TELANGANA: THE NIZAM’S JEWELS
Why the Nizam of Hyderabad’s £35 million fortune is giving his descendants sleepless nights
The battle over the £35 million (approximately Rs 319 crore) legacy of the last Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, is far from over. Some 120 descendants of the Nizam—his grandchildren and their offspring—are ready to mount a legal challenge if denied their due share in the money parked in a London bank for over seven decades.
In a ruling favouring India and the Nizam’s descendants, a UK court, on October 2, rejected Pakistan’s claim to the funds. Some reports suggest the money will go to two of the Nizam’s grandsons, who had joined hands with the Indian government in the decades-old legal battle against Pakistan—prince Mukarram Jah, 86, and his younger brother prince Muffakham Jah, 80. However, other descendants, too, claim to be rightful beneficiaries. “The family had long awaited this judgment, and we hope the funds lying in National Westminster Bank will be distributed among the legal heirs without further legal wrangling,” says Najaf Ali Khan, a grandson of the Nizam.
Some other claimants say they were party to a confidential settlement reached last year between the Indian government and the Nizam’s estate.
The UK court case relates to the transfer of £1,007,940 and nine shillings (now worth £35 million) by Moin Nawaz Jung, the Nizam’s envoy and foreign minister, to the account of the Pakistan high commissioner in London in September
DISPUTE OVER LEGACY Osman Ali Khan
1948, at a time the Indian army was advancing towards Hyderabad. The bank processed the transfer on September 20, 1948. By then, the Nizam’s forces had surrendered to Maj. Gen. J.N. Chaudhuri of the Indian army.
Within days of the surrender, the Nizam asked the National Westminster Bank to transfer the money back to his account even as Pakistan staked its claim, contending that the Nizam had transferred the funds as a gift or as a payment for a shipment of arms. After the Nizam’s death in 1967, the legal tangle got knottier, inviting the intervention of the Indian government, as in other matters relating to the Nizam’s fortunes, including his famous jewels. What they could receive now, out of the £35 million fortune, would in all probability be much higher than what they got 24 years ago when the Nizam’s jewels were auctioned.
However, it is unclear how the Nizam’s funds will be divided. Of his 34 children, the Nizam is survived by only one daughter. While 10 sons and daughters did not have children, the Nizam had 104 grandchildren, some of whom have passed away. About 400 members of the next two generations are settled in India or abroad. “Nowhere is it written that only two grandsons are entitled to these funds. Had that been the case, as is being claimed, why were they sitting silent until 2013? We will go to court if it is not resolved amicably,” says Najaf Ali Khan.
There are other dimensions to the vexed question, such as whether individuals can inherit what arguably belongs to Hyderabad and India. Adds advocate Harish Salve, who represented India in the UK court: “Historians will be interested in Pakistan publicly acknowledging that it was supplying arms—whether to the Nizam’s army or the Razakar militia, I don’t know.”