Hyderabad: Come September 17, a race between political parties across the spectrum emerges in Telangana every year to claim credit for the accession of the erstwhile Hyderabad princely state comprising the present day Telangana and bordering areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka with the Indian Union in 1948.

The fact that an event is kept alive even after three quarters of a century, owes much to a sustained effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for several years to revive the "troubled memory of a Nizam's rule" (a Muslim king in the erstwhile Hyderabad princely state) in support of the saffron party's polarising narrative that during the Nizam's rule, atrocities were committed mercilessly against the Hindus.

The stand of the BJP is that September 17 marks the liberation of Hyderabad from the "tyranny" of Nizam. On the other hand, the communists and initially even the Congress, saw the incident as the "merger" of the region with the Indian Union. However, the conflicting narratives of different political parties have kept the debate alive in public domain, albeit unresolved.

Moreover, by organising the event officially, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and Congress governments in Telangana have over the years recognised that it is still a contentious issue which needs to be highlighted.

After three visits by Union home minister Amit Shah to the state to participate in official celebrations by the Union government since 2022, the BJP has invited defence minister Rajnath Singh as chief guest this year.

While the BRS government also organised the event officially when the party was in power in 2022 and 2023, it is now the turn of Congress regime. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy hoisted the national flag and addressed a public meeting on the occasion at Public Gardens while his cabinet colleagues, while other VIPs completed the formalities in districts.

Union minister Singh was present for the programmes of Union Ministry of Culture and Tourism at Parade Grounds,  along with Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

The varying narratives surrounding the end of Nizam's rule and accession of Hyderabad princely state to India

Even though India attained freedom on August 15, 1947, the Hyderabad state was free from the shackles of then rulers – the Nizams – 13 months later on September 17, 1948. To perpetuate the memory, all parties from left to right have been celebrating the event for decades in both Telangana now, and earlier in undivided Andhra Pradesh for what is viewed as vote bank politics.

More perplexing, however, is that the parties have used different names for the celebrations to give them an ideological edge while positioning themselves as rightful carriers of a legacy to observe the occasion. Thus, a complex set of names – Hyderabad merger day coined by the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), people-centric Governance Day of the Congress, Telangana liberation day of the BJP and integration day of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) – have unfolded over the years.

While the two Left parties laid claim for the credit on the ground that the fight of rural poor against feudal lords and monarchy finally led to merger of Hyderabad with Indian Union after "police action" launched by the Union government ensured that the Nizam surrendered, the Congress has said democracy took root in the region immediately after its annexation as the state was put under military rule till 1949 and thereafter a civil government which continued up to the first general elections in 1952. This perception of the party has changed in recent years.

The BJP, however, refused to see both versions and said the event was to celebrate the liberation of Hyderabad from the autocratic rule of Nizam and his military mafia led by the Razakars which acted ruthlessly against the Hindus. The party had been organising the celebration in the name of Hyderabad liberation day since 1998. A film named Razakars was also produced by a party leader but it failed to make a mark.

The BRS government under previous chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took the stand that the BJP by calling it liberation day was furthering its divisive politics in a region known for the "Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb" of communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims and that the party's sole aim was to make inroads in the run-up to the Assembly elections in the State in 2023.

When the Union government's plan for official celebration was announced in 2022, the Chandrasekhar Rao led government also started parallel celebrations by the state government on September 17 as national integration day in the same year. Following suit, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Mulsimeen (AIMIM), which had friendly relations with the BRS, also called for National Integration Day celebrations by the party by organising bike rallies with the tricolour.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said common Hindus and Muslims of the erstwhile Hyderabad state were strong advocates of a united India under a democratic, secular and republican government. He addressed letters to Amit Shah and Rao to organise the event as national integration day.

The Union government had by a gazette notification on March 12 of 2022 said Hyderabad did not achieve independence for 13 months after India's independence on August 15, 1947, and was liberated from the Nizam's rule on September 17, 1948, through the police action "Operation Polo".

"There has been a demand from the people of the region to celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad liberation day. In order to remember the martyrs who liberated Hyderabad and to infuse the flame of patriotism in the minds of the youth, the Government of India has decided to celebrate the 17th day of September every year as "Hyderabad liberation day", it said.

This was, however, unacceptable to the BRS as it sensed that the BJP was trying to expand its base during the Statehood movement for Telangana after 1998. The state unit of BJP in undivided Andhra Pradesh had already passed a resolution by then at its conference in Kakinada supporting separate Telangana.

The contradictions in BJP's version of events

K. Srinivas, a senior journalist and former editor of a Telugu daily, told The Wire that the issue boiled down to whether the day should be considered as celebration of "merger" (with Indian Union) or "liberation". Though there was no need of any controversy in the matter, the celebrations by communist parties in the name of merger on one hand and the BJP highlighting liberation on the other kicked off a debate in the context of repression unleashed by central forces as part of Operation Polo.

It led to a debate whether the operation was right. It was revealed during a probe by a commission headed by Pandit Sundarlal that thousands of Muslims were killed in the operation during and after the police action. Many Hindus who fought against landlords of the same community were also killed by the Razakars, giving strength to BJP's rhetoric on communal divide.

Srinivas said contrary to the projection by the BJP that the Nizam era was characterised by Hindu - Muslim conflict, all Hindu landlords supported Nizam against the uprising of peasants led by the communists. It then came to be known as the Telangana armed struggle. But, the BJP tweaked facts to portray the struggle as anti-Muslim. There were no scenes of polarisation.

Srinivas's version was admitted by Prof (retired) and former MLC K. Nageswar who said the BJP needlessly gave it a religious twist by calling it a liberation day for Hindus from the rule of Nizam. It was a fight of landless poor against Hindu landlords and a monarchy.

Another retired professor and civil rights activist G. Haragopal said the interpretation of liberation by the BJP was mistaken as only people can be liberated and not the lands which were the fulcrum of the struggles. The land issue continued even after Nizam quit.

He recalled that feudalism in the Nizam era was the worst in the country. Brides were sent to landlords on the first day of their marriages to satisfy the sexual desires of the landlords. Villagers were made to run ahead of the horses rode by landlords as their status symbol. It was then that the extremists and moderates within the Congress split.

The extremists who were closer to the communist ideology formed the People's Democratic Front (PDF) to contest the first general elections in 1952 when the group emerged as the main Opposition to the Congress. The PDF candidate Ravi Narayan Reddy won with a majority higher than first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Parliamentary elections from Nalgonda.

The PDF won five out of eleven Parliamentary seats in Hyderabad State.

From 'people's governance day' to 'liberation day'

The Congress, which came to power in Telangana in December 2023 positioned itself as a party fighting against feudal tendencies, targeting Chandrasekhar Rao. In tune with its election promise of "praja palana" (people's rule), it observed September 17 last year as "people's governance day."

According to the party narrative, the day marks the end of Nizam's (Rao's) monarchy and the beginning of democracy in Telangana. This was in sharp contrast to its earlier slogan of merger when it was in the opposition.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said at the celebrations last year that the Telangana people's struggle dislodged the Nizam's tyrannical rule, ushering in a new chapter of democratic legacy on September 17, 1948. This is the big triumph of the Telangana people. Politics has no place in this. It would be foolish if anyone tried to derive political advantages from the entire episode, he said.

Reddy said that the "people's government" (Congress) strongly feels that it is wrong to act in such a way as to thin out the sacrifices of the Telangana martyrs of yesteryears by calling the historical day as "merger day" or "liberation day". This is the reason why the people's government linked the historical day to people and called it as praja palana dinotsavam (people's governance day).

The BRS, which assumed power in Telangana, distanced itself from any celebrations till 2022 when it decided to jump into the fray by adopting a neutral and federalist stance in the name of national integration day along with the AIMIM.

On the other hand, the BJP tried to appropriate the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who oversaw the police action as Union home minister which led to Hyderabad's annexation.

The communists mobilised local populations against the Nizam and his feudal agents, many of whom were Hindus. The armed Telangana peasant struggle was significantly shaped by the Communists by forming guerilla squads to fight Razakars who aimed to establish Hyderabad as a Muslim State. Hyderabad and Junagarh were the only princely states that did not join the Indian Union.

On Wednesday (September 17), the BJP installed the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel along with cutouts and flexis with his picture at several places. Union defence minister Singh himself paid his tributes to one of the makeshift statues at the venue for the Union government's celebrations in the state. However, critics of the party say it has no history of fighting for the state.

BJP State president N. Ramchander Rao told The Wire that the rival parties took part in the celebrations because of the pressure from BJP.

Broadly observing the event in the context of "merger", the two Left parties coined their event "victory of Telangana peasants armed struggle".

The CPI (M) general secretary M.A. Baby took part in the celebrations at Jangaon and Khammam while senior leader Brinda Karat participated in similar events at Nalgonda and Suryapet.

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