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Nasir-ud-daula (Asaf Jah IV)

Nizam of Hyderabad from 1829 to 1857, eldest son of Sikandar Jah. At his request the British officers who had supervised the districts were withdrawn. Misrule, debt and the arrears of the Hyderabad Contingent followed, and Chandu Lal resigned in 1843. By the treaty of 21 May 1853 Berar, Osmanabad and the Raichur Doab were assigned to the British to pay for the Contingent. A week later he appointed Salar Jang minister. He died on 16 May 1857.

Oval photograph of a painted half-length portrait of an earlier Nizam in a jewelled turban and necklaces.
Oval photograph of a painted half-length portrait of an earlier Nizam in a jewelled turban and necklaces. · A. Claude Campbell (ed.) (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Nasir-ud-daula, the fourth Nizam in the usual reckoning of the Asaf Jahis, was the eldest son of Sikandar Jah and succeeded him in 1829.12 Mudiraj’s Pictorial Hyderabad (1929) gives his personal name as Mir Farkhunda Ali Khan.3 It says he was born in 1792 to Chandni Begum, his father’s “favourite nikah wife”.3 Bilgrami lists Chandni Begum’s grave in the family burial ground at the Mecca Masjid.4

The end of British supervision

He came to the throne in May 1829.56 Mudiraj says that one of his first acts was to ask for the removal of the European revenue superintendents employed in the districts since 1820.56 The Government of India agreed.56

The treaty collection of 1909 says he was given a promise.78 Once the existing revenue settlements had run their course, the British would withdraw from all interference.78 He would be “absolute both in the selection and removal of his minister, and in all other matters of internal administration”.78 A treaty of 1831 confirmed the existing agreements.78

The same work says the withdrawal “was immediately followed by the return of disorder and misrule”.8 Bankers refused to lend to the state.8 Chandu Lal could not cope, and he resigned as minister on 6 September 1843.8 Mudiraj calls the famine of 1833 “the severest of all the famines of the nineteenth century”.6

In 1839 a court of enquiry found that Mubariz-ud-daula, a brother of the late Nizam Sikandar Jah, and others had been organising the Wahhabis against the British and the Nizam’s government.26 Mubariz-ud-daula was imprisoned in Golconda fort, where, Mudiraj says, he died in 1854.26 In 1847 a riot between Shias and Sunnis cost about fifty lives.2

The Contingent and the treaty of 1853

The Hyderabad Contingent was a force under British officers raised in Chandu Lal’s time.8 Its pay fell into arrears, and advances had to be made from the British treasury.8 In 1843 the Nizam was warned that further advances would need land as security.8

The ministers who followed Chandu Lal were Siraj-ul-Mulk, Amjad-ul-Mulk and Shams-ul-Umara, and Siraj-ul-Mulk again from 1851.89 None of them paid off the debt.89 Mudiraj says the treasury was empty and some of the Nizam’s jewels were mortgaged.10

By the treaty of 21 May 1853 the British agreed to keep up the Contingent.112 It was to have not less than 5,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and four field batteries.112 To pay for it the Nizam assigned in trust districts in Berar, Dharaseo (Osmanabad) and the Raichur Doab.112 These were expected to yield fifty lakhs a year.112 The Contingent “ceased to be part of the Nizam’s army, and became an auxiliary force kept up by the British Government for the Nizam’s use”.11

Siraj-ul-Mulk died within a week of the treaty, and the Nizam appointed his nephew Salar Jang minister.2 Mudiraj dates Siraj-ul-Mulk’s death to 27 May 1853, and Campbell to 26 May.109

Death

According to Campbell, Nasir-ud-daula died on 16 May 1857, aged sixty-six.112 Campbell calls him “very popular and remarkably tolerant in religious matters”.112 His eldest son, Afzal-ud-daula, succeeded him.112

Campbell also describes Salar Jang’s life.13 There he says that on his deathbed the Nizam asked for his son.13 He advised him that “as the British Government had always been so friendly to himself, his son should continue faithful to the English”.13 Bilgrami lists his grave among those of the Nizams at the Mecca Masjid.14

Footnotes

  1. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 125 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  3. Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad (1929), p. 64 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan (1927), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. K. Krishnaswamy Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, Vol. I (1929), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad (1929), p. 66 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  7. C. U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, Vol. IX (1909), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Aitchison, Treaties, Vol. IX (1909), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  9. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 128 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad (1929), p. 67 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Aitchison, Treaties, Vol. IX (1909), p. 9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad (1929), p. 69 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan (1927), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

Dynasties

Asaf Jahis (Nizams of Hyderabad)

1724–1948 CE

The dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948). It was founded by the Mughal viceroy Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, who made himself independent in the Deccan after defeating Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in 1724. After his death the French and the English backed rival heirs. The Northern Circars passed to the French in 1753 and to the English in 1766, and the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema to the East India Company in 1800, leaving Telangana as the Telugu heart of the Nizam's Dominions. Bound to the British by the subsidiary alliance of 1798–1800, the Nizams governed through ministers such as Chandu Lal and Salar Jung I. They assigned Berar to the British in 1853 and leased it in 1902. Mir Osman Ali Khan's reign brought Osmania University and the rebuilding of Hyderabad, and his government ended in September 1948.

References

Sources (5)
  1. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 17. [Public domain]
  2. C. U. Aitchison (compiler), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads relating to India and Neighbouring Countries, Vol. IX: Hyderabad, Mysore and Coorg (4th ed.) (opens in a new tab), Superintendent, Government Printing, India, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 7–9. [Public domain]
  3. A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam's Dominions, Being an Exhaustive Photographic History of the Hyderabad State, Deccan, India (opens in a new tab), C. B. Burrows, Bombay, 1898, pp. 37, 125, 127–128. [Public domain]
  4. K. Krishnaswamy Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Chandrakanth Press, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1929, pp. 64–67, 69. [Public domain]
  5. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan: A Comprehensive Guide to the Archaeological Remains of the City and Suburbs of Hyderabad (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Hyderabad-Deccan, 1927, pp. 36–37. [Public domain]

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