By Pramod Mandade. Mandade is a Doctoral Research Scholar at IIT-Bombay. He has engaged in a long archival and ethnographic study of the event and aftermath of Police Action and related contemporary life in the Deccan region. recently published the first Marathi translation of the Sunderlal Report along with other materials in Marathi. His work has been published in Caravan, Newsminute and The Wire among others.
September 17th marks the day the Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad acceded to the Indian union. This took place following the Indian military operation code-named “Operation Polo” or what is often referred to as “Police Action.” For the Indian state, as Sardar Patel described it, the integration of the Hyderabad with India was a ‘bloodless revolution.’ Muslims, however, experienced it otherwise.
Following Police Action, Jawaharlal Nehru appointed a committee headed by Pandit Sunderlal to explore the ramifications of this event. The committee toured the entire state and carefully collected evidence and published a report. Due to its sensitive nature, this report was not made publicly available until 2013. The Sunderlal Committee report is a critically important document for understanding the scale and nature of violence against Muslims in the Deccan during the immediate aftermath of integration.
Indian Express, Tuesday September 14, 1948 Source: Indian Express
The Sunderlal report ‘conservatively’ estimated that approximately 27,000 to 40,000 Muslims were killed after India’s Police action. It also noted that Hyderabad’s Osmanabad district – which comprised today’s Dharashiv and Latur districts in Maharashtra – suffered the worst losses.
In May and June of the year 1951, a rehabilitation committee from Hyderabad State, including members like Fazlur Rehman and M. Narsing Rao, visited 47 villages in Osmanabad district. In the report, they estimated that of those 47 villages, there were approximately 2,500 widows. They further assessed that 10,000 women may have lost their husbands in the Osmanabad district during the short period of Police Action.
The violence against Muslims in the area began after Police Action and continued for a long period of time. As part of my doctoral work, I documented oral histories from this period. One particular retelling of an event caught my attention: Nehru’s 1952 visit to Osmanabad. The incident was notable as people reiterated that “normalcy began to return only after Nehru’s visit.” With this clue, I turned my attention to Nehru’s visit to understand how and why the tide turned.
A political cartoon from September 16, 1948 – one day before the end of Police Action Source: Author
Various archival sources inform us that, until the end of August 1952, Nehru consistently received several reports, appeals, and complaints about the local administration’s violence, discrimination, and communal behaviour.
In a letter to Maulana Azad written on 11 August 1952, Nehru expressed that due to frustration, Muslims of Hyderabad were “ drifting away from Congress in wrong directions” towards Communism and communalism. Concerned about the situation in Hyderabad, he dispatched Azad to visit Hyderabad State as early as possible. But in September 1952, in the light of the upcoming elections, both Azad and Nehru ended up visiting Hyderabad State together. They focused their attention on districts that were reported to be the most affected by violence during Police Action.
Their tour began with a public meeting in the city of Bidar on the 26th of September in 1952. TheTimes of India reported that Nehru urged people to “forget the certain unpleasant things that had happened in the wake of Police Action.” At the end of this meeting, garlands of Nehru and Azad were auctioned to raise money for the rehabilitation of victims.
The following day, Nehru went to Osmanabad while Azad left to tour the interior areas of Bidar district. It is this visit to Osmanabad that has etched itself into the collective memory of the Muslims of Marathwada – not as a tale of Nehru’s compassion but as a testament to the resilience of their widows. These women courageously halted the Prime Minister’s convoys in order to ensure he heard about the atrocities they had endured.
Nizam’s Hyderabad: Osmanabad is in today’s Maharashtra
It is noteworthy that one of the strongholds of the Arya Samaj was within the Osmanabad area. This Hindu reform organization was an active participant and instigator of anti-Muslim violence. There were also a large number of grievances against Congress activists in Hyderabad State. Many were accused of participating in the looting and destruction of Muslim homes. The urgency to conceal these acts was palpable.
Among those who resisted such communal attacks was Mohammed Ali Khan. He was a courageous activist from Osmanabad who had lost several family members during the Police Action. Despite his personal grief, he strove relentlessly to shed light on the massacre and devastation inflicted on Muslim lives.
In his autobiographical account Azad Hind ka Tohfa, Khan detailed the severe threats issued by local Congress leaders and warned activists not to meet or submit a memorandum detailing their conditions to Nehru. Their movements were meticulously monitored. The day before Nehru’s visit, their written memorandum was stolen. The activists, dedicated to rehabilitating the Muslim survivors, had anticipated obstacles. Yet every attempt they made to address the atrocities of Police Action was systematically thwarted.
The Times of India report, published on September 27, 1952, paints a picturesque image of Prime Minister Nehru’s journey through rural Osmanabad, reporting that “All villages along the 150-mile route gave a warm welcome to the prime minister. The villages were gaily decorated, and peasants, who had come on foot, on horses, and camels, waited on the roadside to see their leader.”
However, the report omits a significant and poignant reality: the thousands of widows and orphans, defying a pervasive fear of violence, who stood by the road as Nehru’s convoy passed. These individuals, victims of communal strife, interrupted the Prime Minister’s convoy at multiple places—Tugeri, Dalib, Yenegur, Omarga, Jalkot, Naldurg—in an effort to communicate their suffering and make him aware of the true gravity of their plight.
One such moment is immortalized in the story of Wajar Bi. A widow from the village of Dhoki, she courageously positioned herself in front of Nehru’s car and demanded that the Prime Minister come witness firsthand the devastation of their villages. Congress activists and security personnel attempted to remove her but she stood her ground. Nehru, compelled by her determination, stepped out of his vehicle. He followed Wajar Bi to see the half-burned and looted houses of local Muslims and hear about the community’s fear and suffering from her.
In a similar display of defiance and grief, around 500 widows gathered outside the official guest house in Osmanabad where Nehru was staying. Yaseen Bi, another widow, shared her own harrowing story. This deeply moved Nehru, who assured them that he would address their concerns.
As the Prime Minister proceeded to a public meeting in the city, his demeanor reflected the emotional weight of the stories he had heard. One of my respondents vividly recalled the moment:
“Before the speech, when Congress leaders were honoring Nehruji with garlands, he refused them in anger and asked, ‘Who gave you permission to harm people? What havoc have you generated here?’”
Nehru’s powerful gesture of rejecting these garlands became a mythic story among the Muslims of Osmanabad. His refusal was imbued with symbolic resonance – signifying to the Muslim populace that they would be treated with fairness and empathy. Simultaneously, it served as a stern rebuke to local Congress leaders and others who had acted with impunity.
In his speech that day, Nehru specifically addressed the plight of the Muslim widows. As reported by The Times of India, he described the killings of their husbands as “disgraceful and regrettable acts” and called upon the public to support the affected families as a form of “prayaschittam”—atonement.
Nehru’s meeting with the widows appeared to have left a strong imprint on him. We can find references to the situation in Osmanabad in his correspondence with Chief Ministers in the following month of October. We also see it in his interviews with the media. Reiterating their situation in a letter addressed to President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, dated 15th of October 1952, he remarks:
"These events were far more serious than most people had imagined. In Osmanabad and some other areas there are a large number of Muslim widows and children. There is practically no Muslim man left in these areas because they were all killed soon after Police Action. That event itself was rather horrible, but the consequences pursued us still and not much has been done yet, to help and rehabilitate these poor sufferers."
Following his visit, Nehru moved swiftly to honor his promise of assistance. He oversaw the drafting of a special rehabilitation plan aimed at supporting the widowed Muslim women of Osmanabad.
We know that Nehru was aware of the Sunderlal report and its findings. His correspondence with Padmaja Naidu also ascertains that he was not ignorant of the tragedy that had befallen Hyderabad. But it was the defiant confrontation of the widows of Osmanabad and their personal stories that moved him to take some action. It is also reflected in people’s accounts of when a sense of normalcy began to return to their daily lives.
By Pramod Mandade. Mandade is a Doctoral Research Scholar at IIT-Bombay. He has engaged in a long archival and ethnographic study of the event and aftermath of Police Action and related contemporary life in the Deccan region. recently published the first Marathi translation of the Sunderlal Report along with other materials in Marathi. His work has been published in Caravan, Newsminute and The Wire among others.
September 17th marks the day the Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad acceded to the Indian union. This took place following the Indian military operation code-named “Operation Polo” or what is often referred to as “Police Action.” For the Indian state, as Sardar Patel described it, the integration of the Hyderabad with India was a ‘bloodless revolution.’ Muslims, however, experienced it otherwise.
Following Police Action, Jawaharlal Nehru appointed a committee headed by Pandit Sunderlal to explore the ramifications of this event. The committee toured the entire state and carefully collected evidence and published a report. Due to its sensitive nature, this report was not made publicly available until 2013. The Sunderlal Committee report is a critically important document for understanding the scale and nature of violence against Muslims in the Deccan during the immediate aftermath of integration.
Source: Indian Express
The Sunderlal report ‘conservatively’ estimated that approximately 27,000 to 40,000 Muslims were killed after India’s Police action. It also noted that Hyderabad’s Osmanabad district – which comprised today’s Dharashiv and Latur districts in Maharashtra – suffered the worst losses.
In May and June of the year 1951, a rehabilitation committee from Hyderabad State, including members like Fazlur Rehman and M. Narsing Rao, visited 47 villages in Osmanabad district. In the report, they estimated that of those 47 villages, there were approximately 2,500 widows. They further assessed that 10,000 women may have lost their husbands in the Osmanabad district during the short period of Police Action.
The violence against Muslims in the area began after Police Action and continued for a long period of time. As part of my doctoral work, I documented oral histories from this period. One particular retelling of an event caught my attention: Nehru’s 1952 visit to Osmanabad. The incident was notable as people reiterated that “normalcy began to return only after Nehru’s visit.” With this clue, I turned my attention to Nehru’s visit to understand how and why the tide turned.
Source: Author
Various archival sources inform us that, until the end of August 1952, Nehru consistently received several reports, appeals, and complaints about the local administration’s violence, discrimination, and communal behaviour.
In a letter to Maulana Azad written on 11 August 1952, Nehru expressed that due to frustration, Muslims of Hyderabad were “ drifting away from Congress in wrong directions” towards Communism and communalism. Concerned about the situation in Hyderabad, he dispatched Azad to visit Hyderabad State as early as possible. But in September 1952, in the light of the upcoming elections, both Azad and Nehru ended up visiting Hyderabad State together. They focused their attention on districts that were reported to be the most affected by violence during Police Action.
Their tour began with a public meeting in the city of Bidar on the 26th of September in 1952. The Times of India reported that Nehru urged people to “forget the certain unpleasant things that had happened in the wake of Police Action.” At the end of this meeting, garlands of Nehru and Azad were auctioned to raise money for the rehabilitation of victims.
The following day, Nehru went to Osmanabad while Azad left to tour the interior areas of Bidar district. It is this visit to Osmanabad that has etched itself into the collective memory of the Muslims of Marathwada – not as a tale of Nehru’s compassion but as a testament to the resilience of their widows. These women courageously halted the Prime Minister’s convoys in order to ensure he heard about the atrocities they had endured.
It is noteworthy that one of the strongholds of the Arya Samaj was within the Osmanabad area. This Hindu reform organization was an active participant and instigator of anti-Muslim violence. There were also a large number of grievances against Congress activists in Hyderabad State. Many were accused of participating in the looting and destruction of Muslim homes. The urgency to conceal these acts was palpable.
Among those who resisted such communal attacks was Mohammed Ali Khan. He was a courageous activist from Osmanabad who had lost several family members during the Police Action. Despite his personal grief, he strove relentlessly to shed light on the massacre and devastation inflicted on Muslim lives.
In his autobiographical account Azad Hind ka Tohfa, Khan detailed the severe threats issued by local Congress leaders and warned activists not to meet or submit a memorandum detailing their conditions to Nehru. Their movements were meticulously monitored. The day before Nehru’s visit, their written memorandum was stolen. The activists, dedicated to rehabilitating the Muslim survivors, had anticipated obstacles. Yet every attempt they made to address the atrocities of Police Action was systematically thwarted.
The Times of India report, published on September 27, 1952, paints a picturesque image of Prime Minister Nehru’s journey through rural Osmanabad, reporting that “All villages along the 150-mile route gave a warm welcome to the prime minister. The villages were gaily decorated, and peasants, who had come on foot, on horses, and camels, waited on the roadside to see their leader.”
However, the report omits a significant and poignant reality: the thousands of widows and orphans, defying a pervasive fear of violence, who stood by the road as Nehru’s convoy passed. These individuals, victims of communal strife, interrupted the Prime Minister’s convoy at multiple places—Tugeri, Dalib, Yenegur, Omarga, Jalkot, Naldurg—in an effort to communicate their suffering and make him aware of the true gravity of their plight.
One such moment is immortalized in the story of Wajar Bi. A widow from the village of Dhoki, she courageously positioned herself in front of Nehru’s car and demanded that the Prime Minister come witness firsthand the devastation of their villages. Congress activists and security personnel attempted to remove her but she stood her ground. Nehru, compelled by her determination, stepped out of his vehicle. He followed Wajar Bi to see the half-burned and looted houses of local Muslims and hear about the community’s fear and suffering from her.
In a similar display of defiance and grief, around 500 widows gathered outside the official guest house in Osmanabad where Nehru was staying. Yaseen Bi, another widow, shared her own harrowing story. This deeply moved Nehru, who assured them that he would address their concerns.
As the Prime Minister proceeded to a public meeting in the city, his demeanor reflected the emotional weight of the stories he had heard. One of my respondents vividly recalled the moment:
Nehru’s powerful gesture of rejecting these garlands became a mythic story among the Muslims of Osmanabad. His refusal was imbued with symbolic resonance – signifying to the Muslim populace that they would be treated with fairness and empathy. Simultaneously, it served as a stern rebuke to local Congress leaders and others who had acted with impunity.
In his speech that day, Nehru specifically addressed the plight of the Muslim widows. As reported by The Times of India, he described the killings of their husbands as “disgraceful and regrettable acts” and called upon the public to support the affected families as a form of “prayaschittam”—atonement.
Nehru’s meeting with the widows appeared to have left a strong imprint on him. We can find references to the situation in Osmanabad in his correspondence with Chief Ministers in the following month of October. We also see it in his interviews with the media. Reiterating their situation in a letter addressed to President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, dated 15th of October 1952, he remarks:
Following his visit, Nehru moved swiftly to honor his promise of assistance. He oversaw the drafting of a special rehabilitation plan aimed at supporting the widowed Muslim women of Osmanabad.
We know that Nehru was aware of the Sunderlal report and its findings. His correspondence with Padmaja Naidu also ascertains that he was not ignorant of the tragedy that had befallen Hyderabad. But it was the defiant confrontation of the widows of Osmanabad and their personal stories that moved him to take some action. It is also reflected in people’s accounts of when a sense of normalcy began to return to their daily lives.
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