Hyderabad: Ejaz-Ul-Haq was just 10 years old when Operation Polo, or the annexation of Hyderabad took place. Remembered as the ‘Police Action’, it was done to merge or annexe the erstwhile Hyderabad State to the Indian Union on September 17, 1948. His father was a jagirdar (state appointed landlord) in Osmanabad district of Maharshtra, which was then under the Hyderabad state.
The family was wealthy and lived in a luxurious haveli with a number of servants serving them. Before the Indian Army entered Osmanabad, the collector and higher officials had fled the city. As the forces entered the city, Ejaz, along with children, women and aged family members hid in the basement of their two-storeyed bungalow. His father, uncles and grandfather were upstairs guarding the house.
A north Indian soldier broke open an old door of the bungalow with his rifle and entered it. Haq’s aunt who was holding a pistol opened fire, killing him. Hearing the shots, two more army personnel entered the building, but they too were shot dead by Haq’s aunt. As the situation escalated, a large number of army personnel swarmed the bungalow.
The men upstairs opened fire, killing some army personnel, and injuring some. The army then used a tank to blow up the bungalow. All the men upstairs were blown into pieces, and the bungalow collapsed. Only his grandfather managed to escape and take refuge in his wife’s house, as she was a Hindu who belonged to the Deshmukh family.
“The Muslims who were caught in Udgir were taken to the outskirts. The women and children were separated from the men. Many men were shot dead on the spot. Young women were raped. While the Sikh soldiers took pleasure in shooting the men dead, the Gurkhas raped the women. After the army left, some Hindus gave us shelter and arranged for a car to shift us to Hyderabad. Even the Congress workers helped us,” Ejaz-Ul-Haq narrated, while being interviewed by historian and author Paravastu Lokeshwar, at Narayanguda in Hyderabad on April 2, 2001.
Ejaz told Lokeshwar that even if his aunt had not opened fire, the army would have raped the women anyways, as they were already doing so everywhere. He recalled a 90-year-old blind Muslim man killed in cold blood by the forces.
He also mentioned that one of his grandfathers gave water and did first-aid to an army personnel who was injured, and as a reward the military had issued him a certificate of appreciation and ensured he wasn’t arrested during the police action. This memory is in line with thousands of testimonies of Muslims in the Hyderabad state during Operation Polo, as several families witnessed horrific violence.
A few days later, the three-men Sundarlal Committee probing the massacres visited Osmanabad, followed by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit due to the controversy that such incidents had caused.
“What’s the use? Can those who perished come back? The wounds of the police action are still fresh,” Ejaz told Lokeshwar, who then chronicled his story along with others’ in his Telugu book titled “1948 Police Action: Jnyapakalu- Gaayalu”.
Can the wounds heal?
Though the number of Muslim deaths during the Operation Polo couldn’t be ascertained accurately, the Sunderlal Commission had estimated that anything between 26000 to 40000 people were killed. Jayant Nath Chaudhuri, the then army general who led the operation, had also mentioned in his book that lakhs of Muslims were killed in the police action.
Arson, rape, loot, murder, and abduction, the most heinous crimes were committed against the Muslims during the police action. “Not even 5 percent of Muslims were Razakars. Those killed were innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with politics. The army fired on every Muslim who came in their way. Cannons were used to blow-up mosques,” Paravastu Lokeshwar told Siasat.com.
Even the Sundarlal Commission report describes a scene during their visit to the ravaged state after the police action, where they had found a woman and her baby dead inside an open well, with the baby held by the mother in her arms, while she was breast-feeding.
The Sunderlal Commission observed that the atrocities against the Muslims were committed at a time when the wounds of India’s partition were still fresh.
“In the areas which are now part of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the atrocities of the Razakars against the Hindus were more, and the violence perpetrated against the Muslims was also severe. In the areas bordering the present Telangana state, those from across the border came in and perpetrated the massacre. The army would first launch an operation is the village, and then the rogue elements among Hindus would then carry out another round of carnage,” Lokeshwar notes.
Political parties failed to acknowledge
The Sundarlal Commission report was suppressed for 6 decades for reasons unknown. Thanks to a truth-seeker, a son of the soil, who brought the report out in 2013. However, political parties continue to take their own stand as per their convenience, even after 77 years of the genocide.
While the communists observe September 17 as the day of deceit, BJP terms it liberation of Hyderabad State. The Congress treats it as a transition from tyranny to democracy, and has been observing the black day as ‘Praja Paalana Dinotsavam,’ which translates to English as the day of people’s governance in Telangana.
“The communist parties which speak about the killing of their comrades during the police action, should also acknowledge the genocide of Muslims during the police action,” Lokeshwar opines.
He points out an incident on the floor of the assembly in 2006, during the golden jubilee celebrations of the formation of Andhra Pradesh, when former CPI legislator Chennamaneni Rajeshwar Rao had a heated argument with the legislators of Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) on the police action.
Even at that time, Rao had argued that 4,000 communists were killed during the police action, but failed to mention a word about the Muslims massacred during the police action. Rajeshwar Rao was the brother of veteran BJP leader and former Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. “Even the MIM should accept the atrocities perpetrated by Razakars against Hindus during the Nizam’s rule, and seek apology for that in good spirit,” he opined.
Why this discussion matters today
“Many people questioned me why I was raking up this issue, which could open the wounds of the past. But look at what is happening in Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and the north-east. Had the political parties stood against the atrocities unleashed on the citizens during Operation Polo, today the army/police would have been held accountable,” Lokeshwar observes.
He points out the Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002, and the Bombay riots a decade before it, when the police lapses were largely reported by the media, to support his point.
“There were merits and demerits in the seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan’s rule. We can’t totally accept or reject what the Nizam did. There is no evidence to prove that he was cruel. The development of Hyderabad under his rule is in front of us. The sixth Nizam Mahboob Ali Pasha had treated Hindus and Muslims like his two eyes. The seventh Nizam continued it,” Lokeshwar pointed out.
In the present day politics of diversion, opportunism, hate, deceit and vote bank, whether the political parties will acknowledge what has happened in 1948 is a big question. But the pertinent questions about what happened to the properties of Muslims who were displaced during Operation Polo, what happened to the Waqf properties, what the Sudheer Commission (constituted in 2015) report says on the socio-economic condition of Muslims in Telangana, and how the wounds can be healed- is the take-away for not only political parties, but also the common people- sans violence and hatred.
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