained from Indian territory despite it being prohibited under various agreements. The Ittehad ran one English daily, 7 Urdu dailies, 6 Urdu weeklies, and the Nizam Radio and used them to attack the Dominion of India and its leaders. Special training was imparted to Razakars in espionage and propaganda. They even trained certain selected Razakars to masquerade as Brahmins and priests. The Razakars were unsubtle to the point of brazenness in their actions and statements. "Hyderabad will shortly recover the ceded districts and the day is not far off when the waves of the Bay of Bengal will be washing the feet of our sovereign who will be called not only the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar but also of the Northern Circars." "We are rewriting the map of India by bringing together a union of Jamuna and Musi. We are the grandsons of Muhammad Ghazni and the sons of Babar. When determined we shall fly the Asafjahi flag over the Red Fort in Delhi." Quotes from the Razakars' public statements mentioned in the White Paper on Hyderabad of 1948 As mentioned earlier, the Razakars were inducing Muslims from all over India to settle into Hyderabad State with the express aim to flip the demography of the State and Jihad against the Dominion of India. They called Muslims from other provinces of India refugees, but that was a subterfuge to fool outside observers. Elaborate arrangements were made for these so-called refugees, finances were arranged and training was imparted to these people. These invitees were responsible for a large chunk of the law and order problems that ensued, which included but were not limited to harassing people, looting, extortion, breaking into houses, illegally occupying houses, robberies, and cross-border raids into the Indian Dominion districts. Several instances of law and order problems were reported by various investigating organizations and individuals. There was sheer panic and terror among people throughout the State. In villages all over the State, the lives of villagers had become so insecure that people fled to other territories of India fearing for their lives. Members of my own family had fled for their lives during this time. Hundreds of people were beaten, wounded, tortured, and even killed. Razakars were seen in trucks openly shouting anti-India slogans and returning with loot from villages. The Hindu population was systematically disarmed so that they could not retaliate with force. The Nizam's government prevented any investigation into these acts of violence and loot in the State. Yet, these atrocities were attested by many independent observers. Ministers toured villages and testified to the conditions described by the villagers. Photographs of burning houses and villages were obtained. J V Joshi, a minister in the Hyderabad government, toured extensively over the State, surveying the condition of the villages. He resigned upon completing this survey and in his letter of resignation, gave a detailed account of what he observed. He described scenes of devastation, murder, torture, rape, and arson. This is one of the bluntest and clearest indictments of the Nizam and the last 5 years of his reign. It will suffice by giving only a few examples to show the brutality with which the Razakars perpetrated atrocities against Hindus of the State, which the State police and military observed silently and did nothing to prevent. In Bidar district, Razakars devastated 129 villages, burned about 1000 houses, looted property worth crores of rupees, killed around 100 people, and committed rape on about 50 women. The village Gorta was burned to the ground with all its residents, human and animal, on May 10, 1948. When a committee reached the village to survey the damage, only one man and 3 old women were found alive. No trace of life apart from them was found. It was estimated that about 200 persons had been killed. Warangal district was another centre of Razakar atrocities. An exodus of lakhs of its residents took place, who fled to the neighbouring State of Madras. 4 separate investigations into this exodus match most findings. In the villages of Babhalgaon and Limbagaon in the Parbhani district, several women were abducted, and lands and property were grabbed and looted. The local police demanded large sums of money to protect Hindus from these atrocities. In Usod (taluka Jintoor), the entire property of Hiralal Somani was looted and his house was burned down. He was burned alive and his family, including all women and children, was murdered. In the temple town of Aundha Nagnath, a bomb was thrown at the people assembled for the Jatra and 5 people were killed in the blast and the subsequent firing. The entire villages of Gunda, Falni, Pangra, Vakodi (Kalamnuri), Dhaiphal, and Bamni (Jintoor) were looted and burned to the ground for resisting the Razakar raids. In the Nanded district alone, in several separate incidents, more than 100 people were killed. The most egregious attack took place in a village where 72 people were killed after the house of the village Deshmukh was besieged for more than 84 hours. In Loha, the local authorities did nothing to prevent an attack on the village that lasted for 3 days. Chamanrao was tied to a wooden pillar, tortured, his eyes pierced, and then shot dead. Panditrao was also murdered. The whole village was looted and burned down. A married woman was raped by 7 persons in the presence of her relatives. Image source: The Companion

Oct 07, 2022
Kalavai Venkat

An Honest Movie Review of Ponniyin Selvan

My wife and I had the misfortune of watching Ponniyin Selvan this evening. It's one of the most terribly boring movies ever made. The story-telling lacks coherence. The dialog is pathetic. The music is so boring that not one song would register in your mind. I think the last song of A R Rahman which is worthy of listening to is Bhoomi Bhoomi, which he composed in 2018. The theater was virtually empty this evening when we went out to watch the movie. None of the actors is competent. The movie is packed with repeated ridicule of Brahmins. In one dialog, the cast refers to Sri Madhusudana, an epithet of Vishnu. The English subtitle renders it as "the wine god." I don't believe it is an inadvertent mistranslation. Some of you may argue that many of such negative portrayals are to be found in the original novel of Kalki itself. Partially true. For the record, I never found Kalki to be a competent or intelligent writer. He wrote some of the most pitiable historic novels. For example, in one of his works, he would discuss the caves of Sittannavasal and Sigiriya and raise the question of the dye used for cave painting. Yet, throughout the novel, there won't be any insight or inquiry into how the dye was extracted from plants. Instead, a reader would be served highly algorithmic prose and sentimental nonsense with no historical insights. Kalki won't even inquire why the Sittannavasal cave was built in the first place. Built in the 6th century, it housed Jaina monks. Many of them would just meditate until they reached the vegetative state and then die in the cave. What prompted them to undertake this seemingly extreme penance? The reason won't elude a curious mind because Jaina munis attempted to build similar caves in Hampi and Khajuraho too. Many of those are in partial states of perfection, an indication that the Jainas were experimenting with meditative techniques which included sound resonance. The pedestrian prose of Kalki won't even prompt such questions in the minds of the reader. If one wanted to look for real works of genius by Kalki then one must look at such lyrics as "Kaatrrinile varum geetham." His prose and historical novels were pedestrian at best. Let's be clear about one thing. Kalki was no Gore Vidal or Robert Graves. They packed their historical novels with facts and sharp reason while making them utterly readable. Take Vidal's Julian, the pagan king who wanted to eradicate Christianity. You would be transported to the fourth century CE. No detail which Vidal presents would be anachronistic or lacking in historical rigor. The narrative would be gripping. It's impossible for the reader not to sympathize with the brilliant, philosophical, and youthful romantic philosopher-king Julian even though Julian is fighting a losing battle. You won't find anything comparable in the writings of Kalki, who is to be admired for only one thing, i.e., for introducing the genre of historical novels to Tamil readers. The movie merely managed to take the otherwise pedestrian novel of Kalki further down. There's not a single scene in which the director, crew, and dialog writer have displayed even a modicum of passion for excellence, story-telling, or histrionic skills. Take the sword-fighting scenes for example. Contrast those with the sequences in Troy, where Brad Pitt mesmerizes with a muscular and brooding presence with his dramatic portrayal of Achilles. In Ponniyin Selvan, by contrast, you have potbellied Dravidian thespians gasping for breath while just lifting the sword. Doesn't anyone tell our Dravidian heroes that it's the sword, not the Dravidian potbelly, which must be thrust? The dialog, written by Jeyamohan, is pathetic. It's as if the script-writer couldn't even transport himself to the Chola era and pen dialog which would transport the viewers to that period. There's a shocking inaccuracy when it comes to things historical. For example, there is a scene in a movie where the fort is getting breached and gunpowder is being set ablaze. Chola kings didn't use gunpowder. In fact, even as late as the era of Krishnadeva Raya, Indian kings distrusted gunpowder. Even a high schooler would know this much! One of the worst movies ever made. It's rare to come across a movie that fails on every single count, i.e., story-telling, music, and dialog. Ponniyin Selvan has the rare distinction of being an abject failure in every one of these aspects. Image source: Koimoi