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Nizam of Hyderabad

Historic monarch of the Hyderabad State of India

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The Asaf Jahi dynasty was founded by Chin Qilich Khan (Asaf Jah I), who served as a Naib of the Deccan sultanates under the Mughal Empire from 1713 to 1721. He intermittently ruled the region after Emperor Aurangzeb's death in 1707. In 1724 Mughal control weakened, and Asaf Jah became virtually independent. The titular Nizams fought with the Marathas since the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular tax (Chauth) to the Marathas. The Nizam later accepted British suzerainty after the defeat at Kharda and supported the British in its war against the Marathas.

When the British East India Company achieved paramountcy over the Indian subcontinent, they allowed the Nizams to continue to rule their princely states as client kings. The Nizams retained internal power over Hyderabad State until 17 September 1948, when Hyderabad was integrated into the new Indian Union.

The Asaf Jahi dynasty had only seven recognised rulers, but there was a period of 13 unstable years after the rule of the first Nizam when two of his sons, Nasir Jung and Salabath Jung, and his grandson, Muzafur Jung, ruled. They were never officially recognised as rulers. The seventh and last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, fell from power when India annexed Hyderabad State in 1948 in Operation Polo. Today, the title is held by his great grandson, pretender Azmet Jah.

History

Etymology

The title Nizam comes from the Persian نظام /nɪˈzɑːm/, in turn derived from Arabic niẓām which means "order" or "arrangement", and was typically given to high ranking state officials.

Descent

According to Sir Roper Lethbridge in The Golden Book of India (1893), the Nizams are lineally descended from the First caliph Abu Bakr, the successor of the Islamic prophet Muhammed. The family of Nizams in India is descended from Abid Khan, a Persian from Samarkand, whose lineage is traced to Sufi Shihab-ud-Din Suhrawardi (1154–91) of Suhraward in Iran. In the early 1650s, on his way to hajj, Abid Khan stopped in Deccan, where the young prince Aurangzeb, then Governor of Deccan, cultivated him. Abid Khan returned to the service of Aurangzeb to fight in the succession wars of 1657–58. After Aurangzeb's enthronement, Abid Khan was richly rewarded and became Aurangzeb's favourite nobleman. His son Ghazi Uddin Khan was married to Safiya Khanum, the daughter of the former imperial Grand Vizier (prime minister) Sa'dullah Khan. Mir Qamaruddin Khan, the founder of the line of Nizams, was born of the couple, thus descending from two prominent families of the Mughal court.

Ghazi Uddin Khan rose to become a general of emperor Aurangzeb and played a vital role in conquering Bijapur and Golconda Sultanates of Southern India in 1686. He also played a key role in thwarting the rebellion by Prince Akbar and alleged rebellion by Prince Mu`azzam.

After Aurangzeb's death and during the war of succession, Qamaruddin and his father remained neutral thus escaping the risk of being on the losing side; they remained marginal players in the Mughal court during the reigns of Bahadur Shah I (1707–12) and Jahandar Shah (1712–13). Their successor Farrukhsiyar (1713–19) appointed Qamaruddin the governor of Deccan in 1713, awarding him the title Nizam-ul-Mulk. However, the governorship was taken away two years later and Qamaruddin withdrew to his estate in Moradabad. Under the next emperor, Muhammad Shah (1719–48), Qamaruddin accepted the governorship of Deccan for the second time in 1721. The next year, following the death of his uncle Muhammad Amin Khan, a power-broker in the Mughal Court, Qamaruddin returned to Delhi and was made the wazir (prime minister). According to historian Faruqui, his tenure as prime minister was undermined by his opponents and a rebellion in Deccan was engineered against him. In 1724, the Nizam returned to Deccan to reclaim his base, in the process making a transition to a semi-independent ruler.

Reign

In 1724, Asaf Jah I defeated Mubariz Khan to establish autonomy over the Deccan Suba, named the region Hyderabad Deccan, and started what came to be known as the Asaf Jahi dynasty. Subsequent rulers retained the title Nizam ul-Mulk and were referred to as Asaf Jahi Nizams, or Nizams of Hyderabad. Nizam I never formally declared independence from the Mughals; he still flew the Mughal flag, and was never crowned. In Friday prayers, the sermon would be conducted in the name of Aurangzeb, and this tradition continued until the end of Hyderabad State in 1948. The death of Asaf Jah I in 1748 resulted in a period of political unrest as his sons, backed by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial foreign forces, contended for the throne. The accession of Asif Jah II, who reigned from 1762 to 1803, ended the instability. In 1768, he signed the treaty of Machilipatnam, surrendering the coastal region to the East India Company in return for a fixed annual rent.

Following the decline of the Mughal power, the region of Deccan saw the rise of the Maratha Empire. The titular Nizams themselves fought during the Mughal-Maratha Wars since the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular tax (Chauth) to the Marathas. The major battles fought between the Marathas and the Nizam include Palkhed, Bhopal, Rakshasbhuvan, and Kharda, in all of which the Nizam lost. Following the conquest of Deccan by Bajirao I and the imposition of Chauth by him, the Nizam essentially remained a tributary of the Marathas.

In 1805, after the East India Company's victory in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, the Nizam of Hyderabad came under their protection. In 1858, the state of Hyderabad became part of the British Indian Empire as a princely state with full autonomy albeit under colonial rule and was subject to the British Crown.

From 1876 to 1948, the Nizam recognised the Crown as paramount ruler of India as the monarch of the United Kingdom simultaneously held the title of emperor of India (first held by Queen Victoria as empress and the last being George VI as emperor)

In 1903, the Berar region of the state was separated and merged into the Central Provinces of British India, to form the Central Provinces and Berar.

During the Second World War, 80,000 men who were raised by the Nizam to form a personal army under the Indian State Forces, known as the 19th Hyderabad Regiment served in Malaya, North Africa, Persia, Singapore and Burma

The last Nizam of Hyderabad state, Mir Osman Ali Khan crowned in 1911, had been the richest man in the world in his time. The Nizams developed the railway, introduced electricity, and developed roads, airways, irrigation and reservoirs; in fact, all major public buildings in Hyderabad City were built during his reign during the period of British rule in India. He pushed education, science, and the establishment of Osmania University forward.

In 1947, at the time of the partition of India, the British government offered the 565 princely states in the sub-continent the options of acceding to either India or Pakistan or remaining independent.

End of the dynasty

After the Independence of India in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad chose to join neither the Dominion of India nor the Dominion of Pakistan. He declared Hyderabad an independent state as the third dominion, attempting to become an independent monarchy in the British Commonwealth, sharing King George VI as head of state (since at that time members were required to share the king as head of state). Not only the Government of India, but George VI who was head of the organisation, the last emperor of India before independence and most crucially, the incumbent monarch of India rejected the notion. After attempts by India to persuade the Nizam to accede to India failed, and due to large-scale atrocities committed by Razakars (who wanted the Nizam to accede Hyderabad to Pakistan) on the Hindu populace, the Indian government finally launched a military operation named Operation Polo, in which Indian army committed massacres of Hyderabadi Muslims. The Indian Army invaded Hyderabad on 13 September 1948 and defeated his untrained forces. The Nizam capitulated on 17 September 1948; that same afternoon he broadcast the news over the State radio network. The Nizam was forced to accept accession to the new Union of India. His abdication on 17 September 1948 ended the dynasty's ambitions. Nevertheless, he became the Rajpramukh post independence based on public vote. He died on Friday, 24 February 1967.

All Nizams are buried in royal graves at the Makkah Masjid near Charminar in Hyderabad excepting the last, who wished to be buried beside his mother, in the graveyard of Judi Mosque facing King Kothi Palace.

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