The Passing of Patrimonialism: Politics and Political Culture in Hyderabad 1911-1948 by Margrit Pernau; Manohar, 395 pages, Rs. 700.
THIS is a fascinating study of cultural change. The author selected the princely state of Hyderabad as a case study for two reasons. "First, for centuries cultures encountered and fertilized each other in the Dekkan. This cultural openness, which at time s bordered on syncretism, was an important element in the self-perception mainly but not exclusively of the twentieth century elite. This secular tendency towards synthesis also had an impact on the relationship with British culture. Second, due to the s ystem of indirect rule, the state found itself in a protected position. Far from trying to impose their own culture, the British attempted - at least officially - to respect and support existing values and institutions, partially hoping to participate in the legitimation of traditional rule and partially believing these values and forms of rule to be most suited to Indian requirements, and thereby contributing to the Empire's stability."
The book focusses on the rule of the seventh and last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, from 1911 to 1948, and on the role of the social and political elites in the state. Its objective is to study social action and its values within the framework of the state, and the rules by which the game was played in it.
Osman Ali Khan was quite unlike his predecessors, especially the immediate one, the charismatic Mahbub Ali Pasha, who projected himself as the Harun al Rashid of Hyderabad. He died in 1911. "In contrast to his father, Mir Osman Ali Khan was a sober power -politician, who could neither charm the masses nor the historians. The unhappy end of his reign, comprising the rule of the radical Muslim party, Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Communist uprising in Telengana and the military confrontation with the Indian Uni on, may have contributed to the fact that this epoch to a large extent is still waiting for adequate historiographical treatment." (emphasis added, throughout).
Indian works are sometimes marred by tendentiousness; as sadly is Zubaidi Yezdani's work, despite industrious research. The author's survey of recent studies is helpful. None, however, is definitive in scope. There is paucity of literature on the Ittehad ul Muslimeen, which still plays a role in Andhra Pradesh politics. By comparison, there is plenty on the Telengana armed uprising (1946-51), which was "the largest peasant revolution in post-Second World War Asia after the Chinese revolution" - though a comprehensive history of the event is yet to be written.
Margrit Pernau's book is indispensable to an understanding of how Osman Ali Khan and the Ittehad drove Hyderabad to its doom. He was ever torn by dilemmas of his own making and eventually overplayed his hand. The most faithful ally of the British aspired to leadership of Muslims, to independent statehood and even dreamt of a corridor to Portuguese Goa. He used the Ittehad till it became a demon which destroyed his options. He resented Jinnah's ways but followed his advice, to his ruin and Jinnah's own d ebacle in Kashmir. The Nizam, was in W.C. Smith's brilliant phrase, "a clever man utterly destitute of wisdom."
THE book is a feat of research, drawing as it does on archives in London and Hyderabad, a wealth of private papers, extensive interviews and all that there is to read on the subject in English, German and Urdu especially some literature published in Kara chi. Volumes 3 and 4 of Jinnah Papers, published recently in Pakistan, throw much light on his disastrous intervention in Hyderabad's affairs. The Nizam submitted to it against better judgment.
The author provides a meticulously researched account of Osman Ali Khan's consolidation of his contested rule, his effort to acquire legitimacy in the eyes of people within and outside Hyderabad, his relationship with the British and his play with politi cal forces within the state, culminating in the rise of the Ittehad. For all his cunning, the man left himself no line of retreat in his quest for the mirage of independence.
Margrit Pernau writes with verve, especially in her pen portraits, of which by far the best is of Bahadur Yar Jung, a legend in his own lifetime. "Muhammad Bahadur Khan was a powerful speaker in Urdu, perhaps one of the greatest, whom India brought forth in this century. Only when one takes this into consideration and the tremendous impact, which beauty of diction, poetic imagery and impressive words are able to create on an Urdu audience, does the standing become comprehensible that this young Jagirdar quickly obtained not only among the masses but also vis-a-vis the aristocracy and even the Nizam. The impact of his speeches at times seemed to be almost autonomous of their contents - only thus can it be explained that even a politician like Sar ojini Naidu who certainly did not agree with his radical Muslim nationalism, neither as a Hindu nor as a secular-minded member of the Congress, nevertheless publicly declared him to be her 'son'. Although it is difficult to ascertain whether the enthusia sm of the listeners was directed at the language or at the content, this does not imply that all the ideas were drowned in the sound of the beautiful words and produced no effect. The Nizam himself seems to have proved highly susceptible not only to this concept of puritanical Islam, but also to the emphasis on the equality of all Muslims, at least at prayer meetings and similar religious occasions, and honoured the preacher with a title of nobility for words which would have cost anyone else his positi on or at least the goodwill of the ruler."
That was the golden age of Urdu oratory. Two other notable performers were the Ahrar leader, Ataullah Shah Bukhari, and Abul Kalam Azad. In 1938, Jinnah failed to persuade Bahadur Yar Jung to join the Muslim League, but a year later he succeeded in drawi ng his Ittehad into his own scheme in order to emerge as the leader of all Muslims. We have a first-hand account of Jinnah's deep affection for him in the legendary Saadat Hasan Mantos' book Ganje Farrishte based on his chauffeur's account Mere Saheb (My boss).
As Margrit Pernau remarks, "more disparate partners could not have joined in an alliance." Jinnah wept when he heard of his friend's death - allegedly by poisoning - while on a trip to Srinagar in 1944. It is one of the ironies of history that he fell ou t with Sheikh Abdullah precisely then, with consequences as fateful as his friendship with the Nawab and liaison with the Nizam.
In 1946, Qasim Razvi became the Ittehad's leader and harried the Nizam's friends and foes alike. Of the former, the role of his constitutional adviser Sir Walter Monckton remains shrouded in mystery. In October 1947 he advised rapprochement with India, a ccording to a document quoted by Lucien Benichou in his book From Autocracy to Integration. But Pernau cites his note of September 15, 1947 in which he advised that Hyderabad should reach out for a treaty, for "when the circumstances change, for e xample, if Pakistan and Hyderabad grow strong enough to warrant it, the Treaty can be denounced."
No one should have the temerity to advise this gifted scholar to pursue her research for a definitive study of the Nizam's diplomacy between 1945 and September 13, 1948 when the Indian Army walked in and put paid to his dreams. Her heart is set on a stud y of Old Delhi in the 19th century.
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