This sun has set

The Hyderabad State surrendered meekly to the Indian military on September 13, 1948 without a single shot being fired

The Hyderabad State surrendered meekly to the Indian military on September 13, 1948 without a single shot being fired. This was largely due to the betrayal of El Edroos, the Commander-in-Chief of the Hyderabad army, who instructed the various army sector commanders to ‘avoid resistance and surrender’.

Much has been written about the military invasion of Hyderabad but a new book on the last Nizam throws fresh light on the subject and lays bare the treacherous role played by Edroos. “He was in league with the Indian army and surreptitiously passed on secret information about the Nizam’s army, its strength, deployment and tactics,” says MA Nayeem in his book – ‘Mir Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII Nizam of Hyderabad and His Contributions’.

Though the Nizam was far outnumbered in military might, his army could still have fought and resisted the Indian forces at least for sometime as a matter of prestige. But Nizam was unaware of the conspiracy hatched by Edroos and his secret orders to the Hyderabad army not to resist the Indian army”, says Nayeem.

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The veteran historian lists out the military strength of Hyderabad at the time of Police Action and says the real fighting force was just 22,000. It had guns, three armoured regiments while one fourth of the irregular army was equipped with modern weapons and rest were armed with muzzle loaders. This apart there were 10,000 armed Arabs, 10,000 Razakars and soldiers of Paigah and jagir police. Nayeem calls the Indian invasion as ‘naked aggression’ and in ‘blatant violation’ of international law. “The military attack was euphemistically named ‘Operation Polo’ to assuage the world criticism of the unprovoked aggression,” he says.

He describes Razakars as patriots of the first order and says they were a ‘voluntary organisation’ pledged to defend Hyderabad from attack. He rubbishes the propaganda that they were gangsters guilty of all sorts of crimes. “Every country has voluntary organisations and even India has several organisations with different names,” points out Nayeem.

The 271-page book is divided into three parts. The first one deals with Nizamul Mulk Asaf Jah 1 and his successors up to Asaf Jah VI, the second part is all about Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam,  and the last part talks about his contributions to the Hyderabad state and world. Nayeem has sourced material from the State Archives where he worked. Besides he has delved into the records of the Nizam’s Peshi office at King Kothi now preserved in Chow Mohalla Palace and also the National Archives, New Delhi. He has appended in the book a scanned copy of Pundit Sunderlal Committee report on the aftermath of Police Action obtained from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.


The book is an interesting read and blames the British for destruction of Hyderabad although the Nizam contributed several millions  to bolster the depleting British treasury during the two World Wars. The Nizam also donated a destroyer ship to the British navy named ‘HMAS Nizam’ Nayeem quotes Sir Arthur Lothian, the British Resident at Hyderabad to explain how the British let down the Nizam: “No person of British origin who knows the facts can read the dignified and royal statement of the Nizam without a feeling of shame at our tacit abandonment of Hyderabad to the pressure of every sort from India.”

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in The New Indian Express

Dated October 16,2018