Police Action a ‘blind spot’: Book

A new book “Hyderabad 1948 — an avoidable invasion” opines that Operation Polo, more commonly known as the Police Action, was a “blind spot in the post partition history of India.”

Written by Syed Ali Hashmi, the book narrates the sequence of events that led to Police Action and the drama behind it.

“While Pakistan launched an infiltration bid in Kashmir, India began a full-blown military invasion of Hyderabad State. The Indian Army’s atrocities against Muslim residents were documented by the Sunderlal Committee in 1948, but its report was shelved and remains classified to this day,” says Mr Hashmi.

His book is recapitulation of the tragic events that followed Police Action.

“It is a saga of the destruction of the distinct culture of Hyderabad. The propaganda tactics adopted by the Indian State before, during and after Police Action exposes the treacherous role played by persons holding key positions in the Nizam’s own State,” the author alleges.

Mr Hashmi, who did his studies in Hyderabad and United States, served as librarian in various institutions in India, Iraq and US.

The book, he says, is the narration of the events experienced by the author as a child in 1948, eyewitness accounts and the case in UN Security Council that “died its own death.”

The author writes that Sarojini Naidu, a nationalist leader and one of the foremost Freedom Fighters, could not hold back her tears when she heard of the Nizam surrendering Hyderabad to the Indian Union.

Mr Hasmi quotes Sarojini Naidu saying: “Today my country has lost her freedom. As a Hyderabadi, I mourn the defeat of my country.”

Referring to the case in UN, he said Government of India continued with the Nizam as Raj Pramukh for eight years to show to the world it was no invasion. “A dominion was defeated by the mother of democracies called the UN,” he writes.