Hyderabad’s Ruler

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1948, Page 8

Hyderabad’s Ruler

Shortly after 4 p.m. every day of the week, year in, out, police whistles shrill through the wellswept streets of Hyderabad in the Deccan Plain of India. As trams slow down, an elderly man with a greying moustache and old-fashioned spectacles drives past in a modest car. Only while he is making this daily pilgrimage to the tomb of his mother can . most of his subjects and any foreign journalists catch a glimpse of the most retiring monarch in the world: His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad. But it is only in the sense of his aversion from personal publicity that the Nizam is retiring. In ruling the 17,000, people of his 82,000 square rnile State he is very much in evidence, and Sir Mil' Osihan Ali Khan Bahadur Fateh Jang has been their absolute ruler for 38 years, says a Daily Herald special correspondent. The Nizam is reputed to be the world’s richest man. This may or may not be true, but my impression is that he has quite enough to live on, and rather more than necessary for his austere existence. Whispers from teh Palice speak of a frugal diet, a barely furnished room and a pallet bed. The 68-year-old Nizam is perhaps the last example of an Oriental despot. His acute brain and considerable political patience and ability are the factors with which the Indian Government, which is now having a firstclass quarrel with the Nizam, has to contend. India wants the Nizam to' accede to, or federate with, the Dominion. She also wants him to grant responsible government in the State. More than 80 per cent, of the people are Hindus and the Nizam and ruling caste of Hyderabad are Moslems. For his part the Nizam wants to be an independent ruler and is disinclined to accept Indian paramountcy, the virtual disappearance of Moslem rule and his own relegation to a purely constitutional position. The Nizam’s Frankenstein monster is an organisation of strongly pronationalist Hyderabad Moslems whose leader, a black-beared exfootballer called Qasim Razvi, talks about waging a “holy war” against the Hindus, reconquering lost territories and driving a neat wedge of Hyderabad to the sea. Communist agitators in the State’s border areas are defying the Nizam’s police, while armed semi-militarist fascists who form the sword-arm of the Nationalist Moslems are swashbuckling in the towns. The climax is coming. Either the Nizam will give way to India or he will try to persuade the Dominion to submit the dispute to arbitration, which she is loath to do, or he will remain adamant and Indian troops will move into his lands to protect the Hindu inhabitants. NEW DELHI, July 27. A communique announced that Indian troops have surrounded and occupied Navaj “to ensure the safety of the civilians and military traffic along the road to Barsi.” Barsi is an Indian enclave inside Hyderabad State. The Hyderabad Government to-day protested to the Government of India against Indian troops raiding Navaj. An Indian Defence Ministry spokesman described the protest as a, “feeble attempt to covei’ up the wanton attack on Indian troops by Razakars and Pathans.”