Up until a decade ago, I was pretty much oblivious to Hyderabad and Telangana’s history in relation to Indian independence. I had no idea that my city and state had one of the most controversial histories from the years just after India’s independence.
Operation Polo, known as ‘Police Action’ in local parlance, was the military action through which the Indian government annexed the erstwhile Hyderabad state, ruled by the Asaf Jahi Nizams on 17 September 1948.
When I began acquainting myself with Hyderabad’s history, reading about this was like entering an entirely new dimension. We were never taught about it in school. In fact, it felt like it was buried even by those who had experienced it, because of the scars it had left on the collective psyche.
The annexation of Hyderabad was no simple matter. Operation Polo was not just about making the Nizam accede, but also about an ongoing Communist Party of India (CPI)-led peasant rebellion in the region. Called the Telangana Armed Struggle, it had begun in 1946 and continued for the next several years—which is why the Indian Army stayed on here for three years to crush the movement. The CPI finally called it off in 1951.
The reason why this entire chapter of our history was essentially buried had more to do with the fact that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were one state until 2014. A lot of our history was brushed over due to dominance from Andhra.
Anyway, the bifurcation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 2014 led to a lot of us rediscovering our state’s culture and history, and Operation Polo was one of those things. Until 2019, the subject was beginning to enter public discussion — as it should — but it was nowhere close to being politically manipulated. Now, though, it’s being twisted in a new way.
Because of the BJP, which observes 17 September as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’, the entire discussion on Operation Polo has narrowed into either defending the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, or spreading anti-Muslim propaganda.
In the last five years, the BJP has not only politicised the day as marking a people’s uprising against the Nizam but also managed to force others to acknowledge it publicly. The previous BRS government, in power between 2014 and 2023, had chosen to stay mum on the issue during its first term. However, in its second term it began to observe ‘National Integration Day’ in response to the BJP’s demand.
The current Congress government calls it ‘People’s Governance Day’ but it’s honestly too late. The state government should have countered Right-wing narratives before they seeped into public discourse via social media. That delay is also what allowed a movie like Razakar: Silent Genocide of Hyderabad to be made and released with such hype during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Also Read: 11 years after state formation, where’s Telangana’s history? Govt must fix information gap
The muddied waters of 1948
As the British prepared to partition India and Pakistan in 1947, there was also the bigger question of which side the princely states would choose. While most of the 560-odd states chose India or Pakistan, based on geography, a handful like Kashmir and Hyderabad were mulling independence.
While the tribal invasion from Pakistan forced Kashmir’s hand in October 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad held out. His decision to stay independent did not go down well in New Delhi. Hyderabad was one of the largest princely states, about 82,598 square miles, and comprising 16 districts of today’s Telangana, five from Maharashtra, and three from north Karnataka.
On paper, the state looked progressive, and the last Nizam was one of the richest men in the world in the 1930s. But its underbelly was fuelled by oppressive feudalism. In the villages, state-appointed jagirdars (revenue collectors) unleashed terror on tenant farmers and imposed slave labour, known as vetti chakiri in Telugu.
Hyderabad city under the last Nizam was glamorous, with railway stations, an airport, modern markets, a university. But rural life was anything but equitable.
There were also, of course, restrictions on politics. The Hyderabad State Congress was banned in 1938, and the CPI a couple of years later. However, due to the oppression in the rural areas, the CPI, under the radar, managed to garner support and in 1946-47 began the Telangana Armed Struggle — a mass movement against the jagirdars.
This was something the Nizam was unable to contain, and even the last commander of the Hyderabad State Army, Syed Ahmed el-Edroos, admitted as much in his memoir Hyderabad of the Seven Loaves.
By the time of independence, the Nizam was already grappling with an internal rebellion, and his refusal to join India eventually led to the state being forcefully annexed. The real issue, though, is not even the annexation (which some call a merger) but what happened before and after it.
In the days leading up to it, the paramilitary Razakars, formed by then Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Qasim Razvi, had unleashed terror on anyone who spoke about joining the Indian Union.
The Razakars did target Hindus, and many families to this day bear the trauma of losing members to violence. However, the Razakars also went after Muslims who did not agree with them politically or supported merging with India. The murder of journalist Shoaibullah Khan on August 22, 1948, is a wrenching example.
But even post the annexation, once the Indian Army came in, the Maharashtra and Karnataka areas also witnessed violence against Muslims.
The report of the Sunderlal Committee, formed to look into the massacre of Muslims during the 1948 ‘Police Action’, pegs the numbers between 26,000 and 40,000. To this day, many contest it, saying that it was much higher.
However, after close to a decade of researching and reading about Operation Polo, what surprises me is that few here really criticise the last Nizam for his decisions — which were clearly not the best. In spite of advisors warning him of the consequences, he allowed the Razakars to function, and chose to combat India even though it was obvious Hyderabad could not realistically stay away from India.
I mean, just imagine if the Nizam had quietly accepted joining the Indian Union. I am saying this because every single elderly person I have spoken to has recounted only good memories of the erstwhile Hyderabad state up until 1947 — when they saw the violence.
Also Read: Mir Osman Ali Khan, Hyderabad Nizam who wore cotton pyjamas & used a diamond as paper weight
BJP’s distortion of history
Operation Polo will remain a blemish on Osman Ali Khan’s name forever. It was something he could have avoided. The fact that there is no interview of his, no memoir, only other people’s memories, means we will never really know what he was thinking.
Today, his legacy is also being torn apart by the BJP, which has turned him into a devil because of the Razakar violence. All that could have been avoided. It’s a selective Right-wing reading of history. Up until the issue began to be politicised, the narratives were more formal or quiet, and seen via the broader lens of how princely states joined India or Pakistan.
Nobody took the trouble of putting information in the public domain for a more nuanced discussion — especially about the fact that in Telangana, the larger issue was caste-fuelled feudalism. Now, the BJP talks of a popular uprising against the Nizam, which is used as a stick to fuel hate against Muslims.
It is time for the Telangana government to wake up to this reality and start talking more openly about the issue. Course correction requires us to be more honest about facts. We must make reading about this a part of our school syllabus so that our future generations do not become victims of misinformation.
Yunus Lasania is a Hyderabad-based journalist whose work primarily focuses on politics, history and culture. He tweets @YunusLasania. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
Nonsense. The Nizam was anti-people and a despot. The Razakars killed Hindus mercilessly and were paid Muslim mercenaries . Stop distorting history.