List of forms of government
159-402: 1946–1948: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Hyderabad State Supported by: [REDACTED] United Kingdom (1946–1947) 1948–1950: [REDACTED] Dominion of India 1950–1951: [REDACTED] Republic of India [REDACTED] Hyderabad State Forces [REDACTED] Indian Army The Telangana Rebellion , natively known as Telangana Sayudha Poratam ,
318-746: A durra 's organisation, grew in popularity among the peasants and started being referred to as the Andhra Mahasabha (AMS) in Telangana. Prominent feminists disillusioned with the Congress who formed the Mahila Navjeevan Mandali in 1941, also joined the AMS and eventually became members of the Communist Party by 1943. Venkateshwara Rao directly recruited disillusioned Congress members and sympathisers into
477-457: A feudal system in its agrarian economy. It had two main types of land tenure, diwani or khalsa and a distinct category of land called jagir . The lands designated as jagir were granted to aristocrats called jagirdars based on their rank and order, while a portion of the jagir lands were held as the crown lands ( sarf-e-khas ) of the Nizam. The civil courts had no jurisdiction over
636-582: A crowd of 2,000 armed with spears and lathis stormed a police station and released two Congress workers who were being subjected to torture, in the process killing an inspector and injuring several policemen. Another occurred within Hyderabad city when a group of agitators burned down the residences of the British Police Minister and the president of the Executive Council of Hyderabad. In Nalgonda,
795-602: A distinctive style. The earliest surviving buildings are purely European, examples being the neoclassical British Residency (1798) and Falaknuma Palace (1893). In the early 20th century, the Osmania General Hospital City College , High Court , and Kacheguda Railway station were designed in the Indo-Saracenic style by Vincent Esch . The Moazzam Jahi Market was also built in a similar style. Various major industries emerged in various parts of
954-416: A key source of supplies, arms, literature and organisers as they were smuggled in through the border. Some demobilised war veterans also joined the communists during this period. In contrast, state forces and the paramilitary razakars lacked co-ordination; the former were demoralised as a consequence of the induction of the latter and having to serve in a subordinate role to them. The rising tensions between
1113-483: A member of a powerful elite group or oligarchy . The ruler is not viewed as a tyrant . The structure of the Roman Catholic Church today is still patrimonial. Direct rule involves the ruler and a few key members of the ruler's household or staff maintaining personal control over every aspect of governance. If rule is indirect, there may be an intellectual or moral elite of priests or office holders as well as
1272-465: A military intervention for the Annexation of Hyderabad . The intervention officially described as a " police action " was justified on the grounds of ending the undemocratic feudal regime of the Nizam and the razakar repression enabled by him. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had stated in a press conference the government's policy towards the communists would depend on how they respond during and after
1431-419: A military. The priestly group may invoke deity for the leader. The king, sultan , maharaja or other ruler is able to make independent decisions on an ad hoc basis, with little if any checks and balances. No individual or group is powerful enough to oppose the ruler consistently without, in turn, becoming the new patrimonial ruler. The ruler is recognized as the chief landholder and, in the extreme case, all of
1590-550: A narrow margin of three votes. The moderate–left divide persisted with the moderates, mostly affluent lawyers with durra backing, refusing to budge and eventually reaching a crisis point over their position with respect to the communists following the Nizam government's military crackdown on the peasants in late 1946. In November 1946, the two factions sent separate fact finding teams to Suryapet, led by Tirtha and J. Keshav Rao respectively. Tirtha's group searched for police atrocities while Rao's group searched for reasons to condemn
1749-514: A new leadership, organised themselves through the Committee of Action , which set up camps outside the state and started conducting armed raids into Hyderabad. The camps were allowed by the Home Ministry of India, now under Vallabhbhai Patel and reluctantly approved of by Mahatma Gandhi . The moderates were completely opposed to the armed raids and excluded from the committee. In the following year,
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#17328515336531908-579: A number of radical progressive student organisations were established which eventually merged to form the All Hyderabad Students Union in January 1942. Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao , a former student agitator during the Vandemataram protests, was instrumental in building up the Communist Party in the districts of Warangal and Nalgonda. The nationalist, progressive and secular intelligentsia in
2067-426: A persistent shortage of modern firearms and had to constantly rely on raids to gain more. As a consequence they were severely outnumbered as the communes refused to deploy more recruits as they were unable to arm them. Despite the shortages, the rebel forces were highly motivated, being entirely composed of volunteers, increasingly ideological and antagonised by years of repression. The rebels were also better adjusted to
2226-508: A powerful army that allowed Hyderabad to become one of the preeminent states in southern India. After his death, the military was crippled by the succession wars of his sons. It was restored under Asaf Jah II (r. 1762–1803) who modernised the army. Notable units during his reign included British -trained battalions, the French-trained Corps Français de Raymond which was led by Michel Joachim Marie Raymond and fought under
2385-518: A resolution calling for responsible government. Soon afterwards, it split along the moderate–extremist lines. The Andhra Mahasabha's move towards politics also inspired similar movements in Marathwada and Karnataka in 1937, giving rise to the Maharashtra Parishad and Karnataka Parishad respectively. Hyderabad's first ruler, Asaf Jah I (r. 1724–1748) was a talented commander and assembled
2544-591: A royal firman . The last Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan ruled the state from 1911 until 1948. He was given the title "Faithful Ally of the British Empire". The Nizam also established Hyderabad State Bank . Hyderabad was the only independent state in Indian subcontinent that had its currency, the Hyderabadi rupee . The Begumpet Airport was established in the 1930s with formation of Hyderabad Aero Club by
2703-425: A spontaneous movement where groups of villagers would go from one village to another, people would drop out and return to their village after coming some distance, while others from the villages they passed through would take their place and keep the movement going. In each village, they formed drawn out congregations upon their arrival to discuss prevalent local issues and relations with the durra of their area. By
2862-400: Is a form of governance in which all power flows directly from the ruler. There is no distinction between the public and private domains. These regimes are autocratic or oligarchic and exclude the lower , middle and upper classes from power. The leaders of these countries typically enjoy absolute personal power . Usually, the armies of these countries are loyal to the leader, not
3021-401: Is at the centre of patrimonalism and is its model and origin. Nathan Quimpo defines patrimonialism as "a type of rule in which the ruler does not distinguish between personal and public patrimony and treats matters and resources of state as his personal affair." Richard Pipes , a historian and Professor Emeritus of Russian history at Harvard University defines patrimonial as "a regime where
3180-763: Is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security". On 4 September the Prime Minister of Hyderabad Mir Laiq Ali announced to the Hyderabad Assembly that a delegation was about to leave for Lake Success , headed by Moin Nawaz Jung . The Nizam also appealed, without success, to the British Labour Government and to the King for assistance, to fulfil their obligations and promises to Hyderabad by "immediate intervention". Hyderabad only had
3339-674: Is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana , the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka , and the Marathwada region of Maharashtra in India. The state was ruled from 1724 to 1948 by the Nizam , who was initially a viceroy of the Mughal empire in the Deccan . Hyderabad gradually became the first princely state to come under British paramountcy signing a subsidiary alliance agreement. During
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#17328515336533498-476: The durras and opposed to any form of alliance with them while the "leftist congressmen" wanted an unification with the Communist Party but were too irresolute and timid to carry it forward. The communists started disassociating with the satyagraha as a consequence of incorporation of Gandhian ethics in the agitations, one key point of discontent became the symbolic cutting down of toddy trees as Gandhian ethics prohibited toddy drinking . The symbolism lay in
3657-533: The durras had complete power over the peasants and could subject them to agricultural slavery. Conditions worsened during the 1930s due to the Great Depression and a transition towards commercial crops . In the 1940s, the peasants started turning towards communism, organised themselves through the Andhra Mahasabha and began a rights movement, catalyzed by a food crisis that affected the region following
3816-494: The 1952 Legislative Assembly election , Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was elected Chief Minister of Hyderabad State. During this time there were violent agitations by some Telanganites to send back bureaucrats from Madras state, and to strictly implement 'Mulki-rules' (local jobs for locals only), which was part of Hyderabad state law since 1919. In 1956 during the reorganisation of the Indian States based along linguistic lines,
3975-774: The Andhra Mahasabha (Madras), the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Indian Peasant Institute. The first incursion of the communist movement in Telangana occurred in the Madhira – Khammam area of Warangal district, through peasants who had settled down at the Wyra and Paleru irrigation projects, and had relatives in Coastal Andhra . The first communist organisations were established in Warangal and Nalgonda districts through
4134-524: The Andhra Mahasabha , which was a cultural-literary forum acting as a front organisation for the Hyderabad State Congress , was overtaken by communists. It recruited students from colleges but was controlled by a conservative liberal and moderate leadership over whom the Hindu durra aristocracy had a strong influence and who advocated restraint, opposing activities against the "law and order" of
4293-578: The Arya Samaj and the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha attempting to do the same with Hindus in reaction to it. The situation created widespread fear and uncertainty, leading to political instability and a sudden deterioration of law and order across the state. The Nizam, who had isolated himself from the common population and their politics for years, perceived himself to be surrounded by a hostile Hindu population and started to rely increasingly on
4452-478: The British Raj , and officials were instead reprimanded for mentioning slaves in documentation. Telangana had a higher concentration of land in the hands of a small group of landed magnates than the other regions. They owned vast tracts of lands covering several villages and thousands of acres. The land concentration was most pronounced in the districts of Nalgonda , Mahabubnagar and Warangal . They later became
4611-610: The CPI on 25 October 1951. Situated on the Deccan Plateau in southern India, Hyderabad was a princely state of the British Raj , the second largest and most populous among them. The state had a patrimonial system with the Nizam of Hyderabad as the ruler and the British maintaining complete authority over it. Multiethnic in composition, its 17 districts were divided across three linguistic regions: The princely state of Hyderabad retained
4770-661: The Congress Socialist Caucus , influenced by their presence in Bombay Presidency . In late 1945, the Indian National Congress (INC) had adopted the policy of expelling all communists from its organisations. It convened the All India States Peoples' Conference (AISPC) containing delegates of regional organisations which boycotted the predominantly communist Andhra Conference and instead invited
4929-500: The Dominion of India and Hyderabad State made it more difficult for the government as they had to deploy more troops at the frontiers. One critical advantage the government forces had was in terms of transportation. They could use trucks, jeeps and railways to move troops quickly through the few hard bed roads and railway lines that existed in the region while the rebels were largely restricted to foot. Even captured vehicular transportation
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5088-606: The French Tricolour , and the Victorious Battalion, an elite infantry unit entirely composed of women. The coat of arms features the full titles of the Nizam at the bottom, and a dastar Under the leadership of Asaf Jah V the state changed its traditional heraldic flag. The Asafia flag of Hyderabad. The script along the top reads Al Azmatulillah meaning "All greatness is for God". The bottom script reads Ya Uthman which translates to "Oh Osman ". The writing in
5247-504: The Hyderabad State Forces to assist the police. Some of the villages formed ad hoc volunteer forces for defense. On 16 and 17 November, military personnel killed three villagers and wounded eight others in two raids on the villages of Patha Suryapet and Devarupal. On 27 November, in retaliation for the killing, a police convoy escorting arrested communist activists was ambushed successfully; four police personnel were killed, and
5406-473: The Indian National Congress (INC) which had started pressuring the Nizam to accede. In March 1947, the working committee of the State Congress was restored and Swami Ramananda Tirtha was reelected with a wide margin of 751 to 498 votes against B.G. Rao, enabling him to completely exclude the moderates. He praised the communists for their revolt and suggested the incorporation of a more revolutionary policy for
5565-608: The Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan and later Kasim Razvi . The Hyderabad State Forces and the police , combined with the Razakar militia, were unable to suppress it and were routed , while the rebel forces went on a successful guerrilla offensive. The rebels established a parallel system of government composed of gram rajyams (village communes ) that caused a social revolution where caste and gender distinctions were reduced; women's workforce participation including in
5724-423: The deshmukhs was augmented with additional hereditary positions such as patel , patwari and mali patel which granted them various political, judicial and administrative functions. They could determine taxation rates and managed land surveying ; peasants had to offer nazaranas in the form of cattle, crops and money to prevent prejudiced treatment. The jagirdars were predominantly Brahmin , supplanted by
5883-477: The jagir lands which allowed the jagirdars to impose various forms of exorbitant arbitrary taxes on the ryots (peasants) and extract revenue through private agents. The diwani tenures resembled the ryotwari system introduced by the British in other parts of the country. It had hereditary revenue collectors; deshmukhs and deshpandes who were granted land annuities called vatans , based on past revenue collections. The diwani lands legally held by
6042-544: The razakar bands. The reprisals made the communes strengthen their organisation and co-ordination. The Andhra and Telangana communists set up joint revolutionary headquarters at the Mungala Estate, constituting an enclave of Hyderabad State within Krishna district of Madras State. By early 1948, much of Telangana was beginning to rebel in an all-out revolution as more of the rural poor and the peasantry organised themselves under
6201-508: The razakars had come to supersede them when the Ittehad assumed power and started operating independently of the state forces. They plundered villages, killed and arrested people on suspicion of being potential agitators and employed rape and torture to quell villages into submission. The communists, who had previously relied largely on defensive measures and unarmed resistance, began to openly endorse offensive warfare . The national leadership of
6360-699: The transfer of power to the Indian leadership and gave the princely states the option of either joining India or Pakistan or becoming independent. The Nizam of Hyderabad, the Muslim aristocrats and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) wanted Hyderabad to become an independent state but the vast majority of people wanted the state to merge with India in hopes of political freedoms and participation in self-government. The Communist Party of India added merger with India into its list of demands and aligned itself with
6519-599: The "barren constitutionalism" of "feudal elements" in the State Congress. Wilfrid Vernon Grigson , Revenue and Police Minister for the Viceroy's Executive Council , conducted his own investigation in December and reported that the peasants had legitimate grievances and that it was not communist propaganda as previously assumed. The report stated that raiding villages and arresting communists would not succeed in stopping attacks on government officials without an administrative overhaul in
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6678-533: The 1941 Hyderabad State Census, 2,187,005 people spoke Urdu , 7,529,229 people spoke Telugu , 3,947,089 people spoke Marathi , 1,724,180 people spoke Kanarese ( Kannada ) as native languages. The Hyderabadi Muslim population, including the ruling Asaf Jahi dynasty numbered around 2,097,475 people, while Hindus numbered around 9,171,318 people. The architecture of Hyderabad State is very cosmopolitan, and heavily influenced by European and Islamic styles. The Nizam's palaces and several public buildings were built in
6837-477: The 1944–46 agitations had laid down demands for better wages, disallowance of vetti and baghela forced labour, evictions, exorbitant taxation and refusal of a new mandatory post–war grain levy. One major incident on 4 July 1946 marked the beginning of the rebellion; a procession of over 1,000 peasants was fired at by the men of Vishnur Deshmukh in Kadavendi village of Warangal district, Doddi Komarayya who
6996-573: The Andhra communists in the Madras Presidency initiated dialogue with the rebels in preparation for open warfare with the Hyderabad State. Meanwhile, the military camps were withdrawn in January 1947 after a period of absence of any visible disturbances. Despite some instances of armed confrontations, the peasants uprising was spasmodic in their actions and lacked any systemically planned offensives in
7155-471: The British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857–58). His son, Asaf Jah III Mir Akbar Ali Khan (known as Sikandar Jah ) ruled from 1803 to 1829. During his rule, a British cantonment was built in Hyderabad and the area was named in his honour, Secunderabad . The British Residency at Koti was also built during his reign by the then British Resident James Achilles Kirkpatrick . Sikander Jah
7314-507: The British rule in 1901, the state had a revenue of ₹ 4,17,00,000. The native inhabitants of Hyderabad State, regardless of ethnic origin, are called "Mulki" (countryman), a term still used today. The dynasty declared itself an independent monarchy during the final years of the British Raj . After the Partition of India , Hyderabad signed a standstill agreement with the new dominion of India , continuing all previous arrangements except for
7473-554: The Communist Party during the same period. Initially faced with opposition from the moderate leadership, landlords organisations such as the Agriculturalists Association and through heavy political repression from the government, the AMS was slowly transformed into a militant mass organisation opposed to the Nizamate with a coalition of peasants, the working class , the middle class and youths as its members. The process
7632-533: The Communist Party of India, and immediately launched a military offensive against the peasant communes. The deshmukhs and officials returned as the redistributed lands were to be confiscated and granted back to their original owners. The military administration did not induct any local police personnel or civil servants, including those affiliated with the Hyderabad State Congress, who were sidelined. Vallabhbhai Patel distrusted them and justified it with
7791-520: The Communist Party officially approved armed rebellion in September 1947. Volunteer brigades called dalams were organised by the communes. They were joined en masse by villagers frustrated with police, military and razakar atrocities, particularly in the districts of Nalgonda, Warangal and Kammam which were communist strongholds. The Communist Party was better organised in the neighbouring Andhra region of Madras State (previously Madras Presidency ) and
7950-471: The Congress socialists would split from the party under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan to form the Socialist Party of India , taking with them much of the leftists of the Hyderabad State Congress. The crisis of authority in Hyderabad had enabled the influence of the rebels in the countryside to expand rapidly. They set up a parallel administration composed of gram rajyams (village communes) in
8109-609: The Great 's empire. Pipes argues that the Russia between the twelfth and seventeenth century, and with certain modifications until 1917, was a patrimonial system. Jean Bodin described seigneurial monarchies in the Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576–1586), where the monarch owns all the land. He claimed that Turkey and Muscovy were the only European examples. Indonesia , before and during
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#17328515336538268-486: The Ittehad called the Razakars . They were deputed alongside the police and grew to 150,000 men, double the police force itself, contributing significantly to public disorder and a complete collapse of civil authority as they embarked on a campaign of political repression . Hindu–Muslim tensions and communal violence in Hyderabad reached its highest point upon the partition of India . The razakars grew to 200,000 men by
8427-461: The Ittehad for support. The leadership of the Ittehad had by then passed to Kasim Razvi , a small-time lawyer from northern India who had supported the Pakistan movement and wanted Hyderabad to become a refuge for Muslims in the south. Gradually the Ittehad under Razvi was able to wrestle control over the Nizam government and was managing its day-to-day functioning. Razvi formed a paramilitary wing for
8586-559: The Marathas for all intent and purposes. In 1763, the Nizam shifted the capital to the city of Hyderabad . From 1778, a British resident and soldiers were installed in his dominions. In 1795, the Nizam lost some of his territories to the Marathas . The territorial gains of the Nizam from Mysore as an ally of the British were ceded to the British to meet the cost of maintaining the British soldiers. In 1798, Nizam ʿĀlī Khan (Asaf Jah II )
8745-615: The Mughal provincial capital of Aurangabad, under the title of Asaf Jah (granted by Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah ). His other title, Nizam ul-Mulk (Order of the Realm), became the title of his position "Nizam of Hyderabad". By the end of his rule, the Nizam had become independent from the Mughals, and had founded the Asaf Jahi dynasty . Following the decline of the Mughal power, the region of Deccan saw
8904-539: The Nizam, remarked that his stake in the English state sums up to 36% of the total amount. For claiming the total share of £35 million, Nizam's great-grandson, Himayat Ali Mirza, reached the London High Court. Up to 1920, there was no political organisation of any kind in Hyderabad. In that year, following British pressure, the Nizam issued a firman appointing a special officer to investigate constitutional reforms. It
9063-696: The Nizam. Initially, it was used as a domestic and international airport for Nizam's Deccan Airways , the earliest airline in British India. The terminal building was created in 1937. To prevent another great flood , the Nizam also constructed two lakes, namely the Osman Sagar and Himayath Sagar . The Osmania General Hospital , Jubilee Hall , State Library (then known as Asifia Kutubkhana ) and Public Gardens (then known as Bagh e Aam ) were constructed during this period. In 1947 India gained independence and Pakistan came into existence. The British left
9222-428: The State Congress. The Congress went on satyagraha seeking the merger of Hyderabad with India and the State Congress under Tirtha launched a civil disobedience campaign. The communists joined up with Congress workers in their agitation although they held reservations over the effectiveness of Gandhian methods. Due to the organisational weakness of the Congress, most of the Congress agitation in Telangana especially in
9381-555: The State of Hyderabad before its incorporation into the Union of India, especially during the first half of the twentieth century. Hyderabad city had a separate power plant for electricity. However, the Nizams focused on industrial development in the region of Sanathnagar , housing several industries there with transportation facilities by both road and rail. Patrimonial system Patrimonialism
9540-450: The State was divided into five divisions and seventeen districts, and subedars (governors) were appointed for the five Divisions and talukdars and tehsildars for the districts. The judicial, public works, medical, educational, municipal, and police departments were re-organised. In 1868, sadr-i-mahrams (Assistant Ministers) were appointed for the Judicial, Revenue, Police, and Miscellaneous Departments. Later on, Asaf Jah VI succeeded
9699-550: The Sultanate in Turkey and Gandhi's suspension of the Non-co-operation movement in British India ended this period of cooperation. An organisation called Andhra Jana Sangham (later renamed Andhra Mahasabha ) was formed in November 1921 and focused on educating the masses of Telangana in political awareness. With leading members such as Madapati Hanumantha Rao , Burgula Ramakrishna Rao and M. Narsing Rao, its activities included urging merchants to resist offering freebies to government officials and encouraging labourers to resist
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#17328515336539858-401: The Suryapet and Jangaon taluqas of Nalgonda district; pockets in Khammam, Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Warangal districts had fallen under rebel control, while 4,000 army troops were deployed in Nalgonda district. The military, equipped with modern firearms, made it much harder for the rebels to operate and the movement became more clandestine in the presence of military camps near their villages;
10017-433: The Telangana countryside came under their control, covering the entirety of the Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam , and Karimnagar districts , more than half of Medak and Adilabad districts and a significant portion of the remaining three districts of Telangana namely, Mahabubnagar , Hyderabad , and Nizamabad . In Adilabad, Medak and Karimnagar, the Tirtha Group of the Congress had established some bases that defected towards
10176-529: The administration, including the Nizam's firmans ( decrees ), was unable to function in large areas. The expansion of the movement in these areas was facilitated by the presence of estates with thousands of acres. The first militant action occurred with a few instances of land seizures from the estates of durras in response to eviction of Lambadi tenant cultivators for non-compliance with additional taxation and demands of vetti (forced labour). The village level communist sangham s (organisations) during
10335-421: The areas that came under their control. This parallel administration provided more stability and became a refuge from the violence in the rest of the state. Roving bands of razakars active across Hyderabad to quell agitations were instructed by the government to protect the durras and suppress the communists in Telangana after the withdrawal of the British. Initially attached to police and military forces ,
10494-660: The armed rebellion and attempt to employ legal pathways to stop the repression to continue their movement, while others antagonised by the actions of the administration wanted to continue an armed guerrilla struggle against the military. Some, including the new General Secretary Bhalchandra Trimbak Ranadive , even advocated for escalating the rebellion into a national revolution. Both sides exchanged accusations, denouncing each other as "right wing reformists" and "left wing adventurists". The government used this to its advantage, as they were occasionally able to coerce former participants into becoming informants. The urban population, unaware of
10653-436: The armed squads increased and the conditions of the peasants significantly improved with land redistribution . At its peak in 1948, the rebellion covered nearly all of Telangana and had at least 4,000 villages directly administered by communes. It was led by the Communist Party of India (CPI) and supported by the left-wing faction of the Hyderabad State Congress , many of whom later joined the Socialist Party of India when it
10812-419: The assault. Many of them were handed over to the army after their objectives were accomplished, as the peasants returned to their villages with the belief that the armed conflict was over. The commanding officer selected for the invasion was Major General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri , who was also a zamindar aristocrat from West Bengal . He set up a military administration after the Nizam's capitulation, banned
10971-404: The ban on the Communist Party of India and cease criticising the communists for a sectarian approach towards the Congress. The moderates were dissatisfied with it, filibustered it, and did not allow it to pass. The State Congress stopped functioning because of the consequent resignation from the left and mediation with the national leadership until March 1947. The left issued a statement denouncing
11130-401: The city of Hyderabad turned towards political radicalism as well, through the influential Naya Adab (New Salute) which promoted communism in literature, and through the Comrades Association initially formed in reaction to the growth of communal sectarian organisations. The association became communist under the leadership of Raj Bahadur Gour and Makhdoom Mohiuddin . In the meantime,
11289-428: The claim that they had a partisan character. They deployed officials and personnel from outside the state, as it was feared that locals might be apprehensive of conducting violence against their own and might even be covert communist sympathisers. Chaudhuri also issued a warning to the police personnel from outside the state about falling under communist influence. The administration orchestrated an anti–communist hunt in
11448-424: The communists and took up arms against the durras and the Hyderabad State. This triggered a large-scale displacement of durras who fled to the cities, abandoning their private armies and properties. The communist influence was chipping away at the entire social hierarchy with a quasi divine Nizam at the top since the early 1940s, and had eventually enabled the mass uprising to occur. The rebels suffered from
11607-406: The communists to strengthen their position. Menon wanted the rebel administration to be dealt with through military courts rather than by civil authorities. The Indian Army marched into Hyderabad State on 13 September and the already demoralised Hyderabad State Force, the police and the razakars surrendered within a week after minimal resistance. This military intervention was perceived by
11766-423: The communists would be eradicated in return for their support in justifying the military action to the international community . The Home Ministry under Vallabhbhai Patel favoured military intervention as it would enable them to deploy military personnel in Telangana. They had initially stalled the intervention for over a year, despite ongoing razakar atrocities because it was feared that an invasion would allow
11925-517: The communists. Around 16,000 square miles (41,000 km), covering 4,000 villages, were being directly administered by communes. The rebel forces had reached a peak with 10,000 troops in garrisons and 2,000 in guerrilla forces. There were an additional three to four million active workers and non-combatant supporters of the rebel forces. In August 1948, the number of razakars stood at 100,000 men even as it recruited 30,000 more in January, down from 200,000 in September 1947. They were increasingly sent by
12084-477: The communists. Tirtha praised the actions of the communists. The leftist faction wanted to not only admonish the government for repression but also convert the party into a more militant mass movement. They were prevented from doing so by the moderates, who were adamantly opposed to any further move to the left. The working committee drafted three resolutions demanding the government end their repression in Nalgonda, lift
12243-477: The development in October 1943 and began directly intervening in state action with regard to the communists from thereon. Between 1944 and 1946, the communist movement became widespread in the Telangana countryside. The Andhra Mahasabha controlled by communists substantially increased its membership in the districts of Nalgonda, Warangal and Karimnagar. The movement formed a class alliance between disparate caste groups,
12402-419: The earlier agitations against the Nizam had started being harshly critical of the government, referring to brutal and unjust repression. There were also ongoing student and labour agitations since 1948–49 in the urban areas. Hyderabad State Hyderabad State ( pronunciation ) was a princely state in the Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad . It
12561-455: The efforts of Chandra Rajeswara Rao , a peasant working in Mungala. The Regional Committee of the CPI in Telangana was established under the leadership of Pervaelli Venkataramanaiah in 1941. The students' movement contributed significantly to the growth of the communist movement, disillusioned with Gandhian satyagraha politics. Having gained experience through the Vandemataram protests,
12720-621: The emergence of Velama and Reddy deshmukhs . Markets and major businesses were controlled by Marwadi and Komati durras . In contrast, the bulk of the peasantry came from disparate caste backgrounds and even included Brahmins, Reddys and Komatis. The tribals such as Chenchus , Koyas , Lambadis , Konda Reddis , and untouchables like the Malas and Madigas were among the most impoverished and particularly vulnerable to severe forms of exploitation by durras , including agricultural slavery. Anti–slavery legislations were largely unenforced in
12879-455: The end of August with the recruitment of Muslim refugees from India who had arrived in Hyderabad on the invitation of the Ittehad. The Congress agitations also peaked with a complete shutdown of the state accompanied by flag hoisting, meetings, processions and protests on 7 and 15 August. Tirtha was arrested in mid-August and violent repression of agitators continued to increase over the following period. The Congress leftists of Hyderabad under
13038-429: The end of July, around 300–400 villages in the districts of Warangal, Nalgonda and Khammam experienced militant action by peasants against the local estates and officials. In August 1946, the press wing of the Communist Party of India announced that the villages were under the control of the peasants and launched a national campaign to rally support for the rebellion, publicising the demands of the peasantry and highlighting
13197-506: The end of the Second World War , the movement escalated into a rebellion after the administration and the durras attempted to suppress it. The revolt began on 4 July 1946, when a local peasant leader was killed in the village of Kadavendi, Warangal district , by the agents of a durra . Beginning in the districts of Nalgonda and Warangal, the rebellion evolved into a revolution across Telangana in response to continued repression by
13356-575: The epicenter of the insurrection. The peasants were largely dependent on affluent urban interests, mostly composed of Marwadis, Komtis, Brahmins and upper caste Muslims , who controlled the centralised markets in Telangana. Land alienation continued to increase between 1910 and 1940 as more land was passed either to urban interests and aristocratic durra feudal lords or to Marwari and Maratha sahukars (money-lenders). Peasants with small landholding were pushed into landless agricultural labour or tenancy at will. Irrigation facilities were introduced from
13515-413: The epicenter of the rebellion, the communists toured across the district, releasing and redistributing grains hoarded in markets and storages, burning down checkpoints on the border and the records of officials and sahukars in the villages, while raising Indian flags in those locations. Meanwhile, the Ittehad was spreading sectarian propaganda and attempting to promote fanaticism among Muslims, along with
13674-405: The events in the countryside, had supported the intervention and were convinced by the government and with the help of various statements made by revolutionaries against the Congress, that they were indulging in an unnecessary peasants' partisan warfare after the annexation. On the other hand, the division weakened the communists. Many of the peasants had abandoned the rebellion, especially those from
13833-508: The feudal exploitation and brutality. Peasants continuously resisted extortive action from officials and other agents, and refused to perform vetti forced labour. Small landholders refused to hand over paddy crops for the required levy, and landless labourers and tenants continued to occupy lands from which they had been evicted. The durras sent their private armies to prevent the seizure of their lands, but they were few in number and too poorly armed to contain mass unrest. Unable to control
13992-681: The former durra estates restored in their respective areas. The guerrillas had to retreat into the dense forests of the Godavari Basin and to the forests across the Krishna River in the Nallamala Range , with the support of the Koya and Lambadi tribals respectively. The landless and impoverished peasants, which included most of the tribals and untouchables, formed the backbone of the rebellion. The guerrillas adopted even more clandestine tactics;
14151-430: The government and the estates of the durras . Organised mobs were assigned to lower risk targets such as the forest department and offices of village officials, and would burn down their records, take away their lathis and grain stocks. In December, the armed assaults became excessively frequent, the police recorded 45 attacks on major targets within the span of 11 days in Warangal and Nalgonda districts. In response,
14310-415: The government authorised the police, the military and the razakars to indiscriminately target entire villages for harbouring sympathies for the sangham (communists) or the Congress. The attacks involved reprisals in which the entire population of some villages was massacred. There was widespread use of torture against villagers and rape against women as a terror tactic. The extreme measures employed by
14469-472: The government to engage with the communists as the rebellion expanded across Telangana, but they proved to be ineffective against them. In turn, the razakars became the victims of torture as retribution for their past atrocities, which continued until the communes and sangham s prohibited and eventually banned such activities, declaring them to be primitive. In September 1948, the Dominion of India launched
14628-469: The government were divided into small sections called pattas registered to occupants who were responsible for the payment of land revenue. The registered occupants included peasants who cultivated their own land or occupants who either employed agricultural labourers or rented out the land to tenants. The tenants, called shikmidars , had tenancy rights and could not be evicted on condition that they fulfill land revenue obligations. More than three-fourths of
14787-407: The grievances of the peasants were genuine such that "no organisation worthy of its name could put up with" and admitted the communists had simply outflanked them through their mass mobilisation. The activities of the Congress in the state were being marginalised as the conflict between the Nizam's government and the communists engulfed Telangana. In February 1947, the British administration announced
14946-558: The guerrillas. The States Department sent Captain Nanjappa to act as the Special Commissioner of Police (Spl.CP) for the operation. Nanjappa ordered indiscriminate arrests, burning down of entire villages where land redistribution had occurred and extrajudicial executions of suspects after capture. Around 2,000 peasants, armed and unarmed, were killed and 25,000 arrested by the end of August 1949. The communes were dis-established and
15105-430: The implementation of existent laws which were unenforced. The demands also included the Andhra communists' call for the breakup of Hyderabad State and the formation of Visalandhra , an unified Telugu speaking state composed of Telangana and the Andhra region of the Madras Presidency, in line with the Communist Party of India's demand for the linguistic reorganisation of states. The presence of large organised groups within
15264-579: The initial period. It had begun as a spontaneous upsurge where the organised Andhra Mahasabha and Communist Party of India acted primarily in an auxiliary capacity. The Hyderabad State Congress was divided into two factions of moderates and leftists since 1938–39. While the left-wing members of the Andhra Conference had gravitated to the Communist Party, those in Maharashtra Parishad in the Marathawada region of Hyderabad State had aligned themselves with
15423-451: The intervention. The comment was misleading as the government was making preparations to liquidate the peasant communes and restore the durra aristocrats regardless of their response. Internally, the communists were described as the primary target rather than the Nizam and the razakars . Secretary V. P. Menon had briefed the American embassy about the intervention and promised them that
15582-672: The kinsmen of rulers at the end of the Han Dynasty in China, when the Janissaries wanted their sons to enter the corps, or when offices were sold as heritable property in ancien regime France, a natural patrimonial principle was simply reasserting itself. Richard Pipes cited the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Attalids of Pergamon as early patrimonial monarchies, both successor states to Alexander
15741-943: The land and its people are his domain. The legal authority of the ruler is largely unchallenged; there is no recognized body of case law or formal law, but there may be notions of etiquette and honor. In his The Origins of Political Order , Francis Fukuyama states on the matter: Natural human sociability is built around two principles, kin selection and reciprocal altruism . The principle of kin selection or inclusive fitness states that human beings will act altruistically toward genetic relatives (or individuals believed to be genetic relatives) in rough proportion to their shared genes. The principle of reciprocal altruism says that human beings will tend to develop relationships of mutual benefit or mutual harm as they interact with other individuals over time. Reciprocal altruism, unlike kin selection, does not depend on genetic relatedness; it does, however, depend on repeated, direct personal interaction and
15900-450: The landlord–tenant relations in the region to any significant degree. The landholding peasants too were severely affected after the depression. Post-independence and Cold War Contemporary history Communists had been active in the Telugu speaking Godavari–Krishna delta region of the neighbouring Madras Presidency since 1934 and largely organised through peasants organisations such as
16059-468: The late 19th century and a greater portion of the land transfer occurred on lands with these facilities. The system of subsistence farming gave way to commercial crops , strengthening the hold of traders and sahukars over the peasants, which was particularly worsened during the Great Depression . The period saw the rise of a section of well-to-do pattadars (landholding peasants) who began employing landless labourers of their own, though it did not change
16218-503: The local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one or the other or to remain independent. On 11 June 1947, the Nizam issued a declaration to the effect that he had decided not to participate in the Constituent Assembly of either Pakistan or India. However, the Nizams were Muslim ruling over a predominantly Hindu population. India insisted that the great majority of residents wanted to join India. The Nizam
16377-401: The locals continued to be able to operate and remain supplied. The military force, with its high morale and modern equipment, had forced the Nizam and the razakar to surrender within weeks. Despite this, they were unable to suppress the poorly armed peasants for three years. Nehru was concerned with the continued military rule in the state imposed by Patel; civil authorities were introduced in
16536-407: The loss of credibility as a democratic government and with the understanding that further repression would only popularise the communists, the Congress administration started making reconciliatory gestures towards the Communist Party from early 1951. There was increasing distrust of the Congress in the state as information from the Telangana countryside was spreading. The leftist congressmen involved in
16695-448: The marginal splinter organisation formed by the moderates. The socialists had protested against the policy, leading to further friction with the moderates in Hyderabad. At the onset of the rebellion, and in light of post–war negotiations between the Congress and the British administration, the Nizam of Hyderabad legalised the Hyderabad State Congress in July 1946. The three front organisations —
16854-640: The members of the Nizam's Executive Council. Hindus and Muslims united in protesting against the practice which robbed the locals of government employment. The movement, however, fizzled out after the Hindu members raised the issue of 'responsible government', which was of no interest to the Muslim members and led to their resignation. Various properties and wealth owned by the Nizam as part of Hyderabad State are now succeeded by his descendants, including his grandsons Prince Mukarram Jah, Prince Mufakkam Jah & Prince Shahmat Jah and his great-grandson Himayat Ali Mirza among others. Himayat Ali Mirza, great-grandson of
17013-461: The middle and richer peasantry, some of whom were dissatisfied with the latest land ceiling and who used to provide important contacts and financial support. Despite the desertions, most of the peasants remained sympathetic towards the guerrillas who had decided to keep fighting, and refused to cooperate with the police. In December 1948, the administration began a large-scale counterinsurgency campaign designed to frighten villagers into not assisting
17172-478: The middle peasantry with small landholdings and the rural poor and landless labourers. Numerous villages were enmeshed with communist organisations. Agrarian radicalism was heightened and a mass movement developed with a series of agrarian agitations against the durra aristocrats beginning in 1944. The agitations were non-violent and employed tactics such as non-cooperation , withdrawal of services and refusal to pay technically illegal taxes , usually demanding
17331-650: The middle reads "Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah" The stamps of the Hyderabad State featured the Golconda Fort , Ajanta Caves , and the Charminar . Mulkis or Mulkhis , are the native inhabitants of the erstwhile Hyderabad State, regardless of ethnic differences. The term was popularly used during the 1952 Mulkhi Agitation (Telangana) , which saw protests demanding job reservations for Mulki people, and demanding non-Mulkis to leave. Languages in Hyderabad State As per
17490-587: The non-communist Andhra Conference, the Maharashtra Parishad and the Karnatak Parishad were merged, and a provincial working committee was formed; 164 delegates from the three organisations voted in an election for the president of the committee. The socialist candidate Swami Ramananda Tirtha from the Marathawada delegation won against the moderate Burgula Ramakrishna Rao from the Andhra delegation by
17649-460: The organisation in the villages from 1941 onwards. They reduced the enrolment fee by one-fourth, encouraged participation by the landless and impoverished sections of the population. They took up peasants' causes such as the abolition of vetti , prevention of rack-renting and eviction of tenants, occupancy ( patta ) rights of cultivating tenants and reduction in taxes, revenue demands and rents, among others. The Andhra Conference, previously seen as
17808-534: The peasant communes as a positive development and not as an attack on them. The villagers believed the Indian Army was helping them defeat the Nizam's government. They launched a final parallel assault against the remaining military camps of the State Forces, outposts of state agents and garrisons in durra estates, accompanied by victory celebrations. The rebels came across large stores of arms and ammunition during
17967-449: The peasants. The system turned them into a hybrid of a feudal lord and a bureaucrat who frequently acquired more lands from the peasants and forced them into the status of tenants at will and landless labourers. The individual deshmukhs and deshpandes had multiple villages under their domains and seridars (appointed personal officials) to manage each village. The jagirs and diwani tenures constituted around 30% and 60% respectively of
18126-491: The position. Asaf Jah VI Mir Mahbub Ali Khan became the Nizam at the age of three years. His regents were Salar Jung I and Shams-ul-Umra III and later on Asman Jah and Viqar-ul-Umra . He assumed full rule at the age of 17 and ruled until he died in 1911. His reign saw the official language of Hyderabad State shift from Persian to Urdu, a change implemented in the 1880s during the short tenure of Prime Minister Salar Jung II . The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway
18285-417: The princely state, which according to him the Nizam's officials were incapable of conducting. The AISPC passed a resolution on 27 December condemning the activities of both the government and the communists, based on a report from their president, Dwarkanath Kachru , who had arrived in Hyderabad to conduct his own investigation. In a private letter, Kachru wrote to Tirtha that despite their official stance,
18444-474: The prisoners released. Following the ambush, the police and military forces began attempting to arrest entire villages and by December, the Suryapet prison alone was holding 600 prisoners. The military crackdown increased in December, resulting in even-heightened militancy; the sangham earlier known as chitti sangham due to their distribution of chittis (letters), common after the enrolment fee for AMS
18603-437: The rebels conducted a major operation with twenty simultaneous coordinated attacks on infrastructure targets including important telecommunication facilities, bridges and sections of railway tracks which paralysed the transportation and communication capabilities of the government forces from thereon. The rebels went on a successful campaign of territorial expansion and effectively routed the government forces by mid-1948. Much of
18762-504: The rights of sovereignty and those of ownership blend to the point of being indistinguishable, and political power is exercised in the same manner as economic power." J. I. Bakker , a sociologist at the University of Guelph , states: The key focus in the model [patrimonialism] is the extent to which legitimate authority is based primarily on personal power exercised by the ruler, either directly or indirectly. The ruler may act alone or as
18921-469: The rise of the Maratha Empire . The Nizam himself saw many invasions by the Marathas in the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular Chauth (tax) to the Marathas. The major battles fought between the Marathas and the Nizam include Palkhed , Rakshasbhuvan , and Kharda . Following the conquest of Deccan by Bajirao I and the imposition of Chauth by him, Nizam remained a tributary of
19080-415: The rural areas was carried out instead by communists, the police were unable to differentiate between the two and assumed that they had entered into a league. In the urban areas, communists and Congress members held joint meetings and demonstrations which provided material benefits to the rebels in the countryside. The general understanding among the communists was that the "rightist congressmen" were backed by
19239-495: The size of individual squads was reduced to five from ten. They started leading civilian lives among the rural population without readily available arms, depended on intermediaries for communication and occasionally organised to conduct operations. The government adopted the strategy of the Briggs Plan in response; tribal communities were evacuated en masse and placed in large detention camps but guerrillas with widespread support from
19398-608: The state after 16 months of military administration. Land reform measures such as the enactment of the Jagirdari Abolition Regulations and setting up of the Agrarian Enquiry Committee were introduced to contain the popularity of the communists. This somewhat reduced the power of the durras in the process. In 1950, the Constitution of India came into force and the dominion became a republic . Fearing
19557-477: The state forces pushed otherwise skeptical people in the peripheral areas of the rebel dominated territories to be drawn towards the communists and the rebellion. In some cases, the razakars who the government was unable to control attacked the estates of the durras themselves and plundered them. Consequently, some of the durras entered into agreements with the communes to supply them with resources and abide by their governance in exchange for protection from
19716-532: The state of Hyderabad into the Union of India and ended the rule of the Nizams. After the incorporation of Hyderabad State into India, M. K. Vellodi was appointed as Chief Minister of the state and Mir Osman Ali Khan became the Rajpramukh on 26 January 1950. He was a Senior Civil servant in the Government of India. He administered the state with the help of bureaucrats from Madras state and Bombay state . In
19875-492: The state of Hyderabad was split up among Andhra Pradesh and Bombay state (later Maharashtra ) and Karnataka . On 2 June 2014, the state of Telangana was formed splitting from the rest of Andhra Pradesh state and formed the 29th state of India, with Hyderabad as its capital. Wilfred Cantwell Smith states that Hyderabad was an area where the political and social structure from medieval Muslim rule had been preserved more or less intact into modern times. The last Nizam
20034-399: The state, attempting to arrest any and all communists. There was widespread use of torture against those suspected of harbouring information and the military personnel occasionally conducted indiscriminate arrests and mass shootings against villagers in Telangana. Meanwhile, the Nizam was not prosecuted and instead was made the Rajpramukh of Hyderabad State for a period of time. Kasim Razvi
20193-630: The state. Julia Adams , states: "In Weber 's Economy and Society , patrimonialism mainly refers to forms of government that are based on rulers' family- households . The ruler's authority is personal-familial, and the mechanics of the household are the model for political administration . The concept of patrimonialism captures a distinctive style of regulation and administration that contrasts with Weber's ideal-typical rational-legal bureaucracy ". She states that Weber has used patrimonialism to describe, among other systems, "estatist and absolutist politics of early modern Europe ". For Weber, patriarchy
20352-451: The state. Following the withdrawal of a satyagraha movement for constitutional reforms in 1938–39 as a result of instructions of the federal leadership, the Congress was largely discredited for its younger left-wing members. Convinced that the expulsion of the Nizam along with all the elites was a necessity for effective democratic gains, the left-wing faction decided to fight the feudal system, began embracing communism and started building up
20511-584: The state. The lower-level government employees were also predominantly Muslim. Effectively, the Muslims of Hyderabad represented an 'upper caste' of the social structure. All power was vested in the Nizam. He ruled with the help of an Executive Council or Cabinet, established in 1893, whose members he was free to appoint and dismiss. The government of the Nizam recruited heavily from the North Indian Hindu Kayastha caste for administrative posts. There
20670-609: The stationing of Indian troops in the state. Hyderabad's location in the middle of the Indian Union, as well as its diverse cultural heritage led to India's annexation of the state in 1948. Subsequently, Mir Osman Ali Khan , the seventh Nizam, signed an instrument of accession , joining India. Hyderabad State was founded by Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan who was the governor of Deccan under the Mughals from 1713 to 1721. In 1724, he resumed rule from
20829-734: The support of Winston Churchill and the British Conservatives . At 4 a.m. on 13 September 1948, India's Hyderabad Campaign, code-named " Operation Polo " by the Indian Army , began. Indian troops invaded Hyderabad from all points of the compass. On 13 September 1948, the Secretary-General of the Hyderabad Department of External Affairs in a cablegram informed the United Nations Security Council that Hyderabad
20988-441: The system of begar (free labour requested at the behest of state). Alarmed by its activities, the Nizam passed a powerful gagging order in 1929, requiring all public meetings to obtain prior permission. But the organisation persisted by mobilising on social issues such as the protection of ryots , women's rights, abolition of the devadasi system and purdah , uplifting of Dalits etc. It turned to politics again in 1937, passing
21147-456: The tactic of gathering en masse armed with slingshots, stones and sticks to ward off reconnaissance units and smaller raiding parties. The rebels had neither the firearms nor the training to use them. The durras , their agents and local officials became fearful of visiting their own estates or jurisdictions which were known to be established strongholds of the communist rebels without paying "protection taxes" themselves. The Andhra Conference
21306-405: The tenants were tenants at will or asami shikmidars who retained land revenue obligations but did not have tenancy rights. They could become shikmidars after a period of twelve years, though in practice they were evicted within three to four years. The responsibility for registration lay with the deshmukhs and deshpandes . They had access to land records and there was a lack of literacy among
21465-576: The terrain and shaped their organisation along the lines of geography and the strategic considerations of guerrilla warfare as they built it from the ground up. This made them much more effective in terms of tactics and logistics. The rebel forces were organised into two categories — garrisons consisting of village dalams (brigades) who would continue their civilian lives while maintaining hidden arms, and mobile guerrilla dalams who would become full-time operatives and engage in offensives across large distances. The revolutionary headquarters in Mungala became
21624-476: The territory of Hyderabad State. The feudal system was particularly harsh in the Telangana region of the state. The powerful deshmukh and jagirdar aristocracy, locally called durras , additionally functioned as money lenders and as the highest village official. The durras employed variants of the jajmani system called vetti and baghela which forced families of peasants into corvee labour by means of customary and debt obligations. The power of
21783-483: The toddy plantations also being a major source of revenue for the state but toddy trappers who were subjected to untouchability , were a significant section of the communist activists and base of support, and relied on toddy for their livelihoods. Some degree of co-ordination continued to occur especially due to increase in police repression and the agitations becoming interspersed with instances of violent confrontations. One major incident occurred in Warangal district where
21942-499: The trust relationships generated out of such interactions. These forms of social cooperation are the default ways human beings interact in the absence of incentives to adhere to other, more impersonal institutions. When impersonal institutions decay, these are the forms of cooperation that always reemerge because they are natural to human beings. What I have labeled patrimonialism is political recruitment based on either of these two principles. Thus, when bureaucratic offices were filled with
22101-401: The two countries had expressly provided that nothing in it should give India the right to send in troops to assist in the maintenance of internal order. At 5 p.m. on 17 September, the Nizam's army surrendered. The Government of Hyderabad resigned, and military governors and chief ministers were appointed by the Nizam at India's direction. On 26 January 1950, India formally incorporated
22260-439: The villages intimidated the durras and the administration. The private militias of the feudal lords and the police were sent to conduct violent attacks on the agitators with greater frequency as the movement went on. Hyderabad State passed a legislation for minimum tenurial security in 1945, which only worsened conditions as landlords resorted to frequent mass evictions to prevent accrual of tenancy rights. The agrarian distress
22419-459: The villages, the durras started fleeing to safer regions, resorted to litigation, and relied on the state police and their private armies to suppress the rebellious peasants. The villages adopted a strategy of active defense in response to violent attacks by private armies and the state police. Village level organisations developed a signals network to inform other villages of the position of approaching state security forces and villagers adopted
22578-408: Was a communist -led insurrection of peasants against the princely state of Hyderabad in the region of Telangana , Dominion of India , that escalated out of agitations in 1944–46. Hyderabad was a feudal monarchy where most of the land was concentrated in the hands of landed aristocrats known as durras in Telangana. Feudal exploitation in the region was more severe compared to others of India;
22737-511: Was also an Assembly, whose role was mostly advisory. More than half of its members were appointed by the Nizam and the rest were elected from a carefully limited franchise. There were representatives of Hindus, Parsis , Christians and Depressed Classes in the Assembly. Their influence was however limited due to their small numbers. The state government also had a large number of outsiders (called non-mulkhis ) – 46,800 of them in 1933, including all
22896-433: Was arrested, tried and jailed but soon released and forced to migrate to Pakistan. The military administration actively promoted feudal restoration in Telangana. The offensive sent the peasant communes and the Communist Party of India into disarray, causing divisions within them. Some of them, including Ravi Narayan Reddy and the former General Secretary Puran Chand Joshi , among other veteran party leaders wanted to abandon
23055-482: Was banned in October 1946 and the police had begun arresting communists and sympathisers throughout the state. Hundreds of Communist Party activists were arrested, and the number of police units assigned to the rebellious regions was increased exponentially. The frequency of raids increased through 1946, but during their attempts at arresting communist activists known to the police, crowds of hundreds would gather to obstruct them. The administration started assigning units of
23214-638: Was being invaded by Indian forces and that hostilities had broken out. The Security Council took notice of it on 16 September in Paris. The representative of Hyderabad called for immediate action by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. The Hyderabad representative responded to India's excuse for the intervention by pointing out that the Stand-still Agreement between
23373-490: Was completed in the 1944 Bhongir session of the AMS when two young communists, Ravi Narayan Reddy and Baddam Yella Reddy were elected as the president and secretary. The moderates expecting a rout, had resigned from their offices, boycotted the election and later formed a marginal splinter organisation, giving the communists free rein over the primary AMS. Arthur Lothian , the British Resident at Hyderabad took note of
23532-588: Was established during his reign to connect Hyderabad State to the rest of British India . It was headquartered at Secunderabad Railway Station . The railway marked the beginning of industry in Hyderabad, and factories were built in Hyderabad city. During his rule, the Great Musi Flood of 1908 struck the city of Hyderabad, which killed an estimated 50,000 people. The Nizam opened all his palaces for public asylum. He also abolished Sati where women used to jump into their husband's burning pyre, by issuing
23691-467: Was forced to enter into an agreement that put Hyderabad under British protection. He was the first Indian prince to sign such an agreement. (Consequently, the ruler of Hyderabad rated a 23-gun salute during the period of British India .) The Crown retained the right to intervene in case of misrule. Hyderabad under Asaf Jah II was a British ally in the second and third Maratha Wars (1803–05, 1817–19), Anglo-Mysore wars , and would remain loyal to
23850-493: Was formed by the Congress Socialist Party (CSP). The rebellion ended when the military administration set up by Jawaharlal Nehru 's government unexpectedly launched an attack on the communes immediately following the annexation of Hyderabad to fulfil assurances given by V. P. Menon to the American embassy that the communists would be eradicated, leading to an eventual call for the rebels to lay down arms issued by
24009-444: Was further aggravated by rising prices and food scarcity after the Second World War . The post–war economic distress and political developments played a catalytic role in a feudal system already conducive for an uprising. The village level agitations against the aristocratic durra feudal lords escalated into an insurrection. The influence of the communists in Nalgonda and Warangal districts had become so strong by early 1946 that
24168-532: Was in a weak position as his army numbered only 24,000 men, of whom only some 6,000 were fully trained and equipped. On 21 August 1948, the Secretary-General of the Hyderabad Department of External Affairs requested the President of the United Nations Security Council, under Article 35(2) of the United Nations Charter , to consider the "grave dispute, which, unless settled by international law and justice,
24327-471: Was not useful to the rebels, as they could not operate them clandestinely, nor did they possess heavy armament like artillery to engage in conventional warfare . To mitigate this advantage, the rebels dug trenches around the villages and roads were either blocked, breached or had planks with nails placed on them. The military would often respond by forcing a group of villagers to refill the trenches, shooting some of them while they worked on it. On 26–27 February,
24486-410: Was reduced, started being known as the lathi sangham for their distribution of lathis (bamboo sticks) in this period. By the end of 1946, the police had reported 156 cases of assault by peasants and four major police–peasant battles had occurred, but neither the actions of the military, the police nor the private armies were able to dislodge the communists. Most of the confrontations occurred in
24645-496: Was reputed to be the wealthiest man in the world. He was supported by an aristocracy of 1,100 feudal lords who owned a further 30% of the state's land, with some 4 million tenant farmers. The state also owned 50% or more of the capital in all the major enterprises, allowing the Nizam to earn further profits and control their affairs. Next in the social structure were the administrative and official classes, comprising about 1,500 officials. A number of them were recruited from outside
24804-506: Was sending arms, supplies and volunteers into Telangana. This considerably bolstered the organisational, tactical and logistical capabilities of the rebels, transforming the peasants uprising into an organised rebellion. Arms were acquired through black market purchases at increased prices in Telangana and from the estate agents and local government officials by theft and force. The rebels who were equipped with firearms went on guerilla warfare targeting infrastructure, supplies and garrisons of
24963-449: Was succeeded by Asaf Jah IV , who ruled from 1829 to 1857 and was succeeded by his son Asaf Jah V . Asaf Jah V 's reign from 1857 to 1869 was marked by reforms by his Prime Minister Salar Jung I . Before this time, there was no regular or systematic form of administration, and the duties were in the hands of the Diwan (Prime Minister), and corruption was thus widespread. In 1867,
25122-408: Was the leader of the local sangham was killed and a number of others severely wounded. The group proceeded to and set fire to the residence of the deshmukh before they were dispersed by the arrival of a contingent of armed police. In the following days, 200 acres of land in a neighbouring village were seized from the deshmukh 's estate and redistributed by the peasants. The incident sparked
25281-647: Was welcomed enthusiastically by a section of the populace, who formed the Hyderabad State Reforms Association. However, the Nizam and the Special Officer ignored all their demands for consultation. Meanwhile, the Nizam banned the Khilafat movement in the State as well as all political meetings and the entry of "political outsiders". Nevertheless, some political activity did take place and witnessed cooperation between Hindus and Muslims. The abolition of
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