[THREAD on HYDERABAD's ANNEXATION to INDIA].This is a pic of the Indian flag being replaced with that of the Hyderabad state's on 17 Sept, 1948, after the princely state was annexed to India through Operation Polo, a military offensive. Some thoughts based on my research: (1/n)

Some basic facts first. In 1948, the erstwhile state of Hyderabad was the largest one under British India. It comprised of 16 districts: entire Telangana, and parts of Maharashtra (Marathwada) and Karnataka. It was a multi-lingual state with about 16 (some say 18) million people.

The Hyderabad state's last Nizam was Osman Ali Khan, who was one of the world's richest men. Trouble began after Indian independence. When the British left India in 1947, they however gave monarchs of princely states the option to join India, Pakistan, or to stay independent.

Osman Ali Khan was one of the handful of kings, like Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, who wanted to stay independent. It may be noted that he was also one of the richest men in the world, and was the king of a relatively peaceful state.

However, the underbelly of it, especially in Telangana’s districts, was that of extreme oppression by state-appointed Jagirdars (landlords), whose main task was to collect revenue (taxes and rent) from farmers and give it to the state. The landlords were anything but benevolent.

After independence, Osman Ali Khan’s government and the Indian union began negotiating, with the latter being adamant about not Hyderabad state, which was surrounded by India, staying independent. The ‘Standstill Agreement’ was signed in November 1947, for a year, for negotiation

By 1948 however, politically, the state's social structure became turbulent, given that it had several players who waned different things. There was the State Congress, the COmmunist Party of India, the MIM and later Razakars, the Indian union and the Arya Samaj.

More importantly, by 1946, peasants in Telangana, led by the COmmunist Party of India, began violently opposing landlords and started taking back their lands. This is known as the Telangana Armed Struggle, which continued much after Operation polo, till 1951.

From border raids by India, to the Nizam's govt banning the State Congress and the CPI, it was a big mess, politically speaking. The Hyderabad state police, along with the Razakars, were engaged in violent stands against the CPI's cadres and peasants in Telangana.

But that would not be the worst complication. A separate parallel political power emerged in Hyderabad state, in the form of Syed Qasim Razvi, a lawyer from Latur, who took over the reigns of the Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (started in 1927) in 1946.

Razvi took over the reigns of the MIM after the death of Bahadur year Jung in 1944. Jung was one the MIM’s most powerful leaders and was a respected figure. It is hard to say what would have happened had he not died under suspicious circumstances (suspected poisoning).

One of the major reasons behind Police Action (Op Polo) is believed to be the fanatical Razvi, who started the Razakar (volunteers) militia, which indulged in atrocities. The issue with Razvi was his violence, especially against those who were pro-India. He left no one,

The late author Omar Khalidi in his book ‘Hyderabad: After The Fall’ notes that, “Under Razavi’s charge the organisation (MIM) fairly quickly became a militant and somewhat frenzied party, accused, not without cause, of being facist in both spirit and structure”.

In his book October Coup, Mohammed Hyder, Osmanabad district's last collector, writes that Razvi in private meetings argued that Muslims are meant to be rulers, something that the Nizam himself never publicly uttered(his administration was clearly biased towards Muslims however).

Razakar violence against Hindus (and anyone opposed to Hyderabad’s independence), and communist-backed uprisings by peasants against landlords in Telangana’s rural areas meant that the political situation in 1948 was undoubtedly in turmoil. It was truly a big mess.

The murder of Shoaibullah Khan, the editor of Imroze, an Urdu daily, best captures the situation then. Khan was murdered during the intervening night of 22-23 August in 1948. His hand, according to Burgula Narsing Rao, who witnessed it, was also cut-off as a warning for others.

Khan’s newspaper Imroze used to function out of Rao’s home at Kachiguda. Rao is also the nephew of former Congress leader and first chief minister of the Hyderabad state, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao. He was also a student leader in 1948 with the CPI's student wing at Nizams College

While my earlier tweets sum up what happened in general, one of the most overlooked aspects of Operation Polo is the Telangana Armed Struggle. Some basic facts and why it took place:Vetti Chakiri (bonded labour)was commonplace in rural Telangana, along with forced tax collections

Essentially, lower-caste folks were forced to service landlords.More than that,the Nizam himself had directly owned 10% of the state’s lands, while 60% of it were revenue lands (Diwani), and 30% were under the Jagirdars (Telangana People’s Struggle and its lesson: P.Sundarayya)

Bonded labour and forced taxes were the main reasons behind the uprising, which began in 1946, Some of the CPI leaders from Telangana then were Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Ravi Narayan Reddy, Arutla Kamala Devi, Ch. Rajeshwar Rao, Jawad Razvi, Baddam Yella Reddy, etc.

As the CPI was banned, some of its members started the Comrades Association, a frontal organization. The Telangana Armed Struggle's initial start is credited to a few incidents: one is the rebellion of Chakali Ailamma against Visnuru Ramachandra Reddy, the biggest landlord in TS

It is said that Ramachandra Reddy had owned or oversaw about 40,000 acres of land alone, and that 11 others in Jangaon had owned or collected revenues from 259 villages. Under a Jagirdar, there was a Police Patel, a Mali Patel and a Patwari (accountant).

After Ailamma revoled against Visnuru Ramchandra Reddy in Warangal, another incident, the murder of Doddi Komaraiah, a peasant (and supposed CPI cadre) by landlords or their goons is also said to have sparked the Armed Struggle. By 1947, it became a full-fleged uprising,

The Telangana Armed Struggle led to the CPI becoming so strong that it virtually captured or took control of Nalgonda and Warangal districts, apart from some other areas. Syed Ahmed El-Edroos, the last commander of the Hyderabad State Army, concedes this in his own book

The Armed Struggle was also led by CPI leaders from Andhra like P. Sundarayya, Devulapally Venkateshwar Rao and others. It becomes so strong that the CPI actually sent 4 people to meet Stalin, to try and start their own separate commune, or state. This was however rejected.