Persection of Hindus - During The Era of Nizam State of Hyderabad

During The Era of Nizam State of Hyderabad

Hindus were severely repressed under the autocratic dictatorial rule of the Nizam nawabs in Hyderabad state. The Hindu majority were denied fundamental rights by the Nizams of Hyderabad state. Hindus were called gaddaar (traitor) by Muslims in the Nizam state of Hyderabad. Many Hindus were murdered, looted and thrown to jail. Construction of temples were declared illegal and Hindu scriptures like Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana were banned.

Hindus were treated as second class citizens within Hyderabad state and they were severely discriminated against, despite the vast majority of the population being Hindu. The 1941 census estimated the population of Hyderabad to be 16.34 million. Over 85% of the populace were Hindus with Muslims accounting for about 12%. Hyderabad was also a multi-lingual state consisting of peoples speaking Telugu (48.2%), Marathi (26.4%), Kannada (12.3%) and Urdu (10.3%). Nonetheless, the number of Hindus in government positions was disproportionately small. Of 1765 officers, 1268 were Muslims, 421 were Hindus, and 121 were "Others" (presumably British Christians, Parsis and Sikhs). Of the officials drawing pay between Rs.600–1200 pm, 59 were Muslims, 38 were "Others", and a mere 5 were Hindus. The Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the kingdom.

In 1947; Nizam, the ruler of Hyderabad refused to merge his kingdom with India. For the independence of the Islamic state of Hyderabad and to resist Indian integration, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the then dominating political party persecuted Hindus and their 1,50,000 cadre strong militant wing named Razakars killed a number of Hindus under the leadership of Qasim Rizwi.