The Razakar Scourge or Saviour?

If we read the history of Ghazni, Ghazni Mohammed was hailed as a

great conqueror and paragon of virtues. But, if we read the Indian history he
was depicted as an iconoclast, carried sword and fire and plundered temples.
However, both versions are correct.

Similarly, when we read about the

Razakars of Hyderabad we have the same dichotomy. More than this, the
silence about the very genesis and its constituents is largely because both the
Indian government and national press were conspicuously silent regarding the
violence in Hyderabad and refused to respond what they considered a
hyperbolic Pakistani press campaign intended to de-legitimize the Indian state.
In this paper, I shall endeavour to present not only the genesis,
constituents of the Razakars but also the role of armed home guards and police
constables of the neighbouring provinces such as Bombay, Central province
(CP) and Madras, the militant sections of Hyderabad State Congress, the
Andhra Communists, the Arya Samajists especially from Bombay Province and
the Government of India in stirring up violence in Hyderabad in a bid to create a
public opinion against the Hyderabad administration and so that it could send
the army. The Indian government strategy was to manufacture border incidents
and instability within Hyderabad to justify military intervention. The Government
of India asked the provinces especially Bombay, C.P. and Madras to raise home
guards and provide weapons and send out to Hyderabad to create violence.
They penetrated into Hyderabad and plundered border villages especially they
targeted the Muslims. In a bid to guard the borders and protect the people, the
Razakars came into the scene.
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 while granting independence to
both India and Pakistan, did not envisage transferring paramountacy to both the
dominions. On 15th August 1947, the suzerainty of the Crown over Hyderabad,
and all other princely states came to an end. None of the powers previously
exercised by the Crown was transferred to the governments of the two new
1

dominions. Taking the advantage of the clause, Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam
VII, chose to associate rather than accede to Indian nation. Yet, the Nizam
quest for independent Hyderabad garnered the support of not only Muslims but
also from Hyderabadis capitalists, landed and administrative classes.

In

addition to that, the states two largest Dalit organizations such as Depressed
Classes Organization and the Independent Scheduled Caste Federation
supported the Nizam in this endeavour. Both, the Nizam and the Government
were adamant on their respective positions and settlement could not be
reached. Legally speaking, the Nizam of Hyderabad was right. Under the
circumstances, an alternative arrangement was devised in the form of Standstill
Agreement and negotiations were undertaken. The Agreement was signed on
27-11-1948.
Genesis of the Razakars:
Majlis-ittehadul-Muslimeen (M.I.M.) was started as an answer to the
aggressive Arya Samaj movement.

The Arya Samaj was established in

Hyderabad at Beed town in 1880 and the Hyderabad Arya Samaj was founded
in 1892.

Most of the Arya Samajis were from Bombay province and they

started mass conversion from Islam to Hinduism. This caused a major clash
between the Hindus and Muslims. The Nizams government forbid the Arya
Samajis to hold Havans and Kunds. The M.I.M. was formed in 1927 by the
cultural, religious organization, in which Dr. Sayed Mehiuddin Quadri of the
Urdu department and Habeeb-ur-Rahman of the Persian department of
Osmania University played crucial roles. However, it was Inayatullah Khan
Mushrique, who postulated a lighter version of Dar-ul-Islam. Those ideas found
their practical experiences in the Khaskar movement in 1931. Bahdur Yar Jung
became a crusader of this movement.

He pioneered Tabligh against the

Shuddhi movement (conversion, re-conversion) and Tanzim (reconstruction of

Islam). All these efforts paved the way for establishment of the M.I.M. It was
during the presidency of Bahadur Yar Jung that the plan for raising corps of

volunteers was suggested by one Syed Mohammad Hasan in 1940. This gave
birth to the Razakars.

It was when Andhra led Communists, started occupying lands of Hindu

Deshmukhs and Muslim Jagirdars, Muslim Jagirdars appealed to the
government to protect their lands. In the absence of governments protection,
Jagirdars appealed to Razakars to protect their lands from Communists
encroachment and in quid pro quo they funded them. Precisely for this reason
Communists could not occupy single acre of Muslims. In addition to this the
Razakars also resisted the raids, who had entered the state territories from the
surrounding provinces and caused grave damage to life, limb and property in
the border districts. Because of these, the prestige of the Razakars was
enhanced in the eyes of common Muslims. It is not out of place to mention that
newly converted Hindus to Islam and other lumpen elements also joined the
Razakars to carry on arsons. Communists temerity was evident of the
ineptitude and malevolence of the Nizams administration. Having perceived,
some Hindu big landlords solicited the support of Razakars to protect their
lives, limbs and their properties.

Much vituperated Deshmukh Rapaka

Ramachandra Reddy of Visnoor, one among them. Having lost five acres of
newly bought land to one, Chakila Ailiyamma, he roped in the support of the
Razakars, thereby he not only protected his five thousand acres of land but
also his palatial mansion.

It is pertinent to note that the Andhra Kamma

Communists when they were challenged by the Razakars, they started

soliciting Telangana Reddys into their fold, though Telangana Reddys were
preponderant but the ultimate power vested with the Andhra Kammas, and it
has been continuing since then.
The Razakars were typical of Indian political form atleast the late 1930s
in that virtually every political party had a militant youth donning uniform and
trained in self-defence.

Like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a

Hindu nationalist paramilitary group, the Razakars received greater public

3

support as the frequency and severity of Hindu Muslim violence increased

across India from 1946.

After Pakistan became a territorial reality many

Hyderabadi Muslims felt abandoned, vulnerable and on account of their

demographic position, fearful of democratic politics.
administration of Nizam was slackened.

By 1940, the

The army was incompetent, ill-

equipped and poorly officered; the police was venal, malleable, undisciplined
and the civil administration was accused of malaversation.

The fissiparous

took advantage of it and created mayhem; plundered villages, ransacked

shops, raped women and de-flowered young lasses. It cant be said with any
certitude as to who had committed those grisly crimes, for, there were five types
of the Razakars: 1) the Police Razakars, 2) the Congress Razakars, 3) the
Communist Razakars, 4) the Hindu Razakars and 5) the Muslim Razakars
under Kasim Rizvi. All the Razakars used to grow beards, speak Urdu like
Muslims and attired in the Khaki fatigues similar to that of Kasim Rizvis
Razakars. All of them used to commit crimes and attribute only to the Muslim
Razakars. The national press gave wide publicity to the crimes in a bid to
create public opinion against the Hyderabad dominion.
The Police Razakars:
The Indian government strategy was to manufacture border incidents and
instability in Hyderabad to justify military intervention and the militants of State
Congress, Arya Samajists and the Communists took up the task. In November
1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India wrote letters provincial
Chief Minister expressing the urgent imperative for home guards in all
provinces, but

particularly those surrounding Hyderabad State.

The

Government of India liberally provided weapons to the provinces to arm home

guards. The provinces that were bordered Hyderabad Bombay to the West,
Madras to the South and East and the C.P. and Berar in the North. The then
Chief Minister B.G. Kher of Bombay agreed to provide rifles and ammunition to
Hindus on the borders of the Nizam state.

K.M. Munshi, the Indian

governments agent-general in Hyderabad and a close disciple of Patel, wrote

4

to the Sardar in May 1948 that the suppression of border incidents is not an
end in itself because the border incidents only provide justification for the
exercise of defence power under the Standstill Agreement and otherwise. If the
Nizams Government restrains the Razakars from indulging in border incidents,
our end will not be gained. This, to my mind, is the only point of view which
would justify our action in the eyes of the world.
Sholapur district shared a long border with the Hyderabad state. The
local authorities deployed armed police and aided the formation of defence
squad in atleast 254 villages, often recruiting Hindu settlers from Hyderabad.
The District Magistrate reported that issuing weapons very freely in bordering
villages so that they could penetrate into Hyderabad.

They were also

accompanied by police constables of Sholapur district. As of mid-May 1948,

there were more than 5000 home guards in the rural areas of Berar (a territory
claimed by the Nizam), all trained and armed by the provincial government. In
an indication of the way in which the Hyderabad conflict was being interpreted,
Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the Home Minister, Govt. of India, ordered the
confiscation of arms from all Muslim licensees in the province, even while
weapons were being distributed to Hindus. Several hundred Muslims,
including some MLAs, in the border areas of Bombay, Madras and C.P.
were arrested in the weeks preceding the Police Action.
Indian government often sings paeans of peace when it suits them.
However, it has a war-like mentality. K.F. Rustumji a senior police officer
narrates his experience as Superintendent of Police of the neighbouring district
of Akola (presently in Maharashtra) My task was to collect intelligence and
organize raids by specially armed and enlisted homeguards. In order to gain
public sympathy, the Government of India raided Hyderabad State to establish
a border belt free of the Razakars. In the dead of nights, the Central Province
Police in the disguise of the Razakars used to go up to a distance of 15 miles
and spread panic and cause reprisals which were highlighted by the press as
Razakar atrocities.

Rustumji is alive and lives in Mumbai, if any one

5

interested, he can be contacted. The pseudo Razakars of Central Province

were assisted by the Indian Army. The Indian Army unabashedly called it
Operation Kabbadi. The aim of the operation was geographical encirclement
of the Nizam dominions to start an economic blockade. This operation was
named after the popular Indian game of Kabbadi which calls for limited forays
into enemy territory and the Indian troops were highly amused. After the
Police Action, in a bid to oust the Nizams rule, the Government of India
brought employees from the neigbhouring states of India. They plundered
Hyderabad State. Maj Gen Chowdary and his team could not control the
wayward Union officers. One wrong decision taken at the time was to disarm
the state. All had to surrender their weapons. The Razakars handed over their
weapons to Andhra led Communists. This gave an impetus to the first
Telangana Terrorists Movement organized by the Communists.
The Congress Razakars:
During the course of the Telangana struggle, the character of the congress
became crystal clear. It was a centralised repressive force more efficient than
anything the Nizam could muster. Congress Seva Dal volunteers began the
vicious attacks on communists and their sympathisers even before the police
action of September 1948. They went on a rampage in the Andhra areas which
were in Madras province. So blatant was their repressive character that the
Krishna district Congress leader (who himself got two Communists killed)
issued a press statement on April 21, 1949, to dissociate himself from the
rampant atrocities: Seva Dals (Congress volunteer squads) are being fed with
money looted during the raids in villages. Drunkards, habitual convicts, have
become village congress leaders...

Loot, burning of houses, murders are

being committed... In other words, they were rawest and rankest rubbish.
One particular barbarity that was repeated in a large number of villages by
the Congress government of Madras was described in the press statement of
two Congressmen (one the President of Taluka Congress Committee, the other
6

an APCC member): Police have surrounded the village (Yelamarru) on 14th

morning (July 1949). Then they gathered all the villagers including a few
Communists at a place. They were stripped naked, lathi-charged, paraded in
the streets in nakedness, and were made to prostrate before the Gandhiji
statue...
Ramananda Tirth and Violence:
His original name was Venkatesh Rao Khedjikar. A Maharashtra
Chitpawan Brahmin who was born at Chinmahalli of Gulbarga district. He
started career as a school teacher and then turned Sanyasi. But a Sanyasi
interested in real politics. He was founder of Hyderabad State Congress. The
Congress and Communist joined together and styled themselves as United
Front. And under the guise of the United Front the communists along with the
congress workers raised squads amongst the villages and ex-employed them in
demolishing customs houses and arson. The Congress volunteers had looted
Umri Bank in Nanded district. A lion share of the plunder fell into the hands of
Khedjikar alias Ramanand Tirth. A part of it he used for the construction of the
Gandhi Bhavan, which houses present Telangana and Andhra PCCs rest of
the amount was not accounted for by Khedjikar alias Ramanand. How sad and
bad and mad it was !
Desai group accused him of misappropriation and complained to Sardar
Vallabbhai Patel

(correspondence of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.Vol.7 p.465).

It is a irrefragable

and invariable evidence of history. Naturally two groups emerged in Hyderabad

State Congress - Desai group and Gosai group. He was a bachelor of arts. He
was artful with women, yet had the art to stay a bachelor. There had been many
times when he had decided to take a wife. His problem had been whose wife.
The Three Phases: Explaining the three phases of the struggle, the
president said that in the first stage they sent out 9,000 volunteers into the state
to conduct non-violent struggle and to court imprisonment for a period of three
months. The second phase of the struggle was stiffened with the object of
7

destroying artificial barriers existing between Indian Union and Hyderabad, viz.,
demolition of Customs posts and cutting off toddy trees. A series of border
camps were organized, especially in Madras and Bombay, where retaining was
imparted to workers. On a border of 1,500 miles, there were altogether 750
customs Posts out of which 500 were smashed.
He also said that the third and last phase of the struggle consisted of
sabotage activities and dislocation of communications. For this work he said,
3,000 cadets were fully trained and sent every where in the districts. According
to him, village dals also organized eleven border camps (in the state) and the
workers were supplied with arms and ammunitions. Socialists who are
members of the Hyderabad State Congress had played their part in the struggle
for freedom and contributed their share equally.
Silly, shally socialist in politics, Ramanand having got jilted by the Patels
assertion that the Hyderabad State Congress had no role what so ever in the
liberation of Hyderabad and his non inclusion in the administration, propelled
him to criticize the abuses of the government freely and scathingly arson
murder and wholesale destruction of property are raging in parts of Hyderabad.
As a jilted lover, he lamented that the Congress committed violence before the
Police Action and after the Police Action with much more vigour. It is not out of
place to mention when Sardar Patel made it clear that Hyderabad State
Congress had no role in the Police Action and aftermath, then what is the point
now the Congress celebrating 17th September. If Congress had no role then
how can other parties claim any role?
The Communist Razakars:
Andhra Communist leaders were interested in the fertile soils of
Telangana. At this time, the Nizams government paid adequate attention to
irrigation, and in this bid many projects such as Nizamsagar across the Manjira
river, a tributary of the Godavari; Dindi across the tributary of the river Krishna,
the Asaf Jahi Nehar of the Musi river were successfully executed in record time.
The Government also repaired old water tanks such as Laknavaram, Ramappa,
8

Pakala and many others. The Government also paid adequate attention to
minor irrigation.
To save the ignorant people from being robbed by the landowners and the
Government, they appropriated their money by collecting funds out of their hard
earned annas. It became a fecund career. It was of course an accident that
many of them after amassing large fortunes abandoned the movement and
tried to live under false names. Thus, Tumma Sesayya, the notorious
Communist leader who was arrested in a nursing home in Madras along with
seven lakh rupees. It was his plan to leave Hyderabad State for good and live a
luxurious life in Madras. But destiny shaped the end even of this defiant
personage. Communists religion was sedition, whose career was violence,
whose weapon was sabotage and whose end was anarchy.
In this bid, they did not spare even Konda Venkat Ranga Reddy. He was a
Congress leader and later on became Dy. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
His lands at Sarajipeta of Nalgonda District were occupied. He was not a cruel
Deshmukh who perpetrated miseries among common people. Interestingly,
Reddy had a pen of 200 sheep. Communists made off with them to their
hideout and made a feast of them. It was during this period many Andhra
Kammas with the help of Communists could become owners of the fertile lands
in Telangana. Andhra Communist leaders also facilitated their co-casteists to
migrate to Telangana districts, particularly where irrigated lands were available
and even helped to occupy tribal lands without any qualms. Communists also
helped the new migrants to occupy government lands and to buy private lands
at a throw away price. Some leaders even coerced big land lords in Khammam
and Warangal districts to sell off their lands to migrants at some price, lest their
land should be occupied. Exodus of Kammas to Khammam Taluqa of Warangal
district changed the demography of the area, consequently government made it
a district. The Andhra Communists used to disguised as Razakars and loot
during day time and in the nights, dressed themselves like dalam leaders, loot
the houses of affluent. Maj. Gen. Chowdhary referred the Muslim Razakars as

Din-ka-Raja and Communists as Raat-ka Raja. In reality, both the Rajas were
Communists.
It is a little known fact that the Communists and Razakars joined hands
against the Government of India. Laik Ali, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad
State utilized the hostility of the Communist Party of India towards the Nehru
Govt. and resentment of local Communists towards the Standstill Agreement.
He began to send feelers to Telangana Communists leaders, representing
to them the advantages of an alliance against their common Indian enemy
who was reported to be preparing for a military intervention. Makhdoom
Mohiuddin and Ravi Narayana Reddy two leading Communist figures
from Telangana, who were underground, were contacted.

Although the

Communist ranks were divided on the issue, the deal was struck on 4 th May
1943, the Nizam lifted ban on the Communist Party in Hyderabad.

The

Razakars wanted to establish a Muslim oligarchy in the state, the Communists

purpose was to exploit the turmoil and confusion so that they could spread their
tentacles to the rest of India. Each wanted to use the other for its own end.
Following this, the Hyderabad Communist Committee issued a press
statement that the Indian Govt., being bourgeois, landlord Govt. was allied with
British imperialism, that the Communist should oppose the Indian armys
entry into Hyderabad and raise the slogan of Azad Hyderabad.
The dislocation following the Police Action was quickly turned by these
individuals to their own advantage. They went about distributing land and
dispensing with law and justice. Rightful owners of lands were driven away or
done to death, and their lands were given to others, who were told that the
good earth belonged to them. They were not told, however, how long it would
remain in their possession. In return for these benefactions handed out by
them, the Communists thought themselves free to indulge in orgies of arson,
loot and murder. They destroyed houses, mowed down smiling crops, seized
cattle, and murdered those who dared refuse to subscribe to their creed. In
some cases even murder did not meet their idea of sadistic delight, and they
10

cut up the bodies of their victims and left them to suffer pain and agony. At a
time when it was most important to build, they burned. At a time when food was
precious, they destroyed it. At a time when order and peace were of supreme
importance, they deliberately created disorder and confusion. And all this they
called Communism.
The Arya Samajists:
The State Congress and the Arya Samaj had been working together in
Hyderabad since the Satyagraha of 1938-1939, and many Samajists held
leadership positions in the State Congress. Based out of Sholapur, the Samaj
became a major vehicle for political action against the Nizams government,
particularly in Marathwada.

The Samaj organized camps for Hyderabads

displaced Hindus at various sites along the border.

Pandir Narendra, the

Samajist leader in Hyderabad, committed his organization and its resources to

the State Congress program and Samajists from these satyagraha camps
joined the agitation against Hyderabad. K.M. Munshi, as the Home Minister of
Bombay province, helped the Arya Samajists in this endeavour to stir up
violence. In Bombay, Munshi was offering extraordinary incentives to win RSS
trust, still playing the role of the whore at the door. The Nizam administration
gave porambok lands to dalits, it was not to the liking of many upper castes, for,
they used these lands for grazing their cattle and hunting. A noted historian,
Gail Omvedt, too, has claimed that land given to dalits by the Nizams
government in the years preceding the Police Action was a major source of
conflict in Marathwada after the Police Action.
The well known Hindu communal organization from Sholapur
mentioned in the Sunderlal Report was, most likely, the Arya Samaj. According
to the report, a prominent Arya Samajistconverted the local Arya Samaj
mandir into a sub-jail. He arrested Muslims from the locality on his own
authority and would only release them after extracting payments.

If they

refused to pay or could not, they were handed over to the police as Razakars.
In addition to that, an intelligence report noted that instances of demolition of
11

mosques, desecration of the holy Quran, forcing Muslim women to tattoo their
foreheads and compelling Muslims to shave off their beard have been reported
from Bidar, Nanded and Gulbarga Districts.
Located near the Hyderabad border, Nagpur was the headquarters of
both the RSS and the Mahasabha, and thus the epicenter of militant Hindu
nationalism. During the 1938-1939 satyagraha, the Mahasabha sent thousands
of cadres to Hyderabad, declaring in the Hindu Outlook, On the success or
failure (in Hyderabad) of Dharmayuddha (just war) depends the political
existence of the Hindus of Hindusthan. Hyderabad occupied a central position
in the rhetoric of V.D. Savarkar, the major ideological innovator of Hindutva, and
by the 1940s it had become the archetype of Muslim oppression and foreign
misrule for nationalist Hindus of varying ideological persuasions. Nathuram

Godse was a dictator of a Mahasabha jatha arrested in November 1938 in

Hyderabad, and he later connected the states bid for independence to his
decision to kill Gandhi in January 1948. The Mahasabha called for military
intervention in Hyderabad shortly after August 1947.

the conflict created a

climate of hostility in Nagpur, where the Intelligence Bureau reported, The

news of the colossal oppression of Hindus in Hyderabad has inflamed public
opinion. In light of this, it is likely that members of both the RSS and the
Mahasabha joined the violent agitation against Hyderabad in the months
leading up to the Police Action. After the Police Action, many crimes were
committed against the Musalmans.
The Hindu Razakars:
As it was said earlier, the Hindu landed gentry, administrative classes,
and capitalists wanted Hyderabad should only associate with India and
supported the Razakars. Certain land lords raised muscle men and sent them
to join the outfit of the Razakars.

Some of the share croppers joined the

Razakar ranks to bear pressure on the land lords to waive-off the rents.
Individuals who had grievances to settle also joined the rank.

Generally
12

speaking, during day time they were Hindu Razakars, in the nights Communist
Razakars. Generally speaking, they consisted of: (a) the most notorious and
rowdy elements in a village many of whom had at one time or the other, been
involved in criminal cases; (b) persons who had some score or other to settle
either with the Deshmukhs or the Watandars or some Government servant; (c)
the hissadar Watandars, i.e., persons who had lost their case in the dispute for
succession to the watans, (d) newly converted into Islam.

Some of the

Congress workers used to put on Khadi and Gandhi cap during day time and
they used to change into khaki fatigues in the nights and loot. It was difficult to
differentiate one faction from the another. However, one thing was common
among them that was looting and raping irrespective of the religions.

The

national press used to attribute all these crimes only to the Muslim Razakars.
The Muslim Razakars:
The halcyon days of happy ease of Hyderabad state was over by 1940.
Neighbouring states were making inroads into Hyderabad territory.

The

Razakars were deployed at borders with the sole aim to protect Hindu people in
general and Muslims in particular. They also aided Hindu landed gentry against
the Andhra Kamma Communists who were occupying their lands. Ignoring this
context altogether, the Indian press portrayed the Razakars depredations
against the Communists while attacks on Hindus rather than on encroachers
and land grabbers. The Communists revolt later brutally suppressed, provided
the Govt. of India with another alibi for intervention in Hyderabad.

The

Communists boasted that Telangana became an Indian Yenan.

The

Razakars earned notoriety in the Indian press, which paid particular attention to
a series of alleged border raids into Indian territory and the Razakars
allegedly discriminatory attitude towar Hyderabads non-Muslim population.
The Indian Express, for example, reported that a well-laid scheme to
massacre, on a vast scale, the Hindus of Hyderabad is almost complete.
However, when Lucknow born vakil settled at Latur (now in Maharashtra)
Kasim Razvi took over the reins, it became a loose organization and posted law
13

and order problem. He was a cowardly, vainglorious braggart. Razakars carried

sword and fire wherever they went. These atrocities were denounced by liberal
Urdu newspaper Payam. The Razakar fanatics murdered him. They also looted
Bibinagar village in a day light. It was castigated by another Urdu daily Imroz
and its leader Shoibullah Khan was murdered at Lingampally cross roads in a
broad day light. Shoibullah Khan was accused of having extramarital relations
with a woman and it was her husband who caused the murder. However,
Razakars were blamed for it. As usual the venal and malleable police did not
take cognizance of the offence. Kasim Razvi became the Nizams Frankenstein
monster. His vitriolic speech Death with the sword in hand is always preferable
to extinction by a mere stroke of a pen. He declared Waters of the Bay of
Bengal would wash the feet of the Nizam, and also added we are the
grandsons of Mohammad Ghazni and the sons of Babur. When determined, we
shall fly the Asaf Jahi flag on the Red fort! Razvi combined fanaticism with
charlatanry, and aimed at creating a theocratic and totalitarian State. The
Nizam practically became a prisoner of the Majlis during the last days of the
regime. He was prevented from associating if not acceding to the Indian union
in October 1947 and again in June 1948. The Government of India was waiting
for an opportunity to invade Hyderabad, that fanfaronade of Kasim Razvi
provided the needed elbi. Equally the loose talk of Laiq Ali caused irreparable
damage to Hyderabad state. Mir Laiq Ali, an engineer turned Industrialist,
became the Prime Minister of Hyderabad. He also bragged if the Indian
government takes any action against Hyderabad, one lakh men are ready to
join our Army, we also have 1000 bombers in South Arabia ready to bomb
Bombay.
Conclusion:
The Razakars were a voluntary organization pledged to defend
Hyderabad from attack; from the viewpoint of Hyderabad, or of any people
willing to fight for their independence. From the viewpoint of India, however,
they were guilty of resisting aggression and, their leader tried for that crime in a
fashion which flouts justice. Vicious stories were put out by India as to the
14

violence and cruelties of the Razakars. The TIMES of London, however, at the
time of the Indian invasion said that the fanaticism, military organization,
equipment, and offensive spirit of the Razakars have been greatly exaggerated
by Indian propagandists. Only 5% of them had old guns, the others no more
than staves and spears. But for the aggressive action of India, there would
have been no Razakar movement, and Andhra Communists occupying lands.
Indian officials labeled the Razakars fascist, and warned that their
violent activities threatened to plunge peninsular India into chaos and risked
further destabilization in an already uncertain post-partition context. Nehru and
Sardar Vallabhai Patel, whose position in government and firm grip over the
Congress party machinery gave him power rivaling and perhaps exceeding that
of the prime minister, sold the Police Action not as a solution to the question of
Hyderabads accession but rather as a means of solving the grave law and
order situation created by the Razakars and Communists there:

The

campaign of murder, arson and loot going on in Hyderabad, Sardar Patel

stated, rouses communal passion in India and jeopardizes the peace of the
Dominion.
The Razakar was a scourge to the religious fundamentalists and to those
who wanted Hyderabad to accede to Indian nation.

However, for religious

minorities and to those who wanted Hyderabad dominion only to associate with
India was a saviour; the Janus-headed Mephistopheles and Margaretta. The
author was a child Razakar during the military intervention (Police Action) in
1948, now a full-fledged Razakar Crusader for a Hindu-Muslim amity. In this
unfortunate episode there is no victor and there is no vanquished. However,
the Govt. of India needs to express regret to Muslims of Hyderabad similar to
that of regrets to Sikhs for Operation Bluestar. The Hyderabad Muslims are
second to none in magnanimity and they would certainly reciprocate forgive
and forget.
Dr. Capt. Lingala Pandu Ranga Reddy
Ph.D., F.R.A.S. ; F.R.N.S. ; M.R.Hist.S (Lond.)
501, Shanti Soudha Apts, Erramanzil Colony, Hyderabad-082.
CELL No: 800 800 1169

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Mephistopheles and Margaretta

Scourge and Saviour

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