Praja Palana Day or Hyderabad Liberation Day: Why Sep 17 means different things to different political parties

Hyderabad: September 17 means different things to different political parties. And some change their tune when in power and out of government.

The day marks the ‘liberation/merger’ of Hyderabad State headed by Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan with the Indian Union under the leadership of the then Union Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel on September 17, 1948.

Troops from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and other places marched into Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state on September 17, 1948, in what was called “Police action” or “Operation Polo”.

These misleading titles were used to avoid internationalizing the issue and show to the world that all princely states joined the Indian Union without much ado!

There are government of India films and photographs of Indian troops including tanks marching into Hyderabad and the welcome by people all along the route from Naldurg, a town in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra.

Barring minor skirmishes at the Maharashtra border, the Nizam army did not put up a fight against the mighty Indian Army and eventually surrendered. However, the Razakars, a private militia led by Qasim Razvi, played havoc with the lives of people before they were weeded out.

While many call it the surrender of Nizam to Indian troops, some of his supporters assert it as a merger of Hyderabad state with the Indian Union.

The fact remains that Indian troops marched into Hyderabad when Nizam VII was dilly-dallying on the merger.

For a long time, September 17 was historically known as Hyderabad Liberation Day, but throughout time parties changed their stance and called it by different names to avoid hurting the sensibilities of minorities and tuned to vote bank politics.

While the government of the day in undivided Andhra Pradesh and later Telangana changed the nomenclature, Karnataka and Maharashtra maintained a steady `Liberation Day' tag irrespective of the parties in power.

Telangana Sayudha Poratam

Parallelly, the Communist led insurrection of peasant’s movement against the Nizam State between 1946-1951, weakened Nizam rule. Popularly known as Telangana armed struggle, rebellion or Telangana Sayudha Poratam, the movement spread across Telangana against Nizam’s fascist rule.

Hyderabad State was a feudal monarchy where most of the lands were held by aristocrats known as “Doras”. Feudal exploitation of peasants in the region was more severe compared to others of India.

Peasants movement ignited when V Ramachandra Reddy, a hereditary tax collector, sent a group of 100 goons and 100 servants to forcibly collect the harvest belonging to village sangham. When locals resisted, some of them were arrested.

Villagers, including women and children as a mark of protest took out a procession on July 4, 1946 against violence unleased by landlords’ goons. When they accosted goons, the goons opened fire killing Doddi Komarayya, the sangham leader.

This ignited largescale protests and violence and spread across the Telangana. The peasants looked towards Communist leaders and organised themselves through various organisations including the Andhra Maha Sabha and started rights movement and fought against exploitation.

The movement escalated into a rebellion after the administration and the Doras attempted to suppress it. CPI was backed by the left-wing faction of the Hyderabad State Congress, many of whom later joined the Socialist Party of India when it was formed by the Congress Socialist Party (CSP).

Communists formed armed guerilla squads to fight the exploitative landlords and armed battalions of the Nizam called ‘Razakar’, who were increasingly deployed for crushing the movement. They established parallel governments in about 4000 villages in the region. Gaddar songs against the zamindars and Nizam added to the glory.

There were scores of unsung heroes and heroines of the Telangana Armed Struggle including Komaram Bheem, Chakali Ailamma, Swami Ramananda Tirtha, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, Konda Laxman Bapuji.

Politics on the historical event

Soon politics overtook the important event in Indian history and the political parties, be it Congress, Telugu Desam, BJP, BRS, CPI, AIMIM, etc celebrated the event with different nomenclatures keeping in view public sensibilities and political advantage.

Union Ministry of Home Affairs of the BJP-led NDA government went a step ahead and issued an official notification announcing the celebration of ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ every year on September 17.

It said the day will be celebrated to remember the martyrs who liberated Hyderabad.

The reason is even after India's independence on August 15, 1947, Hyderabad state ruled by Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan did not merge with the Indian Union. It remained independent under Nizams for 13 months.

Then Union Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who was overseeing the merger of princely states, ordered a military action against Hyderabad State. The State was liberated from Nizam's rule on September 17, 1948, after a police action namely 'Operation Polo'.

BJP-led NDA Hyderabad Liberation Day

GOI said in the notification, "Now to remember the martyrs who liberated Hyderabad and to infuse the flame of patriotism in the minds of youth, the government of India decided to celebrate the 17th day of September every year as 'Hyderabad Liberation Day'."

In the undivided Andhra Pradesh and newly formed Telangana, the government of the day used different nomenclature to celebrate the event.

Congress Praja Palana Day

The present Congress government headed by A Revanth Reddy has announced it will observe the day as “Telangana Praja Palana Day” or the day of people’s governance.

Karnataka, Maharashtra celebrate

Karnataka calls it Kalyana-Karnataka Liberation Day and Hyderabad-Karnataka Liberation Day, while Maharashtra names it Marathwada Liberation Day or Marathwada Mukti Sangram Din!

The day is celebrated in both the states. It is because the part of the region which was in the old Nizam state merged with the Indian Union on that day.

In undivided Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, parties in or out of power sing different tunes on the momentous occasion. Congress, BRS, BJP, Telugu Desam, CPI, etc sing different tunes keeping in view political advantage and public sensitiveness.

KCR changes tune

During Telangana movement days, former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao demanded that the then Congress government celebrate the day as Hyderabad Liberation Day.

However, after the formation of Telangana and TRS coming to power in 2014, he backtracked and observed the day as `National Integration Day’.

AIMIM supremo and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, an ally of TRS turned BRS wrote a letter to KCR and Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging them to call the day 'National Integration Day' and not 'Hyderabad Liberation Day'.

His argument was, “The struggles of the people of the erstwhile Hyderabad state against colonialism, feudalism, and autocracy are a symbol of national integration rather than merely a case of "liberation" of a piece of land."

Noorani’s version

In this book, `The Destruction of Hyderabad’, noted lawyer A G Noorani offers a revisionist account of the Indian Army’s ‘police action’ against the armed forces and government of Hyderabad ruled by the fabulously wealthy Nizam.

Noorani revealed what occurred when Indian forces “liberated” Hyderabad and ensured its accession to India rather than Pakistan.

Lastly, CPI contends that the 'Telangana Armed Struggle' spearheaded by the Communists led to the merger of the Hyderabad state with the Indian Union.