Congress in Telangana gave award to Razakar—a propaganda film that demonises Muslims

“They’ve been blaming our party—blaming Nehru—for the delay in Hyderabad’s annexation. By giving Razakar an award, what message are we sending out?” a senior Muslim leader of Telangana Congress said.

The poster of Razakar, produced by Telangana BJP leader Gudur Narayan Reddy | Photo: X/@SamarveerCLLP

It hardly surprised anyone that the movie Razakar: The Silent Genocide of Hyderabad was produced by Telangana BJP leader Gudur Narayan Reddy. After all, the propaganda film was intended to push the narrative that Muslims in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad attacked Hindus before its annexation into the Indian Union on 17 September 1948.

So when Razakar bagged the Best Cinematography and Best Debut Director awards at the 15th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2025—again, not surprising.

What did shock me and many others, however, was the Congress-run Telangana government giving Razakar an award at the inaugural Gaddar Telangana Film Awards, under the ‘Environment/Heritage/History’ category.

Balladeer Gaddar, a former Naxalite turned activist who fought for Telangana statehood, is a name long associated with the Left in the state. He was linked with everyone who was ideologically opposed to Hindutva and right-wing politics. So the Congress has left many puzzled by awarding a film produced by a BJP leader. What’s even more striking is that AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi—who called Chief Minister Revanth Reddy an “RSS Anna”—has remained silent on the matter.

So why is this movie winning an award a problem? For starters, its portrayal of Muslims is a terrible caricature of the community in the state, and it distorts the facts of what happened in the days leading up to Hyderabad’s annexation. I tried to watch the movie—but I had to walk out halfway because I simply couldn’t take any more.

The false portrayals of everything were just too disturbing.

What happened in 1948

One of the most ignored aspects of Hyderabad’s history growing up was information about the annexation of the erstwhile Hyderabad state. Formed in 1724 as a Mughal vassal state by the Asaf Jahi Nizams, the last Nizam of Hyderabad was Mir Osman Ali Khan, who ruled from 1911 to 1948.

The state was one of the largest in India—around 82,698 square miles—including present-day Telangana, five districts of Maharashtra, and three of Karnataka (including Bidar and Gulbarga). It was relatively peaceful, thanks to a treaty with the British East India Company in 1798 and later with the British Crown, under which the Nizams enjoyed semi-autonomous rule.

But as independence approached, things changed. Osman Ali Khan—like a few other princely rulers—wanted to stay independent. That became a problem in 1947. But what is often missed is that, even before that, by 1946, peasants in Telangana had started mobilising under the banner of the Communist Party of India (CPI) against extreme feudal oppression.

The Telangana Rebellion

‘Vetti Chakiri’—or bonded labour—was the norm. Thousands of peasants and lower-caste people were forced to slave for Jagirdars (land revenue collectors) who controlled around 60 per cent of the state. Many of these landlords were from dominant Hindu castes. Muslims made up about 10 per cent of the state’s population.

The Telangana Armed Struggle, a peasant uprising, began in 1946, a year before independence, and lasted until 21 October 1951, when the CPI officially called it off. Hyderabad was annexed on 17 September 1948, when the Indian government under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent in the Army after negotiations failed. The military action was also partly driven by fears that the CPI might take control of Telangana (a fact documented in historical records).

One major trigger was the rise of the Razakars in 1947—a paramilitary group led by Qasim Razvi, then head of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). A fanatic, Razvi used the group to terrorise opponents of the Nizam’s rule and to attack Hindus.

Razakar‘s propaganda

What the Razakars did was horrendous, and many families in Telangana still remember being attacked. That is a fact. But it is also a fact that many Muslims, both inside and outside the government, opposed the Razakars and supported a peaceful transition. Some, like the noted Urdu poet and revolutionary CPI leader Makhdoom Mohiuddin, actively fought the feudal system as part of the Communist-led resistance.

The movie Razakar, however, entirely omits this part—especially the CPI-led Telangana armed struggle. Its entire focus is on the Razakar group, which it exploits to paint Muslims in a negative light. This one-sided narrative is partly the result of earlier governments suppressing historical truths, creating a vacuum that others now fill with propaganda.

And that’s the point. Since Telangana’s formation, the BJP has been demanding official recognition of ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’—a phrase meant to imply the state was “liberated” from Muslim rule. But Osman Ali Khan, after 1948, continued to serve as Rajpramukh (Governor) for a few years, and lived peacefully until his death in 1967.

The film essentially claims that Hindus were oppressed and killed by Muslims during the annexation. But it entirely leaves out the brutal, caste-based feudal slavery that Dalits and other oppressed classes suffered at the hands of dominant-caste Jagirdars.

Even some Congress leaders in the state were caught off guard by the award. “They’ve been blaming our party—blaming Nehru—for the delay in Hyderabad’s annexation. So by giving this movie an award, what message are we sending out?” a senior Muslim Congress leader told me.

No one else seems to have an answer either. But the BJP seems to be quietly smiling in a corner.

Unfortunately, instead of confronting history with facts and nuance, we now have a film that distorts the truth and sows seeds of communalism in Telangana.

Yunus Lasania is a Hyderabad-based journalist whose work primarily focuses on politics, history and culture. He tweets @YunusLasania. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)