Razakars (Hyderabad)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
 Razakar units being trained | |
| Type | Private militia organised by Qasim Razvi |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Affiliated to the MIM |
| Purpose | Support of the Nizam, Sir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, resisting the integration of Hyderabad State into India |
| Headquarters | Hyderabad |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | House of Nizams and Hyderabad State Forces |
Region served | Hyderabad State |
| Leader | Qasim Razvi |
Parent organisation | Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen |
The Razakars (lit. "volunteers") refers to a few organizations active in Hyderabad State, including civilians enlisted to defend the state from an Indian invasion[1], communist volunteers, and the militia organised by the MIM during the rule of Nizam Mir Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII. [2] They resisted the integration of Hyderabad State into the Dominion of India. They also had plans to make the Nizam accede his princely state to Pakistan instead of India.[citation needed][3] Eventually, the Indian Army routed the Razakars during Operation Polo. Qasim Razvi was initially jailed and then allowed to move to Pakistan where he was granted asylum, on an undertaking that he would migrate to Pakistan within forty-eight hours of his release.[4]
History and war crimes
The Hyderabad State was a kingdom that was ruled by the Nizam. When India became independent in 1947, like all the other Princely states, the Hyderabad State was also given the choice of either joining India or Pakistan. The Nizam wanted neither; he wanted to remain independent. The Nizam finally entered into a standstill agreement with India on 29 November 1947 to maintain the status quo.[5]
Hyderabad state had been steadily becoming more theocratic since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1926, Mahmud Nawaz Khan, a retired Hyderabad official, founded the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (also known as MIM). The MIM became a powerful organization, with the principal focus to marginalize the political aspirations of moderate Muslims.[6]
MIM "had its storm troopers in the Razakars who were headed by Kasim Razvi, a Muslim educated at Aligarh University who claimed Hyderabad was a Muslim state and that Muslim supremacy was based upon the right of conquest".[7][unreliable source?] The Razakars demanded special powers from the Nizam, which they started to misuse and the Nizam had to abide by their dictates. The Nizam sent a delegation to the United Nations to refer the Hyderabad State case to the UN Security Council.
The Razakar militia brutally put down the armed revolts by Communist sympathizers and the peasantry and even eliminated Muslim activists such as journalist Shoebullah Khan who advocated merger with India.[8][9] The Razakars terrorised the Hindu population and its sympathizers, causing many to flee to safety into the jungles, uninhabited mud forts, or neighboring Indian provinces.[10][better source needed] The Hyderabad State Congress was banned and its leaders forced to flee to Bezawada or Bombay.
[11] In 1947 India and Hyderabad had signed a ‘Standstill Agreement’ which means status quo would be maintained. However, Nizam and Razakars started to violate the agreement.
On 1 September, 1948, Razakars attacked Perumandla Sankeesa village in Dornakal mandal of Warangal district for demanding Hyderabad to be merged with Indian Union, which had freshly got independence on 15 August 1947. Razakars came on horses, gathered innocent villagers to make them stand in circle before shooting them dead and threw the injured into the fire and raped their women. Such horror and brutalities were carried out uncountable times by Razakars on Hindu population, who demanded to be with India.
Types of Razakars
Quoting an article of K F Rustomjee, the former DGP of Maharashtra and BSF, Captain Panduranga Reddy said that the policemen from Akola district in then Central Province were sent in to Hyderabad state in the garb of Razakars to create turmoil and blame the Nizam government. Rustomjee was SP of Akola at the time. Captain Reddy called the Communists as traitors, who encouraged violence to spread their agenda.[12]
- General:
- Muslim razakars
- Hindu razakars - Personnel recruited by Hindu Deshmukhs and Zamindars to gain favour of the Nizam.[12][13]
- Fake Razakars: These Razakars were Members of the Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha, Communists, and even Congress of Hyderabad State working in close coordination with an organisation called "Poona Patri Sarkar" operating from Satara under the leadership of "Achyut Patwardhan". This organisation caused a lot of damage and destruction in Hyderabad and was feared by its local populace.
- Communist razakars - Communists who posed as Razakars and carried out loot[12][13]
- Congress razakars[14] They are the one's who had looted the Umri bank.[15]
Annexation after Operation Polo
Finally, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian Minister for Home Affairs, decided to undertake "police action" in Hyderabad State to force the King Nizam's hand. Operation Polo was launched and the Indian Army, led by Major General J. N. Chaudhuri, entered the state from five directions. The Razakars fought briefly against the overwhelming attack by Indian forces before surrendering on 18 September 1948. Mir Laik Ali, the Prime Minister of the Nizam, and Qasim Rizvi were arrested.
On 22 September 1948, the Nizam withdrew his complaint from the UN Security Council.The merger of Hyderabad into the Indian Union was announced. Major General Chaudhuri took over as military governor of Hyderabad and stayed in that position till the end of 1949. In January 1950, M. K. Vellodi, a senior civil servant was made the Chief Minister of the state and the Nizam was given the position of "Raj Pramukh" or "Governor".
The Pandit Sunderlal Committee Report estimated that between 27,000 and 40,000 Muslims lost their lives in the violence that ensued the operation.[16]
Disbandment
The Razakars were disbanded after the merger of Hyderabad with India and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was banned—though it was rechartered under the Congress government as All India MIM (AIMIM) in 1957. Qasim Rizvi was jailed and served in Indian prisons for almost a decade. He was released only on an undertaking that he would migrate to Pakistan within forty-eight hours of his release.[4] He was granted asylum in Pakistan.
See also
Further reading
References
- ^ Ghayur, Syed Inam ur Rahman (17 September 2019). "Truth behind the Razakars". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Adepu, Mahender (27 August 2017). "Bairanpalle Stands Witness to Gory Past". The Hans India. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
- ^ Moraes, Frank, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mumbai: Jaico. 2007, p.394
- ^ a b "Hate speech not new for Owaisi clan". The Times of India.
- ^ Srinath, Raghavan (2010). War and peace in modern India. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 75. ISBN 9780230242159. OCLC 664322508.
- ^ Kate, Marathwada under the Nizams 1987, p. 73.
- ^ Moraes, Frank, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mumbai: Jaico. 2007, p.390
- ^ Rao, P.R., History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: From the Earliest Times to 1991, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2012. p. 284
- ^ Remembering a legend, The Hindu, 22 August 2008; Aniket Alam, A one-man crusade, it was and still is[dead link], The Hindu, 6 January 2003.
- ^ Kate, Marathwada under the Nizams 1987, p. 84.
- ^ "Razakars committed Hindu genocides to establish Islamic State in Hyderabad during 1940s. Are modern Razakars as Owaisis trying to get the same goal today politically? Part I". Trunicle. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
- ^ a b c Siddique. "Attempt to portray Nizam as 'intolerant oppressor' decried". gulfnews.com.
- ^ a b Kate, Marathwada under the Nizams 1987, p. 77.
- ^ "Nizam's generous side and love for books - Page 16". such.forumotion.com.
- ^ Sundarayya, P. (1973). "Telangana People's Armed Struggle, 1946-51. Part Three: Pitted against the Indian Army". Social Scientist. pp. 23–46. doi:10.2307/3516496.
Further reading
- Hyder, Mohammed (2012). October Coup, A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad. Roli Books. ISBN 8174368507.
- Kate, P. V. (1987), Marathwada under the Nizams, 1724-1948, Mittal Publications, pp. 73–, ISBN 978-81-7099-017-8
- Khalidi, Omar (1988). Hyderabad, after the fall. Wichita, Kansas: Hyderabad Historical Society. ISBN 093081102X.
- Menon, V. P. (1956). The Story of Integration of the Indian States. MacMillan.
- Sherman, Taylor C. (2015), Muslim Belonging in Secular India, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-09507-6
- Muralidharan, Sukumar (2014). "Alternate Histories: Hyderabad 1948 Compels a Fresh Evaluation of the Theology of India's Independence and Partition". History and Sociology of South Asia. 8 (2): 119–138. doi:10.1177/2230807514524091.
- Noorani, A. G. (2014). The Destruction of Hyderabad. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1-84904-439-4.