Kasim Razvi

Syed Muhammad Qasim Razvi
Razvi during Operation Polo
Born 1902
Lucknow, United Provinces Later settled in Latur, Hyderabad state [1][2]
Died 15 January 1970
Karachi, Pakistan at seventh Day Hospital Karachi
Resting place Papoosh Nagar graveyard, Karachi
Alma mater Aligarh Muslim University
Occupation Lawyer, politician
Children Sarwar Sultana, Syed Ahmed Kazim Razvi, Syed Ahmed Asif Razvi, Syed Ahmed Arif Razvi, Zakia, Fouzia, Razia, Tayyaba, Syed Ahmed Nasir Razvi, Syed Ahmed Farooq Razvi
Parent(s) Syed Ahmad Khan Razvi

Syed Kasim Razvi also Qasim Razvi was the president of the Islamist Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party in the princely state of Hyderabad from December 1946 till the State's annexation to India in 1948.[3] Then he settled down as a lawyer in Latur. He was also lawyer in Latur's court. He was also the founder of the extremist Razakar militia which terrorised Hindus in the State and held the levers of power with the Nizam of Hyderabad, blocking the possibilities of his accommodation with the Union of India.[4] 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."[5][6]

Early life and career

Kasim Razvi was born in United Provinces[1][2] 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.[7]

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.[7]

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.[7] 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.[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 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 poiont on, Razvi called the shots in Hyderabad politics.[5]

Leadership of Ittehad

The Razakars were Muslim separatists who advocated the continuation of Nizam's rule and convincing the Nizam to accede to Pakistan . After accession to Pakistan proved impossible owing to the Hindu-majority population and 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 was one of the founders of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a political party intended for the uplift of Muslims. He is quoted to have said "Death with the sword in hand, is always preferable to execution by a mere stroke of the pen", prompting the Indian government to call him the "Nizam's Frankenstein monster".[8] P. V. Kate characterizes him as a religious fanatic who "insisted on the right of Muslims to enslave the Hindu".[9] He was also implicated in the murder of patriotic Muslims such as Shoebullah Khan who condemned Razvi's Razakars and advocated merger with India.[10] Razvi launched criminal attacks on the Hindu population, leading to the Police Action by India.[9]

After Operation Polo, in which the Indian Army defeated the Razakars and annexed Hyderabad into 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 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.

References

  1. 1 2 Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India 2010, p. 69.
  2. 1 2 Syed Qasim Husain Rizvi, Geni database, 20 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "This day, that year: How Hyderabad became a part of the union of India".
  4. ↑ "Telangana polls: BJP borrows from Hyderabad history to recast Modi as Vallabhbhai Patel, paints KCR as 'new Nizam'".
  5. 1 2 3 Benichou, From Autocracy to Integration 2000, Chapter 5.
  6. ↑ Ajaz Ashraf (23 November 2014). "Hidden history of the Owaisis: What MIM doesn't want you to know". Firstpost. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 Hyder, October Coup 2012, Chapter 2: Qasim Rizvi.
  8. ↑ Robert Lubar "Hyderabad: The Holdout" Time 30 August 1948
  9. 1 2 Kate, P. V., Marathwada Under the Nizams, 1724-1948, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1987, p.75.
  10. ↑ Rao, P.R., History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: From the Earliest Times to 1991, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2012. p.284

Bibliography

  • Benichou, Lucien D. (2000), From Autocracy to Integration: Political Developments in Hyderabad State, 1938-1948, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 978-81-250-1847-6
  • Hyder, Mohammed (2012), October Coup, A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad, Roli Books, ISBN 8174368507
  • Raghavan, Srinath (2010), War and Peace in Modern India, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-00737-7

Further reading

  • Kamat, Manjiri N. (2007), "Border incidents, internal disorder and the nizam's claim for an independent Hyderabad", in Waltraud Ernst; Biswamoy Pati, India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism, Routledge, pp. 212–224, ISBN 978-1-134-11988-2
  • Gandhi, Rajmohan (1990), Patel, A Life, Navajivan Pub. House
  • "Holding them captive?" at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 July 2003) opinion in The Hindu 27 April 2003

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