HYDERABAD MOVEMENT AND ARYA SAMAJ: Dr. VIVEK ARYA

HYDERABAD MOVEMENT AND ARYA SAMAJ: Dr. VIVEK ARYA

24-SEP-ENG 7

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA-----------------------------You won't find any information about the Hyderabad Movement, led by the Arya Samaj in 1939, in any history textbook. Independent India's first Madrasa-educated Education Minister, Abdul Kalam, was specifically instructed not to describe any atrocities against Hindus in history. Don't even describe the ancient history of Indians, which they can be proud of. Always portray them as defeated, so that Indians feel that they were never worthy of being rulers. That's why foreigners came to rule over them. This was their destiny.

On February 24, 1939, a ghazal by Mir Osman Ali, the then Nizam of Hyderabad, was published in the weekly newspaper "Rahbare Deccan." One of its verses read: "The Naqoos was closed after hearing the call for Takbir. An earthquake has struck Junnar as well." Meaning, the Hindus were shaken by the sound of Muslims' "Allah Akbar" chants in mosques. The conch shells in their temples fell silent, and their (Junnar's) sacred threads shook with the tremors of their bodies. Pandit Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya responded to this ghazal in his autobiography thus: "Three threads were just raw yarn, but Junnar won even over the Hyderi sword." Three threads were raw yarn, yet the sacred thread, or sacred thread, prevailed over the Hyderi sword.

This verse reports the victory of the Arya Samaj's non-violent movement against the oppression perpetrated by the Nizam in Hyderabad, farther south. The population of the Hyderabad State was 89% Hindu and 10% Muslim, while the proportions in government jobs were the opposite. The ruler was the fanatic Nizam, considered the richest man in the world, whose son was married to the daughter of the Turkish Caliph. The Nizam's subjects believed that his grandson would become the Caliph of Turkey and that the reins of the Muslim world would be in the hands of the Asafiya dynasty. The Nizam came to Aligarh, having been fed the poison of fanaticism, following the separatist zeal of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He imposed Urdu on the Telugu-speaking region, banned Hindus from building new temples, celebrating festivals, holding processions, and repairing old temples. He encouraged conversion to Islam. Finding the Arya Samaj a hindrance to his fanaticism, he banned Arya preachers from the state. Ultimately, the Arya Samaj was forced to announce a movement in Sholapur on December 25, 1938. This was a time when Gandhi's influence was dominant in the country. Even the non-violent movement of the Aryans was intolerable to Gandhi. Gandhi declared that no Congress member should participate in the Hyderabad movement. Within the next few days, the Congress office in Delhi was flooded with resignations. Only then did Gandhi's eyes open and he realized the Arya Samaj's ground power. The Nizam had made a similar miscalculation. Thousands of Aryans filled the Nizam's jails. The Aryans' sacred thread blunted the Nizam's Hyderi sword. The Nizam thought that an ant was just an ant, capable of being crushed by an elephant's foot. But the Nizam had forgotten the laws of creation. When the time comes, God destroys even an elephant through ants. Sir Akbar Hyderi of Hyderabad asked a Mahant, "What can they do to us?" The Mahant replied, "What are you talking about? They will neither sleep nor let you sleep." Indeed, that's exactly what happened.

For several months, no one in the Aryan families slept, nor did the Nizam sleep. First, Mahatma Narayan Swami, head of the Arya Samaj's universal assembly, surrendered. Groups followed, accompanied by their respective officers, going to jail. While the Aryan population welcomed the Jathas at the railway station, their processions leaving the cities were pelted with stones from mosques. Swami Swatantrananda, sitting in Sholapur, led them like a Field Marshal. Ultimately, the Nizam's jails ran out of space. The movement's echoes reached Britain. The Nizam even attempted to spread the illusion that the Aryans had spread false propaganda to defame him. The Aryans collected numerous letters, decrees, orders, photographs of Muslim flags on old Hindu temples, photographs of destroyed Hindu temples, and broken idols in Hyderabad, compiled a report, and sent it to the British Parliament. The Nizam's fortunes were reversed here too. Ultimately, the Nizam was forced to surrender. The Aryans achieved a historic victory. This victory, according to Sardar Patel, later proved instrumental in the annexation of Hyderabad to India through Operation Polo.

Some might ask, what relevance does the Hyderabad movement hold in today's context? So I would like to tell them that these days, a self-proclaimed leader from Hyderabad continues to make misleading statements across the country. Even during that period, his Majlis left no stone unturned in completely opposing the Aryans and harassing Hindus through the Razakars. Our ancestors treated his illness through non-violent means even then.