The Union government had decided to hold a year-long commemoration of 75 years of Liberation of the erstwhile princely State of Hyderabad from September 17, 2022.
- Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy wrote letters to the Chief Ministers of Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra on September 3.
- On 17th September 1948, more than one year after India secured Independence from the British, the erstwhile State of Hyderabad, comprising the entire State of Telangana and some districts in Maharashtra and Karnataka, got independence from the Nizam’s rule.
Operation Polo
- Hyderabad similar to Kashmir and Junagadh posed complexity in accession to the Indian Union after Independence.
- In 1724, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah established Hyderabad. It had its own army, railway and airline network, postal system and a radio network.
- 85% of the Nizam’s subjects were Hindus.
- Hyderabad also had ‘Razakars’, some 200000 strong paramilitary force recruited from among the Muslim aristocrats and controlled by the civilian leader Qasim Razvi.
- In 1798, the Royal state of Hyderabad was the first to agree to British protection under the policy of Subsidiary Alliance.
- In 1947, when the British left India, they gave the princely states the choice to either join India or Pakistan or remain independent.
- Being one state not under the British rule, it opposed the idea of a merger with India after Independence.
- In 1947, Home Minister Sardar Patel requested Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII, the last Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad, to join India, but he refused. Instead, he declared Hyderabad as an independent nation on August 15, 1947.
- In June 1948 Lord Mountbatten proposed the Heads of Agreement deal which gave Hyderabad the status of an autonomous dominion nation under India.
- India was ready to sign the deal and did so. Nizam refused this proposal on the grounds that he wanted complete independence or the status of dominion under the British Commonwealth of Nations.
- It was said that Hyderabad was arming itself with support from the Portuguese administration in Goa and Pakistan which led to communal clashes and added to tension.
- Even the Nizam lodged a complaint with the UN but to no avail.
- Sardar Patel described the idea of an independent Hyderabad as “an ulcer in the heart of India which needed to be removed surgically.”
- India decided to annex Hyderabad. This operation was named “Operation Polo” and it is also referred to as “Operation Caterpillar” at times.
- It was only a five-day war that began in September 13 and lasted till September 18. Indian Army took over a powerful state and Hyderabad was attached to India.
