The historical significance of the date September 17, the day on which the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad became part of the Union of India 74 years ago, seems to be the latest tool in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s arsenal to gain ground in Telangana. With the Assembly elections in the southern state just a year away, the BJP-led Union government had recently announced its decision to hold year-long celebrations of the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ to mark 75 years of the Hyderabad state’s annexation to India.
It may be noted that the BJP or its ideological ancestors, however, had no role in the events that led to the annexation of Hyderabad during the regime of Nizam Osman Ali Khan through ‘Operation Polo’, a military action conducted by the Indian Army a year after Independence. Rather, BJP’s narrative with regard to the ‘Liberation Day’ has communal overtones, amid allegations that KCR has so far remained passive on the matter due to his cosy relationship with the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
KCR’s move to counter the BJP’s propaganda machinery is to celebrate September 17 as the ‘Telangana National Integration Day’ instead. The decision comes in tow of a letter written by Owaisi to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Telangana Chief Minister, urging both the Union and state governments to celebrate the day as such. In his letter, Owaisi had said that the common Hindus and Muslims of erstwhile Hyderabad state were advocates of a united India under a democratic, secular and republican government. The same was reflected in the Sunderlal Committee report as well, he pointed out in the letter. “The struggles of the people of the erstwhile Hyderabad state against colonialism,feudalism and autocracy are a symbol of national integration rather than merely a case of ‘liberation’ of a piece of land or the removal of a ruler,” he added.
Owaisi’s letter had come as a convenient tool for KCR to plot against the BJP's decision to celebrate the ‘Liberation Day’, with the CM soon announcing the decision to commemorate September 17 as ‘National Integration Day’. But it may already be too late, political observers feel, as adequate damage has already been done by the BJP propaganda machinery. In fact, BJP’s Telangana State President Bandi Sanjay has claimed that the party saw KCR's decision as the BJP's victory, while accusing the CM of distorting the history of the liberation of Hyderabad and seeking approval from the Darussalam, the AIMIM headquarters.
Besides, KCR himself had demanded the celebration of a Liberation Day while he was leading the Telangana statehood movement, which the BJP is now capitalising on.
According to Palwai Raghavendra Reddy, a Hyderabad-based political analyst, KCR’s decision to celebrate September 17 as Telangana National Integration Day might help blunt the BJP's efforts to tilt the communal narrative around the date, but it cannot contain the damage that has already been done. “Until 2018, KCR used to set the narrative in Telangana. But it seems like he is falling behind now. Currently, he is paying the cost for his consistently passive attitude towards the commemoration of September 17,” he said.
Raghavendra further noted that KCR's delayed push for ‘Telangana National Integrity Day’ may merely help him retain some control, as the major fruit in this tussle would be yielded by the BJP.
Before leaving the country in 1947, the British had given princely states such as Hyderabad two choices — either accede to the newly born dominions of India or Pakistan, or continue as an independent sovereign state. In India, under the leadership of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the merger of princely states.
During the same period, the Nizam regime in Hyderabad was witnessing the Telangana Peasants Armed Rebellion led by the Communist Party of India (CPI) against the Doras, the caste Hindu landlords, and the Muslim elite who held dominance over the land. The peasants of lower castes were subjected to oppression by the state-appointed Jagirdars in the name of tax collection. In addition, the Razakars of Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a fundamentalist paramilitary force led by Khasim Razvi, was also unleashing violence and atrocities on the peasants.
According to several historians, the chieftains (Rajas) and landlords under the Nizam aegis were mostly caste Hindus, who held control over the maximum share of revenue lands (diwani). Different historical accounts suggest that caste Hindus have enjoyed significant patronisation from the side of the government as well, besides being allotted powers on land and revenue on par with Muslim elite.
At the time, the Nizam's decision to retain Hyderabad as an independent state was opposed by the Indian government, in the wake of which the Indian Military's Operation Polo was launched. The military action is said to have resulted in the killings of 27,000 to 40,000 Muslims, following which the last Nizam annexed the state to India on September 17, 1948. Later, he was given the title of the Raj Pramukh, a position equivalent to that of the Governor, by the Indian government. Meanwhile, Razvi was jailed for a decade before he was allowed to leave for Pakistan.