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Hyderabad, September 15, 2018 20:55 IST
Updated: September 15, 2018 21:18 IST
Prime Minister of Republic of India Jawaharlal Nehru with Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan and Major General J. N. Chaudhuri after the police action | Photo Credit: THE HINDU
Seventy years ago, on September 17, 1948, at noon, Hyderabad ceased to exist as a princely state after a war that lasted all of 109 hours. It would have gone on for longer had India not been able to stymie the former kingdom’s attempts to procure weapons for a protracted conflict.
Hyderabad became part of India more than a year after the latter’s existence as an independent nation. Ruled by the hereditary ruler Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 212,000 sq km kingdom fancied its chance as an independent country.
Standstill Agreement
Unlike the Instrument of Accession with India signed by other princely states at the time of Independence, the Nizam nominated a three-member team to negotiate a Standstill Agreement. The Agreement signed on November 29, 1947 by Governor General Lord Mountbatten and Nizam Osman Ali Khan, specified that it would be valid for one year and that foreign affairs, defence and communications would be in India’s control while the Nizam had control over domestic affairs.
The Baloch Talpur rule lasted almost over 50 years and in 1843, Talpurs faced a greater threat, the invasion of expanding British colonial empire. The British wanted to annex Sindh due to their strategic interests in the Punjab region and Afghanistan. The Talpur Amir signed a peace agreement that gave significant concessions to the British. After signing this peace agreement Amir Talpur demobilized his volunteer army. The British General Napier also started to march his army back towards Bombay. When the General Napier heard that the Talpur Amir had demobilised his Baloch army he turned back his army and again threatened Hyderabad. The peace agreement with Talpur Amir was of no consequence compared to the strategic interests of the British colonial empire. The British came face-to-face with the Talpurs at the Battle of Miani on 17 February 1843. General Napier was firmly determined in conquering Sindh and plundering Hyderabad. The battle ended on 24 March 1843 when the Talpur Amirs lost and the city came into the hands of the British. The Amirs of Hyderabad suffered great loss, their Fort was plundered, thousands were killed and Amirs themselves were exiled to Rangoon, Burma - never to see Sindh again. The British made the city part of the Presidency of British colonial empire.
In 1947, Karachi the former provincial capital of Sindh from 1936 was made the Federal Capital of Pakistan.From 1947 to 1955 the city of Hyderabad served as the capital of Sindh province,which was later dissolved and one unit was formed named West Pakistan. Lahore was the capital of West Pakistan. In 1969 Karachi regained the status of capital of newly made province Sindh which included Khayrpur state as well.
Declassified diplomatic cables between India War Office Staff, the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO) and the UK Foreign Office, archived in the British Library, reveal that immediately after Independence, India played a high-stakes diplomatic game in London to staunch the flow of arms to Hyderabad (Sindh, Presidency of British colonial empire.) in November 1947.
This shortage of weapons ultimately forced the Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) army to surrender within four days with limited Indian casualties.
The Nizam scouted for arms across the board — trying to buy them from France, tapping Pakistan for supplies and finally turning to gun runners — the role of Australia-born aviator Sidney Cotton’s role in the transport of weapons from Karachi to Hyderabad is the stuff of legends.
Frederick Sidney Cotton among his close friends Ian Fleming and Winston Churchill.
But the role of Indian diplomats in stalling the flow at the source is less known, carried out by hidden channels.
The British government played along with India by persuading France against selling German weapons to Pakistan, which in turn wanted to funnel them to Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire).
The first of the series in the diplomatic cables sent to Donaldson at the CRO by R.H.S. Allen of the Foreign Office begins innocuously enough. “French Embassy informed Foreign Office on 1st November that Pakistan Trade Commissioner in London recently represented to French Authorities in Paris that his government urgently desired 600,000 rifles, same number of revolvers and 300,000 light and heavy machine guns from former German weapons in France. It added that, if France could not supply, his govt had other offers from Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands,” says the cable marked Important/Top Secret by CRO.
These low bore, small arms on Pakistan’s shopping list were meant for Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire). But India moved the diplomatic game a notch higher, with the persuasive but often abrasive V.K. Krishna Menon, Indian High Commissioner in London, swinging into action.
As regards Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), it was decided that we should tell Mr. Krishna Menon, who has been bothering us (FO?) on the subject, that it is not our intention, as things stand at present, to supply arms on any abnormal scale to Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), but that Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) is entitled to limited quantities of arms for the legitimate purposes of their state forces and police…” (says a cable sent again to Donaldson of CRO by FO on November 14, 1947)
An exchange of nine diplomatic cables in November 1947 and multiple jottings by officials on them, show how India managed to literally starve Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire)of weapons.
Another cable, sent to Gordon Walker, Under-Secretary of State (the initials are illegible) dated November 11, 1947 reads: “This shows that we must have a full and frank discussion with Mr. Krishna Menon and Rahimtoolah (Habib Imran Rahimtoolah, Pakistan’s High Commissioner) on the subject. Mr Menon constantly assumes that the UK should stop Pakistan from getting arms anywhere. ..But I confess that 600,000 rifles, 300,000 machines seems to be a lot…”
A group photograph of K. M. Munshi and Swami Ramand Tirth with Indian Union officers immediately after their arrival in Secunderabad on September 21, 1948. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU
Pakistan was not just shopping for arms — it was passing around the bowl. A rather large one at that. A cable from Washington to FO on November 26, 1947, reads: “Pakistan is now trying to get a loan of 2 billion dollars from the U.S.A. of which 200 million is for military supplies. This follows their attempt to get arms from France.” On the margin is the scribbled note: “USA have told us that they are cold-shouldering this.”
By the end of 1947 — the last cable in the series is dated December 4 — India had successfully closed the official arms pipeline for Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), hampering the Nizam’s efforts to stay independent for long.
Airborne supply
Then Sidney Cotton stepped in. He was the legendary flying ace who flew the last plane out of Berlin in 1939 and pioneered aerial reconnaissance by photographing German war efforts.
However, by the time, Cotton flew into the picture to help Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) , it was too late. Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) could not get any fresh weapons for 11 months from the time Pakistan came into existence. The armed forces of Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) didn’t have arms nor ammunition for training.
Cotton flew to Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire)in the first quarter of 1948 got a shopping list of weapons. He quoted an amount of £20 million in cash for running the weapons. Back in London, he hired a 24-member team and bought five used Avro Lancastrians for £5000 each. Cotton’s first run of arms began from Heathrow Airport on May 11, 1948, with the first Lancastrian that halted in Basle, Switzerland, to pick up an unspecified number of Oerlikon cannons. The first shipment of weapons landed on July 10, 1948 .
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same wartime era.
August 15 1947 — The Royal Pakistan Air Force is formed
In the course of the next two months, Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) received about 25,000 mortars, 1,000 anti-tank mines, 1,200 sub-machine guns from Beretta, another 3,000 sub-machine guns, 10,000 rifles, one ack-ack and six low-calibre anti-tank guns and ammunition, delivered by Cotton.
The Nizam’s Commander-in-Chief at the time of Indian pincer movement on Hyderabad was Major General Syed Ahmed El-Edroos. He writes in his biography about the 20,000 .303 rifles and other small arms and ammunition.
But the Nizam Hyderabad army, which had a strength of 17,000 soldiers, 9,000 irregulars and 362 officers, didn’t get to train on the weapons or use them on the field. Indian forces entered from the west in Sholapur and from the east near Suryapet. The war that began at 4 a.m. on September 13, lasted 109 hours and by September 17, British backed militias surrendered.
Cotton’s last flight out of Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) airstrip was on September 16, at 3 a.m. — just hours before the surrender. This time the plane was loaded with cash of about £4 million in rupees.
Cotton was also supposed to have picked up the private militia leader Kasim Razvi. Razvi headed militia force to annex Hyderabad Dakkan and to kill the Nizam. This private militia created terror throughout the kingdom and triggered an exodus from Hyderabad and other urban centres.
But Razvi’s escape ended in a theatrical fiasco due to a misunderstanding about the flight timing. As Cotton thundered away in his Lancastrian , the militia leader desperately waited for the British bombers. Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried for sedition. He was freed in 1957 and he emigrated to Pakistan where he died in 1970.
The diplomatic heat was kept up even as British backed Militias surrendered. According to a report in The Hindu, R.K. Nehru, India’s diplomat in the U.S., in a radio broadcast on September 17 that was heard coast-to-coast said: “The British in similar circumstances would have marched in on the first outbreak of violence to restore order, put down the Real Razakars and bring the Nizam to his senses.” (This is significant because Pakistan and officials from Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) were portraying India as an aggressor. And this Indian diplomat put things in perspective)
**********
Accession means process of formally joining, formal acceptance of a treaty, the attainment or acquisition of a position of rank or power.
Updated: September 15, 2018 21:18 IST
Prime Minister of Republic of India Jawaharlal Nehru with Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan and Major General J. N. Chaudhuri after the police action | Photo Credit: THE HINDU
Seventy years ago, on September 17, 1948, at noon, Hyderabad ceased to exist as a princely state after a war that lasted all of 109 hours. It would have gone on for longer had India not been able to stymie the former kingdom’s attempts to procure weapons for a protracted conflict.
Hyderabad became part of India more than a year after the latter’s existence as an independent nation. Ruled by the hereditary ruler Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 212,000 sq km kingdom fancied its chance as an independent country.
Standstill Agreement
Unlike the Instrument of Accession with India signed by other princely states at the time of Independence, the Nizam nominated a three-member team to negotiate a Standstill Agreement. The Agreement signed on November 29, 1947 by Governor General Lord Mountbatten and Nizam Osman Ali Khan, specified that it would be valid for one year and that foreign affairs, defence and communications would be in India’s control while the Nizam had control over domestic affairs.
The Baloch Talpur rule lasted almost over 50 years and in 1843, Talpurs faced a greater threat, the invasion of expanding British colonial empire. The British wanted to annex Sindh due to their strategic interests in the Punjab region and Afghanistan. The Talpur Amir signed a peace agreement that gave significant concessions to the British. After signing this peace agreement Amir Talpur demobilized his volunteer army. The British General Napier also started to march his army back towards Bombay. When the General Napier heard that the Talpur Amir had demobilised his Baloch army he turned back his army and again threatened Hyderabad. The peace agreement with Talpur Amir was of no consequence compared to the strategic interests of the British colonial empire. The British came face-to-face with the Talpurs at the Battle of Miani on 17 February 1843. General Napier was firmly determined in conquering Sindh and plundering Hyderabad. The battle ended on 24 March 1843 when the Talpur Amirs lost and the city came into the hands of the British. The Amirs of Hyderabad suffered great loss, their Fort was plundered, thousands were killed and Amirs themselves were exiled to Rangoon, Burma - never to see Sindh again. The British made the city part of the Presidency of British colonial empire.
In 1947, Karachi the former provincial capital of Sindh from 1936 was made the Federal Capital of Pakistan.From 1947 to 1955 the city of Hyderabad served as the capital of Sindh province,which was later dissolved and one unit was formed named West Pakistan. Lahore was the capital of West Pakistan. In 1969 Karachi regained the status of capital of newly made province Sindh which included Khayrpur state as well.
Declassified diplomatic cables between India War Office Staff, the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO) and the UK Foreign Office, archived in the British Library, reveal that immediately after Independence, India played a high-stakes diplomatic game in London to staunch the flow of arms to Hyderabad (Sindh, Presidency of British colonial empire.) in November 1947.
This shortage of weapons ultimately forced the Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) army to surrender within four days with limited Indian casualties.
The Nizam scouted for arms across the board — trying to buy them from France, tapping Pakistan for supplies and finally turning to gun runners — the role of Australia-born aviator Sidney Cotton’s role in the transport of weapons from Karachi to Hyderabad is the stuff of legends.
Frederick Sidney Cotton among his close friends Ian Fleming and Winston Churchill.
But the role of Indian diplomats in stalling the flow at the source is less known, carried out by hidden channels.
The British government played along with India by persuading France against selling German weapons to Pakistan, which in turn wanted to funnel them to Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire).
The first of the series in the diplomatic cables sent to Donaldson at the CRO by R.H.S. Allen of the Foreign Office begins innocuously enough. “French Embassy informed Foreign Office on 1st November that Pakistan Trade Commissioner in London recently represented to French Authorities in Paris that his government urgently desired 600,000 rifles, same number of revolvers and 300,000 light and heavy machine guns from former German weapons in France. It added that, if France could not supply, his govt had other offers from Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands,” says the cable marked Important/Top Secret by CRO.
These low bore, small arms on Pakistan’s shopping list were meant for Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire). But India moved the diplomatic game a notch higher, with the persuasive but often abrasive V.K. Krishna Menon, Indian High Commissioner in London, swinging into action.
As regards Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), it was decided that we should tell Mr. Krishna Menon, who has been bothering us (FO?) on the subject, that it is not our intention, as things stand at present, to supply arms on any abnormal scale to Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), but that Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) is entitled to limited quantities of arms for the legitimate purposes of their state forces and police…” (says a cable sent again to Donaldson of CRO by FO on November 14, 1947)
An exchange of nine diplomatic cables in November 1947 and multiple jottings by officials on them, show how India managed to literally starve Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire)of weapons.
Another cable, sent to Gordon Walker, Under-Secretary of State (the initials are illegible) dated November 11, 1947 reads: “This shows that we must have a full and frank discussion with Mr. Krishna Menon and Rahimtoolah (Habib Imran Rahimtoolah, Pakistan’s High Commissioner) on the subject. Mr Menon constantly assumes that the UK should stop Pakistan from getting arms anywhere. ..But I confess that 600,000 rifles, 300,000 machines seems to be a lot…”
A group photograph of K. M. Munshi and Swami Ramand Tirth with Indian Union officers immediately after their arrival in Secunderabad on September 21, 1948. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU
Pakistan was not just shopping for arms — it was passing around the bowl. A rather large one at that. A cable from Washington to FO on November 26, 1947, reads: “Pakistan is now trying to get a loan of 2 billion dollars from the U.S.A. of which 200 million is for military supplies. This follows their attempt to get arms from France.” On the margin is the scribbled note: “USA have told us that they are cold-shouldering this.”
By the end of 1947 — the last cable in the series is dated December 4 — India had successfully closed the official arms pipeline for Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire), hampering the Nizam’s efforts to stay independent for long.
Airborne supply
Then Sidney Cotton stepped in. He was the legendary flying ace who flew the last plane out of Berlin in 1939 and pioneered aerial reconnaissance by photographing German war efforts.
However, by the time, Cotton flew into the picture to help Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) , it was too late. Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) could not get any fresh weapons for 11 months from the time Pakistan came into existence. The armed forces of Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) didn’t have arms nor ammunition for training.
Cotton flew to Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire)in the first quarter of 1948 got a shopping list of weapons. He quoted an amount of £20 million in cash for running the weapons. Back in London, he hired a 24-member team and bought five used Avro Lancastrians for £5000 each. Cotton’s first run of arms began from Heathrow Airport on May 11, 1948, with the first Lancastrian that halted in Basle, Switzerland, to pick up an unspecified number of Oerlikon cannons. The first shipment of weapons landed on July 10, 1948 .
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same wartime era.
August 15 1947 — The Royal Pakistan Air Force is formed
In the course of the next two months, Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) received about 25,000 mortars, 1,000 anti-tank mines, 1,200 sub-machine guns from Beretta, another 3,000 sub-machine guns, 10,000 rifles, one ack-ack and six low-calibre anti-tank guns and ammunition, delivered by Cotton.
The Nizam’s Commander-in-Chief at the time of Indian pincer movement on Hyderabad was Major General Syed Ahmed El-Edroos. He writes in his biography about the 20,000 .303 rifles and other small arms and ammunition.
But the Nizam Hyderabad army, which had a strength of 17,000 soldiers, 9,000 irregulars and 362 officers, didn’t get to train on the weapons or use them on the field. Indian forces entered from the west in Sholapur and from the east near Suryapet. The war that began at 4 a.m. on September 13, lasted 109 hours and by September 17, British backed militias surrendered.
Cotton’s last flight out of Hyderabad(Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) airstrip was on September 16, at 3 a.m. — just hours before the surrender. This time the plane was loaded with cash of about £4 million in rupees.
Cotton was also supposed to have picked up the private militia leader Kasim Razvi. Razvi headed militia force to annex Hyderabad Dakkan and to kill the Nizam. This private militia created terror throughout the kingdom and triggered an exodus from Hyderabad and other urban centres.
But Razvi’s escape ended in a theatrical fiasco due to a misunderstanding about the flight timing. As Cotton thundered away in his Lancastrian , the militia leader desperately waited for the British bombers. Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried for sedition. He was freed in 1957 and he emigrated to Pakistan where he died in 1970.
The diplomatic heat was kept up even as British backed Militias surrendered. According to a report in The Hindu, R.K. Nehru, India’s diplomat in the U.S., in a radio broadcast on September 17 that was heard coast-to-coast said: “The British in similar circumstances would have marched in on the first outbreak of violence to restore order, put down the Real Razakars and bring the Nizam to his senses.” (This is significant because Pakistan and officials from Hyderabad (Sindh,Presidency of British colonial empire) were portraying India as an aggressor. And this Indian diplomat put things in perspective)
**********
Accession means process of formally joining, formal acceptance of a treaty, the attainment or acquisition of a position of rank or power.
