Rizakars of Hyderabad Deccan, 1940-1950: The rise and fall of a Muslim militia-II

The rise and growth of the Rizakars: According to an official publication of the Indian government, in July 1947, "seventy thousand men, women and children [italics added] have undergone training; 1,500,000 members are on the rolls, and recruitment is going on briskly to reach the target figure of 500,000 Razakars".
Secretary V.P. Menon of the India's Ministry of States, the leading figure in New Delhi-Nizam negotiations, gave an even more astounding figure of 200,000 as the number of the Rizakars. None seem to know the exact number of the Rizakars. The official account of the Indian military operations gave yet another total.
THE CHARGE SHEET OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT WAS AS FOLLOWS: "a. Staging frequent demonstrations all over the State; b. Terrorising individuals connected with movements which seek the accession of Hyderabad to.... India, or the introduction of responsible government; c. Organising of border raids into the Indian Dominion territory; d. Inflicting reprisals, with or without the Police or the Military, on village or individuals suspected of being pro-State Congress, or obstructive to the Razakars; e. Taking upon themselves the duties of Customs Officers in searching the luggage and belongings of railway and road passengers. f. Preventing official investigations by agencies or individuals into the internal situation in Hyderabad; g. Overawing the public by staging marches of uniformed volunteers with spears, swords, or muzzle-loaders on [bi-] cycles, in buses and lorries, by firing empty shots into the air; h. Infiltrating into Indian Dominion territory in order to carry on espionage work; to smuggle arms and ammunition into the State; recruit volunteers from Dominion territory for the army, the police, and other services and to create disaffection among the Muslims of India; and to carry on a Jihad (Religious war).
According to the same publication, the Rizakars possessed transport - lorries, jeeps, and fuel supplied through contacts in the Nizam's government. The Rizakars supposedly had "a large number of looted and locally manufactured arms." According to Prime Minister Mir La'iq Ali, "of the guns... displayed by the Razakars not even half could fire a shot; quite a few of the rest were as much a souce of danger to the user as to the target". The Communists, opposed both to the Rizakars and the Nehru administration, contemptuously called the Rizakar weapons as "Rizawi banduq (rifle)".
The Rizakars had access to the press and the Deccan Radio over which the Indian Dominion and its leaders were attacked every day. The Indian government also claimed knowledge of "10 to 30 thousand rupees" which were allegedly spent by Rizakars daily. Allegedly looted gold and silver was reported to be spent on the refugees from India into Hyderabad. The Indian government published a long catalogue of the Rizakar misdeeds, which is corroborated by a number of contemporary sources and by former Rizakars in memoirs written after Hyderabad fell to India in September 1948. Moreover, Hyderabad's own Prime Minister, Nawab Ahmad Sa'id Khan of Chhattari and his cabinet were roughed up by a Rizakar mob during the Dichpalli mosque - also known as the Shah Manzil - incident on 15 March 1946.
In an even more ugly incident, (27/28 October 1947) an official delegation of the Hyderabad government suspected of treason by Qasim Rizawi was physically prevented by the Rizakars from flying to Delhi. While the list of the Rizakar atrocities is fairly lengthy, the record of the Nizam's opponents, whether that of the Andhra Mahasabha, the Socialists, or even the State Congress, is not violence-free either. Nor is the case with the conduct of the Indian army on the borders of Hyderabad State.
The evidence for violence directed by the Nizam's opponents is now increasing. Govindas Shroff, a Congressman from Marathwada, sought and received Mohandas K. Gandhi's tacit approval when he told him that his party was using violence against Hyderabad. Thirty years after the overthrow of the Nizam, Shroff's role in Marathwada came into severe criticism, as he was accused of anti-Dalit activities as he opposed the naming of a university after Dr Ambedkar. Similarly, a Socialist Party leader confessed how arms initially smuggled into the Nizam's Dominion from India were later diverted to Nepal when Hyderabad fell.
In one instance, militant Congressmen looted a bank at gunpoint in Umri and made off with the money. After Hyderabad fell, Congress factions fell out over who did what with the looted bank funds. According to S. Nijalingappa, the amount looted was a staggering 17 lakhs (Rs 1,700,000) a huge sum at the time. The man accused of using the looted funds was none other than the State Congress chief, Ramanda Tirtha. P.V. Narasimha Rao, later Prime Minister of India (between 1991-95), a Congressman from Karimnagar, crowed about how he helped blow up the lines of the Nizam State Railways in 1948, "Congress militants burnt down railway stations, attacked police stations, and looted their arms.
Narasimha Rao indulged in gun-running from Chanda in the erstwhile Bombay province... He shuttled between Chanda, Nagpur, Pune, Bombay, and Bangalore to smuggle arms and ammunition which he procured from the cantonments and other sources..." Besides the HSF, hastily tained Rizakars were patrolling the India-Hyderabad borders.
In many instances the Rizakars were defending Hyderabad enclaves and border villages from incursion by overzealous Indian forces. On 5 April 1948, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad informed his counterpart in New Delhi... Camps have been allowed to be established in the areas bordering Hyderabad from which raiders armed with modern weapons, Sten guns, Bren guns and the like make frequent incursions into the State derailing trains and destroying life and property, with a view to shattering the peace and tranquility of Hyderabad..." The village of Nanej, near Barsi, Sholapur saw one such action on 24 July 1948.
Defended by just seven Rizakars, Nanej was attacked by a heavily armed detachment of the Indian army. Even when outgunned and outnumbered, the Rizakars beat back the Indian troops inflicting heavy losses. The defenders were eventually killed after dogged resistance when the Indians brought in additional troops to occupy the village. The Nanej episode illustrated the raw courage and the grim determination shown by the Rizakars.
The raids and the counter raids along the India-Hyderabad border despite the Standstill Agreement signed on 29 November 1947 demonstrated that the future of the Nizam's Dominion was far from decided. Claiming deterioration in the internal security in Hyderabad, India demanded the Nizam's government to ban the Majlis and the Rizakars in a communication addressed to Prime Minister Mir La'iq Ali on 23 March 1948.
For several more months futile negotiations went on between the governments with the two sides dug in their positions: Hyderabad insisting on independence while India demanding unconditional accession and the introduction of a responsible government. Meanwhile, internal peace within Hyderabad was disturbed. Shuaib Allah Khan, an obscure journalist, was struck down, allegedly on the orders of Qasim Rizawi.
Indian sources routinely accuse the Rizakars for the atrocity. However, contemporary anti-MIM sources blame Shuaib's personal rivalry with his assailants for his death. On September 13, Indian troops led by tanks invaded Hyderabad in a five-pronged attack named Operation Polo, the Indian army's code for the invasion.
The Indian Air Force subjected Hyderabad airstrips in Bidar, Warangal and elsewhere to intense bombardment. Inexplicably the Hyderabad State Force (hence HSF) offered only nominal resistance to the invading army. However, the poorly armed, ill-equipped, mostly untrained Rizakars resisted the vastly superior Indian troops on many fronts.
In numerous instances, many simply flung themselves into the chains of India's British-made Sherman tanks hoping to slow down the march. In the words of a former Rizakar, Mehdi Ali Seljouk, "We the defeated were an army of military men of all ranks and stages of training, half-trained militia-men, rustics in uniform, villagers in rags, illiterate men from far-off villages to whom even the sight of an armoured car was new, and men of all ages and background from the captured kingdom of Hyderabad.
More than 20,000 of them surrendered as the ammunition of all kinds ran out and as the bayonets and shovels and pickaxes were broken in the chains of incoming tanks." Several hundred Rizakars were killed and many thousands injured. In many places, the Pathans, hardy warriors from the Northwest Frontier domiciled in the Deccan for two centuries, joined the Rizakars.
Another small group called the Dindars also resisted the Indian armoured drive. Outgunned, out numbered and out manoeuvred, the Hyderabad State Force chief, Major General Sayyid Ahmad al-Aidarus (also Edrus) surrendered to India's Major General J.N. Chaudhuri on 18 September 1948. The flower of the Muslim youth in the Deccan was destroyed. The HSF troops who fought against the Indian army were treated as prisoners of war, disarmed and released.
However the fate of the Rizakars was a different story. As the Indian troops began entering the Bolarum cantonment in Secunderabad, the Rizakars began burning their uniforms, discarding their weapons, and mingling with the civilian population. Soon wells, cattle pens, and dumps filled up with antiquated weapons better suited in a museum than on a battlefront. A day after Major General Al-Aidarus surrendered. Qasim Rizawi was arrested on 19 September from Darussalam where the Rizakar chief was staying. The Rizakar organisation was banned, thought the Majlis was not. Soon a massive retaliation began against Muslims in general.
Armed Congress gangs began indiscriminate retaliation against the general Muslim population disregarding distinction between those who resisted the Indian army and those who were simply passive, uninvolved, innocent spectators. The Rizakars, real or suspected were of course the prime target. Neutral observers, for instance, witnessed instances of indiscriminate retaliation, for example by Wilfred W. Russell. According to Russell, "We reached Hyderabad city after curfew, having been delayed all along the line by Razakar hunts at every station.
The train would stop for longer and longer halts at the numerous stations where the local purging committees produced their strings of men accused of being Razakars. They had been pretty well beaten up before reaching the stations, but on arrival they were usually chased up and down the platforms by most of the passengers, all of who turned out to see the fun. This delayed the train still further, as the Guard was reluctant to hurry people along while they were enjoying themselves so much." Mehdi Ali Seljouk, a young Rizakar who was tortured in the prison, confirms Russell's observations. The list of victims can be multiplied manifold.
The thousands arrested were those who escaped killing. A few top Rizakars escaped to Pakistan. Most languished in the camps and prisons. The chief was in the military prison of Trimullgherry in Secunderabad. Unable to prove political charges, the new administration implicated Rizawi on account of a dacoity at village Bibinagar. Experienced attorneys defended him. This was far from the case of ordinary Rizakars. There simply was no one to provide legal defence to these unfortunate young men.
(To be concluded)