Qasim Razvi · Telugu History

Qasim Razvi led the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, the Muslim political party of Hyderabad State, in the last years of the Nizam’s rule. Under him its volunteers, the Razakars, became an armed force.¹ Accounts of his part in the events of 1947–48 differ sharply.¹²

Most of what is known here about him comes from opponents or outside observers. Sarojini Regani’s history of the freedom movement is written from the Congress side.¹ A confidential report of the United States State Department, dated 16 August 1948, gives an outside view.³ No account by Razvi himself or by his party was available for this page.

The party and its volunteers

Regani says the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen was founded in 1927.⁴ It held that the ruler and the throne stood for the political and cultural rights of the state’s Muslims, and it opposed democratic reform.⁴ Under its president Bahadur Yar Jung, she writes, a plan for a corps of volunteers was drawn up in 1940.⁵ Each local leader, the salar, was to command 30 volunteers.⁵

Razvi became president of the party in 1946.¹ In July 1947, Regani says, the party decided to give the Razakars regular military training.¹ By 3 November 1947, even government figures counted 50,000 of them.¹ Razvi himself said he wanted 500,000.¹

The US report describes the Razakars as the party’s semi-military wing.² Its writers say they were meant to stop any popular revolt and to frighten the Hindu population with raids.² The report adds that Razvi had often threatened that the Muslims would turn on the Hindus of the state if Indian forces moved against Hyderabad.⁶

The Standstill Agreement crisis, 1947

In October 1947 the Nizam’s team was ready to fly to Delhi to sign the Standstill Agreement.⁷ Regani writes that a large crowd of Razakars surrounded the members’ houses in the early morning and stopped them leaving.⁷ Razvi then asked the Nizam to let him conduct the talks and to change the delegation.⁸ The team resigned, and the Prime Minister, the Nawab of Chhatari, resigned too.⁸ The agreement was finally signed on 29 November 1947.⁸

Raids and speeches, 1948

Regani describes an attack on Bibinagar station and village on 10 January 1948.⁹ She says Razakars returning by lorry from a rally at Bhongir beat railway staff and villagers and looted houses.⁹ The Ittehad president, she writes, said villagers had shouted slogans insulting the Nizam.⁹ Regani rejects this and cites an inquiry by Congress leaders that, she says, found Razvi himself present.¹⁰

On 31 March 1948, at a meeting for the party’s Hyderabad Weapons Week, Regani says Razvi gave a speech against India that called for armed resistance.¹¹ On 8 April, she writes, he claimed Hyderabad would soon recover the Ceded Districts and the coastal Northern Circars.¹¹ The Nizams had given up both regions to the British long before (see Asaf Jahis). Nehru protested.¹² The Hyderabad government denied that the speech had been made.¹² Sardar Patel replied that he had evidence it had.¹²

On 19 August 1948 Razvi spoke again at a meeting in Hyderabad.¹³ Two days later the editor Shoebullah Khan, whose paper Imroze criticised the Razakars, was shot and his hands were cut off.¹³ Regani links the killing to the speech.¹³ The police history of 1961 records that a special tribunal at Trimulgherry tried the Shoebullah Khan murder case and the Bibinagar case.¹⁴

After the Police Action

When Indian troops took over in September 1948, the new government disbanded the Razakars and other private armies.¹⁵ It arrested only the ringleaders, according to Hyderabad Reborn.¹⁵ On 1 October 1948, 1,912 Razakars were held in the state’s jails.¹⁶ In the next eighteen months 15,810 more were admitted, and by March 1950 only 55 were still held.¹⁶ See Mir Laik Ali, Asaf Jahis and the Movements page.

Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 206 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
The Problem of the Future Status of Hyderabad (1948), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Office of Intelligence Research, US Department of State, The Problem of the Future Status of Hyderabad (16 August 1948), p. iii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh, p. 204 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 205 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
The Problem of the Future Status of Hyderabad (1948), p. 9, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 210 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 218 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 219 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 222 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement, p. 230 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
The History of the Andhra Pradesh Police (1861–1961) (1961), p. 106 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Hyderabad Reborn (Government of Hyderabad, 1949), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Report on the Administration of Hyderabad State, September 1948 – March 1950 (1950), p. 77 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

The party and its volunteers

The Standstill Agreement crisis, 1947

Raids and speeches, 1948

After the Police Action

Footnotes

References