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{{Short description|Pakistani militia leader in Hyderabad (1902–1970)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Syed Muhammad Qasim Razvi
|image = Qasim Razvi.jpg
|alt =
|caption = Razvi during Operation Polo
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1902|7|17}}
|birth_place = [[Lucknow]], [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] Later settled in [[Latur]], [[Hyderabad state]] {{sfn|Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India|2010|p=69}}<ref name=geni/>
|death_date = {{death date and age|1970|1|15|1902|7|17|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Karachi]], [[Pakistan]]
| resting_place =Azam Ganj, [[Latur]]
| resting_place_coordinates = 
|parents = Syed Ahmad Khan Razvi
|children = 10 (5 sons & 5 daughters )<br>(Sarwar Sultana, Syed Ahmed Kazim Razvi, Syed Ahmed Asif Razvi, Syed Ahmed Arif Razvi, Zakia, [[Fouzia Ejaz Khan|Fouzia]], Razia, Tayyaba, Syed Ahmed Nasir Razvi, Syed Ahmed Farooq Razvi)
|alma_mater = [[Aligarh Muslim University]]
|occupation = Lawyer, politician
}}
'''Syed Kasim Razvi''' (17 July 1902 – 15 January 1970), also '''Qasim Razvi''', was a Pakistani politician in the [[princely state]] of [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]]. He was the president of the [[Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen]] party from December 1946 until the state's [[Indian annexation of Hyderabad|annexation to India]] in 1948.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/day-year-how-hyderabad-became-part-union-india-88407|title=This day, that year: How Hyderabad became a part of the union of India}}</ref> He was also the founder of the [[Razakars (Hyderabad)|Razakar]] militia in the state. He held the levers of power with the [[Nizam of Hyderabad]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/accession-of-hyderabad-when-a-battle-by-cables-forced-the-nizams-hand/article24956708.ece|title=Accession of Hyderabad: When a battle by cables forced the Nizam's hand}}</ref> blocking the possibilities of his accommodation with the [[Dominion of India]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/politics/telangana-polls-bjp-borrows-from-hyderabad-history-to-recast-pm-as-vallabhbhai-patel-paints-kcr-as-new-nizam-5194911.html|title=Telangana polls: BJP borrows from Hyderabad history to recast Modi as Vallabhbhai Patel, paints KCR as 'new Nizam'}}</ref>

According to scholar Lucien Benichou, "[Razvi] can arguably be considered to have been the political figure whose influence and unrealistic vision proved the most detrimental to the interests of the State in the crucial years of 1947–48."{{sfn|Benichou, From Autocracy to Integration|2000|loc=Chapter 5}}<ref name=Ashraf>{{cite news| author = Ajaz Ashraf | title = Hidden history of the Owaisis: What MIM doesn't want you to know | url = http://www.firstpost.com/politics/hidden-history-owaisis-aimim-doesnt-want-know-1817267.html | newspaper = Firstpost | date = 23 November 2014 | accessdate = 29 August 2017 }}
</ref>

==Early life and career==
Kasim Razvi was born in [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]]{{sfn|Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India|2010|p=69}}<ref name=geni>[https://www.geni.com/people/Syed-Qasim-Rizvi/6000000030949636127 Syed Qasim Husain Rizvi], Geni database, 20 January 2015.</ref> and studied law at the [[Aligarh Muslim University]]. He migrated to state of Hyderabad after graduation and did a short apprenticeship with Mohammad Ali Fazil in the Hyderabad city. Then he settled down as a lawyer in [[Latur]], Osmanabad district, where he had contacts through his father-in-law, Abdul Hai, who was a former [[Deputy Superintendent of Police]].{{sfn|Hyder, October Coup|2012|loc=Chapter 2: Qasim Rizvi}}

According to former Hyderabad civil servant Mohammad Hyder, Latur had loose law and order. Razvi amassed a small fortune in shady dealings. After joining the [[Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen]] (''Ittehad''), Razvi is said to have donated all his property to the party, which made him famous and earned him the title of ''Siddique-e-Deccan''.{{sfn|Hyder, October Coup|2012|loc=Chapter 2: Qasim Rizvi}}

After the premature death of Nawab [[Bahadur Yar Jung]] (the founding leader) in 1944, the ''Ittehad'' party fell into fractious extremism. Razvi tried to establish his distinctiveness by advocating political reforms, even though they were not palatable to the ''Ittehad'' membership.{{sfn|Hyder, October Coup|2012|loc=Chapter 2: Qasim Rizvi}} Then he established his own association in Latur, named ''Majlis-e-Islah Nazm-o-Nasq'', ostensibly to bring about reforms but more likely to establish his own independent following away from the mainstream of the party.{{sfn|Benichou, From Autocracy to Integration|2000|loc=Chapter 5}}

In February 1946, the extremists in the party led by Abdur Rahman Rais staged a violent protest over the reconstruction of a mosque, burning down the house of the prime minister [[Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan Chhatari|Nawab of Chhatari]] and Sir [[Wilfrid Grigson]], the minister for revenue and police. The incident led to the resignation of the leader of the ''Ittehad''. In the ensuing contest for the new president, Kasim Razvi defeated Rais to emerge as the leader of the ''Ittehad''. His extremism matched that of Rais and the moderates in the party distanced themselves from both the candidates. From this point on, Razvi called the shots in Hyderabad politics.{{sfn|Benichou, From Autocracy to Integration|2000|loc=Chapter 5}}

==Personal life==
Kasim had 10 children (5 sons & 5 daughters). One of his granddaughters, Atiya Khan (daughter of politician [[Fouzia Ejaz Khan|Fouzia Ejaz]], one of the daughters of Razvi) is an ex- supermodel and Sufi filmmaker in Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theweek.in/leisure/society/2021/09/30/tracing-razakar-legacy-when-razvis-granddaughter-visited-hyderabad.html|title=Tracing Razakar legacy: When Razvi’s granddaughter visited Hyderabad}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1270530/atiya-khan-left-modeling-find-peace-lal-shahbaz-qalandars-shrine|title=How Atiya Khan left modeling to find peace at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine}}</ref>

==Leadership of ''Ittehad''==
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2010}}

The Razakars were Muslim separatists who advocated the continuation of Nizam's rule and tried to convince the Nizam to accede to Pakistan . After accession to Pakistan proved impossible owing to the distance of Hyderabad from Pakistan, Razvi encouraged the Nizam to take a hardline stance and ordered the Razakars to resist the accession of Hyderabad to the newly formed Government of India. Razvi even traveled to [[Delhi]] and had a stormy meeting with Indian leader [[Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel]]. He is quoted to have said "Death with the sword in hand, is always preferable to extinction by a mere stroke of the pen", prompting the Indian government to call him "the Nizam's [[Frankenstein monster]]".<ref name="lubar">{{cite magazine |last=Lubar |first=Robert |date=30 August 1948 |title=Hyderabad: The Holdout |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799076,00.html |magazine=Time |page=26}}</ref> P. V. Kate characterizes him as a religious Muslim fanatic who "insisted on the right of Muslims to enslave the Hindu".<ref name="Kate, P. V. 1948, p. 75">Kate, P. V., Marathwada Under the Nizams, 1724-1948, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1987, p. 75.</ref> He was also implicated in the murder of patriotic progressive Muslims such as Shoebullah Khan who condemned Razvi's Razakars and advocated merger with India.<ref>Rao, P.R., History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: From the Earliest Times to 1991, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2012. p. 284</ref> Razvi launched criminal attacks on the Hindu population, leading to military action by India.<ref name="Kate, P. V. 1948, p. 75"/>

After [[Operation Polo]], in which the [[Indian Army]] defeated the Razakars and annexed Hyderabad, merging it with India, Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried under Indian laws on seditious activities and inciting communal violence. He was jailed from 1948 to 1957. He was released from prison only on an undertaking that he would migrate to Pakistan within forty-eight hours of his release.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Hate-speech-not-new-for-Owaisi-clan/articleshow/17963124.cms|title=Hate speech not new for Owaisi clan|website=The Times of India}}</ref> He agreed to migrate to [[Pakistan]] as a condition of his release from prison, where he died in obscurity in 1970. His family had been residing there since 1949. {{citation needed|date=July 2010}}

Kasim Rizvi was not in favor of cross border conflict and maintained that his goal was self-defense & the preservation of the Hyderabad State:<blockquote>"[I]f the Razakars attack the Indian territories they will not help the cause of the Hyderabad State nor its Muslims. Why should the Muslims of Hyderabad unnecessarily want to destroy themselves and others? For what purpose will Hyderabad indulge in such useless actions? It is the Indian Union, in contrast, which has every reason to attack Hyderabad."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|first=|title=Rethinking Majlis’ politics: Pre-1948 Muslim concerns in Hyderabad State|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019464617745929|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|volume=55|pages=Page 48}}</ref></blockquote>According to the Former Prime Minister [[Mir Laiq Ali|Mir Laikq Ali]] many ‘anti-social elements’ joined the Razakars & regretfully stated that with the expansion of the movement; Kasim Rizvi was no longer able to control the Razakars.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|first=|title=Rethinking Majlis’ politics: Pre-1948 Muslim concerns in Hyderabad State|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019464617745929|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|volume=55|pages=Page 48}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{citation|first=Lucien D.|last=Benichou|title=From Autocracy to Integration: Political Developments in Hyderabad State, 1938-1948 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Loiq3YrFy40C|year=2000|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-250-1847-6|ref={{sfnref|Benichou, From Autocracy to Integration|2000}}}}
*{{citation|first=Mohammed|last=Hyder|title=October Coup, A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad|publisher=Roli Books|year=2012 |isbn=978-8174368508|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdumBAAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnref|Hyder, October Coup|2012}}}}
*{{citation|last=Raghavan|first=Srinath|authorlink=Srinath Raghavan|title=War and Peace in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbtBJb1bsHUC&pg=PA69|year=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-00737-7|ref={{sfnref|Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India|2010}}}}

==Further reading==
*{{citation|last=Kamat|first=Manjiri N.|chapter=Border incidents, internal disorder and the ''nizam'''s claim for an independent Hyderabad|editor1=Waltraud Ernst|editor2=Biswamoy Pati|title=India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eKbW3ukh9oC&pg=PA212|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-11988-2|pages=212–224|ref={{sfnref|Kamat, Border incidents, internal disorder and the nizam's claim|2007}}}}
*{{citation|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|title=Patel, A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayZuAAAAMAAJ|year=1990 |publisher=Navajivan Pub. House|ref={{sfnref|Rajmohan Gandhi, Patel: A Life|1990}}}}
*{{webarchive|url=//web.archive.org/web/20030729181146/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/04/27/stories/2003042700081500.htm|date=29 July 2003|title="Holding them captive?"}} opinion in ''The Hindu'' 27 April 2003

{{DEFAULTSORT:Razvi, Qasim}}
[[Category:Military history of the princely states of India]]
[[Category:People from Hyderabad State]]
[[Category:History of Latur]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:Indian Muslims]]
[[Category:People extradited from India]]
[[Category:People from Latur]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Pakistan]]
[[Category:Muhajir people]]

Kasim Razvi - Revision history

UpdateBot at 09:06, 1 June 2022