Hyderabad State Liberation Day

Hyderabad State Liberation Day

Subject : Post Independence

Context : The Telangana Government and Central government will observe 75 years of Liberation of Hyderabad on 17th September 2022 to signify the merger of erstwhile Hyderabad State under Nizam rule with the Indian Union.

Concept :

Integration of Princely State of Hyderabad into India

• Hyderabad was one of the largest natives/princely states in India. It was ruled by the Nizams who accepted the paramountcy of the British sovereign.
• The Nizam of Hyderabad like the Nawab of Junagadh and the ruler of Kashmir did not accede to India before the date of independence, i.e., 15th August 1947.
• He was encouraged by Pakistan and Muslim natives peoples, to stay as an independent power and improve his armed forces to resist the integration.
• During this military improvisation, internal chaos emerged in the state of Hyderabad because of which, on 13th September 1948, the Indian Army was sent into Hyderabad under Operation Polo (military operation to annex Hyderabad into the Union of India), on the grounds that the law-and-order situation in Hyderabad threatened the peace of South India.
• The troops met little resistance by the Razakars (the private militia who were resisting the integration), and between the 13th and 18th September, the military took complete control of the state.
• The operation led to massive communal violence with estimates of deaths ranging from the official one of 27,000 to 40,000 to scholarly ones of 200,000 or more.
• After the integration, the Nizam was retained as the head of state in the same manner as the other princes who acceded to India.