View source for Hyderabad Massacre

{{over-quotation|date=December 2020}}

{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = 1948 Annexation of Hyderabad
| partof = the [[Annexation of Hyderabad]]
| side3 =
| image =File:Operation Polo 1948.jpg 
| caption = 
| date = {{start date|1948|09|13}} – {{end date and age|1948|10|}}
| place = [[Hyderabad State]]
| causes = [[Annexation of Hyderabad]] 
| goals = 
* [[Defeat of Nizam|Ethnic]]&nbsp;and&nbsp;[Defeat of Nizam[|religious&nbsp;persecution]] 
* [[Defeat of Nizam]] 
| methods = [[Pogrom]]
| status = 
| result =
| side1 = 
| side2 =
| leadfigures1 = 
| leadfigures2 =
| leadfigures3 =
| howmany1 =
| howmany2 =
| howmany3 = 
| injuries =
| fatalities = 30–40,000 (Indian government figure) 200,000+ (Scholarly sources)
| arrests = 
| notes =
| image_size = 
}}

The '''Hyderabad Massacre''' '''of 1948,''' or the '''Hyderabad Massacre''' refers to the mass killings of civilians that took place in the aftermath of the [[Annexation of Hyderabad|Indian invasion of Hyderabad]]. The killings, perpetrated by Indian soldiers, as well as local militias, resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 civilians from September to October 1948.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=2013-09-24|title=Hyderabad 1948: India's hidden massacre|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24159594|access-date=2020-11-19}}</ref>

== Background ==
{{See also| Annexation of Hyderabad}}

== Violence ==
Violence occurred in many rural areas, however the worst areas afflicted were [[Osmanabad]], [[Nanded]], [[Gulbarga]], and [[Bidar]] where “the sufferers were [[Deccani Muslims|Muslims]] who formed the hopeless minority.”<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Noorani|first=A.G.|title=The Destruction of Hyderabad|publisher=Tulika Books|year=2014|isbn=978-93-82381-33-4|location=New Delhi|pages=221–246}}</ref> Crimes against Muslims that occurred included but was not limited to the desecration of mosques, mass killings, seizures of houses and land, looting and arson of Muslim shops, as well as rape and abduction of women.<ref name=":1" />

The Pandit Sunderlal Report is a report that was commissioned by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and was headed by Kazi Abdul Ghaffar, Pandit Sunderlal, Maulana Abdulla Misri and Farrouk Sayer Shakeri in order to “study existing conditions and help in the establishment of communal harmony.”<ref name=":1" /> It also ended up entailing a detailed description of the violence that took on during and after [[Operation polo|Operation Polo]]. The report, although made in 1948, was kept hidden from public eyes, until it was declassified in 2013, where it is now available for viewing at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Dec 15|first1=Mir Ayoob Ali Khan / TNN / Updated|last2=2013|last3=Ist|first3=05:36|title=Telangana statehood issue: Lessons to learn from Hyderabad's past {{!}} Hyderabad News – Times of India|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Lessons-to-learn-from-Hyderabads-past/articleshow/27390337.cms|access-date=2020-12-05|website=The Times of India|language=en}}</ref> It is unconfirmed why the report was hidden, but some say it was prevent further instances of communal violence from happening. [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] refused to accept this report, and when sent a copy, had said, “There could have been no question of the Government of India of sending any goodwill mission to India...There is nothing in it about the Razakar atrocities...”<ref>Nandurkar, G.M., ed. (1978, 1981), ''Sardar's Letters, Mostly Unknown,'' Ahmedabad: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Smarak Bhavan</ref> However, this is false, because in the Confidential Notes of the Sunderlal Report, the authors issued an entire section of [[Razakars (Hyderabad)|Razakar]] atrocities.<blockquote>“During our tours we also heard statements of Razakar atrocities...Their atrocities chiefly consisted in levying monthly amounts on very town and village. Where ever these amounts were willingly paid there was general no further trouble. But at places they were resisted, loot followed. If there was no trouble during the loot trouble generally ended, in the removal of looted property, sometimes in motor trucks. But wherever there was further resistance, arson, murder, even rape and abduction of women followed.” <ref name=":1" /></blockquote>The report also conservatively put the death toll to between 27,000–40,000 civilian lives lost.<ref name=":1" /> However, independent scholarly sources and bystanders have reported the death to be closer to around 200,000.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Dr Hemant Kumar Pandey & Manish Raj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nn5IDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|title=INDIA'S MAJOR MILITARY & RESCUE OPERATIONS|date=2017-08-01|publisher=Horizon Books ( A Division of Ignited Minds Edutech P Ltd)|isbn=978-93-86369-39-0|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Dalrymple|first=William|url=http://archive.org/details/ageofkaliindiant00|title=The age of Kali : Indian travels and encounters|date=2004|publisher=New Delhi ; New York : Penguin|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-14-303109-3}}</ref> Violence against Muslims is told largely through the report, eyewitness accounts and other sources. <blockquote>“In Osmanabad....the town of [[Latur]] in the same district fared even worse. Some witnesses told us that number of Muslims murdered in Latur was somewhere between 2000 and 2500...Latur was a big business centre. It had big [[Kutchi Memon|Kutchi]] merchants. The total Muslim population was nearly ten thousand. When we visited the town, it was barely three thousand. Evidently many ran away to save their lives, The killing lasted twenty days...Our idea is that the total killed in Gulburage district must have been between 5000 and 8000...The district of Bidar fared at least as ill if not worse than Gulburga. The fourth district is Nanded. With the total killed according to our estimate somewhere between 2000 and 4000. When we talk of killed, we do not include those who died fighting but only those murdered in cold blood.”<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Noorani|first=A.G.|title=The Destruction of Hyderabad|publisher=Tulika Books|year=2014|isbn=978-93-82381-33-4|location=New Delhi|pages=361–375}}</ref>

”It appears the as the Muslim population fled in panic towards the headquarters of the state or other villages which they thought might be safer, a very large number was killed on the way and in the jungles. In many places we were shown well or Bawaries still full of corpses rotting. In one such, we counted 11 bodies which included that of a woman with a small child sticking to her breast...We saw several such wells. We saw remnants of corpses lying in ditches. At several places the bodies had been burnt and we could see the charred bones and skulls still lying there.”<ref name=":3" />

</blockquote>[[Forced conversion|Forcible conversions]] to [[Hinduism]] were also noted by the authors of the report as well as other sexual crime against Muslim women in the massacres. <blockquote>“After the adult males of a locality had been killed, the women and children were generally ‘persuaded’ to adopt the Hindu faith. We came across hundreds of Muslim women who had been forcibly tattooed on the forehead in the orthodox Hindu style as a mark of their conversion. Some even had their new Hindu names tattooed on their forearms. We saw children whose ears had been bored in the Hindu style. Beards had been shaved off and Choties kept. We saw the sacred thread hanging around the necks of Muslims. We were told at various places that a certain Mantri Ji had about from place to place converting such helpless women and children into Hinduism.”<ref name=":3" />

”Statement of Pasha Bi, resident of Ganjoti (village in [[Medak]]): “The trouble in Ganjoti began after the army's arrival. All the young Muslim women were raped here. Five daughters of Osmanabad Sahib were raped and the six daughters of the Qazi were raped. Ismail Sahib Sawadgar's daughter was raped in Saiba Chamar's home for a week. Soldiers from Umarga came every week and after all-night rape, young Muslim women were sent back to their homes in the morning.”<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>Another important feature of the violence was the role of the Indian Army and administration in the violence of the massacres.<blockquote>“...we had absolutely unimpeachable evidence to the effect that there were instances in which men belonging to the Indian Army and also to the local police took part in the looting and local crimes...soldiers encouraged persuaded and in a few cases even compelled the Hindu mobs to loot Muslim homes and shops. In another district, a Munsif house, among others, was looted by soldiers and a [[Tehsildar]]'s wife molested. Complaints of molestion and abduction of girls, against Sikh soldiers was by no means rare.”<ref name=":1" />

”We are also informed that a large mix of trained and armed men from a well-known Hindu communal organization filtered into the state along with the Indian Army from Sholapur...The Indian Army wherever it went, ordered the people to surrender all arms. The order applied to Hindus and Muslims alike. But in practice, while all arms were taken from the Muslims, sometimes with the Hindu population, the Hindus from whom the Indian military had little to fear were left in possession of their arms.”<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>It is important to note however a majority of the Hindu aggressors against Muslims had suffered under the hands of the Razakars and the Nizam administration.<ref name=":3" /> Many felt with the advent of the Indian Army, that they were the Hindus’ savior and felt emboldened to take revenge against the Muslims. Despite such tragedy, there were reports of communal harmony throughout these events. <blockquote>“It is to be noted that that the Union armies rescued the very Deshmukhs and Razakar leader, [[Kasim Razvi]], who were responsible for setting fire to village after village and the killing is of hundreds of people. At the same time, the ordinary Muslims, who stood against the atrocities of the Nizam, were pounced upon and untold miseries were inflicted upon them. The Hindu people in those villages rescued such innocent Muslim people to the extent possible, gave shelter to them in their houses and rescued thousands of Muslim families from the campaigns of rape and murder indulged by the Union army.”<ref>P. Sundarayya,  ''Telangana People's Struggles and its Lessons,'' p.179</ref></blockquote>

== See Also ==
*[[Persecution of Muslims]]
*[[Violence against Muslims in India]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Genocides in Asia]]
[[Category:1940s murders in India]]
[[Category:1948 crimes in India]]
[[Category:Wars involving Hyderabad]]
[[Category:Conflicts in India]]
[[Category:Anti-Muslim violence in India]]
[[Category:Violence against Muslims]]


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