ErlindaLamson9 at 15:34, 30 March 2026

2026-03-30T15:34:46Z

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{{Short description|Genocidal massacres against Muslims}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2023}}
{{multiple issues|
{{over-quotation|date=December 2020}}
{{original research|date=December 2024}}
{{cite check|date=September 2025}}
{{POV|date=September 2025}}
}}

{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = 1948 Hyderabad massacres
| partof = the [[Annexation of Hyderabad]]
| image = File:Indian soldiers sort through the arms and equipment left behind by hostiles during the Operations in Hyderabad.jpg
| map = File:Hyderabad in India (1951).svg
| map_caption = Hyderabad State
| caption = [[Indian Army]] officers ordered the surrender of all arms, but in practice, only [[Muslims]] were disarmed. [[Hindus]], whom the military deemed less of a threat, were often allowed to keep their weapons which resulted in the massacres.{{sfn|Noorani|2014|p=371|loc=Appendix 15: Confidential notes attached to the Sunderlal Committee Report}}
| location = [[Hyderabad State]] (hardest-hit areas were [[Osmanabad]], [[Nanded]], [[Gulbarga]] and [[Bidar]])<ref name="BBC" /><ref>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>
| target = [[Hyderabadi Muslims]]
| date = {{start date|df=yes|1948|09|13}} – {{end date and age|df=yes|1948|10|}}
| type = [[looting]], [[arson]], [[mass murder]], [[rape]]<ref name="BBC"/><ref name="Foundation Books"/>
| fatalities = 27,000-40,000 (Sunderlal committee)<ref name=Sunderlal>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|loc=Appendix 15: Confidential notes attached to the Sunderlal Committee Report|pp=372–373}}</ref>
<br />200,000 (estimate by responsible observers)<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4322137 | jstor=4322137 | title=Hyderabad: Muslim Tragedy | last1=Smith | first1=Wilfred Cantwell | journal=Middle East Journal | date=1950 | volume=4 | issue=1 | page=46 }}</ref>
| motive = {{bulleted list
|retributive violence<ref name="BBC">{{Cite news |first=Mike |last=Thomson |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 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240828175952/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24159594 |archive-date=2024-08-28}}</ref>
| [[Religious bigotry]]<ref name=ShermanLSE>{{cite journal|last1=Sherman |first1=Taylor C. |title=The integration of the princely state of Hyderabad and the making of the postcolonial state in India, 1948 – 56 |journal=Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=489–516 |url=https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/32805/ |date=2007 |doi=10.1177/001946460704400404 |s2cid=145000228 |quote=The Committee generally credited the military officers with good conduct but stated that soldiers acted out of bigotry.}}</ref>
}}
| perps = {{bulleted list
|[[Hindu]] population
|[[Indian Army]] soldiers
}}
| dfens =
}}

The '''Hyderabad massacres'''{{sfn|Purushotham|2021|p=330}} were the [[mass killings]] and [[massacre]] of [[Hyderabadi Muslims]] that took place following the [[Annexation of Hyderabad|Indian annexation of Hyderabad]] (Operation Polo). The killings were perpetrated by local [[Hindu]] fanatics, often supported by the [[Indian Army]] soldiers. [[Wilfred Cantwell Smith|Wilfred Cantrell Smith]], based on leaked contents of a confidential report by Pandit Sunderlal and Qazi Abdulghaffar commissioned by Nehru, estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 Muslims were killed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zubrzycki |first=John |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=wiEtEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA193&dq=Wilfred+Cantrell+Smith+Pandit+Sunderlal&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwju_svZ9YOTAxVUWHADHXfeH2MQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=Wilfred%20Cantrell%20Smith%20Pandit%20Sunderlal&f=false |title=Dethroned: The Downfall of India's Princely States |date=2025-05-29 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-80526-309-8 |language=en}}</ref>

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

== Violence ==
The violence occurred in many rural areas, however, the hardest-hit areas were [[Osmanabad]], [[Nanded]], [[Gulbarga]] and [[Bidar]]<ref name="BBC" /> where "the sufferers were Muslims who formed the hopeless minority."<ref>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>

The crimes that were committed by the local Hindus included the desecration of [[mosques]], mass killings, the seizure of houses and land, looting and burning of Muslim shops, as well as the rape and abduction of Muslim women.<ref name="BBC"/>

In addition to mass killings, activists such as Sundarayya claim that Indian soldiers systematically engaged in torture, rape, and looting.<ref name="Foundation Books">{{cite book |last=Sundarayya |first=Puccalapalli |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPjIh1G0TmcC |title=Telangana People's Struggle and Its Lessons |publisher=Foundation Books |year=1972 |isbn=9788175963160}}{{page needed|date=September 2025}}</ref>

The Pandit Sunderlal Committee that was commissioned by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], in his "personal capacity".<ref>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>
Its report contained analysis of the violence that took place during and after [[Operation polo|Operation Polo]].<ref name="BBC"/> The report, although made in 1948, was kept hidden from public eyes, until it was made available for viewing at the [[Nehru Memorial Museum and Library]].<ref name="BBC"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=15 December 2013 |author=Mir Ayoob Ali Khan |title=Telangana statehood issue: Lessons to learn from Hyderabad's past |newspaper=[[Times of India]] |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Lessons-to-learn-from-Hyderabads-past/articleshow/27390337.cms}}
</ref> It is unconfirmed why the report was hidden, but some say it was to prevent further instances of communal violence by Razakars from happening. [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] refused to accept this report, and when sent a copy, had said, "There could have been no question of Government of India sending any goodwill mission to India...There is all about the Razakar atrocities on Hindus..."<ref>
Nandurkar, G.M., ed. (1978, 1981), ''Sardar's Letters, Mostly Unknown,'' Ahmedabad: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Smarak Bhavan
</ref> 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 of levying monthly amounts i.e., Zizya (Jaziya) on every town and village. Wherever these amounts were willingly paid there was generally no further trouble. But at places they were resisted, loot, rape and murder of innocent Hindus 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>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>
</blockquote>
The report also conservatively put the death toll to between 27,000 and 40,000 Muslim civilian lives lost.<ref>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref> Violence by Hindus is told largely through the reports, eyewitness accounts and other sources.
<blockquote>
In Osmanabad....the town of [[Latur]] in the same district fared even worse. Some witnesses told us that the number of Muslims murdered by Hindus 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. Many ran away to save their lives, The killing lasted twenty days...Our idea is that the total killed in Gulbarga district must have been between 5000 and 8000...The district of Bidar fared at least as ill if not worse than Gulbarga. The fourth district is Nanded. With the total killed according to our estimate somewhere between 2000 and 4000. When we talk of killing, we do not include those who died fighting but only those murdered in cold blood.<ref name="Noorani Report">{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=361–375|loc=Appendix 14: The Sunderlal Committee Report on the Massacre of Muslims}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>

It appears that as the Muslim population fled in panic towards the headquarters of the state or other villages which they thought might be safer, but it was not, a very large number was killed on the way and in the jungles. In many places, we were shown well or Bawaries still full 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. In several places, the bodies had been burnt, and we could see the charred bones and skulls still lying there.<ref name="Noorani Report"/>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
...we had unimpeachable evidence to the effect that there were instances in which men belonging to the local Hindus 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 judge's house, among others, was looted by soldiers and a [[Tehsildar]]'s wife was molested. Complaints of molestation and abduction of girls, against Indian soldiers, were none or very rare.<ref>{{harvnb|Noorani|2014|pp=221–246}}{{prtb|date=September 2025}}</ref>

We are also informed that a large mix of trained and armed men from a well-known Hindu 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="Noorani Report"/>
</blockquote>

== See also ==
*[[Partition of India]]
*[[Persecution of Muslims]]
*[[Religious violence in India]]
*[[Violence against Muslims in independent India]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{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}}
* {{Cite book |last=Purushotham |first=Sunil |title=From Raj to Republic: Sovereignty, Violence, and Democracy in India |year=2021 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-1455-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4lQMEAAAQBAJ&dq=Hyderabad+Massacres&pg=PT330}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{Cite web |last=Gulbargavi |first=Talha Hussain |date=2022-09-17 |title=1948 Hyderabad Massacre: A Timeline |url=https://thecognate.com/1948-hyderabad-massacre-a-timeline/ |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=The Cognate |language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231023111716/https://thecognate.com/1948-hyderabad-massacre-a-timeline/ |archive-date=2023-10-23}}
* {{Cite web |last=Mujtaba |first=Syed Ali |title=The first genocide of Muslims in independent India is celebrated each year on September 17 |website=Muslim Mirror |date=2022-09-18 |url=https://muslimmirror.com/eng/the-first-genocide-of-muslims-in-independent-india-is-celebrated-each-year-on-september-17/ |access-date=2023-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207043813/https://muslimmirror.com/eng/the-first-genocide-of-muslims-in-independent-india-is-celebrated-each-year-on-september-17/ |archive-date=2023-12-07}}

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[[Category:Massacres in 1948]]
[[Category:1948 murders in India]]
[[Category:Military history of Hyderabad State]]
[[Category:Massacres of Muslims in India]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by India]]
[[Category:Looting in India]]
[[Category:Massacres of ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Rape in India]]
[[Category:Wartime sexual violence in Asia]]
[[Category:Building and structure arson attacks in India]]
[[Category:Arson in the 1940s]]
[[Category:1948 fires]]
[[Category:1940s fires in Asia]]
[[Category:Attacks on shops in India]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Mass kidnappings]]
[[Category:Kidnapping in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Kidnappings in India]]
[[Category:Violence against women in India]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murders in India]]

Hyderabad massacres - Revision history

ErlindaLamson9 at 15:34, 30 March 2026