When Telangana celebrated ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ before Independence Day

The freedom struggle in Nizam’s Dominion was not limited to the Telangana area. Ganpati Amrite fell to bullets of Razakars while hoisting the Indian National Flag in Umari village in present-day Maharashtra in September 1947.

On October 2, 1942, Hyderabad witnessed a revolutionary form of protest. A march of women who chanted: ‘Gandhi ka charkha chalana padega, Goron ko London jana padega (As Gandhi’s wheel spins, Whites have to leave to London).’ In a region where the writ of the Nizam Osman Ali Khan ran, this was nothing short of an explosive challenge to his authority. Hours before this protest, Sarojini Naidu was arrested. But other women carried on the peaceful protest to be arrested. Among them was Padmaja Naidu who unfurled the flag near the Residency Building.

The event was a testament to the fact that people in Hyderabad knew the British were the real rulers even if the Nizam Osman Ali Khan sat on the yellow masnad in Chowmahalla Palace. And it was different from the July 17, 1857 attack on the British Residency when minister Salar Jung saved the day for the British and the Nizam. Times had changed. This challenge to Nizam’s authority and the support for merger with India was much more widespread even before the Operation Polo that became a fait accompli. 

The fervour of India’s independence movement bypassed Hyderabad on August 15, 1947. But not completely. The Congress gave a call for the ‘Join Indian Union Movement’ across the princely state of Hyderabad to be observed on August 7, 1947.

The State with its three linguistic regions was in ferment before and after India’s Independence. It took the form of Satyagraha and the Join Indian Union Movement crystalised it.

The Satyagraha that began in 1938, was a simple affair with five members proclaiming themselves as members of the banned Congress organisation. The police would bundle the group (jatha) into the nearest police station and later imprison them.

The Join Indian Union Movement led to a mass awakening where the political activists would unfurl the Indian Tricolour in a public space knowing the serious consequences. The princely police machinery of the Nizam could not control the groundswell of backing for a merger with India.

The dramatic heroes in this fight were ordinary Indians who disappeared as soon as Hyderabad was merged with India.