Articles
Atrocities of Razakars In Nizam s Dominion in 1946-48
Dt: 4/3/20
Atrocities of Razakars
In Nizam’s Dominion in 1946-‘48
- Dr T.H.Chowdary*
1.Introduction
1.1 The period 1927 to ‘47 in the territory of the Nizam of Hyderabad, especially Telangana area, witnessed bestiality and barbarism resembling those indulged during the Moplah rebellion ( Aug 21, 1921 to Jan 31, 1922) in the Malabar ( in Kerala) district of Madras Province at the height of the Indian Muslims’ khilafat movement, joined in by Mahatma Gandhi- led Indian National Congress . The Moplahs are the progeny of Muslim Arab traders (7th to 18th century AD) and Malabar’s indigent sections of fishing and toiling women. Moplah is the corrupted form of Mapilla, the Malayalam word meaning, son-in-law. They were noted for their fanaticism and ferocity . During the British rule, there were periodic outbreaks of Moplah atrocities on Hindus and the British constabulary. It took five months from August 1921 to Jan 1922 for the British army units ( Goorkhas from Nepal, Chin-Kachin units of Burma included ) and Indian soldiers to put down the Moplah rebellion during which the Moplhas established a Caliphate with one Ali Musaliar as the Caliph and two other Moplahs as kings in the rebel area . The Moplahs wielded arms, looted rifles from police stations, accumulated swords, spears, axes , lathis, knives and other lethal weapons. They numbered over 42,000. Over 2,400 of them were killed by the Indian army and over 4000 were wounded and the rest surrendered. The surviving rebels were given various sentences including death and transportation for life.
1.2 The Razakars ( Urdu for volunteers) were a non-state, drilled and armed violent gangs of Muslims specially organized by Kasim Razvi, the fourth and last chief of the Majlis Ittehadul-Muslameen MIM for short (usually referred to as Ittehad). The MIM was founded in 1927 to keep the Nizam’s dominion ( Hyderabad) as Muslim-ruled state, though 90% of its population was Hindu; under “paramountcy” of Great Britain till 14 August 1947 and thereafter as a sovereign independent Islamic kingdom, the sovereignty being that of Muslim, with the king (His Majesty Osman Ali Khan as) “emanation” of Muslims sovereignty.
1.3 The Razakars swelled from about 50,000 in 1946 to about 300,000 by August 1948 . A few thousand Harijans ( now self-styled as Dalits but designated by governments as schedule caste (S.C) Hindus ) forcibly or fraudulently converted to Islam formed part of the Razakars. They were usually known and called as Ittehad Harijans. Rzakars were generally accepted by most Muslims of the Nizam’s Hyderabad state (a) as the organized non-military force supplementing Nizam’s police and armed forces, to fight communist guerilla squads who were waging battles against the Nizam’s feudal, extortionist rule and liberating hundreds of villages and (b) terrorize people and organizations desiring union with the rest of free India. The MIM and its Razakars had the indirect support of the Nizam and his government ; it had financial support from many Muslim industrialists and businesses. Many among government officers and other ranks ( 90% Muslims ) were Ittehadists. So were persons in the state and private sector enterprises. The Razakars therefore were never short of funds and facilities. The Nizam did not accede to India or Pakistan on 15.08.1947. When conflict between the Union of India and Nizam’s state was becoming certain, the Rzakars were, through the Ittehad’s 52 control and Command centers in the state, seconded to the Nizam’s armed forces.
1.4 The difference between the Moplah rebels of Malabar (Kerala) and Razakars in Hyderabad was : the Moplah’s rose in revolt against the established British -ruled Indian state to establish an Islamic caliphate ( they did establish one for some time) and rule over a vastly Hindu majority. They had to terrorize and subdue and convert and humiliate the Hindus by bestial force and fight the British Indian army. Different from that, the Razakas had an established 600 year old Muslim state under their control; with the state police operating in support of them; they had only to terrorise the Hindu majority into acceptance of the established Muslim rule for-ever. The Ittehad took to set upon increasing the Muslim population by import of Muslims from other parts of India, Ethiopia and Yemen and converting the schedule castes by force, fraud and inducement to Islam. There is therefore some difference in the ferocity and bestiality of the atrocities committed against Hindus by the Moplahs in Malabar on the one hand and the Razakars in Hyderabad state on the other hand . They were similar but differed in intensity.
1.5 The Razakars were initially fighting the communist guerrillas who were liberating villages in Telangana from Nizam’s feudal and exploitative rule. In this fight, the Razakars had the support of the State’s police ( and army when necessary). When conflict with the Union of India was becoming certain , the Razakars struck a silent alliance with communists to fight the common enemy; for communists, the capitalist, Anglo-American Imperialism’s stooge, the Nehru government and for Razakar’s Sardar Patel’s Hindu Raj. The Nizam patronized the Razakars who soon became the Frankenstein. In the final struggle with the Indian Union, in Sept 1948 the Razakars evaporated; their planted Prime Minister Mir Laik Ali became a captive ( who later escaped in the dress of a Burqua-clad “lady”); Kasim Razvi, the Salar, Field Mashall was imprisoned and eventually allowed to go to Pakistan and His Majesty and His Exalted Highness the Nizam, Sir Oman Ali Khan became a subject of the Indian Union and a Raja Pramukh for some time. He died in Sept 1965. We shall now trace, the birth, growth, deeds and death (temporary) of the Razakars and their rebirth as All India MIM .
2. Nizam’s Origin & His Dominions
2.1 Descent & End
• One Khulijkhan came from Turkey and got into the service of Shahjahan in 1656
• His grandson, Khumruddin got title Nizam-ul-Mulk under Auranzeb and came to Deccan as Subahdar
• On decline and decay of Mogul power, Nizam declared independence in 1724. This first Asaf Jahi ruler died in 1748.
• The 7th Nizam Mir Usman Alikhan ruled from 1911 to 1948
• On 17 Sept 1948, he surrendered to the Indian Union; came under military rule for some time and then designated Rajpramukh, under, representative popular rule
• Nizamshahi ended with the dead of the Nizam on 24 Feb 1967
2.2 Nizam’s Dominion (came to be called a “country” by the Nizam & Razakars)
• Area : 212,480 Km2 of which Telangana is 112,077 Km2
• Population in 1947 – 18 mln of which Telangana’s was 50% ; Muslims were ( 9 to 11)%
• Telangana was under Muslim rule for 600 years ( 1347 to 17 Sept 1948)
• Bahmanis- 1347 -1518
• Qutubshahis (Golkonda) : 1518-1687
• Moguls : 1687to 1724
• Nizam (Asafjahis) : 1724 to 17 Sept 1948
• Nizam’s personal lands ( Estate) : 25% of Nizam’s dominion ; called Atraf Balda / Sarfe Kha. The revenue from this area was Nizam’s; not his State’s.
• Samstans: 14 Jagirs : 500
• Telangana : 16 districts ; Marathwada : 5
• Karnataka:3
• Berar (Ahmednagar, Amaravati called (khandesh) was ceded to the East India Company in 1835 against a debt of Rs 60 cr . Nizam’s eldest son was titled “Prince of Berar”.
• The only vestige of Nizamshahi in Berar was “flying Nizam’s flag and one gun salute” every year on the birth day of the Prince of Berar
2.3 Population
• Telugus : 50% ; Marathi: 25% ; Kannada: 11%
• Urdu & Hindi : 14%
• Village officials; Patwari’s, Patels, Deshpandes and Deshmukhs - mostly Hindus
• Nizam state employees : > 90% Muslims
( for 11% Muslim population, 13% after settling 800, 000 Muslims from other parts of India during Aug 1947 and Sept 1948)
• No Panchayats or Zill a Parishads ; no elected bodies ; no legislature
• Persian as official language till 1880s
• Urdu in schools, colleges, University , in government & High Court till end 1948.
• The 6th Nizam had a Hindu, Kishan Parshad as Diwan/ Prime Minister
2.4 The Nizam; Islamic Supremacist
• The last and 7th Nizam ( 1911-1948) Mir Osman Ali Khan removed Sir Kishan Prasad as Diwan saying “Tu kishan pershad hain to mein khuda parshad hun”.
• Since then only Muslims were Prime Ministers. Sir Akbar Hydari, Mirza Ismail, Nawab of Chattari (twice) ( all from outside the Nizam’s dominions). The last Prime Minister was a Hyderabadi, the notorious Mir Laik Ali (Jan 1948 to Sept 17, 1948) .
• The last Nizam wrote some poetry too; here is his poem
“Islam aloft and Hinduism down”
( cited by Sardar Patel when he met the Nizam in Feb 1949 after liberation in Sept
1948)
Bandh nakheen huva
Sunke nidyae takdeer
Jaljala ahi gava rifta
yeh junnar mainbhi
Meaning: “The sound of the conch fell silent as the sound of kalma rose. The soil spewed by the earth-quake covered the Hindus’ sacred threads and their other ( cultural) markers.
2.5 The Muslim conviction and slogan were
• Anal Malik – Every Muslim is ruler
• Sovereignty is not with the Nizam but in the Muslim kaum (community) – roared the Ittehad and Razakars
2.6 Nizams were mortally afraid of Marathas and Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan
• Nizams sought French protection ; gave the circar districts (Coastal Andhra) as price. The East India Company. later snatched them from the French
• Nizam sought British protection and ceded Rayala Seema districts to the British East India Company.
• Thus what is now A.P was ceded by the Nizam to East India Company/ Britain before end of 18th century. Nizam was left with Telangana, Marathwada and Karnataka Districts
• The British kept contingents of their army in Secunderabad to “protect” the Nizam
2.7 Aggrandizement & Exhaustion
• The 7th Nizam, Osman Alikhan used to confer (sell) titles Jung, Nawaz Zung and Yar Zung ( ascending order) to whosoever gave more and most Ashrafis ( 1 tula or 10gms gold coin)
• The Nizam got “Begums” from the Royal families in Turkey
• The Nizam constructed “Serais” in Makka & contributed significant sums to the British war effort in World Wars, I & II
• He was given the title “ HEH - His Exalted Highness (Sardar Patel said of him: His Exhausted Highness after liberation.
3. Muslimification of Hyderabad : Deendar’s and Ittehad’s Mission
3.1. Deendars:
3.1.1 In the mid 1920s Hazrat Maulana Siddique Deendar founded what came to be known as Deendars. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Channa Basaveswar, founder of the Lingayat Sect in the 18th century. Four of his lieutenants were declared as avatars of Vyasa, Srikrishna, Narasimha & Veerabhadra. They wore green turbans & saffrom robes. The Deendars were chiefly engaged in converting Scheduled Caste Hindus to Islam through false and foul propaganda, fraud , inducement and sometimes, by force .
3.1.2 One of the Deendar’s books, Awanul-Nas contained the following exhortation: “My Muslim brethren! The Qoran has taught you only one thing : that is, to change the country in which you live into Pakistan ; in other words , to compel others to drink waters of the Qoran-e-Majid . A bowl containing one quarter milk and three quarters dung cannot be called clean. Whether it is Arabisatn or Turkestan or Afghanistan, so long as it contains kafiristan in its territory, it can’t be called Pakistan”.
3.1.3 Siddique pursued his proselytizing activities vigorously by declaring a jihad against the shrines of Hindus and issued a public appeal for one lakh volunteers. The Nizam took no action against him. On Jan 10, 1932 a large number of Hindus submitted a petition to the Nizam to check Deendars’ activities. They continued to function till 1948 on a very limited state as the government imposed some restrictions on his activities. The Razakars looked upon the Deendars with contempt but tolerated them as convenient allies for terrorization of Hindus .
3.2 Majslis Ittehadul Muslameen (MIM, popularly known as Ittehad)
In order to promote Islamism among the Muslim population of Hyderabad and inspire them to support the Nizam’s bid to preserve the Hyderabad state as independent sovereign Muslim kingdom outside a future independent India, the MIM was founded in 1926 by one Mohamood Nawaz Khan , a former civil servant of Nizam’s government . It had the patronage of the Nizam. Nawaz Khan was succeed by Bahadur Yar Zung in 1928. Under him, the Ittehad had become brazenly Islamist and militant. Nawaz Khan declared , “ we are the sovereign in the deccan”. In 1938 the Constitution of the Ittehad was amended to include “ the person and the throne of the king of this country, Hyderabad are emanations of the political sovereignty and social supremacy of their community and shall be maintained forever.” The Ittehad was, in initial years uniting Muslims and indoctrinating them with the idea of preserving the Nizam’s dominion as a Muslim state without ever merging with the rest of India. Bhadur Yar Zung died in 1944. He was succeeded by one Abdul Hasan Syed Ali . He was eased out by the Nizam as he was too soft and not unfriendly to the State Congress. Kasim Razvi, a law graduate from Aligarh Muslim University was small time lawyer in Latur in Marathwada was elected as the President of the MIM in 1946 Razvi, chose Sayyed Taqui-ud-din, ICS ex-Secretary of the Nizam’s government as his Adviser. Under Kasim Razvi’s leadership, the Ittehad raised the volunteer corps, Razakars and transformed it into an armed fascist organization.
.
4. Kasim Razvi’s ideology and rise of the Razakars
4.1 Razvi insisted on the right of Muslims to enslave Hindus “who are but kafirs and worshipers of stone and monkey, who drink cow’s urine and eat cow-dung; who are barbarians in every sense of the term” . The Razakars carried fire and sword to hundreds of hamlets and unarmed villages. He believed that if sufficiently harassed and frightened, Hindus would not look to Indian Union and agree to 50 :50 representation of Muslims and Hindus (including Christians, Parsis and Sikhs) in any future representative legislature. He ranted, “ if the Indian Union ventures to enter Hyderabad the invader will see the burning everywhere of the bodies of 165 lakhs. We Muslims will not spare others when we ourselves are not allowed to exist”.
4.2 The pledge of the Razakars was: “ in the name of Allah I do hereby promise to fight to the last to maintain supremacy of the Muslim power in the Deccan “. In Jan 1948, the Razakars numbered 30,000. By Aug 1948 they swelled to 300,000. Their target was to raise it to 500,000 before end 1948. Women were also to be included among the Razakars. With spears and swords and rifles, they raided villages within Telangana and across the border in the Indian Union, indulging in rape, plunder, burning of homes and killing anyone who resisted . They were supplied with trucks and jeeps by the Nizam’s government; given free transport on Nizam Railways and the Nizam’s road transport corporation. Sidney Cotton, a notorious freebooter was smuggling arms into Hyderabad by air and these were shared between the Nizam’s army and Razakars. Head Quarters of Razakars was Darul –us.Salam in the old city . It had 52 Command and Control centers distributed in the Nizam’s territory.
4.3 Under official pressure and private harassment by Razakars and freebooting goonda bands , under threats of violence , Hindus were prevented from repairing or building temples in any locality where any Muslim resided ; temples were desecrated, Hindu religious teachers were prohibited to deliver discourses. The Ittehad had its official daily Rahbar besides 15 dailies and weekly publications by its businessmen supporters .
· On 27 July 1947 Ittehad celebrated Independence Day in Hyderabad City. Razvi declared that Hyderabad was free and independent and threatened direct action (like Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League launched on 16 Aug 1946 to divide India and create Pakistan) against the Nizam’s government if it ever acceded to the Indian Union.
· “Weapons Week” was celebrated in March 1948 at Dar-us-salam, the official s HQ of the Ittehad (it is now with MIM, its successor). On the last day 31st March 1948 Razvi took the salute at the march past of the Razakars and spoke:
· “If India is free today, remember it was due to the sword and arms of Muslims . (The victory of India over Pakistan in Kargil in 1999 was claimed by a Muslim leader of Samajwadi party of UP to be due to Muslim soldiers in the Indian Army- Razvi relives in the words of this “secular” ally of Mulayam Singh)
· After the rally at the end of the “Weapons Weak” was over, Razvi ranted: “Hyderabad is an Islamic State. the Indian Union is trying to wipe out this Muslim rule from the Deccan. Remember that there are four-and-a-half crores of Muslims in the Dominion, looking to us to raise the banner of this Islamic State...
· “Ittehad expects every Muslim to do his duty. I am glad that Muslim women are also coming forward to help the Razakars. I appeal to my Muslim sisters to support whole-heartedly this movement, and, if possible to train themselves in the art of self-defence. The time is not far off when we have to throw our entire weight to maintain the integrity of this Islamic State. We have been ruling the Deccan for the last 800 years and we shall rule it whether the Indian Union likes it or not.
· “Power has come to the hands of the Indian Union after one thousand years. They are not capable of ruling. That is the reason why they lost it to the Muslims . Now, when that power has come to them, they think they can browbeat us and terrorise us by bullying an d blustering...
· “When once the Indian Union makes any aggression on us, remember the four and a half crores of Muslims will raise the banner of revolt. We will give back in the same coin and speak to them in the same language that they will understand...
· “I know every one of you is imbued with the spirit of jehad. Remember Karbala. A Muslim is a warrior . He is a first-class fighting man. Indeed, Indian History is full of glorious episodes of the heroism of the Muslims. If India is free to-day, remember it was due to the sword and arms of the Muslims. A Muslim is a born fighter and a protector of the weak.. His one central ambition is to fight for a right and just cause. He will be guided by the great tenets of Qoran. Now, my Muslim brothers, onward march. Never put back your sword into the sheath till your object is achieved. Stop not till you reach your goal (cries of Delhi Chalo). Hound out the enemy. Do not spare him. Mind not your troubles. We believe in God. We have no other friends except Allah, who has created this Islamic State and who shall never let us down. Qoran is in one hand and the sword is in the other, let us march forward; cut our enemies to pieces; establish our Islamic supremacy...
· “I know the helplessness of our Muslim brothers in the Indian Union. Let us by our example of unsurpassed heroism, courage and vision, extend the much-needed succour to them. They will be our ‘Fifth Columnists’ in the Union. Now the Union is thinking of a ‘Fifth Column’ among us. We shall turn the tables and they will understand the character of the Mussalman.. A Hindu who is a kafir, a worshipper of stone and monkey (laughter), who drinks cow’s urine and eats cow dung in the name of religion (renewed laughter) , and who is a barbarian, in every sense of the word, wants to rule us! What an ambition and what a day-dream!...
· “My heart is bleeding. The Hindus want to repeat the same holocaust that they had staged at Delhi. Their methods of coercing Hyderabad to be a mere vassal is the typical example of the ‘Bania’ rule. The only answer to them is the naked sword. I may be here to-day, and perhaps not tomorrow. But I can assure you, my brethren, if you want to see Kasim Razvi in the midst of our life and death struggle, look for him not in the palatial buildings of Banjara, or in pleasant tea parties, but in the midst of the battle-fields (cries of Allah Ho Akbar and Siddisque Deccan Zindabad). You will see me slaying or being slain with sword in my hand and the Qoran in my body....
· “I repeat to you the couplet of the immortal poet Iqbal: ‘What’s it in life, life is only the means to the end, the eternal end; to lay it down in the cause of Islam’. Now I bid you god-speed; protect your Islamic State; protect your blood brothers in the Indian Union and your Islamic rule”
· “ On April 8, 1948 in another violent speech Kasim Razvi raved: “ Hyderabad will shortly recover the Ceded districts and the day is not far off when the waves of the Bay of Bengal will be washing the feet of our sovereign, who will not be called the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, but also of the Northern Sarkars.” No wonder the MIM is now extending its activities to these areas.
· In his speech to his crowds, on May 3, 1948 he spoke:
· ”What kind of freedom have you (India)? You (India) presume to deliver sermons on freedom to the world. But just look at yourself, look at your condition and see what kind of freedom you have achieved. There is Pakistan in your neighbourhood; take a lesson from it. It can teach you constitution and law. The main purpose behind law is peace and prosperity. Everywhere in India you find anarchy. (It is) a country where there is no peace and security and where loot and murder are of daily occurrence (on the other hand) there is no oppression and anarchy in your State.”
(---Take a lesson from Pakistan ! (Sunnis killing Shias and vice versa; both killing Ahmedias and Christians ; and forcibly converting Hindus – should India learn to do so?)
· On June 9, 1949, he raved: “Muslims have always created a new geography for themselves. very soon the boundaries of Hyderabad will expand far beyond Delhi, and the Asafia Flag will fly over Delhi. Yes, I am seeing the Nizam (Asafe-Sabia) marching towards Delhi.
· On June 10, 1948 he said: “Following the example of Muslims of early days they should not remain content with the small piece of Pakistan ... . We are re-writing the map of India by bringing together a union of Jumna and Musi ( the river which flows through Hyderabad). We are the grandsons of Mahmood Ghaznavi and the sons of Babar (were they Indians or foreigners). When determined, we shall fly the Asaf Jahi flag on the Red Fort.
· “They (the Muslims ) would not be content with one Pakistan in the Deccan, ‘‘ They would knit India and the world into Pakistan . Did not their forebears do the same thing 1,300 years ago?’ he concluded.
· In another speech on June 12, he raved: “It is because , as they themselves say, when Lord Mountbatten leaves India, massacres will start again. My Hindu brethren, the Muslims have ruled over you (Hindus ) for 900 years; therefore, I have sympathy with you. If I had wished, I could have exterminated you. ( A Muslim leader of Hyderabad declared recently that if the Indian police would not intervene for 15 mnts, his men could wipe out all Hindus...is this not inspired by Razvi)
· Razvi had distributed arms to his followers and given orders for indiscriminate massacre when the Indian army entered Hyderabad. (Fortunately the “heroic” Islamic warriors dared not to kill any. On the contrary, barbers became the busiest people shaving off beards on the week following 17 Sept 1940, when Hyderabad was liberated).
5. Razakar’s Actions & Butcheries
5.1 Razakar’s atrocities are a pale derivative of Moplahs’ horrendous atrocities. These are classified as:
A) Brutality dishonoring women
B) Flaming and flaying people alive
C) Wholesale slaughter of men, women and children
D) Forcibly converting people in thousands and murdering those who refused to be
converted
E) Throwing half dead people into wells and leaving the victims for hours to struggle till
finally released from their sufferings by death
F) Burning a great many and looting practically all Hindu and Christian houses in the
disturbed area in which even Moplah women and children took part , and robbing
women of even garments on their bodies
G) Cruelly insulting the religious sentiments of Hindus by desecrating and destroying
numerous temples
H) Killing cows within temple precincts, putting their entrails on the holy idols and
hanging the skulls on the walls and roofs
The Razakars added one more atrocity: Hanging people heads down, legs tied to tree branches and lighting fires below the heads of the hanging people. (62 Karasevaks were incinerated in closed rail cars in Godhra in 2002 ). Burning at the stake was the Christians’ practice during the Inquisition in Europe (Goa witnessed Inquisition under Portuguese rule. Joan of Arc (France) was burnt alive as a witch. After centuries, she was canonized as a saint.
5.2 What Razakars did in Nizam’s Hyderabad state
• Raid villages reported to harbour agitators for union with India: Communists (upto April 1948) Congress men, Arya Samajists, Hindu Mahasabhaites…
• Loot, molest, rape, abduct, burn, lift cattle, sheep, lambs, poultry; rice, pulses; firewood
• Snatch forcibly nose-studs (mukku pudakalu), ear –studs (pogulu), gold bangles, gold and diamond chains, leaving bleeding bodies
• Collect women, strip them naked, force them to dance batukamma (folk dance) and outrage them in front of husbands and children
• Identify suspected leaders; and resisters cut them into pieces (hands, legs, noses, necks) ; hang them by the legs and put fire below so they are roasted alive.
• Set fire to whole villages
• Raid Union Territory villages, carry out some of the above atrocities under protection of Nizam’s constabulary
• Razakars ran seven Urdu dailies and six Urdu weeklies
• Radio Deccan (Nizam’s Akaash Vani) and Deccan Airways were staffed & officered by Ittehad persons
• Ittehad & Razakars were funded by state-owned companies (NZM’s Railway, Road Transport…) and Muslim -owned companies (eg: Laik ALI’s Construction Company )
• Established lobbies in Delhi, UK and in Pakistan ) after 14 Aug 1947 to convas for Nizam’s independence
• Overawed Nizam; all high officers were Ittehad placed
• Moderate Prime Ministers ( eg: Sir Mirza Ismail) and others inclined to negotiate some terms ( short of accession) were got removed
• Prime –Ministers lasted only if they toed the Ittehad and Razvi’s line
• Mir Laik Ali, Ittehad financier, Pakistan’s delegate to UN, Jinnah – recommandee was the Prime- Minister (Jan 1948 to 17 Sept 1948) to deal with India, arm Nizam’s military and Razakars
In short, Razakars, a ragtag, rowdy, blood-thirsty, Islamist, para-military armed gangs of nearly 200,000 men by mid 1948; and over 300,000 by Sept 1948 overawed Nizam’s government , and frightened Hindus swearing to preserve Hyderabad “country” as a Muslim /Islamist, independent, sovereign state, prepared to wage war against the Indian Republic . They were seconded to the Nizam’s army during the Police Action.
5.3 Some Butcheries of Razakars
• Razakars stopped a train at Gandlapur ( near Wadi), pulled out women, disrobed them, forced them to perform “bathukamma”; an immensely popular group dance performed all over Telangana invoking the blessigns of Gouri, Lord Shiva’s consort), beat them on delicate parts of the body and raped them. In the first week of Sept 1947; Nehru narrated this incident to the press in Delhi but did nothing!
• On first Friday of December 1939, in Hyderabad, After prayers, 200 Razakars looted shops, molested women on the streets, shouted : “kafironko maaro”. They saw Sri Vedprakash, an Arya Samajist functionary and cut him to pieces with swords and knives. He was earlier warned not to do Arya Samaj work and was threatened to face death if he would not convert to Islam.
• Janagaon : In one baithak of Majlis Ittehadul Bainul Muslameen founded Ostensibly to promote peace between Hindus and Muslims. A Hindu Sathagopachari narrated a ghastly act of Razakars and pleaded for stopping them . On the 2nd day he was waylaid and shot dead; a witness was warned, he would meet the same fate, if he revealed the murder!
• Humnabad: Razakars attacked a Dussehra procession; shouted “kafironko maaro” Allaho Akbar; pulled out sarees from women killed a hundred men and women with swords; sloganeered “Usman Ali Khan zindabad”
• Hanumakonda 1939: Dassehra procession was attacked by a pack of Ittehad Harijans (converts to Islam) and hundreds wounded.
• Bairanpalli: Villagers organised protection force; Razakar attacks were twice repulsed. A third organised attack led by the Muslim collector killed 182 villagers lined up, threw the corpses into wells by musterd Harijans of the village – Nizam’s police, soldiers & Razakars operated in combination. Nizam’s government described this operation in Muslim countries as “Suppression of Hindu rebellion”
• Inanur P.S village: Razakars raided, caught hold of five Brahmins, hanged them heads down from a tree branch on the road , set fire below, till reduced to ashes -purpose: Frighten Hindus to submission.
• Razakars raided; resisters put to sword, women raped, severed head of the leader put on a lance, paraded houses, looted and set on fire .
• July 1948 Razakars raided Saidabad: Near Gulbarga, scores of women were stripped and raped in the open, in presence of husbands, children and ornaments were snatched
• Bibinagar Jan 10, 1948: Khasim Razvi was felicitated. As crowning event, houses were looted and set on fire; women were raped, Razvi warned people not to oppose Nizam’s independence
• Amarchinta, Nellilkondi, Appampalli, Parkala, Lambada’s tandas were invaded by Razakars as they gave shelter to Comrades. Lambada women blew mirchi powder into rapists’ eyes and cut off the male organs of those trying to rape.
• Hyderabad: Shoebullah Khan :Nationalist Muslims’ Chitravadha
Shoebullah Khan (b. 12 Oct 1920) was an young, spirited, nationalist Muslim journalist, Editor of Urdu paper Imroze . On 19 Aug 1948, the Ittehad Razakars observed “NANAZ” day. Nanaz village was a Nizam’s enclave in Union territory. When on 24 July 1948. Indian soldiers were on way to Barsi, Razakars attacked them; all Razakars were killed. Razakars observed Nanaz day on 19 Aug where at Razvi made a blood- thirsty, inflammatory speech and called for death of every Muslim writing against Nizam and Razakars and for accession to India. On the night of 21st Aug 1948, when Shoebullah Khan was returning from his office , he was shot thrice; he fell down; his hands were severed. He was smitten by sword on several parts of the body. He died. Ittehad’s papers described it as out of “personal enmity!”.
( This is just like the Prophet requiring his followers to silence Asma Bint Marwan, a lady poetess who was lampooning him. A convert crept into her house in the night, removed the baby at breast and cut off her head and presented it to the prophet)
• Bidar: Between the middle of Feb and end of May 1948, the Ittehad Harijans supported by Razakars and Nizam’s police devastated 129 villages in the district ; burnt 1000 houses , looted lakhs worth of property, killed several hundred villagers of both sexes and committed rape on dozens of women.
• On the 21 of Feb 1948 the Razakars burnt down 55 houses. kidnapped two women and looted and destroyed their property. In Chitanoka taluka loot, arson murder and rape were perpetrated in 12 villages.
• Gortha: On 10 May 1948 the Ittehad Harizans and Razakars devastated this village . It was almost abandoned . The sub-inspector a Muslim along with six constables stayed in the Lakshmi temple. All houses belonging to Hindus except Harijans and Muslims were burnt. More than 200 persons were murdered and the dead bodies were left half burnt. This village was attacked by 300 Razakars. The villagers resisted for two days but were overwhelmed.
• From October 1947 ( when the Stand-Still Agreement between Nizam & Indian Union) till 03 April 1948, there were 260 Razakar raids on villages.
5.4 How Telangana Fought the Razakars
• Petitions to Nizam
• Andhra Mahasabha – Communist Wing took to arms
• Village level Defence Squads – slings, axes , lances, desi rifles, spears..as weapons
• Peoples Army – raided police stations, looted arms and engaged Razakars & police in fights
• Communists liberated about 3000 villages, established self-rule, no taxes to Nizam, village officials & police expelled from liberated villages
• Individual resisance in homes raided by Razakars – chilli powder lathis and knives and even swords, boiling water as weapons
• Women heroines like Chakali Ailamma
• Komaram Bhim - of Gond tribe liberated 12 villages in Adilabad . His Gudem was raided by Nizam’s police and goondas. In the ensuing battle, Bhim and dozens died fighting.
• Arya Samaj – Satyagraha
• Congress Petitions & Satyagraha
6. Communists as Foes and Friends of Razakars (1946-51)
6.1 The Communists were a late presence in Nizam’s Hyderabad State, while they started functioning as a party in India since 1925. Since then they have been having a cozy relationship with the Muslim League in India and have been supporting Muslims’ causes- Partition of India in the 1940s and opposition to CAA; NPR & NCR now.
6.2 In 1940 Communists in Hyderabad City founded The Comrades Association. The Communist Party was under ban in Nizam’s state at that time. The Communists in the Telangana area of the Nizam’s dominion worked as an organized faction in the Andhra Maha Sabha under the leadership of Comrade Rarvinarayana Reddy ( This Reddy was elected as a Communist MP in the 1952 general elections to the Parliament. He secured the highest number of votes in the country, more than even Jawaharlal Nehru in that election ). The Andhra Maha Sabha gave cover to the Communists who went on building up their cadres as an organized group. In May 1943, they began to take leading positions in the Sabha in an open manner. Finally in March –April 1945, by which time the Communist Party in India had the ban lifted, the Telangana communists were openly functioning as a rival Andhra Mahasabha. In 1946 The CPI launched and led an armed struggle against the feudal, extremely oppressive, inhuman rule of the Nizam, his overwhelmingly Muslim officers and police and collaborating village officials ( Patels, Patwaris, Deshmukhs, Deshpandes ) who were mostly Hindus )
6.3 In the period 1945-1948, the communists were heroes, fighting the feudal rule of the Nizam, his police and their Razakar supplements. They were sheltered and loved by the people. Theirs was indeed a heroic struggle in defence of people, the exploited peasants.
• They liberated about 3000 villages in three districts from the Nizam & Razakar rule
• Under COMINFORM’s and Stalin’s instructions and guidance from Com. Rajni Palme Dutt of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), P.C. Joshi was removed as Secretary of CPI; and replaced by Com B.T Ranadive in early 1948 to stage an insurrection and put an end to Nehru government . The CPI was banned in India .
• The CPI launched an armed struggle ( revolution) to pull down Nehru government describing it as a lackey of Anglo-American Imperialism. CPI took to guerilla war against India ( like Naxalites since late 1970s) in Malabar (Kerala), Andhra, Telangana; West Bengal and Bombay
• The B.T Ranadive ( who replaced Com P.C. Joshi in Jan 1948) led the CPI to pull down Nehru government by armed insurrection. The CPI held that the liberated territory of the communists should be the nucleus of the envisaged communist Republic of India. They could defeat and dethrone the weak Nizam’s government and use Telangana as a base for conquest of whole of India ( as the Chinese Communists did, using liberated Yeman as base)
• Nizam issued a firman in June 1947 saying he would be independent sovereign when Britain leaves India on 15-08-1947.
• On Aug 27, 1947 the Nizam issued another firman declaring that he assumed the status of an independent sovereign . The Ittehad and Razakars started referring to him as “His Majesty”.
• Communists declared that the Nizam should not accede to India as India would be a capitalist state
• In April 1948 Razakars clandestinely contacted Maqdoom Moi-ud-din, the underground communist leader for joint resistance to Indian Union as conflict ( war) seemed inevitable.
• Ittehad daily, Mee Zan shifted brutal treatment of rich landlords by communists to Congress men !
• On 4 May 1948 Nizam lifted the ban on communists
• Communists advised their guerilla squads to obstruct and oppose Indian army’s entry into their liberated territory ( 3000 villages in Nalgonda; Warangal; Khamman and Karimnagar districts)
• Khasim Razvi instructed Razakars not to “invade” the communist villages .
• The communists believed they could liberate the whole of Nizam’s territory and use it as “India’s Yenan” to liberate whole of India and establish “peoples (new) democracy” as in China.
• When the Nizam’s army and Razakars were routed by and surrendered to the Indian army on 17 Sept 1948, the Razakars made over their arms and ammunition and jeeps to communists who were determined to fight the Indian army to preserve and expand their liberated territory.
• While the communist guerillas were decimated in a few months in other parts of India, in Telangana, in the liberated villages, the communists fought India’s special police and even the army till mid 1951 , three years even after liberation and integration of Hyderabad with the Indian Union.
• Losing the battles, a communist delegation of Ajoy Ghosh, S A Dange, Chandra Rajeswara Rao & M Basavapunnaiah secretly went to Moscow, and reported the pitiable plight of the revolution in Telangana (India’s Yenan). They were advised to call off the armed struggle and forge a Popular Democratic Front; sue for peace and participate in the General Elections 1951-’52.
6.4 Thus ended the Razakar – Communist War & Love affair. But Telangana continues to supply the top leaders for Naxalites, Peoples War Groups , CPI (ML), urban Naxalism, Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU), Revolutionary Students Union (RSU); Students’ Federation of India (SFI); All-India Students Federation (AISF) and half a dozen communist parties with different letters in parenthesis. Almost all of them are patrons of Razakarist / Pakistaniat Islamist groups and parties and Ambedkarite – Periar dalit groups in Universities. Prakash Ambedkar’s party is in alliance with AIMIM in Maharashtra just as Ittehad Harijans were in alliance with Kasim Razvi’s Razakars. All these Marxist/Communist outfits are now in concert with Muslims’ anti-CAA, NPR & NCR agitations.
7. Pt. Sundarlal Committee’s Report
7.1 During the four - day Police Action ( 13 Sept to 17th Sept 1948) more than 100,000 Razakars were working in the Nizam’s army as combatants, auxiliaries and vigilantes to see that no Hindus collaborated with the advancing Indian army. After the surrender of the Nizam and the takeover of the administration by Gen. Chaudhry, a few prominent Muslim nobles represented to Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru that the Indian Army massacred Muslims and some Hindu groups had committed atrocities on Muslim women and families. 200,000 Muslims were alleged to have been killed . These figures are mentioned at p-211 of the book, “Hyderabad 1948 : An Avoidable Invasion” by Syed Ali Hashmi, published by Pharos Media in 2017 Jawaharlal Nehru was known to be sympathetic to Muslims’ causes and that it was with great reluctance that he agreed for the Police Action to be undertaken. He greatly cared for his international reputation as a peace -loving statesman. While never strongly reacting to the reports of the Razakars atrocities on Hindus for years before the Police Action, he readily gave his sympathetic ears to the reports and representation of the Muslim nobles ( Jung, Nawab Zung, Yar Zung) that innocent Muslims were massacred by the Indian army and some Hindu militant organizations. At the insistence of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Nehru appointed a committee headed by Pt. Sundarlal, a known communist fellow -traveler and at that time, Chairman of the All India Peace Council. That committee came to Hyderabad state , visited a few places, listened to the tales of Muslims and gave a report that over 40,000 innocent Muslims men and women had been butchered by the Indian army and Hindus in revenge attacks. This report was not made public . It is believed that Sardar Patel, the Home Minister who was in -charge of the Police Action had simply filed it .
7.2 From my talks and discussions with some top communist friends and non-communist historians I learnt it appears that in the Telangana region, since the communist party was strong and had a guerilla army, there were no revenge actions by Hindus on Muslims . In the Marathwada part of the Hyderabad state where there were hardly any communists, it appears there were some revenge acts and just as Hindus suffered under Razakars’ acts, some Muslim collaborators with the Razakars in the Marathwada area could have been the victims of revenge. But the victims were only a few hundred and not thousands. In all these decades since the Police Action, the so called Pt. Sundarlal Report has not been discussed in any public forum nor does any person of consequence, talk about it.
8. Resurgence of Razakarism & Pakistaniat
8.1 While there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations the 57 Muslim counties in the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) have adopted an alternative namely, the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights distancing Muslims from the rest of the humanity. Here in India Muslims cherish the idea that they were rulers of India for hundreds of years and that they are a ruling martial race. In the days of the movement for the division of India and creation of Pakistan, there was a popular slogan , “ladeke lenge Pakistan; haske lenge Hindustan” . Many hold the view that Kashmir and Hyderabad the Nizam’s territory as Osmanistan and even India, are unfinished issues of transfer of power by Britain to Indians in Aug 1947.
8.2 Kasim Razvi asserted that Muslims are born fighters and Hindus are cowards, banias (Gandhiji said that “Muslims are bullies and Hindus are cowards) . Sri Akbaruddin Oweisi MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Assembly said two years ago that if the Police kept off for 15 mnts , not a single Hindu would be left alive. Several strident Muslim parties have emerged and are active in different parts of India. To mention a few these are : Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Kerala, AIMIM Centered in Hyderabad and now radiating allover India; All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam, Popular Front of India (PFI), the above ground avatar of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and so on. The Hyderabad Head quartered AIMIM is successor of Majlis Ittehadul Muslameen with the spirit of the Razakars . Its leader Asad-ud-din Oweisi, MP is the third generation leader of the MIM now transformed into AIMIM. His father Sultan Sallah-ud-din Oweisi and grandfather Abdul Wahid Oweisi were the dynastic leaders of the AIMIM. The old city part of Hyderabad is the unbreached stronghold of the MIM and the fief of the Owesis who have been winning the Lok Sabha seat from here since 1980 and since 1958 almost all the State Assembly seats. Oweisi’s speeches are provocative, and challenging ; not a day passes without tweets from him all against the BJP’s legislations and policies. AIUDF’s Badruddin Azmal had said , “no law can compel Muslims to have only two children”. As the Indian Express of 25 Jan 2020 reported, Faizul Hasan former Students Union President of Aligarh Muslim University said, “Muslims can destroy anything if they wish to do (Jan 22, 2020 on AMU campus)…we never tried to break up India, otherwise we are from that community that if we resolve to destroy we have enough anger to not leave anything.
8.3 Support to divisionism
• Communists have been since 1940s congenital supporters of Muslims’ wishes like
creation of Pakistan
• Congress and communists divided districts to create Muslim –majority districts
(Malappuram in Kerala, Mewat in Haryana; Muslim (not SC or ST) First districts (more
than 90) of Sonia Congress led UPA, for special development
• Kasim Razvi was an AMU –graduate ( in law) .AMU continues to be the “arsenal”
(Jinnah’s term) of Razakarists all over India.
• Just as the Nizam funded the Ittehad/ Razakars,non-BJP governments fund Islamist
interests (Haj Houses & HajSubsidies, Urdu Ghars, Shadi Khanas; pay Imams, &
muezzins, fund Madrasaas…)
• Communal riots are not British inventions - they were before the British, during the
British and even after they left.
• Razakarists have no words about ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir but want
Rohingyas and Pakistan / Bangla Muslims in India
• Just as the Ittehad pressed converted Harijans into Razakar gangs, Muslim parties in
India are patronizing, fraternising and collaborating with SC converts to Christianity,
against Hindus. Their refrain is: “SCs, STs, BCs & minorities – unite against Hindutva
BJP. They have (unsolicited even) support from “left, progressive, democratic, secular,
liberal, “eminent” historians, intellectuals, Naxalite and Pw Grounds.
8.4 Holding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as discriminative against and inimical to Muslims, the AIMIM’s leader Asad-ud-din Oweisi is moving all over India, rallying Muslims to the war cry : Muslims are discriminated ; Muslims are insecure ; Muslims are persecuted ; evil designs are there to deprive them of citizenship through National Population Register (NPR), National Citizenship Register (NCR) and even Census . One of their collaborators writer Arundhati Roy advised Muslims and secularists to declare in every enumeration of the Government of India, the residence of the person approached the Prime Minister’s residence address. The agitation of large sections of Muslims including students, especially in AMU in Aligarh , Jamial Millia in Delhi, Jhadavpur in Calcutta , MANUU and HCU and IFLU in Hyderabad reminds us of India’s Muslims khilafat movement concerning the Sultan of Turkey joined in by the secular National Congress in the hope of getting India’s Muslims take part in India’s struggle for freedom. The support of the non-BJP parties to the AIMIM’s anti-CAA movement is in expectation of Muslims voting for them . Just as the khilafat movement radicalized India’s Muslims and ultimately led to the partition of India and creation of Islamist states Pakistan & Bangladesh , the AIMIM movement will lead to further Balkanisation of India
8.5 Lastly, that Razakarism is very much alive gets proved again and again .For eg: in a small town, Bhainsa in the Nizamabad district of Telangana, a Razakarist riot was recently staged in January 2020. Just as in the past (1927-47), the Razakarised young person in Bhainsa staged acts of vandalism - looting Hindus homes and burning them . In the recently (Jan 2020) held municipal elections, the division of Hindu votes between the regional party, the BJP and Congress gave the municipality to the MIM. Where AIMIM candidates do not contest, Muslims vote for the regional party that has the best chance to defeat the BJP.
8.6 We can aptly conclude the talk by quoting the great statesman of India, Dr B.R. Ambedkar on Pakistan, St. Augustine on tolerance, Sir Winston Churchill on the imperative to fight evil in time an d George Santayana on the need to learn from the past.
“I do not think the demand for Pakistan is the result of mere political distemper, which will pass away with the efflux of time. As I read the situation, it seems to me that it is a characteristic in the biological sense of the term which the Muslim body politic has developed in the same manner as an organism develops a characteristic. Whether it will survive or not, in the process of natural selection, must depend upon the forces that may become operative in the struggle for existence between Hindus and Musalmans .
- Dr B.R. Ambedkar in the book, Pakistan or India Divide
“I am in the right, you are in the wrong. When you are stronger, you ought to tolerate me for it is your duty to tolerate the truth.
But when I am stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute errors”.
- St. Augustine, one of the gentlest of Christian divines
Those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them. -George Santayana
The following books were immense sources of information for preparation of this paper.
1. The End of An Era (Hyderabad Memoirs) by K M Mushi – Publisher Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; First Edition 1957, second edition: 1990
2. Hyderabad : 1948 - An Avoidable Invasion by Syed Ali Hasmi; 1st Edition : 2017; Pharos Media Publishing Pvt Ltd; D84 , Abdul Fazl Enclave-1, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-100025
3. The Tragedy of Hyderabad by Mir Laik Ali ; Published in Sept 2011 by Deccan Archaeological and Cultural Institute , Hyderabad; Editor: K. Jitendra Babu
4. The Moplah Rebellion 1921 by C. Gopalan Nair ; 1st Edition : 1923; latest Edition: 2020; Published by Voice of India l 2/18 Amouri Road, New Delhi- 110002
Kasim Razvi in Sardar Patel’s Lair
In November 1947, Kasim Razvi met with Sardar Patel in Delhi. The meeting was contrived by one Sri Joshi, a Gujarati businessman of Jalna, and a minister in Nizam’s cabinet. Here is what transpired.
“Well asked the Sardar, ‘what do you want?’
Razvi had the look of a fanatic, his rolling eyes emitting fire as if he were possessed. He glared angrily for a moment. Joshi was nervous, but Sardar’s eyes were unflinching.
Razvi broke the silence by saying, “I want a change of heart from you”.
When he so wished, Sardar could make silence very uncomfortable. At length he remarked, ‘A change of heart is only necessary for one whose heart is full of poison.’
‘Why don’t you let Hyderabad remain independent?’ asked Razvi.
‘I have gone beyond all possible limits. I have conceded to Hyderabad what I did not concede to any other State,’ returned Sardar.
‘But I want you to understand the difficulties of Hyderabad, ‘ pursued Razvi.
‘I don’t see any difficulty, unless you have come to some understanding with Pakistan , was Sardar’s reply.
‘If you do not see our difficulties, we will not yield,’ cried Razvi working himself up to a state of excitement. We shall fight and die to te last man for Hyderabad.
‘How can I stop you from committing suicide if you want to? Sardar blandly replied.
‘You do not know the Muslims of Hyderabad; repeated Razvi. ‘We shall sacrifice everything for our independence.’
‘If it comes to sacrifice, India has shown what it can do, but Hyderabad has yet to show what it can’, came the cool reply.
Razvi now began a hysterical tirade on the shedding of blood for the Deen and the Millat.
Sardar listened in stolid silence to what Razvi had to say and, when he paused for breath, said, I would advise you to see the sun before it is too late. Do not plunge into darkness while the light is still visible...............