This book caught my attention as I am reading a bit about Hyderabad and its history these days and I picked it up at the Trivandrum airport. Operation Polo was what the Police Action was called when the Indian armed forces took over the Hyderabad state which was not amenable to the idea of joining the India as most other princely states had.
The India Independence Act was promulgated in 1947 and agreements between the British and local princely states which included the Subsidiary Alliance (where the local states paid the British forces to protect them) were void. Interestingly Hyderabad was the first to agree to the Subsidiary Alliance! The British while leaving gave the princely states three choices - join India, join Pakistan or stay independent. Kashmir and Hyderabad did not join as per the book (but as I understand it was Bhopal, Travancore and Hyderabad who did not want to join either India or Pakistan). The Nizam was inclined to negotiate from what I gather but the MIM led by Kasim Razvi kept sabotaging any chance of negotiations with the Indian government and instead kept the fire burning of a dream of flying the Nizam's flag on the Red Fort. Kasim Razvi was deeply radical and also not very practical in thinking that the Nizam's Hyderabad army of 35000 and the Ittehad's razakars (volunteers), could stand up to the Indian army.
The Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan was a larger than life personality who had been featured on the cover of the Times Magazine in 1937 - perhaps the year he held his silver jubilee celebration. His was the largest and most prosperous princely state with an annual income of Rs 9 crores, and he was the richest man in the world. The Hyderabad state had its own Railways, army, airport, currency. With the pressure from Kasim Razvi and others any attempt at being moderate was put aside and the idea of Hyderabad becoming a sovereign state was persisted with. There was large scale conversion of Hindus, harassment of Hindus, to quell any ideas of rebellion. Attempts were made to join the British Commonwealth as an independent country, to negotiate with the Portuguese to sell Goa so the state had an access to a port etc which failed.
When a proposal was given by the Indian Government for a standstill agreement - wherein the Indian government would do whatever the British forces did in terms of protection etc i.e. defence and external affairs would be handled by India until an agreement was reached. The Nizam was agreeable. The original committee (comprising of Sir Walter Moncton, the Nawab of Chattari, Home Minister Ali Yavar Jung, one Muslim and one Hindu) which was to meet the Indian government was stalled with Kasim Razvi barging into the meeting and demanding a different course of action. Moncton resigned and in his place Kasim Razvi himself went to the meeting and took a hard line and offended the powers that be viz Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel and Nehru. Though some sort of an agreement was reached both parties violated it - Hyderabad negotiated with Pakistan and lent it 15 million pounds while Indian government put an economic blockade by delaying transfer to Hyderabad. With the increasing atrocities of the Razakars and the peasant rebellion in jagirs, things were heating up.
The Hyderabad state then hired one Sidney Cotton to supply arms. The operation cost around 20 million pounds which was financed by one Laik Ali. Sidney Cotton flew all around the world, escaped Indian air space and delivered 500 tonnes of machine guns, grenades, mortars, anti aircraft guns, Lancaster bombers and such. General El Edroos was named Commander of the Hyderabad army.
Meanwhile Operation Polo was being finalised under the leadership of Lt Gen Goddard, who was the Commander in Chief of Southern Command of the Indian Army (the Goddard plan). Lt Gen Rajendrasinh ji was in charge and Maj Gen Jayanto Chaudhuri led the charge from the west (Solapur) while Maj Gen Ajit Rudra led from the South (Vijayawada). The forces were aided by smash forces and other forces at different points around the Hyderabad state borders. At the last minute the plan had a hitch as the Commander in Chief of the Indian army General Bucher was not in favour of this action when there was trouble in Kashmir. But Patel and Nehru were convinced and Operation Polo commenced on September 13, 1948 - battles on the west side at Naldurg, Jalkot, Tuljapur, Umarga, Rajeshwar, Latur, Mominabad, Zaheerabad, Bidar and on the South side at Suryapet, Narketpalli, Chityal. Largely one sided as the Indian army reached Hyderabad by September 17, 1948. 490 Hyderabad soldiers, 2727 Razakars were killed while the Indian army lost 47 soldiers.
The Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan asked his Prime Minister and cabinet to resign. His famous words 'The vultures have fled. I do not know what to do' or something to that effect when he contacted the Indian agent Munshi. Gen Edroos was asked to keep peace in the city and a radio announcement was made by the Prime Minister that the Indian Government had taken over the Hyderabad state. Gen Chaudhari was appointed the Military Governor. The Razakars were banned and 18000 detained. Kasim Razvi was imprisoned. Overnight, the situation in Hyderabad, one where the Razakars were causing mayhem and everyone was living in fear or were running away from the state, settled down and people felt safe. But then, as with the aftermath of any such changeover and with such simmering tensions between the communities, large scale violence was reported across the Hyderabad state, mostly Marathwada region.
Prachi used a few fictional characters to drive the story - Adish Reddy, son of rich landlord and a jagirdar Darshan Reddy who was studying architecture in London, Dr Leila Sen who was brought from Calcutta to head a department in Osmania General Hospital, Mahendra who is a naxalite leader operating under a sanghatan for artisans, Krishna who suffered at the hands of landlords and is a hardcore naxalite. To me the story was better told as it is minus the fictionalised parts. Or if it had to be in the backdrop of the Operation Polo, the characters should have had their own fully fleshed out stories - like Titanic. But I am glad Prachi chose this topic and addressed it separately in her book.
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