History of Bhopal - After Indian Independence

After Indian Independence

After India achieved independence on 15 August 1947, Bhopal was one of the last states to sign the Instrument of Accession.

The last Nawab expressed his wish to retain Bhopal as a separate unit in March 1948. Agitations against the Nawab broke out in December 1948, leading to the arrest of prominent leaders including Shankar Dayal Sharma. On 23 January 1949, Sharma was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for violating restrictions on public meetings; some other satyagrahis were also arrested. Later, the political detainees were released and the Nawab signed the agreement for merger on 30 April 1949.

The Bhopal princely state was taken over by the Union Government of India on 1 June 1949. The new Bhopal State was declared a "Part C" state, governed by a chief commissioner appointed by the President of India. Sindhi refugees from Pakistan were accommodated in Bairagarh, a western suburb of Bhopal.

The eldest daughter of Nawab Hamidullah Khan and presumptive heiress, Abida Sultan, gave up her right to the throne and opted for Pakistan in 1950. She entered Pakistan's foreign service. Therefore, the Government of India excluded her from the succession and her younger sister Begum Sajida succeeded in her stead. Abida Sultan arrived in the newly created Pakistan when she was 37 and a mother of a young son. She was to spend the greater part of her life in Pakistan, and she died in 2002. Her son, Shaharyar Khan, was to become the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and then the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. If his mother had not given up her claim to the throne, Shaharyar Khan would have been the Nawab of Bhopal as well as the Nawab of Kurwai, since his father was the Nawab of Kurwai.

Upon the demise of Begum Sajida in 1995, the title was debatedly left to her oldest daughter Nawabzadi Saleha Sultan Begum Sahiba, Bhopal being a matriarchy. Nawab Begum Saleha Sultan is married to Nawab Muhammad Bashir ud-din Khan Bahadur, Bashir Yar Jung, also belonging to the Paigah family, a family once almost as powerful as the Nizams of Hyderabad. The title was also claimed by her son Mansoor Ali Khan, the titular Nawab of Pataudi, and his descendants.