The erstwhile Hyderabad State ruled by the Nizams and its accession to the Indian Union are a fascinating part of the making of this nation. At one end were the nationalists represented by the Congress and other players in the freedom struggle, including the Hindu Mahasabha, advocating the integration of Hyderabad with the Indian Union. At another end was the defiant Nizam, who wanted to exercise the choice of staying independent and negotiate aspects on which Hyderabad would like to cooperate (such as defence and currency) with the Indian Union. Added flavour comes from a supplementary angle that brought in the people’s movement in Telangana against the oppression of landlords, orzamindars; a ragtag army of Razakars trying to fight, hand and glove with the Nizam, in order to retain autonomy. Another fact that adds more variety is: about 80 per cent of the population was Hindu, spoke three different tongues, had been under Islamic rule for centuries, adopting an alien language for official and court dealings.
There is a strand of literature that examines aspects on whether Hyderabad should have been integrated with the Indian Union; whether the military action (though given a civilian term: police action) should have indeed occurred; and an associated strand on whether the state should have been trifurcated on a linguistic basis. A fascinating book calledHyderabad: After the Fall (edited by Omar Khalidi) brings out the diverse arguments that were drowned out under the nationalist rhetoric.
With October Coup, then, it was expected that the book would bring out some interesting aspects of how an administrator (in this case, a Taluqdar of Osmanabad District) would have looked at, and dealt with, such issues. These expectations, stemming from the sub-title of the book (“A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad”), were unwarranted. While the context of the book is around the struggle for independence, it is a tragic personal story of a civil servant who faced persecution by the new administration.
This book is Kafka’s delight. The author, Mohammed Hyder, is picked up soon after the Indian forces occupy Hyderabad and is put in prison without much of an explanation. Almost like the re-enactment of Kafka’s Trial, charges are framed much later, he is shifted from one prison to another, documents are withheld for flimsy reasons, even a death penalty is ordered and then the cases are withdrawn even as the persecution outside the courtroom continues. The book deals with Hyder’s trial and incarceration and what comes out of the process. It is the story of a passive struggle by a civil servant, within the confines of civility, to restore his honour and position. The first part of the book is neatly narrated. The second part has extensive reproductions of legal documents, affidavits, counter-affidavits and judgments.
It is interesting to have glimpses of the administration of Hyderabad State from Hyder’s perspective. Judging from his account, Hyder probably did not have a strong position on either accession or otherwise. He comes across as an earnest civil servant keen to maintain law and order and provide senior officers with information on the situation in the district under his control. He does not seem to have a soft corner for Quasim Rizvi, the leader of the Razakars. At the same time, he is willing to engage with him.
Quasim Rizvi, generally painted as the villain of the episode that involved the Razakars, appears very reasonable in all his encounters with Hyder. It is also evident from the book that while the Nizam took the line that “India is a geographical notion. Hyderabad is a political reality” (page 13), the preparation for resistance was based on false ground-level assurances and a notion of external support. While reading Hyder one gets the impression that acceding to India was, for them, a forgone conclusion and any resistance at best was a symbolic one, based more on pomp and ego than on data.
The way Hyder has constructed the book is slightly disappointing. It could have been a great piece of literature — a personal account of the incarceration, a conspiracy hatched and a persecution carried out with clinical precision. It could have been a piece of history retold, about the pressures of being loyal to a losing employer, a tragic story of losing friends and allies who were mostly moving away to Pakistan, a story of Muslim rule in a Hindu state which converts into a majority (Hindu) rule in a state that was predominantly ruled by Muslims. It could have brought out the marginalisation of Muslims, particularly in the post-accession regime in which the erstwhile rulers became minorities. The potential was immense. However, Hyder restricts his story to a dispassionate personal tale, where conspiracies are played down, villains are played up, and everybody is shown to be reasonable. October Coup suffers from decency. It is too decent a book to be set in a tumultuous period.
The reviewer is visiting professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
OCTOBER COUP: A MEMOIR OF THE STRUGGLE FOR HYDERABAD
Mohammed Hyder
Roli Books (Lotus Collection)
228 pages; Rs 295
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Home> Life & Leisure / by M S Sriram / June 15th, 2012