The Destruction of Hyderabad

A.G. Noorani

9789382381334

Tulika Books 2021

Language: English

412 Pages

6.25 x 9.5 Inches

In Stock!

Price INR 780.0 Not Available

Book Club Price INR 585.0 USD

About the Book

The story of the fall of Hyderabad State has been told a good many times. Told mostly by the ‘court historians’ of Indian nationalism, this study seeks to revise the official historical account of the ‘police action’ (1948) led by the Indian army against the forces and government of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Destruction of Hyderabad provides a detailed record of the diplomatic exchanges between the Government of India and the Government of Hyderabad during the British Raj and after Partition and Independence in 1947, based on archival sources in Hyderabad which remain largely unexplored by scholars. The author has unearthed contemporary diplomatic correspondence, the Sunderlal Committee report on the massacre of the State's Muslim population during and after the ‘police action’ (since suppressed by the Indian state), and a wealth of memoirs and first-hand accounts of the clandestine workings of territorial nationalism in its bleakest and most shameful hour. The author brings to light the largely ignored and fateful intervention of M.A. Jinnah in the destruction of Hyderabad, both while he was President of the Muslim League and after he became Governor General of Pakistan. He also addresses the communal leanings of Sardar Patel and his hand-picked Agent-General K.M. Munshi in shaping Hyderabad’s fate. The book is dedicated to the ‘other’ Hyderabad: a culturally syncretic state, a tolerant society, and a rich composite culture which communal forces in India found alien.

A.G. Noorani
Noorani or Ghafoorbhai, as he was more popularly known, was a polymath and much more. One of the sharpest minds on constitutional law and a prolific writer on a range of subjects, he had a deep sense of justice and was committed to secularism, equity, and progressive ideas. His repertoire of writing spanned domestic politics, jurisprudence as well as international relations, contemporary as well as historical.

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