Why was this dark chapter of history kept hidden? Teaser of Razakar shows spine-chilling tale of Hyderabad genocide against Hindus
Razakars were a private army of ( fanaticized) Muslims raised by one Kasim Razvi, a smalltime lawyer from Latur, who has taken over the Ittehad-ul-Muslameen which was founded and sworn to keep the Nizams dominions as an independent, sovereign Islamic kingdom after the lapse of Britain’s paramountcy on 15 Aug 1947.
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Bringing the spine-chilling hidden truth of the Hyderabad genocide against Hindus under Nizam’s rule before the Indian Army came to intervene, the makers of the movie have released the teaser of the upcoming Telugu film Razakar.
The film is a period drama from the time when Hyderabad was yet to join India post-independence. The movie will showcase the atrocities Hindus faced at the hands of Nizam rulers and their paramilitary forces.
Bobby Simha and Vedika are in the lead roles in the film produced by Gudur Narayana Reddy under the Samarveer Creations banner, and Yata Satyanarayana is the film’s director. Suddala Ashok Teja has written the songs for the movie, and Bheems Ceciroleo is the music director. The film is expected to release in 2024.
About Hyderabad genocide
In September and October 1948, soon after independence from the British Empire, thousands of people were brutally slaughtered in central India, in the State of Hyderabad, by Razakars- the paramilitary volunteer force of the Muslim nationalist Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party.
Formed in 1938 by the MIM leader Bahadur Yar Jung, they expanded considerably during the leadership of Qasim Razvi around the time of Indian independence. They were deployed for the cause of maintaining Muslim rule in Hyderabad and resisting integration into India.
In 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into 2 countries- India and Pakistan, with India meant for Hindus and Pakistan for Muslims. The British gave the remaining princely states a choice to merge with either unions or stay independent. One of the largest princely states within the Indian union was Hyderabad, a Hindu-majority region ruled by a Muslim Nizam.
The Nizam did not initially agree to accession to the Indian Union and displayed a preference to remain independent. After the Indian government failed to persuade the Nizam to sign the Instrument of Accession, the Nizam finally entered into a "standstill agreement" with India on November 29, 1947 to maintain status quo and not accede to Pakistan instead. Hyderabad state had been steadily becoming more theocratic since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1926, Mahmud Nawazkhan, a retired Hyderabad official, founded the Majlis-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen also known as Ittehad or MIM in 1926. "Its objectives were to unite the Muslims in the State in support of Nizam and to reduce the Hindu majority by large-scale conversion to Islam".
The MIM became a powerful communal organization, with the principal focus to marginalize the political aspirations of Hindus and moderate Muslims. MIM "had its storm troopers in the Razakars who were headed by Kasim Razvi, a fanatical Muslim educated at Aligarh University who claimed Hyderabad was a Muslim state and that Muslim supremacy was based upon the right of conquest. This in a province where only 14% of the population was Muslim. The Razakars demanded special powers from the Nizam, which they started to misuse and the helpless Nizam had to abide by their dictates. Qasim Rizvi and the Razakars had the additional agenda to persuade the Nizam to accede to Pakistan, instead of remaining independent of both India and Pakistan.
The Razakars, after getting the green signal from the Nizam, started an ethnic genocide of Hindus in Rural Telangana (which is predominantly Hindu). The Razakars were committed to mass conversions of Hindus to Islam in an attempt to make Hyderabad a Muslim majority province. The Razakars went village-to-village and mass-murdered, raped and kidnapped several Hindu villagers.
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