Fact Check: Official flag of Hyderabad State has crescent moon and star? No, image shows Razakars’ flag
An image claimed to be the ‘official flag of Hyderabad State’ is viral on social media.
By - M Ramesh Naik
Claim:The image shows the official flag of Hyderabad State under the Nizams (1947–1948).
Fact:False. The flag shown is associated with the Razakars militia, not an official Hyderabad State flag.
Hyderabad: A black-and-white image circulating on social media is being presented as the ‘official flag of Hyderabad State’ before the 1948 Operation Polo. The picture shows a uniformed soldier holding a flag featuring a crescent moon and star.
A Facebook user shared the image with text on it that reads, “Hyderabad official flag before 1948 Operation Polo” (Archive).
What is Operation Polo?
The military operation was launched by the Indian government in 1948 to integrate the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. The flag in the viral image was not the official flag of Hyderabad State but is linked to the Razakars, a paramilitary militia associated with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) that supported the Nizam’s resistance to integration with India.
Which flag represented Hyderabad State?
A keyword search on historical records of Hyderabad State flags shows that the official banner during the final years of the Nizam’s rule (1947–1948) was the Asafia flag.
Historical references describe it as featuring a yellow or saffron background with green horizontal bands and Arabic inscriptions, including ‘Al Azmatulillah,’ ‘Ya Uthman,’ and ‘Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah.’ This was the recognised state flag used officially by the Nizam government.
A reverse image search of the viral photo led to a photo series published by Sakshi related to Operation Polo (1948).
One of the images in that series matches the viral photograph and identifies the flag as associated with the Razakars, the private militia led by Qasim Razvi that backed the Nizam during the period leading up to Hyderabad’s integration with India.
The photo feature documenting Telangana Liberation Day also discusses the role of the Razakars, peasant resistance and Operation Polo, further confirming the historical context of the image.
The viral image does not show the official Hyderabad State flag. It depicts a flag associated with the Razakars militia.
Therefore, the claim is false.
