Hyderabad State
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The Asafia flag of Hyderabad state |
Hyderābād and Berar (
Telugu: హైదరాబాదు
Urdu: حیدر آباد,
Hindi: हैदराबाद) was an autonomous
princely state of south-central
India from
1724 until
1948, ruled by a hereditary
Nizam, and an Indian
state from 1948 to
1956. Its capital city
Hyderabad was for most of that time one of India's four largest cities.
Hyderabad was founded by the
Qutb Shahi dynasty of
Golconda. It was built by Persian architects and was known as Isfahan-e-Nau, The New
Isfahan due to its beauty and architectural style. The basic architectural design of the city was based upon the Quranic model of Paradise.
1In
1686 the
Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb campaigned in the
Deccan to tame the
Marathas and conquer the independent Deccan states. Before the campaign, the Mughals had controlled the northwestern Deccan, including
Khandesh and
Berar, but Mughal control ended at the
Godavari River. Aurangzeb conquered Golconda and
Bijapur in
1687, extending Mughal control south of the
Krishna River.
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Hyderabad and Berar, 1903 |
The Mughal Empire began to weaken during the reign of Aurangzeb's grandson,
Muhammad Shah. A Mughal official,
Asif Jah, defeated a rival Mughal governor to seize control of the empire's southern provinces, declaring himself Nizam-al-Mulk of Hyderabad in
1724. The Mughal emperor, under renewed attack from the Marathas, was unable to prevent it.
The seniormost (21-gun)
princely state in
British India, Hyderabad was an 82,000 square mile (212,000 km²) region in the
Deccan ruled by the Asif Jah dynasty of Muslim rulers, who had the title of Nizam and style of His Exalted Highness. The Nizams ruled over the wealthiest state in
India at that time, controlling some 16,500,000 people. During the height of Hyderabad's wealth in the
1930s the Nizam was the world's richest man, famous for employing 11,000 servants and using the
Jacob Diamond as a
paperweight. Administratively, it was made up of sixteen
districts, grouped into four divisions.
Aurangabad division included
Aurangabad,
Bhir,
Nander, and
Parbhani districts;
Gulbargah (Gulbargah) division included
Bidar, Gulbarga,
Osmanabad, and
Raichur districts;
Gulshanabad or Medak division included
Atraf-i-Baldah,
Mahbubnagar,
Medak,
Nalgonda (Nalgundah), and
Nizamabad districts, and
Warangal division included
Adilabad,
Karimnagar, and Warangal districts.
When India became independent on
August 15,
1947, the Muslim Nizam refused to accede to the Indian Union, although it entirely surrounded his territory, demanding the right as ruler of 18 million (overwhelmingly
Hindu) subjects to rule a separate state. The resulting standoff ended with the state's occupation by Indian troops between
September 13 -
September 17, 1948 and its incorporation as a state of India the next year. The present Nizam (the eighth),
Nawwab Mir Barkat Ali Khan, Mukarram Jah Bahadur, currently lives in
Turkey.
In November
1956 the State of Hyderabad was divided along linguistic lines, with
Telangana, the northeastern
Telugu-speaking region including the city of
Hyderabad, assigned to the newly created
Andhra Pradesh state, the
Kannada-speaking western districts assigned to the state of
Karnataka, and
Marathwada, the
Marathi-speaking northwestern region of the state, assigned to
Bombay state, later
Maharashtra.
Due to the long rule of the nawabs and the muslim rulers, there is still a long lasting cultural impact that continues to this day. For instance many of the local dialects of
Telugu and
Kannada are laced with
Urdu - the official language during the Nizam rule. The cuisine too incorporates the
Biryani a popular main dish and several other influences.
*
History of Hyderabad for a history of the city of Hyderabad.
*
Hyderabad (city)*
Muslim culture of Hyderabad*
Jamia Nizamia*
Nizam for a list of Nizams and other information.
*
Operation Polo the military operation that resulted in the annexation of Hyderabad state into India.
*
Hyderabad*
Genealogy of the Nizams of Hyderabad*
Article on some aspects of life in erstwhile Hyderabad state*
Hyderabad: A Qur'anic Paradise in Architectural Metaphors*
Hyderabad Pictures*
The Hyderabad Events Portal
