Hyderabad Jo Kal Tha

(Eminent writer, columnist & journalist Mr. Tajuddin Khan (M T Khan) passed away on August 20, 2014 by cardiac arrest. We are giving the excerpts of his recent interview:

The old bridge (Purana Pul) now connects two areas of the city but there was a time when it was constructed to unite two lovers i.e. Quli Qutubshah & Bhagmati and from the time immemorial, this bridge has united many a people and strengthened the relations. ‘Hyderabad Jo Kal Tha’ is a series of writings by inviting those people who had seen the glory of the city with their own eyes and today, our guest was Mr. M T Khan (Mohd. Tajuddin Khan) who was associated with left movement, worked as teacher, journalist, columnist and writer.

In fact, right from the days when he was a student, he was jailed many times. Presenting his brief introduction, Mr. Khan said that his ancestors were from Afghanistan. His paternal grandfather had travelled to Hyderabad in search of livelihood and settled near Purana Pul.

After securing a job at Unani Dawakhana, he never went back to Afghanistan and instead got married with a lady who hailed from Purana Pul area. When we asked him about his birthdate, he said that he didn’t remember the exact date and year but it might be 1934-35. His preliminary education was done in Shahgunj High School. Completed his matriculation from City College and did his intermediate from Vivek Vardhini College at Jambagh.

Mr. Khan was very happy by the creation of Telangana state. Mr. Khan was a torch-bearer of communist ideology. He further said that Purana Pul and Hussaini Alam are two oldest localities of Hyderabad. Yakutpura came into being after the name of a slave called Yakut.

Similarly, Moosa bowli is also the oldest locality. He described Nizam VII as the benevolent of the people who used to call Hindus and Muslims his two eyes. He said that he is an eyewitness of Hindu-Muslim unity in those days. M T Khan became emotional when he said that his real mother died when he was an infant and a Hindu Harijan shepherd mother came to his rescue.

What other example could be there of Hindu-Muslim unity than this? Hindus and Muslims used to respect each other’s religion and used to participate in the festivals of each other. Nag Panchami was the festival which was used to be celebrated with gaiety and a mammoth fair (mela) was also organized in those days in Hyderabad.

There was no existence of communalism. M T Khan recalled an incident occurred in Dhoolpet where two Muslims were killed in 1938 turning the entire area into a tense locality. People feared that Hindu-Muslim communal riots would break out.

In fact, it was the handi work Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha activists but it was the able leadership of Nawab Bahadur Jung and the best administration of Nizam that controlled the situation and after that no communal riots occurred till the police action.

As Hyderabad the cauldron of social movements influenced by anti-Nizam, anti-feudal and anti-colonial struggles of the day, he naturally came into contact with the vibrant communist movement in his youth. He said that when communist movement gained momentum, government also became alert and started using its machinery to ‘undo’ it. In those days, various communist leaders to avoid government’s wrath, went underground including Raj Bahadur Goud and Jawad Rizvi who were on the top of the list. Even Makhdoom Mohiuddin had to spend some time of his life underground.

Mr. Khan clarified that many people don’t know about this that two women communist leaders also spent some period of their life underground and they were Brij Rani and Ram Pyari. Later, they married Raj Bahadur Goud and Jawad Rizvi respectively.

M T Khan said that he worked as a deskman in Endau group’s defunct English daily News time for a long time and the most popular Urdu daily ‘Siasat’.

On Police Action Tragedy, Mr. Khan said that it can be said that before police action, the government became a hostage of Passim Rive and his like-minded followers. He was not in favor of confederation of Hyderabad with India which could be termed as the weakness of his political vision. Ultimately, a time had come when Hindus and Muslims became suspicious of each other.

Indian army invaded from Osmanabad, Nanded and Vijayawada and the army on its way to Hyderabad, got the full co-operation of Hindu Mahasabhais and Congress leaders of the state and the Hindus. This is how the Muslim population, areas and localities were ruined and Indian army reached Secunderabad. That was the sun set of the Nizam dynasty forever.