Hyderabad Liberation Day

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The Government of India announced year-long commemoration of the Hyderabad Liberation Day starting from September 17, 2022

On September 17, 1948, Hyderabad officially joined Indian Union.

Problems in Hyderabad:

• The feudal nature of the state at the time caused the peasant population to suffer high taxes, indignities of forced labour, and various other kinds of exploitation at the hands of powerful landlords.
• There was also a demand by the Andhra Jan Sangham for Telugu to be given primacy over Urdu.
• By the mid-1930s, apart from a reduction in land revenue rates and the abolition of forced labour, introducing Telugu in local courts became another important issue.
• Soon after the organisation became the Andhra Mahasabha (AMS), and Communists became associated with it.
• Together, the two groups built a peasant movement against the Nizam that found local support.
• In response to an uprising in July 1946 against forceful land acquisition on the part of a hereditary tax collector named Visnur Ramachandra Reddy, by October 1946, the Nizam banned the AMS.
• A close aide of the Nizam, Qasim Razvi, leader of the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, became closely involved in securing the Nizam’s position.

Hyderabad’s at the time of Independence:

• At the time of India’s independence, British India was a mix of independent kingdoms and provinces that were given the options of joining India, Pakistan, or remaining independent.
• One of the largest princely states within the Indian union was Hyderabad, a Hindu-majority region ruled by a Muslim Nizam.
• The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, was in a dilemma on whether he should join the Indian union or stay independent.
• On the other hand, the Majlis-e-Itihadul Muslimeen (precursor of present-day AIMIM) was adamant about the Nizam merging with Pakistan instead of being Independent.
• Though the Nizam tried to legitimise the Princely state of Hyderabad by appointing trade officials in European countries and sending delegations to the UNSC, there were civil movements within his territory led by Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha and Hyderabad State Congress to fight for Hindu rights in Hyderabad and merge the state with the Indian Union.

Razakars:

• The Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen was a political outfit that sought a greater role for Muslims in the early 20th century, but after Razvi took over the organisation, it became extremist in its ideology.
• It was under him that a militia of the ‘razakars’ was formed to suppress the peasant and communist movement, launching a brutal attack.

Operation Polo:

• Around this time, the Standstill Agreement was also signed between the Nizam and the Indian government in November 1947, declaring a status quo.
• This meant that until November 1948, the Nizam could let things be as they were and not finalise a decision as negotiations with the Indian union continued.
• In the first half of 1948, tensions grew as the razakar leaders and the government in Hyderabad began to speak of war with India and began border raids with Madras and Bombay Presidencies
• As a response, India stationed troops around Hyderabad and began to ready itself for military intervention.
• With the Nizam importing more arms and the violence of the Razakars approaching dangerous proportions, India officially launched ‘Operation Polo’ on September 9 and deployed its troops in Hyderabad four days later.
• On September 17, 1948 the Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh in the line of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, had surrendered
• The formal and complete accession happened on January 26, 1950 when the Nizam was made ‘Rajpramukh’ of Hyderabad state by the Government of India.

News Summary:

• The year-long commemoration will pay tribute to all those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Samsthan and its merger with the India Union
• History is replete with illustrations ofstrugglesin the entire freedom movement including the struggle of Ramji Gond against the British; the fight of Komaram Bheem; the valour of Turrebaz Khan in 1857 who wanted to hoist the Indian national flag on the residence of the British Resident Commissioner at Koti in Hyderabad city.
• The move is also intended to draw attention to the Bhairanapally massacre of August 27, 1948, in which Razakars killed 96 villagers in order to crush their revolt for the merging of Nizam dominion into the Indian Union.
• The state of Hyderabad under the Nizam included the whole of current day Telangana, the Marathwada region in Maharashtra that included the districts of Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani anddistricts of Kalaburagi ,Bellary Raichur ,Yadgir, Koppal, Vijayanagara and Bidar incurrent day Karnataka.
• The state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka officially observe September 17 as the Liberation Day.

Ramji Gond:

• Ramji Gond was a Gond chief who ruled the tribal areas in present-day Adilabad district of Telangana.
• Ramji Gond fought a guerrilla campaign against the British Indian government to preserve his Gond kingdom.
• On 9 April 1860, Colonel Robert got information that Ramji Gond was at Nirmal village, Adilabad.
• He attacked and defeated Ramji, who was captured along with his 1000 soldiers.
• On 9 April 1857, Ramji Gond and his accomplices were hanged to death on a Banyan tree in Nirmal village.
• The tree came to be known as Veyyi Purrela (skull) Chettu or Veyyi Purrela Marri.
• This revolt of Ramji Gond can be called as the first rebellion against the British in India, which inspired Mangal Pandey to kill British Officers on 29 March 1857 which led to Sepoy Mutiny on 10 May 1857.

Komaram Bheem:

• Komaram Bheem was a Gond(Indigenous) tribal and was born on 22nd October.
• Komaram Bheem birthplace was Jodeghat of Asifabad in Adilabad,a District of Telangana
• Bheem, in association with other Gond leaders, led a protracted low intensity rebellion against the feudal Nizams of Hyderabad in the eastern part of the princely state during the 1930s, which contributed in the culmination of the Telangana Rebellion of 1946.
• He demanded a separate Gond state independent from the Nizam
• He was killed by armed policemen on 14^th October 1940, subsequently lionised as a symbol of rebellion, and eulogised in Adivasi and Telugu folklore.
• Komaram Bheem was inspired by Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who gave up his life for his motherland the other Gond leaders sacrifice.
• This inspiration provided him the proper motivation to revive the rebel with him. By this motivation, he gave the slogan "Jal, Jungle Jameen" which means the people living in the forests should have the full fledged rights on all the forest resources.

Turrebaz Khan:

• Turrebaz Khan was an Indian revolutionary who fought against the British in Hyderabad State during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
• The uprising of 1857 in Hyderabad, led by Turrebaz Khan and Maulvi Allauddin, was essentially to free Jamedar Cheeda Khan, who was held as a prisoner inside the Residency.
• With the Nizam signing the Treaty of Subsidiary Alliance with the East India Company in 1800, he fell into huge debts and the British wielded a lot of influence over him.
• The Indian sepoys in Nizam’s army and the Subsidiary Troops of East India Company revolted against the European officers.
• Among them was Jamedar Cheeda Khan who revolted against the British when Hyderabad Contingent’s 3rd Cavalry was ordered to march to Delhi at Buldhana.
• To free Jamedar Cheeda Khan, Turrebaz Khan mobilized nearly mobilized 6,000 people to attack the British Residency
• Turrebaz Khan was caught and shot dead on January 24, 1859 in the forests of Toopran

Vetti System:

• The Vetti System, also known as the Vetti Chakiri, was a social phenomenon that existed in the princely state of Hyderabad during the Nizam era.
• This system, which literally means “unpaid labour”, consisted of work done by lower castes at the landlord’s discretion.
• It was a compulsory system in which one member of each peasant family was assigned to serve the Nizam’s aides for free.
• To abolish this brutal Vetti system and other feudal exploitations, the people rebelled against the Nizams leading to the Telangana Rebellion or the Vetti Chakiri Movement, which provided the impetus for the Hyderabad Liberation Movement