As a Princely State, Hyderabad was the largest in population among over 560 tributary states under British paramountcy in colonial India. This book is a collection of profiles and sketches of some of the most important and influential people from the erstwhile Hyderabad State during the first half of the 20th century, which marked the last decades of its existence as a distinct entity under the British Raj. It features profiles of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Seventh Nizam; Mir Laik Ali, the last Prime Minister of Hyderabad; Kasim Razvi; some of the Nizam's administrators and diplomats; as well as Sir Walter Monckton, the Nizam's British Constitutional Advisor; amongst others. Unfolding the pages of history, the text gives an insight into the administration and affairs of Hyderabad during this time, through an examination of the lives of the people closely associated with it.
A unique contribution to the literature on modern Indian and colonial history, this book will be indispensable for students and researchers of history, modern Indian history, colonialism, imperial history, biography, and South Asia studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in the history of Hyderabad.
About the Author: Narendra Chapalgaonkar, born in Beed, Maharashtra, India in 1938, received his school education at Beed, and college and university education at Amaravati and Aurangabad. He taught at colleges in Latur and Aurangabad for a few years before joining the Bar. He practiced at Beed, Aurangabad and Mumbai for over 27 years. He was elevated as a judge of the Bombay High Court in January 1990 and retired in April 1999. He has written a number of books in Marathi, including a comprehensive biography of Swami Ramananda Teertha, one of the foremost leaders of the Hyderabad liberation struggle; a critical review of the Indian Constitution and its working during its first fifty years; and an account of the Hyderabad liberation struggle. He has, over the years, been associated with various educational, cultural and literary institutions and organizations in various capacities. He has also been Ford Professor in Public Law at the ILS Law College, Pune, as well as Professor Emeritus in the Social Sciences at the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik.
Sharadchandra Panse, born in Pune in 1955, graduated in Political Science from Fergusson College, Pune, India and went on to study Law. He joined the State Bank of India (SBI) as a Probationary Officer in 1979. After serving in SBI for more than 22 years, he voluntarily retired in 2001 and has been a freelance translator and editor since. He can translate from and into Marathi, English and Hindi. He has completed four Marathi-English translation projects. He has edited the typescripts of five books and has also done other miscellaneous editing, as well as some occasional translations.
