Hyderabad State

State of Hyderabad حیدر آباد
1724–1948
Flag
Capital	Hyderabad
Government	Principality
Nizam
• 1720-48 (first)	Asaf Jah I
• 1911-48 (last)	Asaf Jah VII
History
• Established	1724
• Annexed by India	September 18 1948
Preceded by Succeeded by Mughal Empire Union of India Dominion of Pakistan

Hyderābād and Berar (Telugu: హైదరాబాదు, Urdu: حیدر آباد) under the Nizams, was the largest princely state in the erstwhile Indian Empire. The Berar region of present day Vidarbha in Maharashtra was merged with the Central Provinces in 1903, to form Central Provinces and Berar.

Hyderabad state was located in south-central Indian subcontinent from 1724 until 1948, ruled by a hereditary Nizam. During partition of India in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad declared his intentions of not joining either newly formed India or Pakistan. Sensing trouble, India launched Operation Polo which resulted in the absorption of Hyderabad into the Indian Union, in 1948.

History

Main article: History of Hyderabad

Hyderabad and Berar, 1903

Hyderabad was founded by the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda. In 1686 the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb campaigned in the Deccan to overcome the Marathas and conquer the independent Deccan states. Before the campaign, the Mughals had controlled the northwestern Deccan, including Khandesh and Berar, but Mughal control ended at the Godavari River. Aurangzeb conquered Golconda and Bijapur in 1687, extending Mughal control south of the Krishna River.

The Mughal Empire began to weaken during the reign of Aurangzeb's grandson, Muhammad Shah. A Mughal official, Asif Jah, treacherously defeated a rival Mughal governor to seize control of the empire's southern provinces, declaring himself Nizam-al-Mulk of Hyderabad in 1724. The Mughal emperor, under renewed attack from the Marathas, was unable to prevent it.

The Nizams patronized Islamic art, culture and literature and had a railway system called The Nizam's Government State Railways. Sharia-The Islamic Religious Law Code, was the guiding principle of the Nizams' official machinery.

During the British Raj

The seniormost (21-gun) princely state in British India, Hyderabad was an 82,000 square mile (212,000 km²) region in the Deccan ruled by the Asif Jahi dynasty, who had the title of Nizam and was bestowed the title of His Exalted Highness by the British Empire. The Nizam had a penchant for setting up institutions in the name of the dynasty. He set up schools, colleges, madrasas (Islamic Seminaries) and a University that imparted education in Urdu. Inspired by the elite and prestigious ICS (Indian Civil Service), he started HCS (Hyderabad Civil Service). The pace with which he amassed wealth made him to be the world's richest men in the 1930s, (Time cover story Feb. 22, 1937). Carrying a gift, called Nazrana in the local dialect, in accordance with one's net worth while meeting Nizam was a de facto necessity.

After the British Raj (1947-48)

When India gained independence in 1947, the British, left the choice of independence or unification up to the local rulers of the princely states. The Muslim ruler of Hyderbad, the last Nizam, wished to remain independent. First he tried to declare Hyderabad as a part of Pakistan but the British government did not allow this. Later in the same year, he announced his intention to become independent.

Hyderabad Today

In 1956 during the Reorganisation of the Indian States, the state of Hyderabad was split up between Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, died in 1967.

Administratively, Hyderabad State was made up of sixteen districts, grouped into four divisions. Aurangabad division included Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded, and Parbhani districts; Gulbargah (Gulbargah) division included Bidar District, Gulbarga, Osmanabad District, and Raichur District; Gulshanabad District or Medak division included Atraf-i-Baldah, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda (Nalgundah), and Nizamabad districts, and Warangal division included Adilabad, Karimnagar, and Warangal districts

Hyderabad state in 1909

Urdu (in particular, the unique Dakhani dialect),Telugu, Marathi and Kannada are the important languages spoken in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh today.

The political party MIM (Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen, founded by Bahadur Yar Jung enjoys prominent support amongst Muslims.

See also

• Hyderabad (India) for the Indian city.
• Nizam for a list of Nizams and other information.
• Operation Polo the military operation that resulted in the unification of Hyderabad state into India.
• List of Indian Princely States

References

• Zubrzycki, John. (2006) The Last Nizam: An Indian Prince in the Australian Outback. Pan Macmillan, Australia. ISBN 978-0-3304-2321-2.

(1911)

External links

• Hyderabad: A Qur'anic Paradise in Architectural Metaphors
• From the Sundarlal Report - Muslim Genocide in 1948
• Of a massacre untold
• Manolya's legal fight
• About Razakars and Islamic ambitions
• Hyderabad
• Guide to Contemporary Hyderabad
• Genealogy of the Nizams of Hyderabad
• Article on some aspects of life in erstwhile Hyderabad state
• Renaming villages by the Nizam