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LIFE’S YESTERDAYS 


4 2 i. I M i ' > 1" " 


ZAHIR AHMED 


They he entombed, those bngki-ic ing'd visions all 
A ; .v:’ steeps the splendour of hfl’s vestsndv's ' 


NIZAMAT JUNG 



THACKER & CO., LTD., BOMBAY 



LIFE’S YESTERDAYS 


GLIMPSES OF SIR NIZAMAT JUNG AND HIS TIMES 


BY 

ZAHIR AHMED 


“ They lie entombed, those bright-wing’d visions all 
Where sleeps the splendour of life’s yesterdays ” 

NIZAMAT JUNG 



O 



THACKER & CO., LTD., 


BOMBAY 


first published 

1945 



Copyright Reserved 


* 


Published by 

C. MURPHY for THACKER & Co., Ltd. 
Rampart Row, Bombay 


Printed at the Government Central Press 
Hyderabad-Deccan 



To 


The youth of today and tomorrow 
in the hope that they will he inspired 
hy the faith } courage and wisdom of 
yesterday. 




Life is with threatening dangers fraught, 
The path of Duty's rugged, steep : 

Above, the starry realm of hope ; 

Below, the dark and stormy deep ! 

Who toils with patience up the height 
With soul untired, undaunted will, — 

With Faith to hold his trembling hand, 
With Truth to guard his footsteps still 

What though with faltering steps he move, 
He needs must reach the promised goal 
Where Honour binds the victor’s brow 
And Virtue crowns the hero’s soul. 

But he who loiters by the way, 

Attracted by some foolish toy, 

Or wearied by the vain pursuit 
Of some fond whim, some fickle joy — 

Not his the nerve nor will to brave 
Unmoved the fitful gales that blow ; 

His tottering footsteps leave their hold— 
He’s hurled into the gulf below I 


Nizamat Jung 




CONTENTS 


Page 


Foreword by Sarojini Naidu 
Preface. 


Xl-Xll 

xiii-xv 


PART I 

Chapter I.— Life’s Stages 


Early Years 
In Office 

In Retirement .. 


1-16 

X7-3 2 

33-41 


Chapter II.— Glimpses of Personality 


The Haj and its Lesson 
Personality and Outlook 
Poetry and Philosophy 
Thoughts, Opinions and Maxims .. 
An Attempt at Evaluation 

PART II 


42-50 

51-73 

74-100 

101-1x5 

116-120 


Chapter III.—Impressions of the Old Regime 


His Highness the late Nizam and the old Hyderabad 
Sir Salar Jung I and the men who worked under 
him. • • 

Sir Salar Jung II 

Sir Asman Jah . . *• 

Sir Viqar-ul-Umar a • • 

Sir Khurshid Jah 

Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad .. 

Nawab Fakhr-ul-Mulk •• f 

Nawab Shihab Jung _ *~ 

Rajas Rai Rayan and Sheoraj 
Sir Amin Jung ... •• 


121-146 

146-159 

159-165 

165- 166 

166- 170 
170-172 
173-181 
181-183 
183-185 
185-189 
189-191 


vii 


viii 


Sir Afsar-ul-Mulk (Mirza Mohd. Ali Baig) 

Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk 
Major Neville 
Major Gough 
Sir George Casson Walker 
Mr. A. J. Dunlop . 

Mr. A. C. Hankin . 

PART III 

Chapter -IV.—Impressions of the New Regime and 
Colleagues of the Council 

The New Regime 
Sir Ali Imam 
Sir Faridoon Mulk 
Sir Reginald Glancy 
Nawab Wali-ud-Dowlah 
Nawab Tilawat Jung 
Nawab Sir Aqeel Jung 
Raj a Fateh Nawazwant 
Mr. Abdulla Yusuf Ali 
Sir Richard Chenevix Trench 
Sir Akbar Hydari 

PART IV 


Chapter V.— Thoughts on Men and Matters 


Sir Ross Masood 

. 246-249 

Mohammed Bahadur Khan 

• 249-252 

Past and Present . 

. 252-256 

Mulkis and non-Mulkies 

. 256-259 

Intrigue and Influence 

, 259-263 

Chapter VI.—As Others see him 

As Others see him 

264-287 


.. 213-215 
.. 215-222 
.. 223-227 
.. 227-230 
.. 230-232 
.. 232-233 
•• 233-234 
.. 234-235 
•• 235-237 
•• 237-239 
.. 239-245 


Page. 
.. 191-194 
.. 194-201 
.. 201-202 
.. 202-203 
.. 203-207 
.. 207-209 
.. 209-212 






LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing page . 

1. Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung Bahadur •• X1 

2. Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed—(as a Law 

Graduate)—1891 • • • • 2 

3. Sir Nizamat Jung—1919-1929 •• 22 

4. Hillfort • • ■ • 



NAWAB SIR NIZAMAT JUNG BAHADUR 

Kt., C.I.E., O.B.E., M.A., LL.B. (Cantab.), Bar.-at-Law 



FOREWORD 


Hyderabad has a way of setting the seal of her special 
tion on all her sons and daughters, investing them, irrespective off 
their communities and beliefs, with a subtle kinship whose 
claims have seldom been denied. 

It is, perhaps therefore, that Mr. Zahir Ahmed has invited 
me, afellow-Hyderabadi , to write a brief foreword to his excellent 
little, biographical study of Nawdb Sir Nizamat Jung, un¬ 
questionably one of the most eminent among the elder citizens 
and servants of the State. I am happy to be given this oppor¬ 
tunity of offering- a just meed of praise to this old and valued 
friend, this ■ gift ed man of wide intel lectual attainmen ts and 
distinguished personality whom we esteem so highly for his 
proud integrity and inde pendence of charact er, this brave and 
pious devotee of Islam whom we so deeply honour today for his 
allegiance to the lofty spiritual ideals which have inspired him, 
in the late autumn of Ms years, to choose a life of voluntary 
poverty, in a quiet ecstas y of r enu nciation , yielding up all 
wordly possessio ns for the benefit of the needy and the destitute 
in Medina, holy City, beloved of the Prophet Muhammad. 

Deftly and wisely has the author designed his own narrative 
to serve as an effective background for the tapestry woven by 
Sir Nizamat Jung himself out of intimate recollections of his 
early life, his impressions of men and events, at home and 
abroad, the incidents and experiences of his long and varied 
official career, his intellectual preferences and pastimes, his 
personal approach to human problems awaiting a final solution, 
his personal reactions and adjustments to the changing spirit of 
the times. 

Of especial interest are his nostalgic memories of an older 
Hyderabad, scarcely touched by modern influences, which still 
| retained the glamour and grace, the colour and splendour of a 
! bygone age: the Hyderabad of Mir Mahboob Ali Khan whose 
name is enshrined in the hearts of his people, whose fame is 


XI 



he » grimly ^ ^ ^ ^ 

«*•**"**« u ” r ‘”‘ M “ 

tchch has a <• hiograp hy For who better than Sir Nizamat 
tteframexor W' ^ W ^ ^ mom, a«4 

JUn iZ dul » to »/ 6i “ d/ " 

< ZZZmot. equally at lame in the eeOdnmt of a 
ZZZ mZZ in the Ige, ~M <***> *** •*% 

romantic 

tfono/L true destiny, a humble and mystic 

^ a, whose benevolent message of brotherhood 

£*• **, **» ^ » 

a-wii of S ir Nizamat Jung, journeyed from 

“ Persia’s Magian shrines to Gothic Spam 
From Memphian deserts to Byzantium old.’ 


Myderdhad-Deccan 


SAROJINI NAIDXJ . 




PREFACE 


I N attempting to present a short biographical sketch of 
Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung, one of the most eminent 
sons of Hyderabad, my object is not to write an account 
of the career of an official who, in the service of His Exalted 
Highness the Nizam, rose quickly and rose high but to write 
the life-story of a great gentleman who to me is the symbol 
of all that was best in the generation that has almost 
disappeared, a symbol too, of great and worthy traditions 
which seem only to belong to <s life's yesterdays. ” A man 
of extraordinarily wide cult ure and refinement ,„_jLScholar 
and a poet of rare distinction, Sir Nizamat Jung’s qualities 
of head and heart, are almost unknown outside of a very / 
limited circle ; and this is because he deliberately avoided 
the limelight of n ublicity and kept himself in, what I may 
call, splendid isolation. 

I had been intending for some years past to write an ac¬ 
count of the life of Nizamat Jung—in the words of Boswell—■ 

14 Not only to relate all the most important events of his life 
in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote 
and said and thought; by which mankind are enabled, as it 
were, to see him live.” I wanted to portray the character and 
personality of a man who so deeply impressed all those who 
came in contact with him. But official preoccupations 
always prevented me from undertaking this work. It was 
only two years ago that I wrote to Nizamat Jung asking him 
to be good enough to let me have some appropriate material 
helpful in writing a sketch of him such as might bring out 
what he had felt, thought and written during his long years 
of inward peace. In the course of my letter, I said :— 

“ I wish to bring out that side of your life, which shall 
stimulate the mind of the younger generation to purity 
of thought and action and I want the account to be inter¬ 
esting to those who follow. A few striking details 

xiii 



XIV 


about Hyderabad politics may also be brought m inci¬ 
dentally • but I want my readers chiefly to know you as 
a man, and how you were, and still are, a personality above 
all the pettiness of our times.” 

His reply was characteristic. “ I feel,” he said, “ almost 
persuaded by your friendly advice to sit for my portrait, not 
because I wish to hold myself up to admiration, but _ to 
retrace the path along which I have travelled in life and live 
over again those incidents and events which have guided my 
course. I may thus be able to help you in what you have so 
chivalrously undertaken out of your regard for Truth. 
I have been groping in life to find myself and have been 
following the light within me and the light reflected from 
past ages. A man of this type is not much like a hero in 
official uniform. If you wish to find me and I think you 
have already done so to some extent—it must be by means 
of personal impressions. These are not deliberately collected 
but silently received by minds open to them by force of some 
hidden affinity. You will also find useful material in my 
friends’ letters. And as for my own opinions and beliefs 
and the tendencies of my intellectual and moral nature, you 
will find enough in my writings to serve as specimens.” 

Later, he kindly placed at my disposal a large number of 
letters which he had received from his English friends in the 
course of thirty years and more, and his own writings in 
prose and verse. And to this he added—what was still more 
valuable for my purpose—extracts from his recollections and 
notes containing observations and opinions on various 
matters. Thus I found encouragement in my hope to 
do some justice to the pleasant task I had undertaken. 
He reminded me that ” memoirs posthumously published 
are sometimes liable to suspicion—especially if they contain 
dubious allegations about people who cannot refute them. 
Whatever you write about me must be nothing but the 
truth, however uncomplimentary to me.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung has been known as a distinguished 
official, but, setting aside the official aspect, I wish to present 



XV 


him, from my own recollections and from the impressions 
formed by others and the glimpses afforded by their letters. 
And these again have to be supplemented by extracts from 
his own writings, from which we can get some notion of 
his ideas, ideals and beliefs. I use the word beliefs advisedly 
because I know him to be a man of deep convictions who 
has carried his principles into practice in all the affairs of 
life. The best proof of this is that he himself offered to 
lay down the reins of his office once he reached the official 
age of retirement, when a host of others amongst us, even less 
favourably placed, would have desperately struggled to cling 
to power. For him * the post of honour is a private station.' 

In the following pages an attempt has been made to raise 
before the mind's eye a picture of Sir Nizamat Jung as he 
appears to me. It is possible that others better qualified 
than I, would have made the picture more realistic. But 
this much is clear to me that no one would have missed 
all those gifts and qualities of his which once impelled an 
English friend to pay an affectionate tribute to him in spon¬ 
taneous verse and look upon him as a star, aloof and calm, 
gleaming on high in lonely splendour. 

“ And from afar 

Lost melodies come wafted from old days 
Long past but not forgotten : see, a haze 
Of rose-red and the horizon veils a star— 

One star in lonely splendour gleams on high 
Aloof and calm, 

And when our toil is done, 

When to eternity we reach through time 
May joy be ours beyond the stars and sun." 

The great lesson, which the life of Sir Nizamat Jung 
offers to everyone of us at the present day is that it is poss¬ 
ible for a man to pursue higher concerns of life while engaged 
in everyday affairs and to seek the Eternal even in the 
transitory. 

Civil Service House, ZAHIR AHMED 

Hyderab ad-D ecc an 
October 1945. 



PART ONE 

Chapter I.— Life’s Stages V,, 
EARLY YEARS 


M OULVI Niz amuddin Ahmed (Nawab Sir 
Nizamat Jung Bahadur), second son of 
Moulvi Shaikh Ahmed Hussain (Nawab 
Rifat Yar Jung Bahadur), was born at Hyderabad 
on the 22nd of April, 1871. He received his early 
education at home and then attended the Madrasa- 
i-Aizza founded by his father under the patronage 
of Sir Salar Jung I in the seventies of the last 
century. 

He appeared for the Madras University Matri¬ 
culation Examination in 1884, proceeded to 
England in the Jubilee year, 1887, entered Trinity 
College, Cambridge, in 1888, took the degrees of 
B.A. and LL.B. in 1891, at the age of 21 and was 
called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1895 
at the age of 24. 

He is said to be descended from Hazrat Abu 
Bakr Siddiq, the first Khalif, through Shaikh 
Shahabuddin Suhrawardy, the great Muslim Saint 
of Baghdad. I am indebted for his genealogical 
chart to a book written by my uncle, the late 
Khan Bahadur Shams-ul-Ulama, Nawab Aziz Jung 
Bahadur. According to him, the family tree 
records such prominent names as Qazi Hamiduddin 
Nagori, Shaikh Kamal, Shaikh Aman, Shamon 
Pasha and Haji Abdul Latif whose mother had 
nursed the Emperor Aurangzeb. 


2 


Sir Nizamat Jung's comment on such things 
is worth quoting. " It is not very 1 “ 
sinners to be descended from saints ; but the act 
l of direct descent is not so easy to prove. Enou b 
for me if I can feel spiritually descended, from 
great men and learn to behave accordingly. 

His father, the late Moulvi Shaikh Ahmed 
Hussain, Nawab Rifat Yar Jung Bahadur, who 
served as Taluqdar and Inam Commissioner and 
Subedar of Gulbarga and Warangal Divisions, 
was one of the most respected men of his time. 
He died in 1897 at the age of 54, the year after 
Nizamuddin Ahmed’s return from England. His 
uncle was the late Moulvi Hafiz Mohammad 
Siddiq, Nawab Emad Jung (Senior), alternately 
Chief Justice and Secretary to the Nizam’s Gov¬ 
ernment in the Home and Finance Departments. 
He served the State with rare distinction under 
five Prime Ministers, from the time of the great 
Sir Salar Jung whom he had helped in the re¬ 
organization of the judiciary. He was one in 
whose loyalty and ability the late Nizam had 
great confidence and whom the nobility of Hyder¬ 
abad respected as one of Salar Jung’s most trusted 
men. He died in 1904 at the age of 58. 

I must not omit to mention, besides his father 
and uncle, three members of his family who not 
only filled high posts, but enjoyed the public esteem 
on account of their ability, integrity, high character 
and dignified bearing. Muslahuddin Mohammad, 
Nawab Hakim-ud-Dowlah, Chief Justice, who died 

in his 48th year, Raziuddin Mohammad, Nawab 
1* 



3 


Emad Jung (the second of that name), Kotwal of 
Hyderabad, who died in his 47th year and Hakim- 
ud-Dowlah’s younger brother, Jalaluddin Moham¬ 
mad Nawab Saad Jung, who was a judge of the 
High Court and died in his 44th year. They were 
Nizamat Jung’s first cousins* and their premature 
deaths deprived the State of eminent men and 
trustworthy servants. His elder brother Fasihud- 
din Ahmed, the second Nawab Rifat Yar Jung, 
served in the Revenue Department and was 
Subedar of Aurangabad before he retired. He 
was a man universally respected on account of his 
noble character and generosity. 

Nizamat Jung’s father joined the State service 
in 1862 and worked with the Revenue Minis¬ 
ter, Nawab Mukram-ud-Dowlah, the nephew and 
son-in-law of Sir Salar Jung, both as tutor and 
assistant. In 1875 he was appointed Taluqdar 
(Collector) for the Atraf-e-Balda District where he 
did excellent work by introducing the use of legal 
documents and a proper system of checking the 
revenue collections, and carried out the assessment 
of the Inams and Muqtas of Patels and Patwans. 
His work was commended by the Prime Minister, 
Sir Salar Jung I, in the following words : “ If other 
Taluqdars would follow his example, there would 
be a decided improvement within a short time in 
the results of tours.” Transferred as First Taluq¬ 
dar to the Raichur District at the critical time 
when the great famine of 1875-76 was raging in 

*Hakim-ud-Dowlah, Rifat Yar Jung and Saad Jung had been at 
Cambridge and were barristers-at-law. 


4 

India, he rendered valuable help in the relief of 

suffering and distress. . 

Now let us hear what Nizamat Jung himse 

has to say about his father- 

“ I should like to place before Hyderabad 
mv presentment of one who in early life held an 
important position in Hyderabad society as 
guide, philosopher and friend to all, though he 
chose to keep himself aloof from those conditions 
which made the official atmosphere of the place 
appear a little, disturbed at times. He was one 
of the higher officials, but he was more than 
that, and there was something in him which it 
is difficult to describe. It was a constant 
emanation of pure, high and sympathetic feel¬ 
ings which influenced all who came in contact 
with him. People were drawn to him because 
they felt that he was a man to be trusted and 
they always found him willing to help them 
with all the powers that nature had given him. 
A clean heart and good-will were among the 
beneficent powers granted to him by nature and 
by these he benefited all who approached him. 
He treated men as though they were his other 
selves and by encouragement raised their self- 
respect. With an enlightened mind of compre¬ 
hensive grasp, endowed with insight and fore¬ 
sight in an uncommon degree, he had an intuitive 
understanding of the inward relations of things 
and from this came his ability to judge correctly 
and decide wisely. His general knowledge was 
extensive and when he began to think over a 



5 


subject, he made it his own. Knowledge 
seemed to come to him more easily than it does 
to others, because all the faculties of his mind 
were vigilant, sympathetic and receptive. His 
favourite preoccupation was education for the 
purpose of moral and social reform. Thus he 
became the preceptor of his age and was the 
founder of the Madrasa-i-Aizza in 1876 and of 
the Nizam Club in 1884. And he was the man 
who recommended in the same year the forma¬ 
tion of the Hyderabad Civil Service Class and 
also of a special class for boys to be sent to 
England. Moulvi Syed Hussain Bilgrami, 
Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk, once said of him, “I have 
not known another man like him in Hyderabad. 
And Sir Syed Ahmed Khan remarked to friends 
that he “ had no idea that there were such men 
in Hyderabad.” 

I have no doubt that some of these qualities 
are Sir Nizamat Jung’s best heritage, and it is of 
great interest to know in what manner the influence 
of his father and his example operated upon his 
character. He remarks : 

■' Every good influence from whatever source 
it came, found its way to my heart and the 
earliest and best of its kind was my father’s, 
who had a wonderful way of imparting good to 
not only by his words but by his manner, 
his looks and his example. He had the secret 
of conveying the good that was in him by 
personal magnetism, so as to make people feel 
as though they were receiving into themselves 


6 


something rich in life, 

that influenced my nature m childhood and 
whatever faults I can recall were committed 
when my father’s influence was not operating 
on me directly, or seemed remote for a time. 
Even now, though he has been dead forty-five 
years, my moral nature is reinvigorated when 

I think of him.” 


When I requested Sir Nizamat Jung to give 
me some details about his early home education, 
he replied, " Shall we give this somewhat pomp¬ 
ous title, to those happy careless days full of 
sunshine, during which I was led on towards 
knowledge less by means of books than by the 
persuasive guidance of affectionate teachers ? 
How 7 I learned the alphabet I do not remember, 
but I found myself able to read a Persian book, 
Nigar-i-Da-nish, when I was about nine years old, 
and it is delightful to recall how I went about with 
an Urdu version of the Shahnama, shouting verses 
out of it and fancying myself Rustam before I was 
ten. The dramatic reading of my teacher, Moulvi 
Mohammad Vasil, with natural elocution and 
appropriate gestures made the scenes real to me. 
English also came to me in the same easy and 
pleasant maimer and all my reading seemed a 
pleasing pastime, not a task. Teacher and pupil 
seemed to join in getting pleasure out of friendly 
meetings at which books were allowed to be 
present. Such was the method of teaching in 
those days, and teaching and learning were names 
given to gathering pictures in the mind. This is 



7 


how I grew fond of reading and remembering and 
reciting what I read till memory and imagination 
were trained, and feelings and sentiments began to 
play their part in shaping my life. My regular 
schooling does not cover a period of more than 
four years, a few flying visits to St. George s 
Grammar School with my brother during the year 
1878, and after that three months or so in 1880 at 
the All-Saints’ Institution. In 1881 ,1 was admitted 
to the second class (from the top) at the Madrasa-i- 
Aizza where I remained for four years. I was 
able to live in the world I found in books, and 
every tale and every poem read became part of my 
feelings.” 

It is interesting to trace such influences back 
to their small beginnings, and I select another 
passage from his notes, which is too valuable not 
to be quoted in full: 

« My love of books, ” he writes, “ may be 
traced back to an incident in 1881-82 when my 
age was 10 or n. My father, who was Honorary 
Secretary to the Madrasa-i-Aizza Committee, 
had ordered some prize books from Bombay for 
the coming prize distribution. The books were 
kept in one of the rooms in our house and ex¬ 
cited my boyish curiosity. The bindings were 
so beautiful—rich with bright colours and gold, 
and the pictures on some of them were so 
fascinating. One day I crept into the room 
with a somewhat guilty feeling, and began to 
handle them with a thrill of fear and delight. 
Reading the titles was all that I could do then, 


8 


r pvritpd to look into them, 

Zl^rl^Z^fZ 

Weed discovered a new world But how was 
I to read so many books, and when? They 
would soon he sent away. So, with greedy 
haf I snatched up one of the srnaBer ™.umes 

close at hand and dipped into 1 . 

the title but have forgotten the story The Wide 

Wide World. The name seemed promising and 

I began to read it without understanding much 

but that did not matter, nor did it matter tha 
I could not read it through. I took up another 
book the Fairy Tales, and it was certainly much 
more interesting. Then I went on to another 
the grandest of all, Don Quixote. The quam 
pictures illustrating the wonderful doings of the 
Knight of La Mancha excited my imagination 
to a degree that nothing else had done before. 
This was the seed out of which my love of 
Chivalry was to grow. I was then in my nth 
year and did not know English well, but that 
was hardly an obstacle ; I meant to understand 
the story and I did. As for the significance of 
it—the pathos of the mock-heroic romance and 
the subdued lament over the decay of Chivalry 
to which the genius of Cervantes has imparted 
a subtle charm—all that I came to understand 
long after.” 

He continues, “ Within three years of my first 
adventure among books I was well on my way 



9 

with reading, having already read some of 
Campbell’s poems and Goldsmith’s Traveller for 
the Matriculation Examination, and Lamb s Tales 
from Shakespeare and many of Shakespeare’s 
plays in 1885, some of Scott’s poems and novels, 
some of Tennyson’s and Wordsworth s poems, the 
collection in the Golden Treasury and some of the 
ballads in Percy’s Reliques. My memory was 
fairly good and I could easily remember poetry, 
my taste and habits having been encouraged by 
my tutor, Mr. George Tate. To him I owe much , 
he was the first to give my young mind the direc¬ 
tion which it has followed since—the love of the 
beauty of literature. His careful and precise 
method was good for the groundwork, but later 
I freed myself from it and my reading 
became unmethodical, desultory and erratic, but 
extensive—and for that reason all the more en¬ 
joyable.” 

Referring to the prize distribution in 1882, 

“ A great event on that occasion,” he goes on to 
say, “ was the reading of their own Arabic composi¬ 
tions by some of the older boys. Of the younger 
boys who recited English poems, perhaps. I was 
the youngest, and mine was a poem describing a 
shipwreck. I remember to this day that it opened 
with the lines : 

‘There was joy in the ship as she furrowed the foam 
And glad hearts within her were dreaming of home.’ 

I must have taken some pleasure and pride in 
performing my part well, and evidently I had 


10 


t t, e spirit of the poem, for the Report 

CaUg fions that my recitation was liked by the 
mentions rna y t This was my 

FnHish-knowmg people present. j 

first response to English poetry and the small 
beginning of my life-long habit of rec ‘‘“J " 
reading aloud whatever interested me. I received 
Zm the honoured hands of the great Minister 
Scalar Jung) a beautifully bound quarto volume 

Tm Arabia* Nig**- Ite Wue “ d g ° ld Tt 

and the wonderful illustrations within, wereMike 
a dream to me. And the stones as I read them 
afterwards from day to day became part of 
life of imagination which has brightened mj 
actual life since then. Another benefit that 
book brought me was love of reading, and I had 
become an irresponsible pleasure-reader before 
reaching the age of sixteen. 

Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed left the Madrasa-i-Aizza 
towards the end of 1884 and joined the“ England 
Class ” at the Madrasa-i-Aliya in 1885, but was 
pronounced too young to be sent to England with 
his brother and cousin. " So, by way of conso¬ 
lation,” he says, “ I studied Mathematics with Dr. 
Aghornath Chatopadhaya (Mrs. Sarojini Naidu’s 
father) and English at home with a Mr. Gloria. 
In 1886 I spent a few months at Poona and read 
Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats with a Mr. Ram- 
krishna Iyer—an uncommonly enthusiastic young 
man devoted to English poetry, who became a 
life-long friend.” 

He sailed for England in May, 1887, with 
Lt. Colonel Ludlow, C.I.E., Inspector-General of 



the Nizam’s Police. His Royal Highness the 
of Connaught, Commander-in-Chief in India, and"' , 
the Duchess were travelling by the same boat, 

S. S. Sutlej, and Nizamuddin Ahmed was much 
struck with the natural simplicity and gracious 
manners of these members of the English royal 
family. He visited Malta, Marseilles and Paris 
on the way and was impressed with the sight 
of Napoleontomb in the Hotel des Invahdes. 
This was perhaps the beginning of his admiration 
for the nobler features of Napoleon’s character. 
While at Paris Colonel Ludlow took him to the 
theatre to see The Huguenots and on another 
occasion to see a panorama of some battle scene. 
This was a good introduction to European history. 
He reached London in June, when the Golden 
Tubilee of Queen Victoria was being celebrated. 
Sir Asman Jah, Prime Minister of Hyderabad 
was then in London to represent the Nizam, and 
Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed had the opportunity of 
attending the reception given by him. 

“ While in London Colonel Ludlow took me 
for a walk round Trafalgar Square one evening 
and showed me Nelson’s Monument and the 
fine equestrian statue of King Charles I. These 
reminded me of two great events in the history 
of England, and the figure of the Royal Martyr 
haunted my imagination for a long time and 
made me a Royalist afterwards. I can never 
forget Colonel Ludlow’s kindness ; he was almost 
like an uncle to me. Before his return to India 
he invited me to lunch with him several times at 


11 


the East India United Services Club.” This was 
Ss first introduction to English social life. 
He goes on to say, “ When Sir Salar Jung the 
Second came to London after Sir Asman Jah s 
Sartme and occupied r 9 , Rutland Gate, I had 
the honour of lunching with him more than once. 
Every time I saw him, there was the same 
tragic mask on his face. He seemed to have 
some great sorrow at his heart. His face was 
lifeless and lightless, and his silence was awful 
and ominous. He looked like a man who was 
slowly and deliberately walking to his death. 


“ My first long vacation at Cambridge, 
he says, (July to September, 1887), “ was delight¬ 
ful. It was not really mine because I had not 
yet joined the University ; but I shared it with 
my brother and cousin with whom I was staying 
at Trinity Hall. The novelty of the experience 
with its half and half character—both Uni¬ 
versity and non-University—gave it a charm. 
I was not capped and gowned as yet but began 
to feel cap and gown growing upon me. All 
thk brought new feelings that breathed a new 
life into me, and I was happy. 


Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed had studied up to the 
F.A. standard of Indian Universities though he 
was only sixteen; but that was sufficient to enable 
him to prepare for the Previous Examination of 
Cambridge University. He had not done any Latin 


♦This is a significant glimpse of Salar Jung II who was nearing his 
melancholy end. He died broken-hearted in 1889. 





13 


so far. He now set about it and in six months 
passed the Entrance Examination at Trinity 
College which was supposed to be quite up to the 
standard of the Previous. He was thus sure of 
passing the latter in the following October, which 
he did and had full time to devote to law. . In 
1890 he passed the first part of the Law Tripos 
and in 1891, the second, and obtained the degrees 
of B.A. and LL.B. at the early age of 21. 

Some of his closest friends among Indians in 
those days at Cambridge were Nawabzada 
Nasrullah Khan of Sachin and the famous 
“ Ranji',” afterwards Maharaja of Navanagar. 

" Law did not keep out literature and his 
enthusiasm for Shakespeare was so great that he 
soon communicated some of it to a select circle of 
college friends who formed themselves into a 
Shakespeare Reading-Society. Their example was 
followed by some of the students of another 
college, St. John’s, and they invited him to be a 
member of their Society also. 

We can see how freely he was indulging his 
taste for literature and devoting many hours to 
it at the time when he had to study hard for the 
Law Tripo s. I have heard him say that those 
three and half years at Cambridge laid the real 
foundations of his abiding interest in English 
literature. 

The plays of. Shakespeare and other Elizabethan 
dramatists, and the novels of S cott e ngrossed his 
mind. He was interested also in the lives of the 
great actors of England, of whose art he made a 




14 


special study. And in order to be able to recite 
Shakespeare well, he studied elocution for a time. 

“ It is not easy after more than 50 years,” he 
says, “ to gima list of the books I read at Cam¬ 
bridge, but I can mention some of them. Gray 
and Shakespeare were my constant companions 
and I knew nearly all the lyrical poems of Gray by 
heart, and hundreds of lines of Shakespeare s plays 
were recited by me in my leisure hours whether I 
was in my room or out for a walk ; and other poets 
like Burns, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, 
Shelley and Keats were not forgotten. From 
Shakespeare I found my way to the other drama¬ 
tists of the Elizabethan Age and great was my pride 
in possessing thick quarto volumes of Marlowe, 
Massinger, Ford, Beaumont and Fletcher. In 
my reading I ran out of the beaten track 
now and then' and the Arcadia of Sir Philip 
Sidney and Richardson’s interminable novels, 
such as Sir Charles Grandison and Clarissa 
Harlowe did not appear so tedious to me as to most 
people, and then I passed on to Fielding’s and 
Smollett ’s novels. Some of De Quincey’s writings 
and Coleridge’s lectures on Shakespeare and 
Hazlitt’s and Lamb’s and Carlyle’s essays came in 
as interludes in my more serious reading ; for 
occasionally I read translations of German plays — 
Lessing’s and others and the Theogony of Hesiod 
and the great poems of Homer had a high place in 
my admiration! One of my greatest delights was 
to spend an early morning hour in summer in 
the Botanical Gardens, Cambridge, with some 



15 


favourite book before breakfast. I often read during 
meals and sometimes late into the night. I was 
j seldom without books when travelling, and carried 
| a few volumes with me. My love of Shakespeare 
Was a passion and I never missed seeing a Shakes 
pearian play acted. “ Henry Irving’s Macbeth 
at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in 1890-91 was 
like a dream ” he writes* 

On his second visit to England in 1892, his 
reading continued with the same ardour as before 
and we have a list of books purchased by him in 
1894.** 

While reading the classics of English literature 
he was at the same time renewing his acquaintance 
with the Latin poets and a more daring attempt 
was to take up the study of Greek grammar, 
though the interest did not continue very long. 
More appreciable success was attained with Ger¬ 
man poetry when he began to read some of Goethe s 
lyrics and Schiller s and Heine s. 

It would hardly be an exaggeration in view of 
all this, to call him a self-educated man. He had 
also a very retentive memory. I had the oppor- 


*" Apart from the superb mounting of the play and the historical 
correctness of costumes, Irvings inspired acting in some of^the _P^rts 
as in the dagger scene was almost supernaturally weird. His cont mp 
for the cinema is not to be wondered at. 

**(Hazlitt's Essays, Heine's Traveel Pictures, etc., Ellis Early English 
Romances and Early English Poets Goldsmhh s Works, Grote s Plato and 
Aristotle, Disraeli, Lessing, Schiller, Gilfillan s Literary Portraits- 

Sydney Smith’s Life, Life of Stein, Fairfax Correspondence, Lord 
Bolingbroke, Buckingham's Regency, Our Chancellor, Morley s Kcmsseau, 
Southey's Commonplace Book, Life of Gibbon, Eminent Enghshm n, 
Lews' History of Philosophy, Life of Lyndhurst, History of Jesuits Mel¬ 
bourne^ p 7 pers, Locked Works, Grote’s History of Greece, Neibuhr s 
Lectures , Plutarch’s Lives, etc. 


i6 


tunity of hearing him recite from memory The 
Bard of Thomas Gray at one of our Poetry Society 
meetings in a very impressive manner He was 
then past 60 and I have since heard that he could 
repeat from memory nearly So Suras oi the 
Our'an short and long. He remembered hund¬ 
reds of lines of English,—Persian and Latin 
poetrv and told us how he and some friends who 
had similar tastes used to meet and spend hours 
together naming words and quoting lines from the 
English poets in which those words occurred. 

I have no doubt that his perfect intonation 
and accent, so much admired by his English 
friends, owed much to his favourite habit of 
recitation. His study of the life and thought of 
past ages has given him that wide outlook 
and cosmopolitan culture which distinguishes him 
from the majority of his countrymen. 


During his residence in London (1892-1895) he 
continued his legal studies and extended his 
acquaintance with Latin and English authors of 
repute besides indulging in amateur verse-writing. 
For some time he worked in the chambers of a 


practising Barrister, Mr^Mattinson (who became 
a K.C. afterwards). 



IN OFFICE 


By the age of twenty-one, Mr. Nizamuddin 
Ahmed’s formal education had been completed 
and from his 22nd year till the 2 5 th he remained 
in London to keep his terms to qualify for the Bar 
and continued as he says to read “at random hut 
ceaselessly.” 

At the age of 26—a year after his last return 
from England—he was enrolled at the Madras 
High Court. He joined the State service in 1897 
and officiated in some judicial posts till he was 
appointed under-secretary in the Legislative 
Department in 1901 at the age of 30. This takes 
us to the end of the third decade of his life, and 
another 10 years bring us to the period of his 
Home Secretaryship in 1909 before which he had 
served as High Court Judge for two years. After 
1910 he reverted to the High Court and remained 
there till he was made Political Secretary in 1910 
and Member of the Executive Council towards 
the end of 1919. He continued as Political 
Member till the end of 1929 when he retired. 

I shall follow these outlines in giving a more 
detailed account of his official career. After his 
return from England in February 1896 he waited 
for orders for eight or nine months before deciding 
to go to Madras to be enrolled at the High Court. 

During the Christmas Recess when he returned 


i8 


to Hyderabad for a few weeks, _ Mr. Hormusji 
Vakil, then Home Secretary, reminded him that 
as a State-scholar he was bound by special agree¬ 
ment to serve the State. His reply was that he 
had waited sufficiently long before going to Madras 
and was at last obliged to do so because no offer 
of appointment had been made by Government. 
The Home Secretary said that he could offer the 
Munsiii of Parbhani at once, but the pay 
of that post was only Rs. 400, so he would 
have to obtain the Minister’s orders to make up 
the Rs. 500 promised in the agreement. And 
this was done. 


When Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed informed his 
father (who was Subedar at Warangal) of the 
Home Secretary’s offer, he received the following 
reply. 


“ Think over the matter carefully, whether 
it would ever be possible for you to practise at 
the Bar after having once joined the service. 
To give up service for practice at a later stage 
might not be agreeable, or something might 
prevent it; and that would mean abandoning 
the idea of practice. Such a position does not 
seem to promise any marked distinction above 
one’s compeers. You may possibly become a 
Judge of the High Court in five years; but are 
there not men who become High Court Judges 
without having shown any marked ability? 
You might be made Chief Justice in due course, 
but would that be the same thing as being able 
to command the confidence of the public and the 
2 * 



19 


Government, as an eminent advocate can ? 

This was the wise counsel of an uncommonly 
far-seeing man and would have been faithfully 
carried out, but fate was against it. How true it 
is that there is a providence in everything! It 
intervened on this occasion to change 
Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed’s plan of life. Orders 
were issued for his appointment in March, 1897, 
and he went to Parbhani at a week’s, notice. 
When he returned to Hyderabad during the 
summer vacation in May, his father was ill, under¬ 
going an operation, and died in July. Through the 
good offices of his uncle, Nawab Emad Jung, he 
got an officiating appointment at Hyderabad 
where his presence was necessary to attend to 
domestic affairs. And thus the idea of practice^ 
had to be given-up. Towards the end of 1897, he 
acted lor a few months as Second Assistant Home 
Secretary in such a way as to earn high praise from 
Moulvi Aziz Mirza, the acting Home Secretary. 

After that he was Registrar of the High Court 
for a year till he was appointed Chief City Magis¬ 
trate In 1898 occurred an event which was for 
him a test of character and moral courage. A 
criminal case had been brought against the Chief 
Engineer (Mr. Buchanan) and the Magistrate 
proceeded to try it in spite of a hint from the 
higher authorities that it had better be dropped. 

“ I was not influenced by the wishes of the 
Prime Minister (Sir Viqar-ul-Umara) who had ap¬ 
pointed me. His Government wanted me to stop 
the case, but I went on with it as I was bound to 




20 


do Mr. Eardley Norton, Barrister-at-Law was 
consulted by the Government and he wrote a 
Iona legal opinion do help it. The complainant 
got the opinion of Sir John Wodroffe Advocate- 
General, Calcutta, as a counterpoise and it happen¬ 
ed to be in favour of the line followed by me. The 
Government then moved the High Court to with¬ 
draw the case under its general powers of revision. 

In 1901 on the death of Rai Hukumchand, the 
well-known jurist, Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed was 
appointed Under-Secretary in the Legislative 
Department, in recognition of his qualifications. 
He remained in that post for five years during 
which the codes of criminal.law.and sev era l 


important acts were passed. 

It is worth while mentioning that whenever a 
commission was appointed to enquire into any 
Important matter, Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed was 
always nominated to it. 

Thus we see that though a junior officer in 
those days, he was thought fit to take his place 
beside the senior officers of the State. Mr. A. 


J. Dunlop is said to have offered him the Revenue 
Secretaryship which he politely declined on the 
ground that his career lay in the Judicial 


Department. 

He received the title of Khan Bahadur Nawab 
Nizamat Jung from the late Nizam in 1905. In 
1907 he was appointed to a vacancy in the High 
Court as Puisne J ud ge and served there for over 
ten years with distinction. During this time he 
officiated as Home Secretary for nearly two years 




21 


(1909-10) and as Chief Justice for two years 
(1916-18). 

Nizamat Jung’s friends knew how reluctant 
he was to accept titles of honour. He had in fact, 

I believe, informed the Prime Minister, Maharaja 
Sir Kishen Pershad, on the occasion of the late 
Nizam’s forty years’ Jubilee, that he did not wish 
to become a Jung, but was told that the omission 
of his name, when so many officials were about to 
be honoured, might be misconstrued as a sign of 
the Nizam’s displeasure. 

In 1915 Nawab Nizamat Jung as a High Court 
Judge was deputed together with two other 
officials to discuss the question of the equitable ; 
distribution of the waters of the Krishna and , 
Tu ngabha dra rivers with the Madras Government, j 
He is said to have conducted the negotiations with 
the British Indian representatives (among whom 
was a Judge of the Madras High Court), with such 
tact that the Governor of Madras, Lord Bentland, 
and his Council could not but accede to the rea¬ 
sonable demands of the Nizam’s Government— 
which the Madras Government had been refusing 
to admit for fifteen years. Mr. (afterwards. Sir) 
Reginald Glancy wrote to him on the occasion as 
follows: — 

“ You are very much to be congratulated 
on the final success of your negotiations with 
Madras in the Tungabhadra case. Mackenzie 
(Chief Engineer) gives you all the credit for this 
success and says without you we should never 
have gained our point—I am going to bring the 







22 


success of the ^mission to His Highness the 
Nizam’s notice.” 

At the beginning of 1918 Nizamat Jung was 
transferred to the Political Department and 
1 V Secretary by a special Firman of His 
Highness at the instance of the late Nawab 
Faridoon Mnlk who had selected him as the most 
suitable person to succeed him. And the opinion 
of those who knew him was that the best person 

had been selected. 


Regarding this he says in his reminiscences, 

“ As my principle has always been to serve faith¬ 
fully in whatever position I am placed I had no 
personal feeling in the matter-but according to the 
English way of thinking, the dignity of a Chief Jus¬ 
tice was a thing apart. I took the earliest oppor¬ 
tunity of letting His Highness know that I would 
never venture to solicit any favour. . What gave 
me some satisfaction in becoming Political Secret¬ 
ary was the knowledge that my dear old friend 
Sir Faridoon would be glad to have me as his 
co-adjutor, for this had been a favourite plan of 
his almost since my return from England in 1896. 
At the time of the first Delhi Durbar and after¬ 
wards between 1902 and 1912, he had got me 
appointed to act for him during his absence so 
that I might get acquainted with the general 
working of the Political Department. He used 
to tell me that I should be persona grata with the 
Residency. These are his own words, and they 
were not used as an empty compliment. His 
opinion was based on the knowledge that the 



23 

British Residents with whom I had worked in 
connection with the Victoria MemoriaLQrjhanage 
had had a good opinion of me. Besides this, my 
intimate knowledge of English people and their 
ways, he knew, would be useful in making the way 
smooth for political work.” 

Work in the Political Department was not too 
heavy for. him. “ After the hard intellectual work 
of the High Court,” he says, “ my new office 
seemed almost a sinecure, and I hardly knew at 
first what to do with myself.” Fortunately some 
interesting literary task was given him by His 
Exalted Highness, namely—the translation of his 
Ghazals, “ and I did it as a pastime.” 

“ I had also leisure for doing another and more 
important work. This was to get a working 
knowledge of the Qur’an. The desire was born of 
a feeling of alarm suddenly felt one day when I 
thought how humiliating it would be if some 
English friend asked me to explain some Islamic 
doctrine or belief and I was not able to do so. No 
time was lost and I began to read the Qur kn daily 
in Mr. Mohammad Ali’s translation, a practice I 
have kept up since 1918. I am thus able, I hope, 
to discuss anything contained in our Book with any 
man of liberal education in an intelligible way. 
And I am proud to say that I remember a good 
many chapters of the Qur’an by heart.” This 
shows how easily he could combine literary and 
spiritual interests with the dull routine of official 
work. 



24 

The translation of His Exalted Highness’ Gha- 

zals, the reading of the Qur’an and the dailytask 

of correcting the drafts of letters addressed to the 

Residency besides other routine duties, wen 
tih the calamitous days of the influenza epi emic 

in October and November, 1918, when lie, 

says, “ seemed to lie under a black pall But the 
news of the Armistice came as a ray of light to 
dispel some of the gloom, and the New Year wore 
on in hopes of better things to come, both at home 
and abroad. In the interval, Hyderabad had a 
surprise. Mr. Hormusji Vakil suddenly dropped 
from the clouds and was preparing to settle down 
comfortably with a quantity of Berar literature 
spread before him, hoping to get the long standing 
claim of Hyderabad favourably settled. And he 
may have entertained secret hopes of getting into 
Sir Faridoon’s seat as Minister. But two unex¬ 
pected events happened—one was that he died of 
heart-failure without an hour’s warning ; and the 
other was that Sir Ali Imam came to Hyderabad 
to be at the head of affairs.” 


In November, 1919, when the Executive Council 
was constituted, Nizamat Jung was appointed 
Member in charge of the Political portfolio, and 
served in that capacity till the end of the year 1929. 
But, strange to say, he continued to draw the 
same pay as that of a High Court Judge and did 
not ask for more. Once indeed he told His Exalted 
Highness on a sudden impulse, that he would not 
accept more and he kept his word. He reached the 
age limit of 55 in 1926, but His Exalted Highness, 









SIR NIZAMAT JUNG—1919-1929 


25 


who appreciated the value of his services, did not 
allow him to retire till after the Viceregal visit in 
December 1929. It may be mentioned in passing 
that during his tenure of office as Member of the 
Executive Council he directed the affairs of the 
Hyderabad Municipality and was able to effect 
many improvements in spite of serious financial 
difficulties, and succeeded in raising the income 
above the expenditure. I was then a student at 
college and everybody knew he was a power in the 
Council. 

His impressions of some of his colleagues and 
his comments on some of the more important 
events with which the Government had to deal 
have a deep interest for those who have followed 
later developments. No apology is therefore 
needed for giving extracts from his notes in their 
proper place. 

Nizamat Jung’s services on behalf of the war- 
effort (1914-18) were acknowledged officially by 
the Resident, - the Commander-in-Chief and the 
British Government. But his most valuable 
contribution to the British Empire, India to 
England (published by the London Times on the 
very day the Indian troops landed at Marseilles 
in 1914), could be adequately appreciated only by 
the British people. The reception given to it was 
extraordinary. It was copied by all the important 
papers in England ; it was quoted in a periodical 
called Khaki ; it was printed on private Christmas 
cards in New Zealand ; and several compilers of 
school texts asked for permission to include it in 



a6 


their books. It brought the author expressions 
of appreciation from many eminent persons in¬ 
cluding Sir Frederick Pollock and Lord Napier of 
Magdala, and it made an enthusiastic English 
gentleman write a poem, England to India, and 
dedicate it to Nizamat Jung. 

Nizamat Jung was made an officer of the 
Order of the British Empire in 1919 and received 
the decoration of C.I.E. in the beginning of 1924 
and the honour of Knighthood in 1929. About 
his Knighthood he told his friends that he had heard 
some rumours in advance and had taken steps to 
make the authorities understand how embarrass¬ 
ing it would be for him to receive such a distinction 
when he was hoping to pass into peaceful obscurity. 
But he was nevertheless ' dubbed ’ Knight in 1929 
when the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, visited Hydera¬ 
bad. 


“ Thus in the Knight the hermit see, 

For pride was but a veil 
And valour hid humility 
In sack-cloth 'neath the mail.” 

I think of these lines of his whenever I review 

his career in my mind, and wonder if he would not 
have preferred to win his spurs on the field at 
Agincourt. 

Shortly after Sir Nizamat’s retirement, a 
journalist wrote an article from which I quote the 
following paragraphs: 

“ During the t emnos t eventful years follow¬ 
ing the Armistice, to have acted the part of a 



27 


successful mediator between the Nizam and the 
British Resident at a time when feelings on 
t either side were running high and when the 
slightest ind iscretio n or tactlessness on the part 
of the middleman would not merely have made 
the situation irreparably worse for both the 
parties, but would also have led to a series of 
incidents pregnant with enough explosive ma¬ 
terial to disturb peace—to have played 
one’s part, in such circumstances, Jmnestly^ 
ta ctfully and courageously is no mean achieve¬ 
ment foF any Indian statesma n, the mere 
recounting whereof would constitute quite a 
substantial compliment to him. But in the 
case of Sir Nizamat Jung such a statement of 
fact does but poor justice to him, because his 
services to Hyderabad and to the cause of a 
sound British Indian policy cannot be read on 
the files either of the Government of India or of 
the Hyderabad State—so unobtrusively did 
he work.” 

“ It was as much his ill-luck as that of the 
State which he served so conscientiously for a 
third of a century that when the delicate task 
of the conduct of Anglo-Hyderabad relations 
was entrusted to him, the great problem of the 
moment was not one of doing some good or 
improving upon things, but that of arresting 
downward trend or bringing about a state of 
affairs that could form the starting point for a 
better dispensation. However great the value 
of the services rendered in such circumstances 




28 


they cannot possibly get due recognition, espe¬ 
cially when the performer de tests publicity. 
To add to this, Nizamat Jung represents the 
philosophical type that would rather suffer 
opinions to be formed against it than defend 
itself against unjustified and ill-informed criti¬ 
cism. But his real worth has not remained 
unacknowledged. As a man he has been 
appreciated even by those with whom in official 
relations he could not always agree.” 

“ In our estimation Nizamat Jung, the 
statesman, is no less a person than Nizamat 
'Jung the poet-philosopher. A glimpse of this 
aspect of his life, can be had from the views 
expressed about him by some of the leading 
English public men. Though ostensibly retired 
from the political field, Sir Nizamat Jung 
continues to be a penetrating student of public 
affairs.” 

Lord Brentford, the British Home Secretary, 
wrote to him from London in 1932 : 

“ What a wonderful prophet you have proved 
to be. Every word you wrote a year ago about 
the position of affairs in India is conclusively 
proved by to-day.” 

A member of the Joint Select Committee on 
Indian Reforms wrote to him thus : 

" I cannot help saying how much I should 
like a long discussion with you; because you 
are able to look at the problem both from the 
Indian and English standpoints.” 



29 


Then I find an English member of the Indian 
Round Table Conference regretting Sir Nizamat 
Jung’s non-inclusion in the Hyderabad Delegation: 
“ I had hoped you would have been with us 
for the Round Table Conference. I remember 
your tact in the negotiations with the Madras 
Government, and the issues in this business are 
infinitely more serious with correspondingly 
greater risks to His Exalted Highness’ rights 

and privileges.We should have been 

stronger with your co-operation.” 

A member of the India Council wrote to him, 
“May I sometimes write and exchange views 
with you on some of the problems that we have to 
face ? You have the great gift of being able to 
look at these questions from an angle that does 
not present itself to most people.” 

In the evening of his life, despite indifferent 
health, he takes genuine pleasure in explaining 
his views to people and his advice is sought 
by thoughtful persons because he has the great 
gift, perhaps on account of his detachment, of 
harmonising conflicting interests; and he is 
essentially a peace-maker. He insists on politics 
being founded on ethics and general good-will; 
and his belief is that the improvement of a com¬ 
munity should start from within. 

I think it would not be out of place to 
mention here that whenever the Presidentship 
of the Executive Council was under considera¬ 
tion, the eyes of all well-wishers of Hyder¬ 
abad fell on Nawab Nizamat Jung. He would 




3° 


have been acceptable both to His Exalted 
Highness and the Resident, and the Government 
of India would probably have approved of the 
selection. He was known to be a person of 
character and a loyal friend of the Empire and he 
had friends in the India Council who had a good 
opinion of him. I find that the Home Secretary, 
Lord Brentford, wrote to him: “ You should 
be at the head of your State.” And he had, 

I believe, spoken to Lord Reading. Some of 
his friends in England had also conveyed to 
Lord Lytton their high estimation of his ability, 
learning and culture. 

“ My friend, Sir Faridoon, often reproached 
me, ‘ You hide your light under a bushel.’ 
Perhaps what he meant was that I was not eager 
to get to the top of the official ladder. He did 
not know, and I did not tell him, that my 
ambition was too great to be so easily satisfied— 
it was to feel that I was not chasing worldly 
vanities, Men make their whole life a vain 
1 pursuit of some fancied good; and ambition — 
whether of power, of high rank, or wealth, or of 
distinction and eminence—is only a lure.” 

“ Some time after Sir Ali Imam’s departure 
from Hyderabad, a friend—-one of my colleagues 
of the Council, asked me, ‘ Why does not His 
Exalted Highness make you President ? ’ My 
reply was, ‘I don’t want it.’ But what His 
Exalted Highness’ intentions were I had no 
reliable means of knowing, though vague 
rumours and palace whispers made people 



3i 


believe that he was well inclined towards me. 
Anyhow, I was never so vain as to think that I 
was the most suitable person for the office, and 
my peculiar temperament made me fear that 
such elevation would be a violent uplift to 
uneasy eminence. And there was another rea¬ 
son. It was a settled opinion with me that at 
least for some time to come one of the nobles of 
Hyderabad should continue to be the ornament¬ 
al figurehead of the State in order to keep up 
the old high standard of princely dignity and 
maintain its proper atmosphere. I am glad to 
say that I never changed this view and when the 
time came for it, I strongly supported the claim 
of the late Maharaja Kishen Pershad and 
succeeded in obtaining the approval of the 
Ruler to his selection.” 

“ Lord Irwin before his visit to Hyderabad 
in 1929 had agreed that it would be advisable 
to have one of the nobles of Hyderabad as 
President, and this was a satisfactory solution 
because, in view of the political conditions 
prevailing in British India at the time, it would 
have been a risky experiment to ‘import’ a man 
from there. At one time I had offered another 
suggestion regarding the Presidentship. It was 
to make it tenable for a year or two by the 
Members of the Council in rotation, in the order 
of seniority. It seemed to me that this idea 
had some good reasons in its favour; it recognised 
the principle of equality; it precluded the 
possibility of any one head running the risk of 



32 


being unduly swelled and would have given 
every member an equal chance for showing his 
best within a limited period. If I remember 
rightly, I once mentioned this suggestion to 
His Exalted Highness. 



IN RETIREMENT 
The post of honour is a private station.” 


(t 


Though his conspicuous ability and his con¬ 
scientious discharge of his duties were fully 
appreciated by His Exalted Highness, Sir Nizamat 
Jung did not clin g to office. He was eager to 
retire before his faculties became enfeebled, so 
that he might devote the remaining years of his 
life to congenial work and contemplation and 
enjoy that calm and contented existence which is 
the goal of the philosopher. The 'inconvenient 
vanities ’ of official life sometimes made him ex¬ 
claim with impatience, “ I doubt if a man’s spirit 
can get a fair chance of expressing its real self 
when overladen with gilded matter.” 

A man whose thoughts do not follow the 
beaten track is apt to be misunderstood by people, 
and Nizamat Jung was sometimes misunderstood. 
But he only smiled and went his way, thinking 
and doing much that was beyond their ken. I 
have seen a diary kept by him in 1926. It was 
one of the busiest periods, when there were heavy 
clouds on the political horizon of Hyderabad ; but 
still Virgil and Firdausi were not neglected ! 

Being at that time personal assistant to Col. 
Sir Richard Chenevix Trench, I knew how much 
he tried to dissuade Nizamat Jung, his colleague 



34 


in the Council, from retiring, and m the end 

Sir Richard wrote to him : 

■' I am not going to sympathise with yon for 
becoming a knight-errant, as I know you have been 
iookSg forwarf to the day when you would. 

I Low no one who is better provided by his tastes 
against boredom when out of office. This was 
perfectly true. And Sir Reginald Glancy, who had 
Lown him and his work for a long time, wrote 
“ Hyderabad cannot do without you. ±Sut 
Nizamat Jung had made up his mind.andwen 
the time came for him to retire, This day (the 
22 nd of December, ^ wrote m his diary 

« is a red-lettodSy m my life. It is thirty-four 
years since I first dreamt of what I have now 
gained. My father's hope of spending his last 
few years in the quiet enjoyment of rural life was 
never realised ; he died ‘ in harness in 1897, and 
so did my uncle in I9°4 an( I three of my cousins, 
all high officials, between 1916 and 1920. This 
only confirmed my determination to save myself 
from a similar fate, and I made plans accordingly. 
The first essential thing was the cultivation of a 
refined distaste for the supposed privileges of 
rank and dignity. I looked upon office as a stem 
: duty that had to be performed at much self- 
sacrifice ; its emoluments, its power and its pres¬ 
tige I regarded as inconvenient, v aniti es. 

: Then on the 4th of January, 1930, when he had 

got back to rural scenes : “I wonder whether 
the old mood will ever come back again with the 
same unbounded capacity for careless enjoyment. 
3* 



35 


Perhaps it cannot be regained by a mere effort of 
the will, but has to be induced or allured by an 
easy self-abandonment to the influence of nature 
with her infinite variety of suggestions and con¬ 
solations. I have to bridge over 33 years and get 
back to 1896 when I first came to stay in this 
place which was then full of a subtle rural charm. 
The low hills, the wooded plains and the russet- 
green valleys around were teeming with surprises 
and delights." 

Nature is a feeling to me ; I feel God’s breath 
in me and in everything about me, and drink in 
peace with every breath of air. My heart is full 
of good-will to men and I feel an expansion of soul 
that carries me out of self.” 

“ Here I feel myself in the breeze, in the clouds, 
in the sap that is running up the corrugated 
bark of the big shady trees to give them a new 
light-green coat. At present there are no flowers 
to be seen anywhere, but the sight of old trees 
becoming young again has a more personal and 
hopeful message for me.” 

Though Sir Nizamat Jung chose to live away 
from the world, his interest in matters of public 
concern did not cease. It is true that he did not 
trouble himself with politics, but in all important 
international problems he took a deep interest, 
even when he was engaged in his favourite literary 
pursuits and philanthropic work. The one thing 
which he always had at heart was the preservation 
of friendship between the Islamic world and the 
British Empire. He thought it necessary for the 



3 ^ 

peace of the world (as he has said in a foot-note to 
his poem, England, in 1938) and never failed to im¬ 
press this on English people, especially on those m 
authority. A few extracts from letters will show 
how some of them were anxious to satisfy his 
doubts at times. Regarding the Palestine question 
this is what an English Peer wrote to him in 
1936 : — 

“ I am most interested in what you write 
about the Arab situation, and I should much 
like to have a talk with you about this. I am 
convinced that the British promises to the Arab 
people as a whole have been faithfully kept, 
and I do not think the Arabs have any cause to 
regret the support which they gaye to the 
Allies during the War. The position of the 
Arabs in Palestine, however, is a different matter, 
and no one can fail to recognise their deep 
resentment at the Jewish immigration. It 
must be remembered, however, that during the 
war promises were made both to the Jews and 
to the Arabs, with the knowledge of each.” 

In a letter to an English friend, Sir Nizamat 
had referred to the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 
terms of strong disapproval and said that he had 
to correct his former estimate of England’s justice 
and fairplay as given in his India to England in 
1914. The reply showed an anxiety to satisfy 
Sir Nizamat Jung on the question. 

The late Mr. Pickthall, who knew how great 
was Sir Nizamat Jung’s interest in Islamic projects, 



37 

wrote to him as follows in June, 1935, from 
London: — 

“ The only great Islamic project which I 
have in view—it cannot really be called a 
project, rather a desire—is to do something 
towards welding together, consolidating and 
strengthening in zeal the large Muslim popu¬ 
lation left in Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia. 
Budapest should be the focus, and the point of 
wedge into Europe.” 

In Indian affairs Nizamat Jung always kept his 
attention fixed on the inner currents of feeling 
rather than on outward events, because his belief 
was that human instincts were stronger than 
outward adjustments. He considered the spirit 
of the worker more important than his tools and 
lamented that the so-called public spirit in India 
was not free from disease. 

Regarding Federation, the Editor of an English 
periodical wrote to him in 1937 : 

“ The present political situation in India 
seems to be very uncertain. I hope very much 
that the Sovereign Princes will not consent to 
enter the Federation unless all their rights have 
been adequately safeguarded.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung, as Hyderabad people knew, 
had always held that their rights should be pro¬ 
perly safeguarded, and had said so to British 
political officers more than once, for he knew 
that Federation would mean the giving up of some 
of those cherished rights. And this was also, I 


38 

believe, the considered opinion of an eminent 
English lawyer who had been consulted by the 
Indian Princes. Sir Nizamat, moreover, felt 
doubtful as to the utility of Federation to the 
British Empire in times of exigency. He was 
not sure that the resources of the Indian States 
would be placed as readily at the services of the 
Empire as of old; and this was a weighty con¬ 
sideration. 

In a letter published in England in 1938 for 
private circulation by the “ Champions of Christ 
and the Crown ” under the title, The Danger and 
the Remedy, was the following paragraph : — 

“ This has evoked a remonstrance from an 
eminent Moslem statesman, scholar, poet, and 
philanthropist, Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung Baha¬ 
dur, O.B.E., C.I.E., former Chief Justice and then 
Political Secretary of His Exalted Highness 
the Nizam of Hyderabad. He asks his English 
friends, ‘ Can it be true that the Christians them¬ 
selves are opening their gates to welcome the 
enemies of Jesus Christ and of God ?’ In 
eloquent appeal, he adjures England, once the 
true protector of lawful freedom, not to suc¬ 
cumb to the blandishments of fatal falsehood.” 

The reference was to the poem, To England 
(1938), written by Sir Nizamat Jung while he was 
on his fourth pilgrimage to Mecca. He told his 
intimate friends how, overpowered by a sudden 
impulse one morning in his cabin, he had put into 
words what he “ felt and visualised when thinking 
of the East and the West.” This was in sight of 



39 


the Arabian coast before reaching Jeddah. Some 
English friend to whom he sent the poem had it 
published in the Patriot ; and it thus came to be 
used as a warning to the British nation. 

The words, “ poet, scholar, s tat esman, philan--- 
thropist, ” deserve attention. They may have 
been used by one who actually knew him as such 
or merely by hearsay. But our knowledge of him 
derived from the facts narrated in this biography 
that dates back to 1901, fully confirm the state¬ 
ment, and his whole life-work presents these 
aspects. His collected poems speak for them¬ 
selves ; his scholarship is revealed in them and in all 
his writings ; and those who knew him and heard 
him speak were impressed by it. His qualities as 
a statesman, were to my mind deep and sound. 
As regards his philanthropic work, it is enough to 
recall his long and valuable services to the Madrasa- 
i-Aizza, the Victoria Memorial Orphanage and the 
City Improvement Board which he helped to 
make so successful. Sir David Barr publicly 
acknowledged his services in 1905 at the opening 
of the Victoria Memorial Orphanage. And we 
have not forgotten that he was the founder of the 
Hyderabad Poor House in 1909-10. 

His literary and philanthropic work was con¬ 
tinued after his retirement and with less interrup¬ 
tion than before. He tried to carry all his plans 
to fu lfilm ent, and we can see the results. Not the 
least valuable portion of his life-work was that 
which he completed during the decade following 
his retirement. He was fortunate in getting 



40 


“ so much breathing time,” as he says, after 
having got old, running the official race. It does 
not fall to the lot of many to contemplate with 
satisfaction the results of their activities during 
the 6oth and 70th years of their lives. Sir Nizamat 
was saved from the common feelings and regrets 
of old age : that a life had been wasted. 

Those who had watched his career might have 
observed traces of an impulse to do or say the 
unexpected thing. His telling His Exalted Highness 
as soon as he was made Political Secretary (1918) 
that he would not ask any favour of him ; his refus¬ 
ing to take more than a Judge ’s pay when he was 
Political Minister; his insisting on not having 
more than Rs. 1,000 as pension, are not the only 
instances of it. 

Before leaving for Arabia for the first time, he 
laid the foundation of a mosque for Muslim 
orphans, and handed a cheque to Mr. Meher All 
' Fazil (Superintending Engineer, City Improvement 
Board) with an earnest request that the building 
should be ready before his return. Any one 
entering the Victoria Memorial Orphanage com¬ 
pound from the front gate can see that beautiful 
building in front of him. 

In 1930 Sir Nizamat Jung visited Yercaud 
(near Salem) on the Sheveroy Hills. It happened 
to be Eid time, and he was dismayed to find that 
there was no mosque for the Muslims there, though 
several of them were fairly prosperous tradesmen. 
He was surprised and hurt at their seeming indiffer¬ 
ence and in a few days arranged for the acquisition 



4i 


of a plot of land to build a mosque, contributed a 
handsome amount and advised the local Muslims 
to raise more. 



Chapter II— Glimpses of Personality 
THE HAJ AND ITS LESSON 

’Twas theirs the hallowed path to find 
Which once their leader trod, 

And in the service of mankind 
The path that leads to God. 

To save Sir Nizamat Jung from being mistaken 
for an overzealous Puritan or a fanatical Haji, 
I shall quote what he has himself said on the 
subject of his repeated pilgrimages. 

“ It was not to earn any heavenly reward, 
but to do my share of work on earth and to feel 
the greatness of Islam at the fountain-head, and 
; to ‘ visualise,’ as you would say, a mentally 
l reconstructed pageant of its splendid career as 
! it issued from the desert and overspread the 
■ earth! ” 

His mind was haunted by this inspiring 
vision, which I take to be the true explana¬ 
tion of his desire to visit the spots where Islam 
had its glorious birth. 

I have had from him interesting accounts of 
his visits to Arabia and the spiritual vigour he 
derived from that “ barren land for ever blest.” 
In an unfinished poem on the Haj we find pen 
pictures, such as these : — 

A lucent shallow bay of waters green— 

Landward, above the water's edge behold 


43- 


A thin long line of houses stretched between 
The lapping wavelets and the upland slopes 
Whose tawny sands adorn the horizon’s rim. 

The picture haunts the memory, where it glows 
With softened shades of colour not its own— 

A picture, or a vision, or a dream ! 

Mirage-like seems its unsubstantial grace 
When viewed afar, but when the tossing launch 
Has touched the wooden steps along the quay. 

The vision fades. The traveller’s eyes then see 
A row of massive buildings, plain and drab. 

A quiet, lazy-sleeping town wherein 
Large open spaces here and there are seen, 

Flanked by tall buildings but no sign of life. 
Fronting the sea there stand some stately piles, 
From whose high tops, slow rippling in the air, 

The pilgrim’s eye with rising wonder sees 
The National Flags of some of Europe’s Powers 
Their presence there betokens, he may hope, 

A friendly interest and friendly care 
To help the Arab once again to tread 
With steadfast pace the path he trod before— 

Of progress, knowledge, culture, honour, fame. 

The subtle irony of this is delightful. Then 
comes the journey to the Sanctuary : 

We tread on hallowed ground, the Realm of Peace 
Nor fosse nor rampart round it, and no tower ; 

No martial watch and ward, no sentinel— 

Its bounds are guarded by the breath of Faith ! 
Since first the word went forth God’s peace shall be 
Inviolate in these precincts, still that word, 

More potent far than might of armed men, 

Hath bidden feud and fray and slaughter cease. 
Time was when every valley, hill and plain, 

So silent now, did harrowing tales repeat 
Of tribal feuds and kinsmen’s deadly strife. 


44 


And blood-revenge. All, all is peaceful now. 

Yon herbless plains lie basking in the sun, 

Yon dark-browed mountains frown in solitude. 

The patient camels pasturing on the hills 
Proclaim the reign of Peace ; bare-headed men 
In pilgrim-weeds attest the reign of Faith 
Upon the sands below. All, all is still. 

The scene must have made him conscious of 
perfect peace in his own heart. He felt it in full 
measure when nearing Mecca : 


The barren sands, the herbless hills have changed 
Their aspect grim, and smile on us like friends ! 

Ah ! how they spread their arms to welcome all 
Whom faith has taught the Pilgrim's weeds to wear- 
Who, shrouded like the dead in cloths unsewn 
(Beggar and king alike) have come from far, 

From every comer of the living world 

Where Islam holds its sway ! Yes, they have come 

And they will come until this earth shall last, 

Men, women, children—some infirm and old, 

Some weak and ailing, less alive than dead ; 

All all of them by fervent faith inspired, 

And by the love of him who taught them faith : 

The man whose name is as a fount of light 
In every Muslim's heart: the man of men, 

The Warner he, the Prophet God-ordained, 

Who led mankind from darkness unto light. 

And from this high level he glances at Islamic 
equality ; 

Here men are equal, and God’s subjects they. 

Here, on these sands, beneath this burning sky 
Equality is not a man-made creed, 

A specious theme on revolution’s lips. 

It is no institution but a feeling— 

An instinct and an impulse of the heart. 



45 


By God Hwas given and by God preserved. 

Fostered by breath of Islam through the ages. 

The Cafe-keeper or his negro page, 

The village constable or any man 
That may be present is our fellow guest! 

It is a spacious world where Nature rules. 

And not convention bom of sickly brains. 

Great is his admiration for that" man of might” 
King Ibn Sa'ud, the present ruler of Hedjaz, whom 
he looks upon as a worthy successor of the Great 
Caliphs. 

A man of balanced power and noble heart, 

A far-famed warrior dreaded by his foes. 

And justly more renowned as one who brought 
Peace to a lawless land that knew no peace. 

His is the master-mind, the master-hand 
That has the feuds of jealous tribes controlled. 
Made robbers and marauders mendicants ! 

The desert wilds where Caravans were robbed, 

And pilgrims slaughtered for a trifling gain, 

Are now the home of peace from bourne to bourne 1 
A man of patriarchal dignity, 

Reminder of the greatness of the past. 

Who at his post a fearless watchman stands 
To guard Arabia’s peace. 

“ Whenever I visited Mecca,” I quote from his 
recollections, ” I had the honour of seeing His 
Majesty the King Abdul Aziz, Ibn Sa'ud whom I 
look upon as a great man on account of his heroic 
achievements. He represents the Islamic type of 
ruler and seems to have stepped out of the back¬ 
ground of Islamic history—a redoubtable warrior 
in the field, a wise and cautious leader in affairs, 
a simply-clad, courteous, gracious, soft-voiced 



46 

Amir-ul-Momineen in his Audience Hall. I have 
heard people compare him in some respects to the 
second Caliph—the Great Omar. 

I saw him for the first time in 1932 and was 
much impressed by his simple manner and un¬ 
affected politeness. He rose to receive me as I 
approached and I had a full view of his tall com¬ 
manding figure clad in the Mishla worn by Arabs. 
On his head he wore a red-and-white kerchief of 
the Najd tribe, surmounted by the Iqal. Nothing 
in his costume betokened his high station, and 
there was not the least assumption of importance 
in his manner. His look, his tone, his self-posses¬ 
sion and his prompt but well-considered replies 
showed that his was not a common mind. 

When I ventured to hint in the course of 
conversation that his was a grand historic heritage, 
and that he stood at the head of the Muslim 
world for its good, he seemed to be thinking rather 
of the responsibilities of his position than of its 
grandeur. And the only work of his reign to 
which he referred with some pride was the estab¬ 
lishment of order and security throughout the coun¬ 
try. He spoke of it as a self-evident fact and not 
with any exultation, and I readily acknowledged 
the truth of it. Afterwards when travelling from 
Jeddah to Medina, I realised the full significance 
of it, for the desert journey of more than 250 miles 
was perfectly safe and ideally peaceful. Here and 
there we passed crowds of women and children 
tagging for bread; some were importunate, but 
not one of them disrespectful or.defiant though 



47 


they belonged to hill tribes who had been robbers 
and highwaymen before. Once or twice when our 
car was disabled and we had to spend many hours 
of the night on the sands, we felt as safe as at home. 
Sometimes when some wanderer came suddenly 
out of the dark and approached our car and asked 
for a drink of water, the driver told us in an 
undertone that a few years ago that man would 
have robbed us ! It was on such occasions that 
I fully understood what the King’s peace in 
Arabia meant.” 

People, whose own idea of the Haj was confined 
within conventional limits, would hardly under¬ 
stand Nizamat Jung’s point of view in the remark 
quoted below. It explains some of the movements 
of his mind. 

“ The weeks I spent in Arabia before and 
after the Haj were a renewal of some of my 
most useful experiences in life. The trial of 
patience and fortitude by severe tests in the 
form of illness and discomforts and privations, 
is always a good training for strengthening the 
moral fibre. This I had in full measure in 
Mecca in 1932 and in 1938, and after it came 
the grim silence of the desert and its grand 
spaciousness—so satisfying to the soul with 
its suggestion of unending peace. The desert 
has a great attraction for me, though I have 
, always been a lover of beautiful scenery. 
J Bare and empty and forbidding, yet it shows 
I us at times wonderful fairy scenes in its mirage. 
,| We see delicately shaded pictures, such as only 


48 


the most imaginative mind can conceive, or as 
are sometimes presented to it in dream. They 
travel with us for miles—and then fade, and 
one is tempted to ask whether some of the most 
fascinating scenes of life through which we pass 
may not after all be unreal like them. 

The most usual picture presented to the 
eye is that of a scene adorned with graceful 
date palms surrounding the margin of a silver 
lake. This picture grows out of the sand, fixes 
itself in the eyes of the beholder and so over¬ 
powers his faculties as to make it impossible to 
think that it can be unreal—until it vanishes. 

My .fourth-—visit to Arabia has made me 
stronger in soul, though the body has passed 
through illness and experienced some of the 
usual discomforts of the journey. The desert, 
where one gets nothing but sunshine and pure 
air, is a wonderful restorer. It teaches patience 
and fortitude and expands the soul. It gives 
one the feeling of being a shareholder in Infinity ! 

Thinking of human pride and the fate of 
Empires while traversing a desert on the way 
to Medina (in 1938) and brooding over the 
vastness of God’s Empire these lines came to me 
near Rabegh: 

" A thousand years of human pride * 

To Him are but a day. ( 

His realms uncounted phantoms hide, i 
Of Empires in decay." | ; 

In his vision of Now and Hereafter, Sir Niz am a t 



49 


Jung seems to have foreseen the horrors of the 
war of 1939. 

He has written many thrilling verses, in English 
and Persian on Medina and its spell over the Muslim 
mind; and his Way to Medina is a touching poem — 
a message from his heart. He explains the feeling 
thus: 

“ Sacred as Mecca is, the Muslim heart finds 
Medina more attractive. A great mysterious 
power is at work there, the spell of a marvellous 
personality which created a new order in the old 
world and is as potent to-day as it was 1360 
years ago. I go to Medina to get inspiration 
and gather strength from it. The mere thought 
of what was done there and from there makes 
me feel that nothing is impossible to faith.” 

I have often heard Sir Nizamat say that he was 
ashamed of the Muslims of the world for not at¬ 
tempting to restore to Medina some of its vanished 
glory. To him Medina still is the centre of Islamic 

power—the centre of the great world-force 
called Islam. And the righteous power of Islam 
growing from there and seen by him in his visions 
in the Arabian desert, taught him to say when 
glancing towards Europe, “ I am afraid the world 
| is passing through a critical period because its 
I civilisation, so-called, contains within itself all 
• the conditions of self-destruction.” He wrote 
‘ this in 1939-40. 

" I don’t know how it is, but I have forecasts 
of coming events in the form of visions which find 
expression in plain but strong verse.” We have 
4 



50 


only to glance at the collection of verses to which 
he has given the title, Modern Age. They were 
written between 1935 and 1938 on his return from 
the third pilgrimage to Arabia, and may be taken 
as accounts of things seen in his ' visions. 

I venture to say, as something stronger than 
mere conjecture, that his repeated visits to Arabia 
made the current of inspiration flow more steadily, 
Till his vision became clearer, and increased in 
; him the assurance of unchanging reality amidst 
1 the false appearance of life. He seems to have 
seen in a vision the impending fate of Europe when 
he wrote the lines, To England , in sight of the 
Arabian coast in January 1938, and the lines 
Now and Hereafter, two months later between 
Jeddah and Rabegh. They were prophetic of the 
coming war : 

I “ The brute in man has risen from his lair, 

| To make God’s peaceful earth a hell of strife.” 

His Persian verses are a further proof of the 
inspiration that came to him from Medina. 
“ Senile efflorescences of the spirit, ” he called 
these efforts humorously. 


4* 



PERSONALITY AND OUTLOOK 

“ I wish to be a nonentity in outward seeming : 
but inwardly I must be with the highest.” 

We seldom find a true or complete record of 
a man’s sentiments and convictions and aspira¬ 
tions from early youth up to the last stage of 
life. But Nizamat Jung’s hopes and ideals may 
be traced in his poems and occasional writings, 
which may be taken as a safe guide in forming a 
more or less correct estimate of his personality. 
His meditative disposition, his vision of the beauti¬ 
ful in creation, his turning away from the vani¬ 
ties of life, his want of ambition in the vulgar 
sense of the word, his admiration of the lofty in 
action and his constant contemplation of the lives 
of the world’s great men, so as to raise himself 
to their plane of life—all this is fully reflected in his 
writings. In this he is always himself, and his 
purpose, whether apparent or not, is essentially 
moral. 

In Mr. Fraser’s preface to Nizamat Jung’s 
sonnets published in London in 1918 occurs the 
following passage : 

“To those who have met him, it may appear 
paradoxical to say that his tastes were at the 
same moment acutely fastidious and widely 
sympathetic; but any one who has talked 


5i 


52 


with him will recall the blend of high imper¬ 
sonal ideas with a remarkable personality 
which seldom failed to stimulate other minds — 
even if those others shared few, if any, of his 
intellectual tastes. The Nawab’s personal in¬ 
fluence has been more subtle and far-reaching 
than he himself is yet aware. His love of poetry 
and history, if on the one hand it has intensi¬ 
fied his realisation of the sorrows and trage¬ 
dies of earthly life, on the other hand has 
equipped him with a power to awake in others 
a vivid consciousness of the moral value of 
literature through which (for the mere asking) 

. we, any of us, can find our way into a kingdom 
of great ideas. This kingdom is also the king¬ 
dom of eternal realities, or so at least it should 
be.” 

. Such was the impression left on those who 
knew him when he was young ; and what good 
judges thought of him when he was older was 
conveyed to him by an English friend who wrote 
from London in 1938 : 

“ I in I 9 I 5 (and 1920) heard Sir James 
Dunlop-Smith hold you up as a model of loyalty, 
wisdom, culture, and constancy—and I have 
always so regarded you ; as one Of the few who 
in this anarchic and hideous modern world 
(of false values and hypocrisy and deception) 
remain true and just.” 

These remarks, if there was nothing else before 
us, would be sufficient to interest people in the 
study , of his personality. There are people who 



53 


have acknowledged him as a man who lived in 
his own way undisturbed by circumstances ; and 
all have admired him equally for his firmness 
and constancy. We have to consider all this in 
order to know him as he should be known, and 
we have to give their due weight even to such 
casual remarks as the following : — 

“ Your worth is only exceeded by your 
modesty,” wrote Mr. E. A. Seaton (a former 
Principal of the Nizam College), in 1929 when 
Nizamat Jung was knighted. “ I am glad you 
have been made a British Knight. You are 
just the ideal of what such a person should 
be,” wrote an English lady to him in the same 
year. “ He is one of those who adorn whatever 
they touch,” said Mr. Burnett (another Princi¬ 
pal of the Nizam College) quoting Johnson’s 
Latin inscription to commemorate Goldsmith. 

It may be remarked that Sir Nizamat Jung’s 
whole life, like his poetry, reveals a tendency 
‘ ad cethera’ or upwards, as his motto suggests. 
This tendency was always in him, but in the 
earlier stages it could not be so easily detected 
as in after years. A whole life-time was needed 
to achieve such contentment, simplicity and 
spiritual serenity. 

It was as recently as„i;940„ that he received 
this message from Sir William Barton (formerly 
Resident at Hyderabad) : ‘‘We both admire 
the calm philosophy with which you face life 
in these difficult days. It is not every one who 
can develop that inner calm which is so strong 



54 


a bulwark against hardships and sufferings.” 

A lady friend wrote to him in the same 
year from America: “ Also I feel your mess¬ 
age : truth and right shall be established in time. 
You have spoken from your heart and every word 
rings of courage and belief in the eventual 
triumph of the Divine Will.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung, as was once remarked by 
an English gentleman, lived in a higher world 
than ours, and his desire was to be a soul con¬ 
veying helpful messages to other souls. It is 
interesting to recall that Maulana Mohammad 
Ali had called him a " calm Olympian ” as early 
as 1910. 

In 1938 a Hindu gentleman who had been 
tutor to his nephew, wrote about him : 

“ Occasional interviews showed me some 
aspects of Sir Nizamat Jung’s many-sided 
nature and quickened my interest in studying 
his character by which I felt strongly attracted. 
He was then living at Hillfort, a mansion 
created by his love of me diaeval architectu re. 
What struck me was that he should find it 
easy to be playing his own architect in giving 
to Hyderabad such an attractive building at 
the very time when his official duties as Political 
Member of the Executive Council, involving 
daily attendance at the Palace and frequent 
interviews with the British Resident, kept his 
mind anxiously occupied from day to day. The 
power of complete detachment at will, which the 



55 


building of Hillfort and his frequent excur¬ 
sions into the domain of poetry, brought to 
light, impressed me as an uncommon gift. Be¬ 
sides this, his wide range of reading, as eviden¬ 
ced by the books in his library to which I had 
access, his interest in all great literature and in 
the history of great nations past and present, 
and more than everything else, his instinctive 
righteousness which made him appear at times 
as a severe and outspoken critic of the doings of 
men, increased the fascination which I felt daily 
growing upon me. 

We cannot know a man without knowing 
what his feelings were, how his spirit responded 
to the universe of things and facts around him, 
how it flowed from his heart towards fellow- 
beings, how they were influenced by its current 
going out towards them. This is the real test 
-^of personality at its best, and it has a mysterious 
power which people cannot but feel. It is not 
the big outward facts of life that make the real 
man ; it is some subtle power within him.. I 
have felt this in his presence. The attraction 
of his personality also lies in his broad, sympa¬ 
thies, by which he rises above sectarian pre¬ 
judice. When men of other religions meet him, 
i they are soon made to feel that there is no reli- 
J gious barrier between the parties. 

Such was the sincere opinion of those who 
knew him ; but people of Hyderabad who did 
not know him well, did not seem to be quite at 
ease when approaching him. His reserved manner 







5 6 

which, perhaps appeared, somewhat haughty, 
did. not encourage them—and he may have 
been a little stern sometimes in repulsing 
the advances of self-seekers and sycophants. 
Simple and unassuming, he abhorred being treat¬ 
ed as a hero and paid court to ; and it may be said 
to his credit that he never held weekly levees for 
receiving homage when he was in power. 

After his retirement from office in 1930, another 
side of his nature began to come into clearer light. 
His study of the Qur’an and his several pilgri¬ 
mages to the Holy places strengthened and made 
vocal those tendencies which had been in him 
from the beginning; and then he became more 
communicative with his own people. His 
Western education helped him to recognise in the 
Qur’an his supreme guide to life, and he often told 
his listeners how he had found his way to Arabia 
via Europe. If he had surprised and delighted 
his English friends with his knowledge of their his¬ 
tory and literature, and with occasional quota¬ 
tions from,,Latin poets, he could now edify his 
Indian friends with quotations from the Qur’an 
and entertain them with chosen passages from 
his favourite Persian poets. In this way his own 
people got to know him better. Then came the 
Anjuman-e-Ilm-o-Amcd (revived by him in 1936) 
to train people in righteous living; and this and 
his occasional contributions to local papers on 
matters of.social and moral interest, helped to 
bring about a still better understanding of him 
in Hyderabad. 



57 


His disinterested and contented life could not 
fail to impress thinking people ; and he has told 
us how he first learned to value contentment, as a 
young student. “ Some words have power to 
inspire faith, and faith may lead to achievement. 
In 1886 when I read Shelley’s Lines written in 
Dejection near Naples, I was instantly struck with 
the words : 

“Nor that content surpassing wealth 
The sage in meditation found, 

And walked with inward glory crowned.” < 

I have never forgotten them; they are amongst 
my mental treasures. Their purport has sunk 
deeper into my heart with advancing years, 
and given tone to my feelings and brought to 
me a sense of constantly growing power.” 

But 50 years of silent meditation and earnest 
endeavour were necessary before his heart could 
respond to the echoes of the Prophet’s exultant 
cry “ My poverty is my pride, ” which is the 
subject of one of his shorter poems. 

“ Step by step, patiently and without tiring, 
always with fresh ardour and renewed energy I 
moved on towards the light that shone out from 
Me dina. And during every hour of meditation 

I.heard a voice proclaim ‘ My poverty is my 

pride.’ I am not poor but I want to feel poor, so 
as to find myself walking in his footsteps. Be¬ 
fore the Prophet there had been great minds in 
different ages whose words and practice had 
sanctified poverty. Even the worldly-wise 





5.8 


Horace,—not quite a Socrates in self-denial—had 
said with self-approbation : 

" Virtute me involvo probamque 
Pauperiem sine dote quaero.” 

(I wrap myself in my virtue and seek honest penury 
• without a dower). 


This short passage is sufficient to dispel the 
notion that there was a sudden change of outlook 
in Sir Nizamat Jung. The spiritual tendency 
leading towards the higher ideals of life was slowly 
evolving itself. Though he had been a great 
reader through life, the motive of his reading was 
not idle curiosity but a keen desire to gather some¬ 
thing that should become part of his conscious self 
and appear in his actions. “ From books, ” he used 
to say, “I have received the best life-material— 
refined and purified for the soul's use.” But his 
knowledge was neither bookish nor pedantic. He 
had escaped the evil effects of class-room education. 

Thoughjpious at heart, he did not wish to be 
thought conventionally pious. On some occasion 
he was heard to say, “ People call me pious be¬ 
cause I have been to the Haj several times. They 
only make ine recall the Poet Urfi’s stinging sar¬ 
casm : 

Those who go to the Kaaba are the vendors of 
their journey.’ 

He delighted in such sayings of the ancient 
wise men of Greece as the following : 

“ If you wish to make Pythocles [rich, do not add 
to his money, but subtract from his desires.” 

" Cheerful poverty is a thing of beauty.” / 




59 


There is no doubt that his stoicism was gra¬ 
dually refined by the Qur’anic teaching. Here 
is a passage out of a book called Hellenistic Age with 
his comment on it : 

“ According to the Stoic idea, the good man 
has simply to play his part nobly in a world 
which is never to be very different. That is the 
still, sad note of Marcus Aurelius. The phrase 
' play his part ’ gives indeed the figure to which, 
as we have seen, the practical philosophy of the 
Hellenistic Age habitually recurs—the figure of 
the actor in a play. And that is significant. 
The actor unlike the soldier is not helping by his 
effort to decide an issue still undetermined, he is 
not engaged in any struggle for a cause, he is 
just going through well or ill, the fixed part 
assigned.” 

Nizamat Jung’s comment on this is, ‘ There 
should be cheerful submission to Nature’s laws — 
that is, to the will of the Creator, and then cease¬ 
less striving for righteousness to make good prevail. 
This is Islam as shown in the Qur’an and as 
practised by the Prophet—the safest guide forms 
to follow.” 

Thoughts which had come from Greece were 
strengthened into emotions by the Qur an , and 
this fusing together of thought-material derived 
from various sources is characteristic of Nizamat 
Jung’s intellectual and moral nature. In his 
vision of life, religion and practical philosophy go 
together, hand in hand, and the veil of beauty is 
thrown over them by poetry. 








6o 


The peculiar cast of his mind explains his 
isolation to which I have referred. Take his own 
words : “ The real work of the soul in this life is 
to cut itself off from false appearances so that it 
may realise its existence in the eternal. The 
effort to achieve this is usually accompanied by 
gradually increasing asceticism, which may carry 
renunciation to the length of abandonment of the 
world but this is an extreme to be avoided by a 
Muslim. Some religions favour it, but Islam 
forbids it.” 

In justification of his attitude of aloofness a 
plea may also be advanced in the words of Rudolf 
Eucken’s Philosophy of Life (translated by W. R. 
Boyce Gibson, pp. 18,108 and 109) : 

“ The negative movement, as Eucken under¬ 
stands it, implies no distrust of the good that is 
in the world, no ascetic aloofness from the world’s 
progress. It implies rather a renunciation of 
any and every mode of social and personal life 
that hinders us from assisting in the betterment 
of what is spiritually genuine in the construction 
of society. It implies that we have given up the 
idea of abetting, by our passive acquiescence, 
a form of life which we inwardly feel to be vain 
and hollow. It implies the simple truth that 
if we wish to regenerate the world and the flesh, 
we must first renounce the devil. ’ ’ And Eucken 
adds, "And what is needed above all is a cour¬ 
ageous spiritual fellowship in the great task of 
shaping a true social culture, of creating a realm 
in which spiritual ideals are powers that 



6i 

perpetually realise themselves afresh in all the 
" detail of existence, and all life and action are 
enveloped in a pervading spiritual atmosphere.” 

This, I venture to say, is literally true of Sir 
Nizamat Jung himself. He had read much and 
thought much and felt much as a sojourner in life, 

“ Loiterer on life’s common way ” he calls himself, 

; in one of his poems, but he had always endeavoured 
to look for the permanent beyond the changing 
scenes of life’s common way. And a sympathetic 
observer could see how his vision of life was 
gradually drifting away from its earlier speculative 
and philosophic interests and associations of 
sesthetic beauty to the stem realities of man s 
precarious existence on this earth, as presented by 
the sandy deserts of Arabia. Whatever we like 
to call it, let us not forget that it was a passing from 
the unreal to the real; and serious work had thus 
become all the more a necessity to him to satisfy 
his aspirations. 

“ When soon after his retirement, Nizamat 
Jung started on a pilgrimage to Mecca wrote 
one of his constant visitors, “ some people des¬ 
cribed it as a metamorphosis, but the change, if 
such it could be called, was just a logical culmina¬ 
tion of the inner forces that had been working in 
his mind from the time when in his Cambridge 
days, he had borrowed a life of the Greek Philo¬ 
sophers from the late Jam Sahib of Nawanagar- 
the famous Ranji, a close friend-and had not 
put it by until he had steeped himself in Socrates. 
That marked the beginning of his absorption in 








6z 


that philosophy which, as he said, was not mere 
speculation but life. And he found in Islam the 
same practical philosophy of life perfected. 

In fact Nizamat Jung, in a way, attributed 
the marvellous progress that the West has made 
in the various branches of human activity to the 
fact that its ethical standards have been high in 
the past, and, essentially the same as those of 
Islam. It was an article of faith with him that 
Moslems had only to revert to those standards in 
order to become as progressive as before, and he 
remained firm in his conviction that righteous 
conduct is the chief object of religion and philo¬ 
sophy, and that mere outward ritual without the 
true spirit of religion was useless.” 

As a traveller from Greece to Arabia, Sir 
Nizamat could say with truth : 

“ Nor in the philosophic mind, 

Nor in the poet's art 

Could I that secret solace find 

Which soothes the troubled heart. 

But in the spirit of Islam, 

Which could lost faiths redeehi, 

I found the ' soul's marmoreal calm,' 

Of Plato's cherished dream." 

To a mind so trained, all that concerned man’s 
life was of the deepest interest, but he looked at 
things from his own detached point of view so as 
to be able to judge of their inter-relations and 
consequences more in accordance with the natu¬ 
ral principles underlying them than from their 



&3 

apparent and temporary associations. Hence he 
' could think unconventionally and independently, 
as observed by his old friend, Sir Reginald 
Glancy in one of his letters. His outlook covered 
many aspects of life while he was seemingly 
engaged in certain definite tasks. His mental 
resources were many; so were his mental 
excursions. His activities were many-sided and 
we realise this only when we go over the whole 
range of his work from his student days. 
His advice to his community was : “ Think before 
choosing that which seems expedient. Con¬ 
science must be guided by principles accepted by 
religion and moral judgment. Every man’s ac¬ 
tion must conform to them so that the corporate 
life of a whole community may approximate to 
the best standard attainable. There have been 
stages in the history of the growth of communi¬ 
ties when the light supplied by conscience was not 
allowed to be obscured by make-shift expediency, 
when the vigour and ingenuity of the human mind 
were such as to scorn weak compromise with evil, 
relying on the unaided strength of righteousness.” 
Such thoughts underlay all that he himself did , 
and for the kind of work he had in view simplicity 
and contentment supported by austere self-re¬ 
straint were indispensable. 

My study of Sir Nizamat Jung’s life and wri¬ 
tings leads me to believe that the tendency of 
his spirit was to soar, and that amidst all his 
occupations he was in search of something higher. 
We can. trace this in many of his writings, and 







64 

particularly in his self-revealing Persian verses, 
the product of his riper years of meditation, 
which are permeated by the spirit and teaching of 
the Qur’an. 


As tastes and habits illustrate personality, I 
will mention some of Sir Nizamat Jung s. He 
was seldom idle ; he was always quietly indulging 
in some pleasing recreation. 

" To watch growing plants has always been 
a source of delight to me. Growth has its 
fascination-when we see the marvel of two 
tender leaves bursting out of a decaying seed, 
then becoming greener and tougher and sending 
out of their joint other leaves and stems that 
gradually assume the form of a tree with up- 
1 right and lateral branches. A few years, and 
! we see a giant come out of a tiny shell. It is 
I one of Nature’s miracles.” 

* * * 

“ Some of my trees are my time-keepers. 
I age myself by them. I can trace the growth 
and decline of my youth in them ; they mark 
events and renew associations. Some of them 
, have a patriarchal dignity which is very en- 
! couraging to me in my advancing years, and 
their calm endurance through changing seasons 
is an inspiration to me.” 

“ I like to see flowers growing in wild luxu¬ 
riance in Nature’s own pell-mell fashion. Even 









HILLFORT 



65 


dry branches and dry leaves have their charm 
for me. What a fine thing it is to see and hear 
the swirl of dry leaves in a grove when the 
warm breezes come to play with them! And 
; how delightful to hear on a hot day in April 
the pattering of rain-drops on dry leaves as a . 
■ prelude to the coming storm !” 

Such passages show what he had been doing 
with his mind all his life, and how observation 
and love of Nature and refined sympathy and 
sentiment formed the essential part of his life. 

Ever eager to catch the spirit of a bygone age, 
his fancy was sometimes chasing impalpable de¬ 
lights even when his thoughts might have been 
busy with the prosaic facts of life. The thought of 
a Grecian statue or a marble column could take him 
at once into the heart of Hellenic life, and fancy 
pictures of Gothic castles and cathedrals could 
bring back to him the age of Faith and Chivalry. 
Even in the midst of his judicial and political work, 
he was not too busy to capture the delight of a 
fanciful idea. ‘Hi.llfort,’ as he tells us, owed 
its origin to one of them. “ I have been under 
the spell of Scott since my boyhood. The castles 
and halls and abbeys described by him have fur¬ 
nished pictures for me, and the words in which 
some of these pictures are painted often come back 
to me. In 1923, when I decided bo build a house 
on the hill adjoining the Black Rock (Ndubtzt 
JPahar), the style of architecture was the first im¬ 
portant thing to decide, because the site demanded 
a picturesque and imposing form with some 
5 





66 


romantic suggestion. This brought old castles -- 
to my mind and my inclination was towards the 
Gothic. One memorable evening the sight of 
the sun sinking behind the hills on the west side 
of the spur on which I stood, and the view of a 
sheet of water, the Husain Sagar, spread out 
before me to the north, made these lines from 
Marmion ring in my ears : 

“ Day set on Norham’s castled steep, | 

And Tweed’s fair river broad and deep, | 

And Cheviot’s mountains lone.” •' 

The picture and the sounds haunted me till an 
image, at first indistinct and vision-like, began to 
assume a more distinct form. From the stem 
grandeur of mediaeval castles my fancy flew 
to the more delicate arch and tracery of English 
Cathedrals and country seats and college build¬ 
ings, till my memory took me back to my Cam¬ 
bridge days, and the force of personal association 
made me decide in favour of the college style.” 
And he goes on to say, “ The admiration of my 
English friends testified to my success as an ar¬ 
chitect, and still more pleasing was the delight 
of my dear old friend of Cambridge days — 
Ranjit Singh (Maharaja of Nawanagar) who saw 
it in 1927.” 

The influence of Scott on him is life-long as 
can be seen from the following passage in his 
recollections: 

Scott is one of my earliest masters. It 
was he who filled my boyish heart with the 
5* 



67 

love of chivalry; and it was he who first made 
me realise how the ideals of chivalry, if taken 
to heart, can ennoble human conduct in any 
path of life. Scott’s own life illustrated this 
and I am sure that no knight of old ever carried 
under his armour a nobler heart than that 
which beat under the tartan plaid of Walter 
Scott.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung like his hero. Sir Walter 
Scott, preserved his health by regular hard exer¬ 
cise, such as riding and walking and shooting. 
He loved horses. “ 1 loved them as a boy, 
(when my little pony represented the whole equine 
race to me), and I love them now when I am 
obliged to give up riding owing to my venerable 
age,” he wrote in 1932. Some friends joined him 
in his rides—“ Ranji ” for example, and they were 
happy on hired hacks, and “ it was^ fearfully 
delightful,” to quote his own words, “ dodging 
about through dark lanes to avoid the Proctor 
and his hounds when we happened to return late 
of an evening.” 

After his return to India in 1896, riding and 
shooting became his chief holiday amusements. 
" Life in the jungle was a romance, says he in 
one of his jottings, " from the expectation of ad¬ 
venture. There are minds and there are moods, 
he explains, “ in which real scenes are transfigured 
by imagination into something visionary and 
entrancing. The desire of killing a tiger or a 
panther was not the real motive with me . t e 
preparation, the expectation, the excitement, 



68 


and the moments snatched for refreshment during 
the day’s hard work, and the night spent under 
canvas with all sorts of weird sounds indistinctly 
heard ’between sleeping and waking-including 
the rhythmic snoring and grunting of the beaters 
stretched round the camp fires—all this went 
into the charm wrought by that,great enchantress, 
Nature, and became romance 
“ One of the charms of Sir Nizamat s personality 
arises from an unexpected combination of 
widely differing traits that go to form it. A lover 
of books and peace by disposition, of Nature and 
solitude by habit, one may well wonder at his love 
of horses and weapons and jungle life. 

“ Yes, I was fond of weapons,” said he one 
day, “ and always kept some by me, whether 
they were required for use or not. Even now 
in my 70th year I sometimes take a gun out of its 
case, or a sword or a dagger out of its sheath and 
have a good look at it for a little pleasurable 
excitement. I like to read history in such things , 
they have played a great part in our world.” 

He delighted to remind people that Socrates 
[ had fought as a foot soldier at the battle of Pla- 
tsea and JEschylus at Salamis and Marathon. 
Though a hermit at heart, the warrior’s soul in 
hf-m was always on the alert, and we find flashes 
of it in some of his poems. 

His da ily habits are even now regular. He rises 
before four in the morning *, sometimes between 
three and four for the night prayers, Tahajjud, 
makes a cup of coffee for himself, repeats passages 



69 

or chapters of the Qur’an till morning prayers, and 
again for some time after. Then he strolls m the 
garden for a while looking at trees and plants 
“ rehearsing walks in Paradise, ” as he would say, 
referring to Jannat as meaning garden. He has his 
breakfast at about seven and begins his usual work' 
of reading and writing soon after eight and keeps it 
up till ii o’clock. He has a curious habit of 
walking round his room arranging things while 
his mind is shaping its thoughts in prose or verse ; 
for movement is to him a welcome accom¬ 
paniment to mental activity. Many poems 
(including long ones), I understand, were com¬ 
posed by him in the course of his walks, and he 
can talk or listen to friends while walking and 
making verses. So it happened more than 
once that during motor journeys to Vikarabad he 
composed some of his poems. He also found 
periods of illness, during which the mind was 
released from ordinary routine, favourable to 
quiet mental work of this kind. 

“I am glad to say,” he wrote to a friend 
in 1940, “ that by way of.‘plain livingM am 
practising menial service by making my bed, 
dusting the scanty furniture in my room and 
putting things in order. Soon after finishing 
such work I fly to the higher regions for a 
little ‘ high thinking.’ There I find myself in 
goodly company: prophets and patriarchs, 
philosophers and sages, poets and artists 
welcome me.” 

“ Sometimes, in between thinking and 





70 


dreaming, there comes a flash of thought or 
a snatch of song like a shooting star and I 
hasten to capture and confine it. Sometimes 
a few lines of some great poet come to remind 
me of some duty to be done ; the words of 
' Shakespeare or some other English poet, or 
some moral maxims of Horace bring a plea- 
i sant change to dispel dullness.” 

I cannot do better than reproduce some of 
his own notes to throw more light on his person¬ 
ality. 

“ Kind people may think (or say) that I 
have done some good work in life. I wonder 
if I have. Both as regards the nature of the 
work and its quality, we are apt to differ. 
Some people would naturally think of my offi¬ 
cial work and those who have thought of me 
since as a religious devotee and nothing else, 
would only be harping on my ‘sanctimonious 
theory.’ A small band of the initiated among 
my countrymen, might occasionally think 
of me as a literary man, a poet, a scholar, a 
thinker, etc. But I do not like to think of 
such things. ” 

Sir Nizamat Jung is one who finds more satis¬ 
faction in recalling the performance of some hum¬ 
ble duty than in thinking of his more meritorious 
official or literary work. I quote the following 
from his notes. : 

“ It is my good fortune to have been of 
some little help to people who were working 
in a noble cause, and to have found it possible 



7i 


to relieve those who were in pain and trouble. 

But the services which I recall m my 
hours of meditation as having been of my best 
are of another kind, such as looking a ter e 
sick or actually nursing them at times. Be¬ 
sides my father and mother whom I nursed 
in their illness, I have had the privilege of tend¬ 
ing some friends when their condition was 

serious .While in London I had the 

opportunity of doing some little service of 
this kind to a dear friend after a dangerous 
operation at Guy’s hospital. It was only a duty 
of love but it was appreciated by my father 
in a letter conveying the thanks of his old 
I friend, Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk, -which is of 
greater value to me than my Cambridge deg- 
j rees and my titles, And even now I have 
' the satisfaction of feeling that I am of service 
to those who need friendly help.” 

Here is another note, with an undertone 
of sadness in it: 

“ Whatever work I did as an official and 
whatever influence I exercised over men s 
minds, may be said to be dead by now, for I 
cannot trace any good effects of lt^in the prac¬ 
tice of those who succeeded me.” 

“ My pertinacity in exhorting people to live 
a true and righteous life, may be unwelcome to 
many,” he once said to me,” but I have to do this 
as a Muslim when I see them living a false life 
of vain show and senseless imitation and gliding 
into pleasant vices under the delusion that t ey 







72 

are progressing after the style of Europe ! The 
revival of the Anjuman-e-Ilm-o-Amal had this 
object in view. 

“ Another thing for which I may claim some 
credit is that after nearly half a centuiy of 
striving, I have at last come within sight of what 
t I was always hoping to reach : a hermit s life 
! of no-desire. I might well be proud of this 
( because our Prophet’s pride in his poverty is 
' one of the noblest lessons we have received 
from him.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung’s mind, though it likes to 
rest on strong convictions, is not of the dog¬ 
matic kind. It does not attempt to limit the 
possibilities that are in nature, by assuming that 
it knows everything. He has, as he said, a 
contempt for ‘ ‘ that boastful word, Rational, which 
bars access to the vast realm of spiritual life. ” 
Here is an example of his attitude towards 
the occult: 

“ Some eminent men of science now believe 
in what they may once have regarded as 
a foolish superstition—the spirit-world. Sir 
Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crooks and Sir 
William Barrett have confirmed my belief in 
the higher mysteries.” 

And here is a note belonging to 1943 : h " 

“I have had some mystical experiences 
during the past few years, such as sudden in¬ 
timation of coming events, or realisation of 
some pure thought or good wish in an unex¬ 
pected manner, or an answer to some eager 



73 


query of the heart flashed upon me by some 
word or words of the Qur’an as soon as I had 
opened the book.” Such experiences naturally 
strengthened his belief that the human soul 
is constantly in touch with the Unknown by 
means of some unexplained power or form of 
consciousness. He called this ‘ Radio opera¬ 
tions in Nature.’ 






POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY 
“ What though but a lonely dreamer. 

Lei me have consoling dreams. 

Let me dream to find the real 
In the heart of all that seems. 

These lines reveal the true spirit of Sir Nizamat 
Tune’s poetry and philosophical outlook. He 
« dreams to find the Realand this, the prac¬ 
tical side of his dreaming, has guided him through 
life. It was natural that poetry should come 
to him as the best form of self-expression m his 
quest of the Real, and that it should become more 
and more spiritualised as he advanced m years 
so as to be the expression of his philosophy and 

religion. . TT , , , 

There are only a few persons in Hyderabad or 

elsewhere, who have any intimate knowledge oi 
his writings. Mrs. Sarojini Naidu was one of the 
first to recognise the merit of his poems more than 
thirty years ago, when some of his sonnets were 
published in the Comrade in 1908-9 by the late 
Maulana Mohammad Ali—a great admirer. 
But in spite of this and the occasional appear¬ 
ance of some of his poems in Islamic Culture, 
edited by the late Mr. Pickthall, he is not 
yet sufficiently known here as a poet; and what¬ 
ever little information we have, comes to us from 
England. The reason lies obviously in his modes¬ 
ty; he disliked publicity and wrote only to 



75 


satisfy his own instinct. In 1918 he became known 
to a small circle of English readers through a 
volume of Sonnets published in London by Messrs. 
Erskine MacDonald, and it was in 1933 that I 
edited some of his ‘ Islamic Poems.’ But there 
is a large collection of his poems yet to be 
published, and I hope to be able to edit them 
before long. 

I am convinced that not many among us have 
been able, like him, ‘ to imbibe the spirit of great 
literature. From Classical and Romantic poetry, 
from history, philosophy and religion—from all 
these sources has flowed into him that inspiring and 
sustaining force which may be said to be his inner 
life.’ His poems, with but a few exceptions, show 
that some irrepressible impulse in him is seek¬ 
ing expression for what cannot be fully expressed 
in words.. .The other day I came across a little 
acrostic which was his tribute to Rabindranath 
Tagore, and to my mind, it contains a true des¬ 
cription of himself : 

“ To find his God he learned to love 
All life that God hath made ; 

God’s light shone round him from above 
O’er all for which he prayed. 

Revealing in life’s perfect whole 
Eternal Beauty to his soul.” 

This was Nizamat Jung's own quest; and 
his poetry, as some competent judges have ob¬ 
served, “ reveals the spirit of a true poet which 
soars from the world of phenomena into the 
realm of ideals, upborne by a love so pure and 






76 

noble that even to name it, is to profane it. 

I am quoting the words of an English writer 
with reference to Nizamat Jung s 1918 Sonnets. 

His use of the English language with de¬ 
licacy and a sense of power and mastery has evok¬ 
ed the admiration of eminent English readers. It 
has been said that his command of it is complete 
and that he is faultless in his choice of vocabulary. 
Mr. McCurdy, author of the Roses of Paestum, 

I wrote after reading his Sonnets, “ It seems al- 
/ most incredible that his poems are not written 
| in the poet’s mother-tongue.” The Yorkshire 
1 Post remarked, “ No one would suspect that the 
poet had written in a foreign language.” Mr. 
Arthur S. Way, translator of Homer and Euri- 
pedes, etc., compared what he called Nizamat 
Jung’s “ marvellous performance ” to Milton’s 
Italian poems and Swinburne’s French ones. 

Such tributes of praise made me naturally 
curious to know how Nizamat Jung had acquired 
his command of English. It was by feeling 
myself to be English when reading English books,” 
he replied, “ and entering into the thoughts and 
feelings of the English race, and regarding myself 
as one of them actually taking part in the events 
about which I happened to be reading. This 
habit grew upon me and has continued through 
life.” Then after a pause: “ It is the love of 
the subject. You have to lose yourself in it. 
Get the feeling, and the words will come. I 
still remember some lines out of a poem read at 
school when I was about 12, in which the triumph 



77 


of the English language in spreading over the 
earth fascinated nay boyish imagination ; and the 
time came when I delighted to feel myself growing 
in Shakespeare’s England.” 

In his boyhood and even as a young man, 
it appears, he was constantly receiving inspi¬ 
ration from some of his favourite poets ; and, 
as he himself has said, his earliest verse may be 
regarded as exercise and self-preparation. From 
a collection of his poems, which I have in my pos¬ 
session, I can trace the directions in which his 
tastes were moving. I believe some of his first 
verses were written during his Cambridge days 
when he was in his 18th year. There is one poem 
called A Confession (1889-1936), which I regard 
as a key to the main thoughts and feelings indi¬ 
cated in his Nature poems : Communion with 
Nature in solitude. The influence of Words¬ 
worth was then operating on his mind. And I 
have seen another poem of a different kind, be¬ 
longing to the first period. It is called Sappho 
and Aphrodite and belongs to 1894. According to 
him, it wa.s iC no better than e mere exercise in 
Hellenistic feeling.” In the earlier years the 
classical influence was felt as a fresh stimulus , 
and amongst poems belonging to that period I 
have come across translations of some of the 
odes of Horace, read at Cambridge in 1887-1888. 
As a verse translator he had already acquired con¬ 
siderable felicity of expression. 

It is interesting to compare the elaborate style 
and alien feelings and sentiments expressed hi 


78 


1894 with a P oem written on Sappho in 1936 or 
1937. In the latter the style is quite spontaneous 
and free from any suggestion of artifice. 

“ Thy voice winged with thy heart’s desire— 

A meteor in its flight ; 

Thy sighs and moans are songs of fire— 

All melody and light! 


* 


Fd fain believe, ’twas thine to see, 

Before thy soul took flight, 

Some sign of love’s eternity 
Foreshadowed in love’s light.” 

This was suggested by a likeness of Sappho’s 
head (after Alma Tadema) in his library, and 
in the last four lines Nizamat Jung reads his 
own spiritual meaning of love into Sappho’s 
passion. Thus he progressed from the formal to 
the spiritual, from the unreal to the real, from 
fancy’s dreams to the deeper realities of life. 

In Myth and Truth and some other poems he 
boldly avows his later creed : 

“Forsaken lie the Muses’ bowers, 

Their harps with broken strings. 

No longer rise in fountain-showers 
The Heliconian springs.” 

I must mention another phase of Nizamat 
Jung’s dreaming, in which his love of Nature is 
spiritualised. Natural objects carry his min d 
back to the source of all things. He is a lover 



79 


of Nature, and his love is expressed in various 
forms in his Rural Lyrics. 

The little bird that made this nest 
With its own little beak, 

Has taught me more than learning's lore 
| And gives me what I seek. 

\ By instinct taught the builder's art 
To use with native skill, 

It tells me of the wondrous powers 
That God's creation fill." 

The banyan tree under which he reclines makes 
him meditate over its growth from a small seed 
and 

<f Gaze, wonder, question why 
All this has been." 

Such poems have their origin in a deep-rooted 
sentiment. 

“ Mysterious life, at first of nothing born, 

What forms adorn 

Thee by the Maker's will, what wondrous robes 
By beauty worn ! 

To this class belongs his Ode to Night which I 
consider a very fine poem. The imagery is sug¬ 
gestive, the language felicitous and the sentiment 
exalted. 

From Nature he easily finds his way to its 
Maker, and this is inevitable in the case of a 
sensitive, reflective soul. He sees : 

“ Into the depths of earth and heaven, 

Where eyes and reason fail 
To trace the movements of a will 



Pervasive yet alone, 

Immutable, yet changing still 
All forms to ends unknown/* 

This is how he finds God. And Nature to him 
Is only the external manifestation of God’s 
will. And thus the soul's immortality Is no 
longer an idea with him; it becomes a haunting 
feeling and strives for lyrical expression. 

" Not bounded or by space or time, 

As earths and skies and seasons are, 

I float in Thine immensity 
Above, beyond sun, moon and star. 

* Tis of the essence of my soul, 

The inborn longing thus to be ; 

I soar beyond the bounds of life 
To find my immortality! ” 

And The Star Beyond the Sky sends a message 
of comfort to him ; 

" In doubt and sorrow’s dreary night 

When no fair star-beam greets the eye— 

Look upward to the Source of Light! 

There is a Star beyond the Sky.” 

But even this seems a passive feeling to one 
who has glimpses of ethereal beauty and thrills 
of unheard music. 

“ Sweet though the water’s murmuring sound, 

The sighing of the breeze ; 

Sweet though the songs of birds resound 
From spring-awakened trees; 

Yet there’s a music sweeter still, 

The pensive soul to please ; 

Its notes, unheard, my bosom thrill 
With finer joys than these. ” 



8i 


Sir Nizamat Jung’s poems printed for private 
circulation some years ago, were arranged by him 
in six groups: 

Sonnets, Occasional Poems (including war 
poems), Death of Socrates and Other Poems, 
Rural Lyrics and Lyrical Poems and Islamic 
Poems. Each group, if separately dealt with, 
will require more space than I have allotted 
to each chapter in this sketch. I shall, there¬ 
fore, content myself with giving a few typical 
specimens from other groups and quoting a 
few authoritative opinions regarding them. 

The Sonnets of 1918, originally styled 'Love’s 
Withered Wreath, ’ after a line from Shelley’s 
Epipsychidion —and Sonnets of Mystic Love and 
Beauty, as I should like to call them—arrest the 
reader’s attention at once, and have elicited high 
praise. 

“ The Nawab’s Sonnets depict the very 
soul of chivalry and self-eclipsing devotion, 
and they contain lines which claim an equal 
fellowship with the works of those whose 
names are sonorous in the spheres of poetic 
genius,” was the remark of Mr. Meredith Starr. 
And The Poetry Review wrote: 

“ The Nawab writes of his love as Dante 
wrote of Beatrice... There is a blaze of 
beauty in all his Sonnets, and not a little noble 
wisdom... I doubt if Tagore himself could 
have written more beautiful Sonnets.” 

Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, a well-known 

American essayist and poet, wrote to a friend, 

6 







82 


" That is a very discerning pen which likens 
them to those topmost peaks of unascended 
Heaven—which are Michael Angelo’s.” 

The Times Literary Supplement of March 
28th, 1918, wrote : 

‘‘TheSonnets are full of singular excellence, 
revealing a graceful fancy and a true literary 
taste.” 

And it was said in a letter to a friend by 
Mrs. Henryson Caird, a well-known writer : 

" The Sonnets seem to reach the high 
watermark of human development. ” 

The Scotsman (February nth, 1918) commend¬ 
ed their “ melodious dignity and their impas¬ 
sioned ardour for ideal beauty. ” 

I am tempted to go on quoting more opinions,, 
but these, I imagine, will suffice. The first Sonnet 
of this series, Ideal Beauty, is well worth quoting. 

“ As one who winders lone and wearily 
Through desert tracts of silence and of night, 

Pining for love’s keen utterance and for light, 

And chasing shadowy forms that mock and flee, 
My soul was wandering through Eternity, 

Seeking, within the depth and on the height 
Of being, one with whom it might unite 
In life and love and immortality-” 

Regarding spiritual aspiration in poetry, " The 
soul’s quest after ideal beauty and goodness,” 
Nizamat Jung once wrote to me, " becomes a 
means of communication with God. But human 
aspiration can only find poetical expression in 

language and seeks to image forth beauty for its 

6 '* 



83 


satisfaction and delight. Thus the mind is ob¬ 
liged to give its conception some concrete form, 
however ethereal it may be. Though this ten¬ 
dency may be called Platonic in one of its aspects, 
yet it is a mystical religious tendency and a half¬ 
way stage in the spirit’s progress. In interpret¬ 
ing poetry that attempts to embody such as¬ 
pirations we have to seek for something beyond 
the imagery which is employed as a mere acces¬ 
sory. If we fail to do this, we miss its true signi¬ 
ficance.” This, I think, lays down a correct 
rule for judging such poetry as his Sonnets of 
1918 —which superficial readers may easily mis¬ 
take for ordinary love poetry, missing the mystical 
soaring spirit, reminiscent of Plato and Dante 
and Michael Angelo and Hafiz. 

I do not profess to be a critic, but I think 
Nizamat Jung’s verse reveals a remarkable gift. 
He is able to express great thoughts in a few 
simple words arranged in a lucid and melodious 
combination. His Sonnets have “ the consoling 
quiet of Classic utterance,” as Professor Speight 
once said, “and they are as transparent in their 
thought and feeling as the best French poetry— 
lovely groupings of simple words such as Shakes¬ 
peare and Heine and even Browning fall back 
upon in their supreme moments.” 

Among his occasional poems, there was one, 
India to England which became famous in 1914. 
As I have said before, it was published in The 
London Times on the day the Indian troops landed 
at Marseilles. A friend of Nizamat Jung, who 






84 

happened to see it in the Morning Post, felt sure 
that no other Indian but he could have written 
such lines. An official of the India Council was 
approached for information; he made it clear 
that Nizamat Jung was the same as Nizam- 
uddin Ahmed of Hyderabad. “ And since then 
that friend has done much by way of encouraging 
me in my poetical work and making it known 
in England,” said Sir Nizamat Jung in grate¬ 
ful acknowledgment. 

His old friend, Sir David Barr wrote to him 
in 1914* to say : “ It will have a good effect in 
England to read the lines written by a Mohamma- 
dan gentleman holding a high position in the 
great Muhammadan State of Hyderabad, be¬ 
cause among other lies spread abroad by our 
unscrupulous enemies there have been statements 
of a venomous character reflecting on the loyalty 
of Mohammadans in India—and declaring that 
they only await the defeat of England by Ger¬ 
many to raise a Jehad against the British rule 
in India.” 

In this way the poem was a service to the 
Empire. 


* India to England was quoted some years later in the 'Romance of 
the Baghdad Railway' by Rev. Parfit in a lecture : 

" The Kaiser was mistaken, for there are powers even on earth that 
are mightier than the sword. There was no revolt among the seventy 
millions of Mohammadans in India, but there was a remarkable response 
of loyalty to England, and on the very day the first Indian troops landed 
at Marseilles, a beautiful poem appeared in the London Times, written 
by a Mohammadan Judge of the Native State of Hyderabad. It expresses 
the sentiments, ” he said, " of cultured Indians towards a nation to 
whom they in India owe all that is best in life. ” 



85 


Among the War poems of 1914 there are 
others also with merits of their own. Turcos at 
Cambrai, for example, has been called thrilling 
and grand by an English friend of his. It reveals 
the warrior’s soul in the poet, and reminds me 
of the lines once written by Nizamat Jung inside 
the cover of the Shah Nanta apostrophising 
Firdausi: “ O poet with a warrior’s soul.” Un¬ 
doubtedly he himself possessed some of it. 

Among his earlier poems, there is one which 
cannot fail to attract attention on account of 
its structure, its imagery, and its language : it 
is the stately Coronation Ode of 1911. 

There was a time when Nizamat Jung as an 
admiring pupil of Thomas Gray, felt the 
fascination of the Pindaric Ode, and the old love 
returned when a great occasion presented itself 
in 1911. Here I may mention in passing that 
this Ode was read before Their Majesties King 
George V and Queen Mary, soon after their Silver 
Jubilee in 1936—and was appreciated by them, 
'as may be seen from the following letter to 
Lady Bute from one of the Ladies-in-Waiting 
to Her Majesty. 


Sandringham, Norfolk. 
January 2, 1936. 

Dear Lady Bute, 

The Queen has bidden me to write to you again and say 
Their Majesties have now had time to read the poem you 
sent from Nawab Nizamat Jung Bahadur. The Queen will 
be grateful if you will send him a message from both Their 



86 


Majesties saying that they appreciate his expressions of 
loyalty to Their Majesties as expressed in his poem which 
they have read. 

Yours sincerely, 

Lady-in-Waiting. (Sd.) I. CARR BRUCE. 

This Ode was Nizamat Jung’s first poetical 
expression of personal loyalty to the King. He 
had had the honour of meeting him and showing 
him over the Victoria Memorial Orphanage when 
he had come out to India as Prince of Wales 
in 1906. The remembrance of the Prince’s 
courtesy on that occasion may have imparted 
a warmth to his feelings in certain lines. 

Sir Nizamat Jung's Islamic Poems of which 
I brought out a few in 1935, are a subject by 
themselves. The Spirit of Light, a favourite of 
mine, has been used by me as a prelude to that 
series, though it does not belong to it. It is an 
invocation and carries an inspiring message of 
serene high hope—truly Islamic. 

Spirit of light, from starry mansions straying, 
Whose flight is o'er this world of woe and strife ; 
On, on thy course, to mortal hearts conveying 
God's meaning of the mystery of life. 

On, on thy course, wide-scattering from each pinion 
Sparks that shall leave behind a trail of fire, 

To guide mankind from passion's dire dominion 
To purer heavens of the soul's desire ; 

To cheer them, toil-worn weary and benighted, 

With heaven-born hope pure as the Dawn’s first ray ; 
To gladden them in Sorrow's gloom affrighted, 

With thy sure promise of Eternal Day ! 



87 

I take this as his heart’s tribute to the Prophet’s 
work. 

Poetry of such high aspiration, possessing 
such beauty and purity, should not be allowed 
to remain unknown—in Hyderabad, at least, 
where it was produced and upon which it may 
serve to reflect some lustre. 

In his Rural Lyrics and other Nature poems 
we find an expression of the sublime faith of 
Hafiz : 

'Tis stamped upon the Universe, our Im¬ 
mortality.” , 

And the spirit of Nizamat Jung, I repeat, finds 
avenues of approach to the Eternal and brings 
him a mystical vision of life : 

“ Before mine eyes 
/ A garden lies 

f Where blooms Life's mystic flower; 
j' It takes its hue 

From Heaven's bright blue 
I And dawn's first roseate hour. 

1 • 

It drinks the wine 
Of glad sunshine 
In pearly drops of dew, 

Receives a share. 

From earth and air 
Of fragrance ever new. 

The stars of night 
Send forth their light 
In many a wandering beam; 

The moon stoops low 
To cast a glow 

Round mine enchanted dream." ' 



88 


In the Persian Poet’s Song written in 1925 
the idea and imagery are exquisitely blended, 
and the quaintness of simile and metaphor com¬ 
bined with personification has a pleasing oriental 
touch in it—so appropriate to the theme. And 
then there is the rhythmic melody : 

“ And the night’s still voice 
To my being came 
As bliss in the moonlit air. 

* * * 

And the rose sighed forth 

To the breath of spring 

The perfume of love in her breast. 

* * * 

And each thrill in my heart 
Was a blossom bright 
Unfolding within my breast.” 

An admirer of Hafiz^ the poet of Spiritual 
Beaat^'from his youth, Nizamat Jung was al¬ 
ways receiving a side current of inspiration from 
his work and this blended with other currents 
coming from Europe through Plato and Dante 
and others. 

This is illustrated by his beautiful poem on 
Hafiz: 

" Love sighs for bliss, but sighs in vain ; 

Yearns for the Heaven it cannot gain; 

Its ecstasy is agony ; 

Hopes fade while yearnings still remain. 

With eyes on Heaven’s mystic veil, 

Faith bows where sight and reason fail. 

When hopes and fears mid smiles and tears, 

The lone, world-wearied heart assail. 



89 

Faith finds, when sorrow’s night is done, 

A fairer world from chaos won ; 

Each atom rife with glowing life, 

Aspiring towards a brighter sun. 

Such love and faith were his, whose soul 
In each fair fragment saw the whole ; 

Eternal grace in Beauty’s face. 

Love where eternal seons roll. ”* 

One of his earliest lyrical poems written before 
his powers had reached maturity, is entitled 
A Lesson and in it he is not afraid to appear didac- 

tic. He shows us : 

" Many a nameless flower 
On rocky, sterile soil that grows, 

* * 

Alike in sunshine and in gloom. 

In noontide heat, in midnight cold 
The Power that made it bids it bloom 
And to the heavens its heart unfold 

And to the heart of man convey 
With hopeful smile this precious lore. 

That He who breathes life into clay 
Will guard that life for evermore. " 

This was written in the early years of this cen¬ 
tury, and showed him the way from Nature to 
God; and this was his religion even before he 
wrote in 1936/37 ; 

| " Religion is no idle rite— 

S 'Tis worship in the heart 

Where faith reveals the hidden light 

Whose subtle rays impart 

Their wondrous grace to earth and sky, 

And life to lifeless sod." 


♦The rhyme arrangement is that of the Persian quatrain. 



go 


From mystical visions he can pass, on with 
ease to the great epic of Islam; and in picturing 
historical events he can, by one sweep of the 
imagination, take in a vast field of action and 
long periods of time. 

Great is Mrs. Sarojini Naidu’s admiration 
for some lines that occurred in one of Sir Nizamat's 
sonnets of 1908 commemorating the triumph of 
Islam. 

“ From Persia's Magian shrines to Gothic Spain \ 
From Memphian deserts to Byzantium old." j! 

In the Miracles of Islam also we have the same 
sweeping glance: 

" By it the Arab righteous made 
Brave, and of none but God afraid, 

Child of the desert, broke proud Persia's might, 

And quenched her sun when pomp and glory’s shade 
Was like a phantom lost in endless night. 

A miracle ! and soon salvation came 
And Persia stood once more 
Upon the roll of fame. 

And Syria too, the Eastern home 
Of the decaying pomp of Rome, 

Beheld a miracle-—the lightning glance 
Of Arab swords—and like a tottering dome 
Fell at the touch of the wild Bedouin's lance. 

Nor Rome's dread name nor all her deeds' renown 
Could stem the conquering tide 
That rushed from town to town." 

I admire his Arabia Revisited for its simplicity, 
sincerity and vigour. It voices one of his 
deepest convictions, as one of the lessons of the 
Haj. 



“ 0 barren land for ever blest. 

Thou throne of Faith’s immortal power! 

Not in thy face but in thy breast 
Lives glory as Faith’s promised dower. 

* * 

How many a land where I have been 
Showed beauties that could lull the soul 
To pleasure, not to faith serene 

As can thy sunbeams’ stem control! 

* * 

The charm has faded from my dream 
Of scenes in Beauty’s favoured lands ; 

Once more I hail with faith supreme 
Thy frowning rocks, thy scorching sands.” 

The Recantation (1935) is a poem that ex¬ 
plains Sir Nizamat Jung’s change of mood or 
attitude—his passing from the aesthetic to the 
spiritual—another lesson of the Haj. 

His earnestness and the deep sincerity of 
his own faith must have given him at last an un¬ 
common insight into Reality, if I may say so, 
and something like prophetic vision. This is 
clearly discernible in some of his later poems 
which he grouped under the title, The Modern 
Age ; and still more so in his lines : To England 
(1938)—and in his Now and Hereafter —both, I 
believe, bom of sudden impulse and written in 
Arabia, the land of prophecy. 

To England 1938 was published in The Patriot , 
and a society called Champions of Christ and the 
Crown had it printed and circulated as a timely 
warning to the British nation. Sir Michael 
O’Dwyer, an old friend of Sir Nizamat, wrote to 



92 


him as follows : — 

“ Since Kipling’s Recessional I have read 
nothing which thrilled me so much by its ge¬ 
nuine patriotism, its noble sentiments and its 
felicity of language. The sentiments to which 
it gives expression are particularly apposite 
at the present time when greedy materialism 
and brute force are so rampant, displacing the 
old heroic and chivalrous feelings of the age 
of faith which shed a lustre on Christianity and 
Islam when Salahuddin and Coeur de Leon 
were magnanimous opponents. 

“ I have most pleasant recollections of our 
meetings at Hyderabad 30 years ago. The 
West has not progressed since then in the spi¬ 
ritual and moral sense; but Hyderabad, I 
am happy to think, has made great strides 
without sacrificing its oriental manner and 
culture.” 

Sir Nizamat Jung, a moralist by taste and 
habit, is not afraid of appearing as such in his 
poems. In the Hermit written in 1936/37 he has 
given us his judgment. I do not think it any 
exaggeration to say that it is what the distracted 
world needs to learn. The so-called Reconstruc¬ 
tion of Europe after the war should be on the 
foundation he suggests: 

' To care thy nation’s maladies 
Do thou first cure thy soul.’ 

Sir Nizamat Jung sees clearly the evil that is 
ruling the world, but he has visions also of the 
good to come. In this he is a confirmed optimist. 



93 


“ The vision comes, I see the fatal day— 

The work of Hate in mouldering ruin lies 
But mark ! when years of travail pass away, 

A nobler world from out the wreck shall rise.” 

And he is one who — 

" Hails from far the coming ray 
Of light that lurks in gloom ; 

In garbage festering in decay, 

The promised rose’s bloom ! ” 

Another short poem, A Parable of Life, with 
its grave melancholy pathos caused by witnessing 
Nature’s decay, discloses a lofty vision of hope. 

“ With saddened heart I mused, and then I saw 
Elsewhere, afar, where life shall ever be— 

That tree revived as by a higher law— 

I saw it imaged in Eternity !" 

Such poetry, an intimate record of Sir Niza- 
mat’s inner life, ought to have a special value for 
the people of Hyderabad. It gives us something 
of him direct from himself and helps us to under¬ 
stand his personality. It does not invite, but 
rather precludes criticism. He said : 

“ ’Twas not for fame, 'twas not for praise f 
I poured my spirit into song.” | 

But praise his poetry did win from discerning 
critics ; and pensive souls, I dare say, will always 
feel consoled by its message. To me, as to some 
other friends of his, the value of it lies in its power 
to elevate and console by means of unquestioning 
faith. It gives us hints of ‘thoughts that do 
often lie too deep for tears.’ 



94 


It is not generally known that Nizamat Jung 
translated into English verse in 1919 nearly a 
100 Urdu Ghazals of His Exalted Highness 
the Nizam, Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, 
who graciously wrote to him as follows : 

“ Your knowledge of English is admitted by all; and 
I have also heard that you are interested in poetry. 
So if you can translate some of my Ghazals into English 
verse your work will remain after you as a monument. 
It is of such a nature that it cannot be performed by any 
man of ordinary ability.” 

“ I appreciate the devoted manner in which you 
are translating the poems of my Dewan (collection). 
Certainly there is no one else at present who can do it 

equally well.I leave the selection of the Ghazals 

to your choice ; but it would be well if the number was to 
be a hundred and fifty or so, for making a fair-sized 
volume.” 

Commands were received afterwards, reducing 
the number to a hundred, and the work was 
finished in the course of the year. 

As specimens of his workmanship I shall give 
a few taken at random : 

" But behold S a lamp is burning 
In the flame of every flower ; 

Envy bums the heart of Bulbul 
While it owns to Beauty's power." 

* * * 

Life and death ! they are but curtains 
That conceal the conjuror’s art; 

And this world itself illusion, 

Where none come and none depart. 

* * * 





But they are nought, Life's empty pleasures, 

So the hand of fate doth write ; 

And the warning stands engraven 
On the tombstone of Delight. 

* * * 

The cup we alb are, seeking 
Is of Life's mystic wine. 

Beware lest envious strangers 
Throw poison into thine,” 

Sir Nizamat Jung’s choice of poems contain¬ 
ing lines such as these indicates his own spiritual 
tendency—and his hand on the ' melodious 
strings ’ shows long practice and has the fine 
touch of a lyrist. 

I will now give a few lines out of his trans¬ 
lation of Firdausi’s Shahnama —the Battle of 
Qadesia—published in Islamic Culture in 1937. 

j j* Jj oh* | j J j ij adi ^ 

Be it mine to seek wisdom and greatness, and height 
And the pride of a warrior in manhood and might. 

jj ^ £ -V* <,a;j Olaj U-lr 

Immortal the man who doth live in his fame 
When mouldering in dust is his lifeless frame. , 

How well faith and justice a monarch adorn 
When on tongues of acclaim are his praises upborne 

j 0 J j **h ^ o t g*b,J If f ^ J 

Until life's in my limbs be it ever my will 

From the world to uproot every seed-root of ill.” 

i 

Even in advanced life he would sometimes 
* beguile an idle hour " as he said, by translating 



g 6 

an ode of Horace, an elegy of Propertius or a 
Ghazal of Hafiz into English verse. When reading 
his translations our first impression is not that 
they are translations but original compositions. 

Not very long ago he read out to me some 
lines paraphrased by him from Firdausi’s Shah- 
nama, describing a battle scene in which a Persian 
prince named Zarir is treacherously killed. This 
was one of his incidental recreations to oblige 
an English friend who wanted to know the story 
of Zarir; and he told me how he had composed 
the lines standing near his desk with the 
Persian text in front of him. I was so struck 
with the easy fluent style of the rendering that 
I obtained a copy of some of the lines. 

" And there Zarir afield a proud charger bestrode, 
And aye in the van of the battle he rode. 

Through the ranks of the foemen as scatheful he 

came 

As in dry meadow grass is a wind-blown flame. 

And when Arjasp beheld how under his blade 
Full low were the boldest and doughtiest laid 
In alarm to his leaders he gave the command 
That they parley for peace and a truce demand.” 

In later life his feelings and convictions 
often find expression in impromptu verse. And 
Ms comments on contemporary events sometimes 
take the form of indignant or sarcastic lines, 
such as the following scribbled on a bit of brown 
paper torn off a parcel. (17-6-1936). 

" Mourn, hapless Abyssinia! mourn 
Those Christless Christians’ faith forsworn. 



97 


Turn not to any Western Power 
For help ; it would thy heart devour 
And o’er thy corpse with dripping hand, 

Brandish with glee the assassin’s brand.” 

Always an ardent admirer of the true great¬ 
ness of Europe, he could yet he roused to indigna¬ 
tion by an act of injustice as in this case. 

Dost see with joy thine empire rise ? 1 
Mark its decline and fall! 

There stands before thy dazzled eyes 
The writing on the wall! ” 

He wrote these lines when Abyssinia had been 
conquered by Italy and his vision showed the end 
of Mussolini’s venture as we see it now. 

Those who read his verse carefully find that 
he is able to choose instinctively what is elegant, 
but has no love of art for art’s sake. His nature 
inclines to a free unadorned style of expression 
with sufficient fervour in it to be convincing. He 
has told us all this in his lines : To the Reader, at 
the end of his Islamic Poems. 

“ I take the plain, and forceful word 
That comes to hand a trusty sword; 

Enough that it should flash the fire 
Of aught that doth my soul inspire. 

Enough that it should dart its gleam \ 

To hearts that toil and hearts that dream 
Till they are roused and learn to feel j 
And bow where I have learnt to kneel.” 

“ It is some satisfaction to me as a Dakhni, ” 
Sir Nizamat Jung once wrote, “ to give some 
of my heart-service to my country in the shape of 
English poems. They may have little value as 

7 



98 


poems, but their value to me is in that they express 
some of my innermost feelings and are a confession 
of faith.” My comment on this modest apology 
is that this service of Sir Nizamat Jung stands 
on a far higher level than anything else, and is 
unique. No other Hyderabadi, no other Indian 
Muslim, I should say, has accomplished so much. 
His poems are of a high order, but that is not all. 
His Isla mic Poems have brought English poetry 
to serve the cause of Islam, and he has provided 
for Muslims that which will keep alive in 
young and old a fervent enthusiasm for Islam 
from generation to generation. The effect of 
poetry on the minds of children is well-known 
and Sir Nizamat Jung himself has told us what 
English poetry did for him when he was a child. 

The depth of his feeling and sincerity may be 
judged from his remarks: 

If a man is what he thinks and feels, I 
have hopes that I shall be found in my writings, 
, and that Hyderabad will have my relic in them. 
I seldom wrote for the sake of writing, but to 
express some thought or feeling and feel myself 
in it.” Again, “ Both in prose and verse it 
j was my desire to hear the living voice of the 
| heart, and laboured writing gradually became 
, distasteful to me. , The ring of truth I valued 
more than artistic effect.” 

It is certainly to be regretted that his collect¬ 
ed poems have not yet been published. 
After many years of hesitation, he was induced to 
agree to the proposal made by an old friend in 

7 * 



99 


England to have them published, and negotia¬ 
tions were actually commenced, but the outbreak 
of war in 1939 put a stop to it. 

“ The matter of your poems is postponed, 
for Sir John Murray’s partner is away ill; and 
also the war is so distracting that there would be 
very little attention paid to Rural Lyrics and 
other meditative verse at such a time.” 

This makes me the more anxious to have a 
complete set printed in Hyderabad which should 
be the first to do this service. 

When Mrs. Rosenthal opened the Hyderabad 
Branch of the Poetry Society in 1929, she wisely 
asked Nizamat Jung to be the President and he 
agreed. He remained as such for over 10 years 
and when he was obliged to retire on account of his 
failing health, the Society regarded it as a great 
loss. The manner and style of his introductory 
remarks at the meetings, his illuminating [com¬ 
ments on poems and papers read, and his explana¬ 
tion of the spirit and message of some of the 
poets about whom he had occasion to speak are 
still remembered by many of us. And this was 
the message sent to him when he retired : 

“ Looking back over the years of Sir 
Nizamat Jung’s tenure of office, members cannot 
express too warmly their sense of appreciation 
and gratitude for all that his leadership has 
meant. Sir Nizamat is not only himself a 
poet but his love and knowledge of English 
poetry, his keen understanding and spiritual 



100 


insight, fitted him in a unique way for the 
position of President. It has meant indeed 
everything to the Branch, especially in its 
earlier years to have had such experience and 
inspiration at its command.” 

* * * 

The sacred fire within the heart, 

The light that glows within the soul, 

If aught their fervour can impart, 

Yet passion’s tumult can control. 

It is the poet’s breathing lyre. 

Whose soaring notes to heaven aspire, 

Although once heard from visioned heights, 
i Ethereal waves their sounds prolong, 

Till sorrows blending with delights. 

Attain the melody of Song! 

The poet bending o’er his lyre, 

Thus keeps alive the sacred fire ! 

Nizamat Jung. 

“ Persian verses also reveal his confirmed 

habit of receiving spiritual suggestions from 
visible aspects of nature and from casual events. 

■IduTU. #jj J.AO 

Xfi cJ O'il jJlk ^ ^ 

.kd ft-**-?- J 0^“1 jji 

These lines were written after attending a 
funeral. 

*Th e morning spread a gold embroidered cover on the earth. 

The evening tinged the skies with Heaven’s Mystic light. 

■ My Spirit glowed like the heavenly light and my body sank as dust 
into the earth. 

The Vision wns true ; it consoled my heart and made it fearless. 



THOUGHTS, OPINIONS AND 
MAXIMS 

" .... Those obstinate questionings 
Of sense and outward things 
Fallings from us, vanishings" 

Wordsworth. 

As a student I often used to visit Sir Nizamat 
with some college friends, and I can still recall 
his spell over us all. It was a pleasure to hear 
him talk, and though sometimes we felt a little 
puzzled, we always carried away something of 
permanent value. He encouraged students to 
discuss with him freely ; and whatever the subject 
was, he seemed to make it his own, though his 
favourite themes were morals, practical philoso¬ 
phy, religion and poetry. He made us feel that, 
his were the words of one who was not groping 
after other people’s opinions, but giving his own 
deep convictions. In this, I think, lay his power 
over other minds. Whether we shared his opi¬ 
nions or disagreed with them, we felt that what¬ 
ever he said was from a sincere, well-meaning 
heart; and there was an almost religious fervour 
in his exhortations. 

Here are some specimens of his opinions on 
various subjects: 

" If I were asked what could save Europe 
from utter ruin in the coming future, I would 



102 


say only religion and morality, which have been 
brutally driven out of it by the organised 
efforts of revolutionaries for their own pur¬ 
poses. The law of nature makes the feelings 
of the individual the most efficient force 
vibrating through the vast complicated body 
of human society. It is, therefore, the man— 
the unit—that has to be humanised ; then 
will the community, the tribe, the nation, the 
race come to be reformed gradually from within. ” 

* * * 

" A little boy is of greater importance in 
this respect than any self-constituted Dictator 
of Barbarism. Mould him so as to make the 
brute type impossible in future. Religion and 
morality can build up great civilizations as 
has been proved by history over and over 
again, and such civilizations alone can be good.” 

“I do not see any particular beauty in 
this bizarre modernism—neither in its costume 
and manners and morals, nor in its literature 
and art. Frankly, I am not a lover of f the jazz 
mentality ’ and I deserve all the contempt that 
the superior Georgian can hurl at my head, 
and I accept it with gratitude and pride — 
because I am not like him.” 

* * * 

" What shall we think of this diseased 
modernism ? It is a vicious cult, and let us 
hope that it is only a temporary craze. I am 



i©3 


not thinking so much of our poor Indian people 
who seem to like second-hand articles best, 
but of perverse Europeans. The degenerate 
progressives among them seem to get furious 
when they think of their own splendid past. 
They lose all self-control when they hear of 
religion, morality, refinement, and decency— 
which were the best means devised by the best 
human brains through laborious centuries to 
raise man from bestiality to a spiritual elevation 
pointing towards the supreme good (God).” 

* Hs * 

“ What the savages of Europe received as 
remnants of the culture of ancient Greece was 
far more valuable than Europe’s heritage of 
ruling power from Rome. And what they 
received from the East as the shining light of 
a higher and purer humanity, was Christ’s 
message of love and peace—still more precious. 
After 600 years his message was renewed 
as a more stirring call by Islam, but Europe 
did not possess the sense or the patience to 
understand it. It did not get any nearer to the 
spirit of the Master’s Message.” 

* * * 

“ We know how Europe gradually bene¬ 
fited by the culture, religion, chivalry and 
morals of earlier civilizations coming from lands 
which had been the cradle of knowledge and 
faith. Its ‘ culture,’ compounded of these in¬ 
gredients was once beautiful and exalted and 



104 


refined, and placed it high above other nations. 
But since the disastrous war of 1914 Europe 
has fallen into a moral decline and has become 
in 20 years more cruel and barbarous than 
the savages of any other part of the globe.’' 

This was written a year or two before the war 
began in 1939. 

Modem Progress to him seems “ sadly 
subversive of all that is restrained, moder¬ 
ate and refined. It only believes in a head¬ 
long rush towards power to upset humanity and 
decency. It is the bull in the China shop of 
civilization, and the first duty of humanity 
is to bring it under the yoke again.” 

* * * 

“ Europe will be broken to pieces—signs 
are already visible—and utterly destroyed.” 
( 1938 ). 


* * * 

" That monstrous notion of the Superman, 
fathered by arrogant Prussianism, has been 
fostered by ruffianly boasters. It has not 
yet produced any good, beneficent leader who 
could use power to serve the higher interests 
of humanity and bring about world-welfare. 
Germany’s latest ‘ Super' has well-nigh des¬ 
troyed it.” 

This was written in 1942. 

Here is another ‘ bit^Irom his notes in the 




io5 

shape of talk to students : 

“ There are two pictures in our 
man in the Universe. One is that ot a' 
picker with eyes fixed on the ground, who is 
prodding heaps of rubbish with the tip of his 
stick, or raking up the earth here and there 
to see what he can get. The other is that of a 
man who, almost forgetting that he has a body 
(or bodily needs), is gazing on earth and skies 
to find a resting place for his soul in the infin¬ 
ite scheme of things. The two men may seem 
to be entirely apart; but they meet somewhere 
and their faculties and their hands are joined 
to carry on the great work of civilization.” 


“ Our nature seems to combine inherent 
vices and virtues—as the tasteless sap in a 
tree combines the bitter, the sour and the sweet 
in an inchoate state to appear in the fruit as a 
distinct taste. If natural disposition is the 
work of Nature, in what sphere is Education to 
operate ? Firdausi has said that a plant bitter 
by nature will not yield sweet fruit even though 
planted in the Garden of Paradise and watered 
with honeyed wine. ” 

* * * 

“ Man is a planner in Nature ; and there 
are various patterns of his plans and plan¬ 
nings. On the wrong side they range from 
robbing neighbours to conquering nations; 





io6 

and on the right side, from founding schools 
and hospitals to founding religions. In be¬ 
tween these are to be found innumerable other 
forms —good, bad and indifferent, national 
and international. But few of them seem to 
have any moral purpose in them now-a-days. 
Whither Education ?” 

* * * 

“If we erect only the iron framework 
(supplied by modem science and modem machin¬ 
ery) and cement it with blood to support 
power, the false civilization leaning on it will 
only be what the modern age has proved it to 
be—Satanic barbarism and inhuman war. ” 

* * * 

He has something to say regarding Monarchy 
and Democracy: 

“ There is a warmer feeling at the bottom 
of the human heart for a king than for a crowd. 
The human heart has more love and reverence 
for a king than for a crowd. The human mind 
may be led to approve of democracy on princi¬ 
ple, as it sometimes does, but it cannot be said 
that it has any warm affection for a mob. ' Odi 
profanum vulgus ’ exclaimed a Latin poet. A 
moderate feeling called loyalty to a principle 
may be in favour of democracy, but it is very 
different from ardent loyalty to a man in the 
person of a good king. Look at England.” 



107 


“ I have often been reminded by an English 
friend that God is a King who does not abdi¬ 
cate. This is only a Western re-statement of 
an Eastern creed. The ancient idea of God 
as the Supreme King over all has not been 
effaced from the human heart, and will never 
be effaced. It will never give place to the 
conception of God as a Supreme Assembly.” 

* * * 

“ It is only in an age of unrest that men ask : 
What is the best form of Government ? And 
hardly anybody recalls the poet's reply : 

‘ For forms of Government let fools contest ; 

Whate’er is best administered is best.’ 

Perhaps there is a little impatience in these 
words, but the maxim expresses a great truth 
in the form of a platitude. To be best a dmin - 
isteredis the essential condition, whether the 
form of the administration be a monarchy 
(limited or unlimited), an oligarchy or a democ¬ 
racy. There is no inherent virtue (or vice) 
in any of these forms, and history has shown 
that each of them has been good in some cir¬ 
cumstances and bad in others.” 

* * * 

“ There have been periods in the world’s 
history when kingship has not been held in 
high honour ; and we are passing through such 



io8 


a period now. Though it can no longer de¬ 
mand the reverence it could once claim, yet 
it would hardly be wise to believe that it 
will never again attract the ideas and senti¬ 
ments of admiration and devoted loyalty which 
have been its heritage from the earliest times. 
We are apt to think in this self-styled democra¬ 
tic age that its clamour to prove its superiority 
will be admitted by all without demur. I 
doubt it. Greece, the birthplace of democracy, 
doubted it and discarded it; Rome carried 
forward the democratic idea and confirmed it 
by long usage and invested it with some glory. 
But : then followed the age of Augustus which 
showed the other Janus face of it—Empire ! 
The spqr* and the eagles stared and obeyed, 
for the Roman Empire had come to live— 
whether it was unholy or holy—and democracy 
was not to jump into its seat again. The 
18th century witnessed the great upheaval of 
the French Revolution ; but this Revolution 
could only destroy the French monarchy 
for a short time ; and it had no effect upon 
the other monarchies of Europe. But it led to 
something unforeseen—the birth of an Empire 
upon the summit of which stood another and a 
greater Caesar. Napoleon’s Empire was short¬ 
lived, but it was surrounded with glory and 
dazzled the world. Carlyle has put this in 
four words: ‘ The Hero as King.’” 

* * * 

♦Senatus Populus que Romanus. 



109 


Regarding communal dissension in India, he 
says : 

I am convinced that no mere external 
adjustments of differences will be of any use 
unless and until ‘they are linked,’ as a thinker 
once observed, ‘with some consideration also 
of those elements of human nature which link 
man with the things that are not seen and 
are eternal. ’ That inner link is the true religious 
feeling of benevolence, which we have to 
cultivate. It gives rise to morality and leads 
to righteousness—the aim and object of reli¬ 
gion and morality. We know how it has been 
displaced in this age by so-called political con¬ 
sciousness—which is a feverish craze.” 

* * * 

The great desire of my heart,” he used 
to say, ‘‘is to see Christianity and Islam join 
hands to inculcate practical righteousness — 
by purification of the natural feelings of the 
human heart. So far as I have studied the 
principles underlying them, I feel convinced 
that they are essentially the same. Dogmatic 
differences—whatever they may be—are not 
of the essence of their ethical teaching, and 
may therefore be kept apart so as not to act as 
obstacles. To preserve the peace of the world 
the ‘ fraternal ’ co-operation of these ethical 
religions is absolutely necessary. They over¬ 
spread the earth, and if united, will become the 
bulwark of the British Empire —which is the 



no 


guardian of peace-against all subversive move¬ 
ments encouraged or engineered by misguided 
and mischievous communism.” 


“ Education in my view has to begin the 
work of reconstruction by placing the civil¬ 
ization of the world on its only true founda¬ 
tion-humanity and righteousness. And true 
education has to address itself not to B.A.’s 
and B.Sc.’s, but to infant humanity. It is best 
begun at home in the nursery, and the best of 
all teachers of humanity is the mother who can 
do much more than Doctors of Philosophy can. 
Let the mother’s teaching be followed up in 
schools and in colleges and in universities by 
the training of the faculties to good-will as the 
mainspring of human action.” 

Though Sir Nizamat Jung has not written 
much prose, there is sufficient material in 
his printed writings and notes to enable us to 
judge what his habitual thoughts and feelings 
were and how he expressed them. 

“ My thoughts,” said he, " are always under 
tr ial , and I allow time to test their truth. The 
collection called Morning Thoughts consists of 
impromptu notes made in 1929, and whenever I 
glance over the pages now, I find myself in them. 
Those ‘ thoughts ’ are my * convictions.’ They 
had welled up from within; and my friends will 
meet me in them.” 



From the Morning Thoughts we get an insight 
into his nature and his beliefs, or in a word, into 
the religion of his heart. 

“ What does nature contain ? Poetry and 
Philosophy in actual life-form. What do books 
contain ? Poetry and Philosophy in ideas 
and words. 

“ Poetry reveals the secret of beauty in Na¬ 
ture, and Philosophy the secret of Truth—the 
oneness of all being. They take us to God — 
and become Religion.” 

* * * 

" What have the great men of the past 
done ? Have they been content merely to 
live in the man-made world around them like 
common beings, or have they in their inner 
lives broken down all the barriers set up by 
folly or by chance, by superstition or by pre¬ 
judice and constantly widening the bounds of 
their own world, lived above the level of com¬ 
mon humanity ? The internal forces can over¬ 
come the external. Such is the history of 
great souls.” 

“ The approach to the Kingdom of God 
lies often through a desolate tract, and at its 
frontier life’s values change: gold becomes 
dross, and dross, gold ; all that was real before, 
becomes unreal, and all that was thought to be 
unreal by the worldly suddenly becomes Real¬ 
ity.” 



112 


" Our true well-being depends upon right- 
thinking and right-feeling and keeping the 
soul above those temptations to which the 
unguarded mind is liable. And it depends also 
upon our capacity to take from Nature around 
us all the suggestions of beauty and goodness 
it can afford, feeling ourselves to be a part of 
the great universe of God and related to all 
that is in it, and drawing into ourselves all that 
is best in the unseen mighty forces forming 
and shaping it and directing it on its eternal 
course. This is the wealth, the true well¬ 
being our soul requires.” 

5jC ❖ ^ 

“ The socialist makes spasmodic attempts 
to free himself from some of the old conven¬ 
tions, but his field is narrow. He approaches 
his task from the economic side—and fails. 
The approach has to be made from the moral 
side in order to succeed—as Islam succeeded 
in the earlier period of its history. Each one 
of us has this mission to fulfil, and each one 
should begin with himself.” 

* * * 

“ If there is a physical instinct in our nature, 
there is also a moral instinct in it, and the high¬ 
est function of the mind is to use it to help and 
not retard the evolution of self in such a way as 
to bring out the best that is in man. Religion 
and philosophy both aim at this, and the heart 



U3 


of the true philosopher venerates religion as 
being the more potent force to achieve this 
object.” 

* * * 

These passages taken at random are good 
illustrations of his philosophy and faith. And 
here are some of his maxims which contain his 
life-long convictions in a concise but luminous 
form. 

1. Faith is power. 

2. Contentment is the foundation of happiness. 

3. The path to peace lies through strife. 

4. Mere knowledge is not wisdom. 

5. True knowledge teaches humility. 

6. The best education teaches the mind to recognize its 

own limitations. 

7. Education should teach us to recognize our follies. 

8 . The wise make good use of their follies. 

9. Our good work done for show becomes unreal to us. 

10. Do good with what is your own. 

11. Doing good for praise or gain is self-barter. 

12. We can give to the world more than we take from it. 

13. He who is always seeking advantage over others can¬ 

not excel. 

14. Honour is greater than fame. 

15. Popularity means being liked by the vulgar. 

16. Deceiving others is deceiving ourselves. 

17. The more you gild a lie, the less true you make it. 

18. The worst slavery is that of self. 

19. Man's best work is perfected in silence. 

20. Poverty is a good nurse for great hearts. 

21. The best things in life have no money value. 

People of different religions and different 



habits'of life have been unanimous in their ap¬ 
preciation of the Morning Thoughts. 

The collection called Casual Reflections has 
more or less the same substance, and the true 
worth of his meditations lies in their suggestive- 
riess and power of guidance. So too are his thoughts 
on education contained in lectures and addresses 
delivered on various occasions. He always in¬ 
sists on the moral aim. In this connection, his 
lecture delivered at the Nizam College in Febru¬ 
ary, 1913, and his Convocation Address to the 
Osmania University delivered in January, 1930, 
and his Presidential Address to the Hyderabad 
Teachers’ Association in 1932, call for special 
attention. There are . some of his essays which, 
in my opinion, deserve to be regarded as a service 
to Islam; notably An Approach to the Study of 
the Qur’an with its irresistible appeal to the Mus¬ 
lim heart. It has been widely appreciated and 
deserves to be still more widely known. Then 
we have The Right Path, which may be treated 
as a companion to it. It explains in some detail 
the method and course of the Quranic teaching, 
focussing it in moral guidance to righteous con¬ 
duct in life. A short essay on Gibbon as Histo¬ 
rian of Islam helps us to recognise Gibbon’s ser¬ 
vice to Islam in giving an impressive picture of 
it in his great history, while it points out the 
obvious blemishes that detract from the great 
historian’s treatment of such themes as the 
ambition ’ of the Prophet. The essence of Sir 
Nizamat Jung s criticism is that Gibbon was not 



capable of assessing the true value of faith and 
sincerity. Hence his conjectural method of assign¬ 
ing causes and motives to great religious move¬ 
ments was superficial. 

Sir Nizamat Jung’s impressions of Hyder¬ 
abad, old and new, gathered from his Reminiscences 
would throw much valuable light upon the histor¬ 
ical background of our life today. A few 
extracts are given in the chapters that follow. 



AN ATTEMPT AT EVALUATION 


I have now known Nizamat Jung for nearly a 
quarter of a century. Those days seem remote 
when I went to him as a student many years ago, 
but they come back when I visit him now and 
we discuss religion, morals, literature, and some¬ 
times politics, with the same zest and freedom as 
before. We may differ, and sometimes differ 
radically on some points, but I have always 
had a deep respect for his views. His life, it 
seems to me, has been a happy and harmoni¬ 
ous one by blending in itself all that is best in 
the Eastern and Western cultures. Educated 
and brought up amidst the surroundings of 
Victorian England, Nizamat Jung’s mind has 
been constantly in touch with all that is noblest 
in the life and literature of Europe. He never 
; lost faith in the efficacy of religion as the best 
j elevating influence in the life of man, because it 
| gives a spiritual value to practical morality; 
\ hence his deep reverence forjthe Qur’an and his 
love for the great Persian poets. 

Nizamat Jung was fortunate in not having 
allowed his mind to become one-sided; it al¬ 
ways remained open to currents of thought 
from different sources to be reduced to definite 
conceptions. His whole career appears to re¬ 
present an endeavour to rise above the superfi- 


cialities of existence in order to live a life con¬ 
cerned with realities, by means of silent commun¬ 
ion with the Infinite and disinterested service 
of his fellow-beings. The former carried him into 
the realms of religion, poetry and philosophy, 
while the latter made him, even as an official, a 
social reformer and a philanthropist. 

In all his discourses, public and private, I find 
him warning people against mistaking the shadow 
for the substance, and caring more for personal gain 
than for the real and lasting good of those around 
them. Even as a lover of literature, he values 
thought-content more than beauty of phrase. 
His words, spoken or written, whether in prose 
or in poetry, contain some high thought, 
some useful idea or some message from the great 
thinkers of the past, and more often from the 
Qur’an, calculated to raise humanity from the 
depths into which this glamorous but soulless 
civilization of ours seems to have fallen. If 
sometimes one finds him a little curt in conver¬ 
sation or uninviting in his manner or a little im¬ 
patient, it is because he is above the wiles of 
hypocrisy, and does not hide what he feels at the 
moment. 

Seen against the background of the social 
life of Hyderabad two particular characteristics 
emerge prominently in the life-story of Sir 
Nizamat Jung. One is that he did not change 
his principles or ways of life to suit the changing 
times. He did not begin to like a person merely 
because he found him rising to greater heights 



of official eminence. The second is that he did 
not take advantage of his high official position 
to help himself or those near and dear to him. 
In fact one of the charges levelled against him by 
his detractors is that he had done no good to his 
own people. What greater compliment could be 
paid to him ? 

In a world of intrigues he kept himself aloof ; 
but that is not all. He kept himself occupied 
| with higher things—religion, morals, philoso- 
’ phy, poetry, literature—all leading him 

towards unostentatious public service. He re¬ 
mained unaffected by the atmosphere around him 
which was often surcharged with noxious but 
tempting awards. That he resisted these, is not 
the whole truth: his example inspired others to 
despise them. That is surely some achievement. 

Of Nizamat Jung’s youth I know very little ; 
I have drawn his picture as I have known him. 

" Now that my life is coming to a peaceful 
end, ” he wrote to me only last year, "like a slow 
silent river gliding towards the sea, I feel that it 
has been full of blessings, for which my gratitude 
to the Giver of all things is unbounded. The 
content of my life, i.e., all that it held within itself, 
is such as to give me something of that satisfac¬ 
tion which is necessary to peace of mind. There 
has been much in my career to mar that feeling, 
but on the whole the power to see (and if possible 
to avoid) the unbecoming in conduct has saved 
it.” 



To put it in a nutshell, Nizamat Jung’s life 
symbolizes a sincere approach to realities—an 
endeavour to be good and to do good while de¬ 
testing the idea of being talked about. Not to 
have sought power, position and wealth though 
they were not beyond his reach, is to have 
attained real success in life. Nizamat Jung can 
certainly lay claim to this. 

“ Wherefore a man should be of good cheer, 
about his soul,” said his master, Socrates, 
if in his life he has despised all bodily pleasures 
and ornaments as alien to her and to the per¬ 
fecting of the life that he has chosen. He 
will have zealously applied himself to the under¬ 
standing and having adorned his soul not with 
any foreign ornaments but with her own pro¬ 
per jewels—temperance, justice, courage, nob¬ 
ility and truth—he awaits thus prepared, his 
journey.” 

* * * 

Dreams of my youth, they fade but cannot die ; 
Theirs are the songs that, silenced, echo still 
Within my heart, its twilight gloom to thrill 
With yearning hopes that waken but a sigh ! 

Ah, would they could regain their native sky 
And the void air with radiant visions fill J 
Broken the wizard wand and lost the skill 
That could awake them all where low entombed 

they lie! 

They lie entombed, those bright-wing'd visions all. 
Where sleeps the splendour of Life's Yesterdays — 
With vanished suns, and moons, and faded bays, 
And all the buried pomp of bower and hall. 



120 


And they are gone who could their shades recall, 
Who had the wizard wand, the magic phrase 
To wake to life the legends and the lays 
And pageants of past years that still my heart 

enthrall. 

(From Rudel of Blaye by Nizamat Jung). 



PART TWO 


Chapter III.— Impressions of the old 
Regime 

HIS HIGHNESS THE LATE NIZAM AND 
THE OLD HYDERABAD 

Old times are changed, old manners gone." 

I am conscious that I am making this chapter dispro¬ 
portionately lengthy, but I cannot resist quoting as many 
passages from Sir Nizamat Jung’s impressions of old Hyder¬ 
abad as may give my readers some idea of the conditions 
and causes that serve to explain the contrast between the 
old and the new order of things, and the change in men’s 
mentality and outlook. The opinions and the language 
are entirely Nizamat Jung’s own. He has his own point 
of view, with which one may not agree, but he has the ad¬ 
vantage of having seen what many of us have not, and of 
having lived and moved amongst men and amid thoughts 
and feelings and modes of life of which we have no direct 
knowledge. 

“ As a loiterer in the past, ” says he, “I 
delight in the reminiscences of the last years of 
that grand old man, Sir Salar Jung, in the latter 
half of Queen Victoria’s reign. The sixth 
Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the ‘ Beloved of 
Ali,’ was then the beloved of all hearts in 
Hyderabad, a boy prince who was to become a 
right royal figure, an embodiment of stateliness 
and grace. He has now become a legendbut 

121 



122 


so long as he lived, he was Hyderabad. That 
Hyderabad, alas ! no longer exists—except in the 
hearts of those who have survived it.” 

“ The Nizam as a child was under the special 
care of his grandmother, who was a jealous 
guardian of his prerogatives and strict in 
exacting from all persons the reverence and 
homage due to the sovereign. None could 
have access to him except some trusted servants 
of the household and on ceremonial occasions 
recourse was had to certain symbolical obser¬ 
vances on the part of the Dewan and the higher 
nobility. On the anniversary of the Nizam’s 
birthday and on the Eid days traditional custom 
demanded that nazars should be presented by the 
Dewan and the chief nobles at a formal durbar. 
But as the child Nizam could not hold a durbar, 
the Dewan proceeded to the Royal palace to pay 
his homage. Mounted on a majestic elephant 
richly adorned with silver ornaments and surround¬ 
ed with armed retainers (Arab, Afghan and others) 
forming a long procession, he arrived at the palace 
in juloos (state). Etiquette forbade entry into 
the courtyard of the palace except on foot, so he 
had to alight at the outer gate and stand respect¬ 
fully with his face turned towards the Mahal 
where his royal master was supposed to be. There 
he made his salaams —his right hand touching the 
ground as he bent low and then touching his 
forehead as he rose each time. This was repeated 
at the entrance to the next courtyard, and so on 
until he arrived at the spot beyond which none was 



123 


allowed to pass. No court dignitary, no Chamber- 
lain or Master of Ceremonies was there in attend¬ 
ance, but some privileged female servant (called 
mama) had to convey his humble nazar to his 
august master with his adab (respects). The 
message was received, not by the child Nizam, but 
by his grandmother, who acknowledged it by 
sending to the Dewan her blessings in return. 
On his departure the Dewan repeated the salaam 
ceremony at each of the gates exactly as before 
until he reached the main entrance on the road. 
From there, having made his final salute to the 
palace, he rode back in state as he had come. 

“ Modem scoffers may laugh at all this if 
they like ; but would they venture to say that such 
pompous ceremonial was out of place or out of time 
then, as it would be now? When we take such 
things out of their proper setting and criticise 
them, we commit a sad anachronism in thought 
and a solecism in taste. 

“ Personally I give great praise to Sir 
Salar Jung for having in this manner taught 
Hyderabad the honour and reverence due to the 
Ruler who was a precious relic of the Moghal 
supremacy in India—a king in miniature. What 
I have related here I heard more than once from 
the lips of the late Hakeem Shafai Khan, physician 
to the Nizam. The young Nizam’s education was 
an object of much solicitude to the Government of 
India, as may be seen from the following extract 
i- rom a letter dated March, 1869 : 




124 


“ It is a matter of the greatest importance _ that His 
Highness should receive every advantage in this respect 
that can be afforded to him and that every effort should 
be made by extending to. him the blessings of a sound and 
liberal education, to fit him, as far as possible, for the high 
and important duties of his future life. 

“ His Excellency is therefore of opinion that this ques¬ 
tion should, as far as possible, be settled now and that a 
guarantee should be given that, at an early period, as soon 
as His Highness’ years will permit, an English gentleman 
of lear ning and ability should be received into His Highness’ 
service and entrusted with the important duties of superin¬ 
tending his education.” 

“ An English gentleman, Captai n Clark , 
was employed in pursuance of this advice and 
remained with His Highness long enough to 
become a familiar figure in Hyderabad. It is also 
worth mentioning that young Hugh Gough, son 
of Major Percy Gough, Military Secretary to the 
Minister, was one of the young Nizam’s companions 
for a period. Thus a contact with English people 
was established from his tender years, which must 
have helped to predispose his mind in favour of the 
advantages to be derived from friendship with the 
British as their ‘Faithful Ally.’ 

“ Early impressions of the right kind are of 
great value, and this was proved by the course 
followed by the Nizam throughout his life. His 
sagacity in appointing Mr. (afterwards Sir) Brian 
Egerton as tutor and companion to his son, the 
Prince Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, was an inst¬ 
ance of it. Mr. Egerton had earned the gratitude of 
Indians by the finish he had given to the education 
of the Maharaja of Bikanir by evoking and bring¬ 
ing into activity the best traits of his character. 


/ 



125 


“ Hyderabad, the city of the Nizam, seemed 
in those days to be scenes grouped and assembled 
round his personality. With its crumbling ram¬ 
parts and narrow crowded streets charmingly 
eastern, it consisted of patches of squalor and 
daubs of bright colour in happy union. Untidy 
and insanitary, may be, but quaintly picturesque 
in its remnants of ‘barbaric’ splendour. The 
breath of sixty years has passed over its face and 
changed it.” 

* & sfc 

“ Life too was picturesque in those days, and 
colourful. Street scenes in the city might have 
been copied to illustrate the Arabian Nights! 
It was a common sight to see the nobility mounted 
on gorgeously caparisoned elephants and horses 
with rich housings, which were the usual means of 
conveyance. They went surrounded by armed 
Arabs and Rohillas and proceeded slowly along the 
narrow streets as proud liegemen of their sovereign. 

“ It is amusing to think that elephants were 
also used as mounts by boys going to school. 
And there had been a time, years before that, 
when the British Resident used to travel from 
Bolarum to Hyderabad on an elephant with a 
suitable escort 1 

$ * • * 

“ Passing through the city streets and lanes 
could be seen palanquins and raths —bullock 
carriages on four wheels surmounted by a tapering 
canopied roof. These were peculiar to Hyderabad 
and were kept only by the nobility for the use of 



126 


women and servants. The bullocks yoked to them 
were of the best Gujerat breed—white and stately 
with fine horns curved into beautiful crescents at 
the tips of which were shining ferrules of brass. 

sfs * 

“ The streets were always full of bustle and 
resounded with a mingled din of human voices 
tuned by the jingle-jangle of horse and bullock 
neck-ornaments, and the tinkling of elephant and 
camel bells, and the monotonous sing-song refrain 
of palanquin bearers as they ambled along joyous¬ 
ly with their burdens. All sights and sounds had 
a family resemblance, and a native harmony in 
them. Nothing seen or heard suggested any 
discord or disharmony, none of that unhappy jar 
between diverse modes of which we have such 
unpleasant experience now. Hyderabad was still 
a part of the ‘ Gorgeous East, that with richest 
hand showers on her kings barbaric pearls and 
gold.’ ” 

* $ * 

" When the cinema of life was displaying 
such pictures in the streets, the little Nizam was 
hidden away in his Purani Havaili, amusing him¬ 
self in his own way, and his Prime Minister, the 
great man whose fame was ringing throughout 
India (and England), was maturing his schemes 
in his palace close by. Boy prince and elderly 
Minister, symbols of^ royalty and loyalty, and 
champions of greater Hyderabad! Strange that 



127 


these two alone should fill the whole canvas on 
which our mental picture of the past is painted ! 

* * * 

Old Hyderabad .—Some years ago a Euro¬ 
pean visitor saw in the remnants of its past beauty 
a character that has lost its meaning for most of 
us now. The famous French statesman, M. Clem- 
enceau, was here in 1924, and I happened to 
ask him what his impression was. “ Hyderabad 
is an Oriental City,” he exclaimed with enthusiasm, 
“ unlike Bombay which is English.” He evident¬ 
ly saw the past and the present side by side with 
the eye of critical imagination. What would he 
say to 'modern’ Hyderabad which stands un¬ 
abashed and rejoicing in its ugly pseudo-German 
accretions ? Old cities suffer if they are denuded 
of their old-time glamour and inimitable grace 1 

* * * 

“ Our indigenous styles had been invaded by 
imitations of the Greco-Roman long ago, when 
some of the higher nobility were attracted by the 
beauty of the latter, but the few buildings then 
erected remained as interesting reminders of the 
influence of the West upon the tastes of the East 
under the shadow of the East India Company. 

“ The grand Residency building and the 
triumphal arch at the main entrance, crowned 
with the Royal Escutcheon came into existence 



128 


in 1800 under the personal care of the romantic 
Captain Kirkpatrick, (Hashmat Jung). 

“ Its magnificent Corinthian porch (orig¬ 
inally flanked by sphinxes replaced later by lions) 
must have struck the imagination of the wealthy 
nobles of Hyderabad ; for in the city palaces of 
the Shams-ul-Umara family we can still trace its 
influence, and also at Jahan Numa which belongs 
to them. At a later period portions of the Chow 
Mahalla Palaces were built in a similar style. 
All this showed a gradual advance towards a 
foreign style which was in recognised good taste, 
but Hyderabad still managed to preserve its 
Eastern character within its walls. And this was 
amply safeguarded by the great architectural 
monuments which have stamped that character 
upon it for all time : The Char Minar and the 
stately arches on the four sides of it, and the grand 
Mecca Masj id flanked by the long lines of the outer 
courts of the Nizam’s Panch Mahalla Palace. They 
symbolise and give life to past grandeur ; they 
picture history ! The unique Char Minar occupies 
the centre and dominates the city, and from it 
radiate roads and streets and lanes in various 
directions, in which there is something that takes 
the eye by surprise: an undesigned, jumbled 
picturesqueness-—contributed mainly by tiny 
shops displaying much gaudy colour and glitter 
on their fronts. Passing through some of fhe 
more important streets, where the palaces of the 
older nobility are still standing in a state of 
pathetic dilapidation, the observer is struck with 



129 


the prevalence of the cusped arch peculiar to the 
Indo-Saracenic style. It has come down from 
the times of the Qutb Shahi kings and has not yet 
ceased to be a favourite. Even in bungalow 
fronts it has found accommodation by the good 
taste and ingenuity of some of our modem archi¬ 
tects who did not pride themselves on a cheap 
scorn of the antique. 

“ Many improvements were carried out 
under Sir Salar Jung I and architecture was one 
of them. The Hyderabad railway station and 
the walls and gates of the Public Gardens presented 
an elegant well-thought-out style—the chief fea¬ 
tures of which were arches with deeply curved 
sides resting on massive square or hexagonal 
pillars and supporting turrets , surmounted by 
cupolas. The railway station building was grand 
and unique ; there was nothing like it so far as 
I know, in all India. The engineer-architect who 
designed it (said to have been a Mr. Wilkinson) 
must have possessed great talent, for the style 
he created bears the stamp of a superior mind. 
The picture of the old Hyderabad railway station 
had a place in my affections and I am ashamed 
to say that it has given place before my eyes to 
a shapeless modern block ! 

" Turn wheresoe’er I may, 

By night or day, 

The things which 1 have seen 
I now can see no more,” 

* * * 


9 



130 


“ External forms are symbolical of senti 
xnents and tastes, and the adopted cult of ugliness 
which has now become an obsession with those 
who claim to be progressive is only the result of 
senseless imitation. Imitative modernism, to my 
mind, is sadly subversive judging from its ravages 
in some directions. 

“ I have not forgotten, and can never 
forget, the scenes in which Hyderabad displayed 
periodically its pomp and grandeur as part of its 
normal life—the Langar procession,* the Moula 
All Urs, the Malakpet Races and the durbars of 
the Nizam. Once a year, when the Nizam went 
to the races at Malakpet, he drove in a magnificent 
yellow state carriage drawn by four horses. The 
postillions riding them were clad in gorgeous 
yellow livery heavily embroidered in silver. The 

* “ The Langar took place on the 5 th of Moharrum in commemoration 
of an event which is said to have happened some centuries ago in 
Qutb Shahi times. The origin is that on the fifteenth of the month of 
Zilhaj 1003 H./1594 A.D. Prince Abdulla, whose father Sultan Quli 
Qutb was then feigning, left Hyderabad for Golconda with a large body 
of nobles and attendants. He was mounted on an elephant and shortly 
after leaving the Purana Pul Gate the animal became mast and charged 
amongst the nobles and attendants, compelling them to flee for their lives. 
After this the elephant moved off towards the jungle still having the 
unfortunate prince on his back. ’ His mother Hayat Baksh Begum when 
she heard what had occurred became much alarmed for her son’s safety. 
She ordered food to be placed in various places around Hyderabad for both 
the elephant and her son. She vowed that if he returned safely, she would 
make a chain of gold similar in thickness and weight to that used for 
fastening up elephants. Her son returned safely on the same elephant 
after an absence of six days and his mother in conformity with her vow 
collected all the goldsmiths of the city together and set them at work to 
make a gold chain. When it was finished, her son, carrying the chain and 
followed by an immense procession of all the nobles and troops of the 
State went to the shrine of a Shia saint in the city to offer up thanks for 
his preservation from the elephant. At the conclusion of the ceremony 
the gold chain was broken into pieces and distributed among Fakirs and 
other religious beggars. And from that date the procession became an 
annual custom the Nizams, although not Shias, following the custom of 
their predecessors, the Qutb Shahis, in allowing it. 

p* 



escort consisted of about fifty men of the African 
Cavalry who carried drawn sabres. Their uniforms 
of sky-blue with silver embroidery seemed to 
blend well with the bright yellow of the equipage. 
The roads along which the savari passed were 
crowded with eager spectators who had admira¬ 
tion in their eyes and love in their hearts. The 
road was kept clear and loyal subjects lining it on 
either side stood respectfully silent and with 
lowered heads as the cortege swept by. 

* * * 

“ At about midday on the 5th of Moharrum 
a grand procession was formed consisting of the 
State troops, Regulars and Irregulars, and the 
retainers of Arab jamedars and jagirdars and other 
nobles for the purpose of celebrating the event 
mentioned, and for marching past through some 
of the main streets of the city. The most impres¬ 
sive figure in the whole procession was that of the 
Kotwal seated in a howda on a stately elephant. 
He was the cynosure of all eyes as being virtually 
the leader of the procession which passed in front 
of the Prime Minister’s Palace for inspection and 
on to the Royal Palace to salute the Nizam. It 
was picturesque in all its details, and typically 
oriental. The only portion of it which seemed 
to belong to modem times was that where the 
Regular troops were seen in uniforms of Western 
style, and also perhaps the police force somewhat 
modernised in appearance, both as to costume 
and equipment. As for the Irregulars—Arabs, 



132 


Afghans, Sikhs, Rajputs and Rathors—it was 
they who imparted to the scene its gaudy 
picturesqueness. They were in their national 
costumes and their movements and gestures and 
slogans were all in character. The most notice¬ 
able thing about the Arabs and Siddis (Africans) 
was the rhythmic regularity of their irregular 
bodily motion. They seemed to be running and 
hopping and whirling perpetually in a kind of 
war-dance as they marched along. Their wild 
hallooing and whistling, timed by firing off their 
carbines in the air, arrested the attention of the 
least observant. But perhaps to horse-lovers 
the most attractive feature of the whole proces¬ 
sion was the long line of horses of the royal stables 
led by grooms clad in bright yellow livery trimmed 
with silver braid. The rich housings and trap¬ 
pings of the horses and the heavy silver ornaments 
round their necks and on their headstalls, seemed 
to jewel the scene. From the smallest Pegu pony 
to the largest sized Australian horse was there, 
and in between marched proudly, with arching 
necks and measured high steps, some of the finest 
of the Arab breed. The splendid scene with its 
endless variety and many-coloured brilliance was 
a kaleidoscopic picture then and is a dream now. 

* * * 

“ The Moula Ali Urs was another annual 
celebration of the picturesque kind. It was held 
in connection with a shrine on the top of a hill, 
a few miles to the north-east of . the city, which 



133 


had somehow become associated with the name 
of Hazrat Ali, and could thus claim homage and 
reverence. On the second day of the Urs, while 
people returned from the hill in disorderly groups, 
a pell-mell procession was formed along the 
long road in their progress towards the city. 
A part of the road between Moula Ali and the 
Hyderabad Residency was crowded with men 
and horses, elephants and carriages and horse 
and bullock conveyances of all descriptions 
from early morning till late in the evening, and 
formed the most striking part of the picture. 
Small booths and stalls were seen dotting the sides 
of the road—especially in the vicinity of the 
Residency—and exhibiting articles and toys of 
all sorts to attract the passers-by. It was an 
improvised fair. 

“ The Mela, as it was called, was a tempting 
occasion for the display of armed retainers by the 
nobility. And the Nizam’s beautiful horses also 
took part in the procession. 

❖ 

“ The durbars held by the late Nizam on 
his birthday and on the Eid days were in them¬ 
selves pictures of Eastern pomp and splendour. 
They were usually held late in the evening. The 
durbar hall was brilliantly illuminated by beautiful 
crystal chandeliers and a side of it was occupied 
“by musicians, who, on the first appearance of the 
Nizam, began their tuneful overtures in the tradi¬ 
tional fashion. The high notes of their music as 



134 


it swelled up were softened by being mingled with 
the muffled sounds caused by the imperceptible 
movements of the people who crowded the hall. 
All this had an enchanting effect upon the senses. 

“As soon as the Nizam’s figure was seen at 
the other end of the hall advancing towards the 
musnad, the assembled people—dressed in robes 
of Kashmir shawls and gold brocade and girt with 
rich kamarbands and belts, carrying gold-hilted 
swords under their arms—rose and stood in their 
places. When the Nizam seated himself on his 
gold embroidered musnad in the middle of the hall 
on a raised platform between two arches, the 
musicians began strains of joyous felicitation 
appropriate to that part of the ceremonial. The 
Nizam’s retinue sat behind him in a semicircle, 
that is, those who were allowed the privilege of being 
seated in his presence, and in front of his musnad 
were ranged his principal nobles robed in neema- 
jama, after the style of the old Moghal court, each 
in his appointed place. At a sign from the 
Nizam, the Dewan approached him respectfully 
and presented his nazar which consisted of eleven 
ashrafees ; then followed other nobles in their 
order of precedence. And after them came the 
State officials and the rest of those who had the 
honour of attending the durbar. They presented 
their nazars in succession, but no order of prece¬ 
dence could be observed—the rush was so great. 
Several persons attempting to approach the 
musnad at the same time caused, as was natural, 
a great confusion. This was unavoidable and the 



135 


general movement became almost a melee. There 
was hurry and bustle and elbowing and pushing 
about for some time. This lasted till the nazars 
were over and the Nizam stood up to go back 
into the Mahal. 

“ The durbar was held in the hall or pavilion 
called the Khilwat, but outside in the open yard 
could be seen crowds of retainers and servants 
and military guards scattered all round—besides 
the Maisaram Guard of Honour placed in front. 
Crowds of people were seen in the great courtyard, 
scattered in groups here and there, and one of the 
chief features of the scene that lent a fairy charm 
to it, was the great number of flambeaux that 
starred the gloom. 

“ The Nizam fully realised the importance 
of pomp and grandeur as assets of state for a 
ruler ; but kept them in the background as a foil 
to his own dignified simplicity. He had a wonder¬ 
ful .eye for scenic effect, and so long as he lived, 
the ceremonial occasions which called for display 
of pomp in a becoming style were punctiliously 
observed. 

* * * 

“ The personality of a ruler has a marked 
influence upon the conditions of life in his State 
and gives a style and colour to his surroundings, 
and dominates even those changes which time 
gradually brings about. I cannot think of our 
old Hyderabad without thinking of the late Nizam 
and the halo of magnificence surrounding him. 



His whole life was grandeur without ostentation 
and dignity without assumption of state. But 
such grandeur and dignity only set off the inborn 
simplicity of his nature. Just as men saw him 
in his plain dress and felt awed in his presence, 
so were they forced to forget the almost primitive 
simplicity of his surroundings in his old-fashioned 
palace : Purani Havaili. 

sj: ^ "*' 

“ There was an indescribable air about 
him, possibly because by heredity, by tempera¬ 
ment and by habit he was a repository of the 
great traditions of Moghal grandeur. His mind 
moved in that atmosphere and his nature was 
impregnated with all the ennobling sentiments 
associated with it. He seemed actually to breathe 
forth what was in him—and had the mysterious 
faculty of conveying it to others. I still remem- 
ber how on a public occasion he avowed his 
willingness to give all that he possessed his very 
life, if need be, for the welfare of his beloved 
subjects. This was the magic link of sympathy 
which made him dearer to his subjects than life 
itself. 

* * * 

“ Every inch a king is still the impression 
of those who look at his portrait in robes of 
state. And those who had the good fortune to 
see him in life may still retain the image of his 
handsome face and stately pose in their hearts. 



137 


“ He had a heart that felt for others. 
It was said that when on the day following the 
great flood of 1908 he rode out to see the scene 
of desolation in the city, his eyes were streaming 
and he could not speak. This incident has been 
described by his ardent admirer, Sarojini Naidu 
in a fine poem, ‘ The Tears of Asif. ’ 

^ *}* *J> 

" All men knew how his own keen sensib¬ 
ility made him careful regarding the feelings of 
others. He shrank from hurting anyone’s self- 
respect ; and whenever he had occasion to dis¬ 
miss an official for some serious fault, he did it 
with secrecy and made it appear a matter of grace 
by granting him full pay or pension. He seldom 
allowed his displeasure to be publicly known, 
and never did his displeasure deprive anyone of 
his just rights. 

* * * 

" His heart was so tender that he felt even 
for his dumb pets as though they were human 
beings. There was a time when he had a large 
kennel of English dogs, and they were kept in 
one of his gardens outside the city in great comfort 
while they remained in Hyderabad; but during 
the hot-weather they were sent to his house, 
Snowdon, at Ootacamund, Nilgiri Hills, for a 
change ! 

* * * 

“ It used to be said that valuable jewel¬ 
lery lying in the palace was sometimes stealthily 



138 

carried away by retainers and servants, and that 
though he knew or suspected it, he never allowed 
a sign or a word to escape him that might hurt 
anyone. If at any time such a matter was 
brought to his notice, he remarked carelessly, 

‘ Yes, such things do happen in a palace.’ 

* * ■ * ' 

“ He never wore any jewels on his own 
person except on rare occasions. His native 
dignity seemed to regard such baubles as unbe¬ 
coming. His manner of living was, in some ways, 
like that of a poor man. He lived at the Purani 
Havaili in a small unfurnished room overspread 
with a white floor-cloth and he usually slept on a 
simple white linen sheet with a small pillow under 
his head. His dress indoors used to be fine white 
muslin, and he changed it every day and never 
I wore the same clothes twice because they were 
j to be given away to servants. 

* * * * 

“ I have heard on good authority that at the 
Coronation Durbar at Delhi in 1902, the austere 
simplicity of his costume and absence of jewels on 
his person attracted attention. Some Raja said 
to him that it was surprising to see him unadorn¬ 
ed when so many of his order were beladen 
with jewels. The Nizam in his quiet manner 
observed, pointing to some of his great nobles who 
were present, “ These are the Hyderabad jewels 
I have around me.” It was a pointedly signifi¬ 
cant remark considering that his Paigah nobles 



139 


were the equals in wealth and grandeur of some of 
the minor Indian Rulers. He knew that his port¬ 
rait had a jewelled frame. 

sjc sfc ❖ 

“ His munificence was like his magnifi¬ 
cence ; and he never became wealthy because 
he was always giving away. Whenever a com¬ 
mercial traveller sought his patronage with raised 
expectations, he did not go back disappointed — 
the order ran into thousands, sometimes into lakhs. 
The Nizam did not buy things for himself but to 
give them away to others. Generosity was an 
impulse with him, and I once heard the most 
interesting anecdote as an illustration of it. Out 
of the hundreds of petitions for pecuniary aid 
which were lying on his table he happened one 
day to pick up one in which a man living at 
Calcutta begged for a loan of one thousand rupees 
for the payment of a debt and for his daughter s 
wedding. The idea of a loan from the Nizam 
instead of a gift was amazing and the Nizam’s 
heart was strangely moved by it. He ordered 
six thousand rupees to be sent to the man —adding 
five thousand as a reward to the one thousand 
asked for. The happy recipient, evidently an 
uncommonly conscientious man, returned the 
extra five thousand rupees saying that the amount 
must have been sent by mistake. This surprised 
and delighted the Nizam still more and he ordered 
, another five thousand to be added and ten 
thousand to be sent to the man who was capable of 
behaving in this way!! 

* 




140 


“ As a ruler lie was jealous of the honour of 
his hereditary station, though he knew that its 
prerogatives could no longer be guarded by 
power, but would have to be preserved by tactful 
compliance with the increasing demands of the age. 
He was fully conscious that he stood at the parting 
of the ways, but he could scarcely be expected to 
realise that the onrush of opposing forces in the 
guise of reforms, true or false, might ultimately 
deprive rulers of some of their traditional prero¬ 
gatives. It must be said to his credit, however, 
that he was determined to remain true to himself 
in maintaining the elevation of his position while 
admitting the need of such beneficial reforms as 
would take his State along the line of progress and 
facilitate the adjustment of its relations with all 
the powers that it might have to deal with. 

* * * 

“ Reserve and dignity go together, and he 
was always on his dignity, and always reserved. 
All Hyderabad knew that he never allowed a 
word relating to State affairs to escape his lips 
even in free and intimate talk with his trusted 
courtiers. None was ever able to guess his inten¬ 
tions. The most momentous affairs were settled 
by him and orders issued without any stir ; and 
it was generally admitted that his commands were 
well-considered and just. Though his natural 
reserve prevented him from consulting his 
ministers personally, yet they had the fullest 
opportunity of representing their views when 



submitting a case for orders. The departmental 
Secretary, the departmental Minister and the 
Prime Minister were the responsible officers whose 
opinions were laid before him in the form of an 
Arzdasht or petition, and thus he had knowledge 
of all pertinent facts. His mind was always clear 
and penetrating, and it sometimes happened that 
his quick eye detected the weak points in a case 
which had not received sufficient attention below ; 
and in this way he was able to rectify defects. 

% j 

“ He was particularly cautious in dealing 
with those affairs in which the Government of 
India were interested. He was willing to meet 
their wishes as far as possible when they did not 
conflict with any principle he had at heart. 
He was too careful to discuss any matter with the 
British Resident in person; his Minister was the 
medium for such negotiations ; and it was only in 
the most important cases that the Minister was 
allowed to interview the Resident. The usual 
method was to depute the Political Secretary to 
ascertain the Resident’s views informally before 
submitting the matter to His Highness. Was he 
unnecessarily cautious, or was it timidity that 
induced him to remain behind the curtain ? Such 
a suspicion would be unjust and untrue. Those 
who believe it to be a sound principle that res¬ 
ponsibility should lie on ministers —and this is 
the principle of the English. Constitution—would 
at once see the wisdom of the course followed by 



142 


him. The constitutional king of Great Britain 
does not negotiate state affairs except through his 
ministers. It was the doctrine of ministerial 
responsibility which gave birth in England to the 
constitutional formula : “The king can do no 
wrong. 

* * * 

" Apart from the cautious temperament of 
His Highness there had been present to the minds 
of Hyderabad statesmen the desirability of having 
a body of advisers in the form of a Council of State 
or a Cabinet Council. And the Government of 
India had thought fit to suggest the employment 
of Colonel Marshall as Chief Adviser for a short 
period in 1886-87. And later, there was a Cabinet 
Council in the nineties and its constitution was 
embodied in a state paper called “ Qanooncha-e- 
Mubarak,” which briefly indicated the powers and 
functions of the Prime Minister and the Depart¬ 
mental Ministers (. Moin-ul-Mohams) and the duties 
of the Secretaries. The most significant provision 
in it was that the Cabinet should be the medium for 
submitting all matters of unusual importance to 
His Highness for orders. Thus it acquired a 
status and authority higher than that of the Prime 
Minister. This may be regarded as the beginning 
of an important constitutional change ; for, under 
the Salar Jung regime, the Dewan or Prime Minis¬ 
ter had been the sole authority for dealing with all 
state affairs and as regent his power and prestige 
had risen still higher. After Salar Jung’s death 
there was an obscure interregnum under the . acting 



143 


Minister, RajaNirandhar Pershad,for a year or so. 
Then followed the formal installation of the 
Nizam in 1884 and assumption of power by him: 
and he selected as his Dewan the eldest son 
of Sir Salar Jung—Nawab Mir Lark Ali Khan 
(afterwards Salar Jung, Imad-us-Saltanat). The 
choice proved ill-omened ; for, there soon arose 
serious misunderstandings between Master and 
Minister, and in 1887 the latter had to resign. 

“ He knew that the door was being opened 
by English education for the admission of new ideas 
and new models of progress, but there was an 
important reservation in his heart, that whatever 
was necessary or convenient to adopt must be 
made to work in harmony with the character of 
our people. He was liberal so far as advancement 
for the good of his people was concerned, but sus¬ 
picious of such innovations as were likely to affect 
the admitted prerogative of Hyderabad ‘ to do the 
best in its own way.’ 

“ His long-sighted mind enabled him to 
foresee more easily than others the danger of 
imitation being carried too far. It was a mind 
capable of examining and selecting and adopting 
all that was beneficial in such a way as to give it 
a distinction of its own, and the colour of Hyder¬ 
abad. 


* * * 

“ The pressure of circumstances from within 
and without increased the difficulties of his 
position from year to year towards the end, and 



144 

he had to rely on his natural capacity of intellect 
for deciding many a vexatious question. This he 
did after careful deliberation, and with a clearness 
of vision that was astonishing. He somehow 
made the State officers feel that his eye would at 
once detect any weak point in the presentation of 
a case. I had once heard from Sir David Barr 
about the Nizam’s wonderful ‘ perspicacity.’ Such 
a mind as his, nurtured in traditions of the regal 
grandeur of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and standing 
alone and relying on its own inherent strength was 
just the one to guard against indiscriminate modern¬ 
ism. He kept a proper watch and ward on rash 
innovations, and what right-minded man would 
blame him for this ? 

“It is well-known how he stood alone. His 
isolation, resulting partly from his lofty position, 
was partly temperamental. Some inherited pro¬ 
clivities too may have led him to it, and the 
circumstances in which he had been brought up 
may have helped to confirm his natural reserve 
and delicate sensibility and shyness, and this may 
have increased his reticence. But whatever his 
shortcomings, he was a magnificent symbol of 
power and dignity. 

“ It must be regarded as a misfortune that at 
the very time when proper instruction and judi¬ 
cious guidance were most needed by him, the one 
man from whose sagacity and experience they 
could have been expected died suddenly. If Sir 
Salar Jung had lived another ten years—he died 
at the age of 54—what a difference it would have 



145 


made to the young prince and to Hyderabad ! A 
few years of initiation into affairs and practical 
training would have brought the great natural 
talent of the Nizam into full play and given him 
the self-confidence and assurance which he needed 
as Ruler. As it was, he was left to his own re¬ 
sources and had to get light as best he could ; and 
by looking into himself he had to discover the 
natural sources of strength. This habit grew on 
him and made him meditative and he became a 
deep thinker in a way, because his mind had to 
wrestle with problems in secrecy and silence in a 
dim chamber, as it were, till it saw light. It might 
take a few days, or a few weeks or a few months ; 
but he never let the question drop till he had 
mastered it and come to a clear decision. It is 
said that he actually shut himself up in his room 
on such occasions without food and rest. This 
process naturally entailed delay and made him seem 
dilatory. A masterful self-reliant mind almost 
deprived of extraneous facilities and aids—such 
he had become, possibly because his experience 
with three of his Ministers between 1884 and 1899 
had not been of the happiest. 

* * * 

“ His life seemed to have an element of 
mystery in it. He remained absorbed in medita¬ 
tion for days together and did not leave his room. 
He had no regular meal hours; the meals were 
prepared and the dastarkhan laid out, but he allowed 
hours to pass without having a proper meal. It 
10 



was well-known how he turned day into night and 
night into day. Such a life was sure to tell upon 
his health in the end—and it did. Even his iron 
constitution could not hold out for many years. 
Though he was strong—so strong that he could 
stand for hours in one place without moving ; and 
though he had been a hardy horseman, an untiring 
sportsman and a wonderful shot capable of endur¬ 
ing fatigue such as few men could have borne — 
the time came at last when some spring within him 
seemed to snap and he collapsed. That woeful 
day in September, .1911, on which he was laid to rest 
with his forefathers within the precincts of the 
Mecca Masjid was indeed a black day for Hyder¬ 
abad and seemed to portend misfortune. It was 
in this year that the plague which had been kept 
at bay, as it were, for many years found its way 
into Hyderabad at last. Some suspicious cases 
were heard of within a week of the Nizam’s death. 
There is always an element of superstition in the 
human mind, and people felt a mysterious connec¬ 
tion between the two events.” 

* * * 

Sir Salar Jung I and the men who worked under him 

If ever,a-.mail.was hpru great in Hyderabad, 

it was the First Salar Jung,* who was great in soul, 
great in thought and great in deed. Fashioned 
by nature’s own hand and endowed with qualities 


* . .His name has been inscribed on the roll of India's great men. 

Of this illustrious man the whole country is a tomb_ ” (The Resident 

at Hyderabad in his letter to the Government of India), 



147 


of a very high order, he was able to perform 
the most onerous functions with patience, serenity 
and unerring judgment. He possessed the power 
to remain unperturbed amidst the appalling 
difficulties which he had to face. Suddenly 
called to the highest office in the State—at the 
age of 23 —he did not for a moment lose his self- 
possession. His natural modesty may have made 
him feel a little diffident at first, but when he had 
once assumed the responsibilities of the Dewanship 
of the First State in India, he proceeded on his 
course with the cool courage and assurance of an 
old experienced statesman. Out of his study into 
the audience chamber—a sudden and startling 
transition, which would have thrown an ordinary 
man off his balance ; but this young man of Persian 
features and steadfast gaze had that in the depths 
of his eyes which revealed the master-mind that 
could triumph over opposition of every kind. 

When I wish to see Salar Jung’s mind as it was 
in repose, I have no need to consult records of his 
deeds to see him in the history of India—and of 
the British Empire; I only look at his portrait 
and read history in his eyes. 

A friend once asked me —and he was an eminent 
‘ imported’ man — ‘ Was Salar Jung really so great 
as people think ? ” My first feeling was that of 
surprise—and annoyance. The question may 
have been quite innocent, but my suspicion detect¬ 
ed a slight tone of envious irony in it, and it 
seemed like an insult to Hyderabad; which I felt 



148 

personally. But I had to look untroubled and 
unhurt; and my reply was : “ He was so great 
that it is difficult for ordinary minds nowadays 
to understand his greatness.” I am not sure 
whether this Parthian dart touched the questioner 
below the skin, but I had relieved my feelings by 
discharging it. 

Salar Jung’s greatness lay in his penetration 
and his foresight, in his unerring judgment and 
his calm decision. This was followed up by 
appropriate and adequate action carefully planned 
and unfalteringly pursued. The period between 
The 24th and 29th years of his age was filled with 
the gravest concerns. He had first to save Hyder¬ 
abad from self-destruction, and then to save India 
from the horrors of civil war. Hyderabad was 
on the verge of bankruptcy when he became 
Dewan, and many of the districts were in the 
hands of the Arab Chiefs and other depredators 
who had lent the State money and were thus 
repaying themselves. They had become farmers 
of revenue and their own paymasters, and often 
defied higher authority. The young Minister, 
though a novice in public affairs, was yet able 
to manage them with his fine tact and firmness, 
so as to pay them off and get back the districts 
to be administered under his own direction. He 
then proceeded to settle the system under which 
Revenue administration was to be carried on in 
future, and at a later stage facilitated control by 
the distribution of the whole country into Divisions 
and Districts. Another and greater achievement 



149 


of his was the taming of the unruly Arabs and 
Rohillas, who had become a menace, and winning 
over their powerful chiefs to be his adherents and 
friends. This masterly expedient proved to be 
of incalculable value to the State when the Mutiny 
broke out in India in 1857. He was about 29 years 
old at that time, but in intellect and spirit he was 
already a mature statesman. The hold of the 
British on India had nearly gone when Delhi fell 
into the hands of the rebels and the Governor of 
Bombay telegraphed to the British Resident at 
Hyderabad, “ If Hyderabad goes all is lost.” 
When the Resident informed the Minister of the 
fate of Delhi, the reply was that he had known of 
it two or three days ago. Marvellous vigilance ! 
What must have been his sources of information ? 
He knew that traitors from British India would 
certainly find their way into Hyderabad to incite 
the people against the British and indeed, some 
were already active at Aura ngabad, and informa¬ 
tion reached him that some of them were on their 
way to Hyderabad. Prompt and firm action was 
needed and he ordered the Arab Chiefs on whom 
he could rely to guard the gates, to stop all suspi¬ 
cious strangers from entering the city and to 
. shoot without hesitation all who disobeyed. Here 
we see the full stature of the military commander 
[that occasion had made him. 

He must have established reliable means for 
obtaining accurate intelligence ; but imagination, 
foresight in devising plans, calm and quick 
judgment, cool nerve and steady hand —these were 




150 


nature’s gifts to the man of genius. However 
short the time for preparation, he was never found 
unprepared-another characteristic of greatness. 
As in outward aspect, so in mental poise he re- 
•n mained ever true to type—a great man. 

After his untimely death in February, 1883, 
there was an interregnum until the Nizam’s 
installation and the appointment of Sir Salar 
Jung’s son, Laik Ali Khan as Prime Minister. 
During that period Maharaja Nirandhar Pershad, 
the Peshkar, acted as Dewan. It was a period 
of uncertainty and the record of it lies in obscurity. 

I used to hear as a boy that the Maharaja received 
the State officials and went through Government 
work at night, and that people seemed to be 
dissatisfied with the way in which the State 
machinery was working in those days. The 
contrast with the perfect management of the 
great Salar Jung was too marked to remain un¬ 
noticed. Maharaja Nirandhar Pershad belonged 
to Raja Chandu Lai’s family and was the mater¬ 
nal grandfather of Maharaja Kishen Pershad, who 
became Peshkar after him, and subsequently 
Prime Minister in 1901. 

The death of the great Minister, Sir Salar Jung 
in 1883, brought to a close that period of Hyder- 
f abad history during which there had been a steady 
| movement forward towards newer ideals. His 
■ well-balanced mind with its great foresight and 
deliberate judgment and readiness to accept the 
conditions of beneficial progress foreshadowed by 



the signs of the times, made it easier for Hyder¬ 
abad to pass out of the old into the new order 
without any apparent break with the traditions 
of its ancient pre-eminence as a princely State 
which still reflected the fading lustre of the Moghal 
name. His family prestige as a great nobleman, 
his wealth and magnificence to support his dignity 
as regent during a long minority, his reverential 
loyalty to his young Sovereign, the secret jealousy 
of some of the higher nobility, the turbulence of 
a heterogeneous armed population, the vigilance 
of the British Representative, and his desire to 
accommodate, in a reasonable manner, his states¬ 
manship to the demands of the Supreme Govern¬ 
ment while endeavouring to preserve the prestige 
of his own State—all this must have made his 
position extremely difficult. But his freedom 
from self-interest, his sincerity, and loyalty to 
the nobler principles of human conduct, and his 
fixed resolve to be just and upright and beneficent 
in all his dealings added strength to his inherent 
ability to rule. And he never forgot that he was 
ruling on behalf of his Sovereign as the chief 
representative of his power. The talent and 
capacity, and the loyalty and responsibility were 
his own while the halo of outward magnificence 
was his master’s. 

The Government of Sir Salar Jung the First 
was strongly ^centralised, the reins of all the 
departments of administration being held in his 
firm grasp. His secretaries had no powers vested 
in them ; he decided every matter by his direct 



152 


order, and his day was fully occupied with work. 
Papers from the various departments of Govern¬ 
ment were placed before him in succession and 
were immediately attended to and orders passed 
on them. Thus time was saved and a vast amount 
of work was easily disposed of. In all matters 
of importance he granted interviews to those who 
desired to represent their claims in person, such 
as Sahukars (bankers) who had money claims 
against the State, and Arab Jamadars and feudal 
chiefs who had vested interests and could be 
exceedingly troublesome. By his sympathetic 
treatment of all those who approached him, by 
his fair-mindedness and regard for justice and 
promptness in punishing officials guilty of corrup¬ 
tion he won the confidence and esteem and respect 
of all; and by this means he exercised an extra¬ 
ordinary personal influence over men of all ranks. 
He was the ‘ Nawab Saheb ’ whose word was law 
and justice. Such is the impression I received in 
my childhood from what I used to hear from my 
father and uncle who were serving under him and 
whom he had selected for offices of trust when 
they were barely 20 years old, because they had 
distinguished themselves in their educational 
career at the Dar-ul-Uloom. It was my good 
fortune to see filma year or so before he died and 
his face lives in my memory—one of the most 
precious relics of the past. 

Moulvi Sved Hussain Bilgrami 

Foremost amongst those brilliant men who came 
to Hyderabad from Northern India to serve the 



153 


State under the great Minister, stood Moulvi 
Syed Hussain Bilgrami (afterwards Nawablmad- 
ul-Mulk). He was quite a new type in t h i s 
country —a tall, handsome man of fair complexion 
with long brown moustaches—a fine combination 
of eastern and western learning and refinement, 
a learned moulvi and an English scholar, to whom 
literature was a pleasant recreation in the midst 
of less congenial labour. Approximating to the 
western social type, he was well received in 
English society. He was one of the Minister’s 
secretaries, and at a later period in the Second 
Salar Jung’s regime he was made Secretary to 
the Council of State. Besides this he occupied a 
more honoured place as tutor to the young Nizam, 
and as his Secretary. Not being a man of enter¬ 
prise in a worldly sense, he remained contented 
wherever he was placed and took life easy, and 
the literary and social man in him was always 
trying to escape from the official. He had the 
honour of being presented to Her Majesty 
Queen Victoria when Sir Salar Jung visited London. 
He was a man of character (a fact that was noticed 
by the Resident Sir David Barr years afterwards). 
He was found incapable of plotting and intriguing 
—when intriguing came do be looked upon 
as a necessary qualification for rising to emin¬ 
ence ! This was during the short period of dark¬ 
ness through which Hyderabad had to pass in the 
first half of the last decade of the last century. It 
was the period in which some aspiring men attempt¬ 
ed to climb higher but missed their footing and 



i54 


fell one after another in rapid succession and had 
to leave the State. Peace to their shades ! Syed 
Hussain, the unperturbed man of character, 
remained an honoured personality in Hyderabad 
till his death in 1926. 

From the year 1910, he had the honour of being 
a member of the India Council for some years and 
worked with Lord Morley, the Secretary of State 
for India. For many years he served as Director of 
.Public Instruction owing to his love of the work, 
though the office was below the rank in which he 
had previously served. His book,. Hyderabad 
under Sir Salar Jung,’ is an official compilation of 
value, and time is sure to enhance its worth. But 
Hyderabad will soon have lost sight of hisJEn glish 
jj oems i f they are not brought more prominently 
before them. And to do this is the duty of his 
family. They have a merit of their own and ought 
to be preserved with care in the State library of 
which he was President for many years. 

His English translation of the Holy Qur’an 
which he did not live to complete has been almost 
forgotten by the present generation. It has to be 
rescued from oblivion by being published and 
distributed among enlightened Muslims through¬ 
out India. 

Moulvi Mehdi Ali Khan 

Moulvi Mehdi Ali Khan was another of those 
men whose personality lent some distinction to the 
administration towards the close of Sir Salar Jung’s 
regime. He was an able man of dignified bearing 



155 


and engaging manners, learned (according to the 
standard of the times) in Arabic aud Persian, 
quick-witted and with a sparkle of arch humour in 
his eyes, and a persuasive speaker As a writer he 
had attracted some attention by his Ayat-e- Baiyya- 
nat, a treatise in refutation of the Shia doctrine, 
based upon Quranic texts. He seemed to be well 
qualified by his talents to take a prominent place 
and shine in any society, both in private and 
public life. 

It was said of him, that by his fine ‘ promising 
manner' of listening to peoples’ requests he always 
sent them away satisfied! There is an amusing 
anecdote about his peculiar humour. Some man 
from the North once came to seek employment 
and was received by Moulvi Saheb with his usual 
courtesy and asked to take a seat. After a few 
minutes he was introduced to those present with 
i the remark : ‘This gentleman is one before whose 
) ancestors mine have sometimes bowed their heads.’ 
It became known afterwards that the person 
referred to was descended from a barber ! Men 
seeking employment were coming in increasing 
numbers in those days—and this was beginning to 
be resented by the people of Hyderabad. The 
Mulki Non-Mulki question was formulating itself. 

Moulvi Mehdi Ali Khan became Political and 
Financial Secretary under the Second Sir Salar 
Jung and was given the title, Nawab Munir Nawaz 
Jung and some years later he became Nawab 
Mohsin-ul-Mulk, “benefactor of the country.” He 
continued in this office when Sir Asman Jah became 



156 

Prime Minister in 1887. From 1891 political 
intrigue by means of concealed agencies became rife 
in Hyderabad, and lasted for four or five years. It 
brought about a change of Ministers—Sir Viqar-ul- 
Umara succeeding Sir Asman Jah —and then follow¬ 
ed the downfall of several persons and Moulvi 
Mehdi Ali was one of them. 

After his departure from Hyderabad, he busied 
himself with the affairs of the Aligarh College and 
the cause of Muslim education in India as a disciple 
of the great Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to whom the 
Muslims of India owed a new lease of life. He had 
come to Hyderabad at the recommendation of 
Sir Syed and was one of his chosen men ; it was 
therefore natural for him to go back to the seat of 
his chief and spend the rest of his life in serving his 
community. He thus atoned for whatever errors 
he may have committed during his official career 
in this State; and whatever his faults, we cannot 
believe him to have been a vicious man. With his 
sharp intellect he may have allowed considerations 
of expediency to outweigh all others on some 
occasions—as men of the world generally do—and 
he may thus have fallen ultimately into the trap 
laid for him ; but let us remember only the brighter 
side of his nature when more than half a century 
has gone by and friends and enemies rest in peace. 

Moulvi Mushtaq Hussain 

The third man of outstanding personality who 
possessed solid worth was Moulvi Mushtaq Hussain. 
He too had been one of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s 



i57 


chosen men, and he too, after his departure from 
Hyderabad, returned to his old haunt to serve the 
old cause, devoted the remainder of his life to it 
and died at his post. Amongst those who came 
from Northern India he was respected for his 
strong sense of duty and devotion to honest work 
and was credited with the desire to do his best in 
whatever position he happened to be. Early in 
his career in Hyderabad he had been attached to 
the Department of Justice of which Nawab 
Bashir-ud-Dowlah (afterwards SirAsman Jah) was 
Assistant Minister (Sadr-ul-Moham). Some in¬ 
cident at that period brought him under suspicion 
and he had to leave Hyderabad. He went back 
straight to Aligarh to the post of duty and honour, 
and served his old chief in some subordinate 
capacity in the same devoted and self-denying 
manner as before. 

When the Second Salar Jung (Imad-us-Salta- 
nat) became Prime Minister in 1884, Moulvi 
Mushtaq Hussain was recalled to Hyderabad and 
made Subedar (Commissioner) of the Warangal 
Division and was given the title, Nawab Intisar 
Jung. Some years later he became Nawab 
Viqar-ul-Mulk and when Sir Asman Jah became 
Prime Minister, he was made his Secretary, and 
such was the confidence placed in him by the 
Minister that he was Assistant Minister in fact 
though not in name. 

As to personal appearance, he was by no means 
a handsome man, and there was something rugged 
about him. His manner of receiving people was 



158 

simple and evidently sincere, but not particularly 
marked by cordiality or even geniality. His 
gravity bordering on the stem well became his 
pock-marked face which was surrounded with 
a broad beard. He was a typical, strong, hard- 
worked man of power. Such is my mental picture 

of him. 

In 1891 there were some suspicious symptoms 
of underground activities, the purpose of which 
was not then known. One of them was the 
publication of a defamatory pamphlet traducing 
the character of some eminent officials. It was a 
cowardly attack by some vile person or persons 
unknown ; but it was well-timed and hit the mark. 
Some of the persons defamed had recourse to the 
law, but while the case was dragging on, the intrigue 
reached its climax and the crisis (carefully 
prepared behind the scenes) occurred—the down¬ 
fall of Moulvi Mushtaq Hussain, Moulvi Mehdi Ali 
and Moulvi Mehdi Hussain (Fateh Nawaz Jung) 
who had been Chief Justice and was then Home 
Secretary. The Prime Minister Sir Asman Jah 
retired and Nawab Viqar-ul-Umara was appointed 
Prime Minister. The plot had succeeded. . 

Moulvi Chiragh Ali 

AmongTEFgroup of men who came with high 
credentials from Syed Ahmed Khan of Aligarh 
not the least noteworthy was Moulvi Chiragh Ali 
(afterwards Nawab Azam Yar Jung), His bulky 
rotund figure, his large head, massive brow, and 
protruding wide-open eyes at once arrested atten¬ 
tion. There was something in the brain behind 




159 


that mask. The man seemed stolid, immovable ; 
his gestures were slow, and his manner seemed 
painfully deliberate. I like to think that he had 
something of Socrates in him besides the frontal 
resemblance, and that his meditative gaze was per¬ 
haps a quest, his mind being on the trail to discover 
some truth. This might be thought exaggerated 
praise; but it is an inference based upon some 
known facts. He has left a considerable amount 
of literary work behind, such as able essays on 
some Islamic subjects about which misunder¬ 
standing has been (and is still) rife—the Jehad or 
religious war is one. He has shown the conditions 
and limitations restricting the resort to it; and in 
this his service to Muslims and non-Muslims alike is 
inestimable. This treatise deserves to be made 
widely known in this age of suspicion and unrest. 

It may be mentioned in passing that a certain 
frequenter of the Hyderabad State Library fished 
it out from somewhere and had copies of it 
printed. He was a book-lover, and his reprint of 
Chiragh Ali’s book was his most valuable offering 
to the State. 

Sir Salar Jung II 

Nawab Mir Laik Ali Khan (Sir Salar Jung 
Imad-us-Saltanat), the eldest son of Sir Salar 
Jung, was a great favourite with the late Nizam in 
the beginning, and was made Prime Minister soon 
after his installation in 1884, but unfortunately 
some misunderstandings occurred, which caused a 
change of feeling, and the Nizam at last decided to 



remove him from office. The nature of the dis¬ 
agreement between the two remains unknown to 
this day ' there have been many conjectures, but 
the secret was so well kept by the Nizam that no 
one ever knew the real cause of his displeasure 
with the man who had been such a favourite. 
His administration ‘launched with some eclat went 
on smoothly for a short time. Master and Minister 
alike in age and eager to get the best out of life, 
made it a season of new hopes and pleasures, of 
sunshine and smiles. New modes of.enjoying life, 
new forms of grandeur and magnificence, new 
fashions in costume and stately equipages and 
gorgeous uniforms-cheerfully supplied by English 
traders —gave splendour to the scene. I a.m remind¬ 
ed of Gray’s lines when I think of it. 

‘ Fair smiles the mom and soft the breezes blow 
* As gliding smoothly o’er the azure realm, 

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, 

Youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm, 

Unmindful of the rising whirlwind’s sway 

That hushed in,grim repose, expects his evening prey.’ 

For soon the air darkened, clouds appeared on 
the horizon and ominous rumours were heard and the 
son of Salar Jung the Great vanished into dark¬ 
ness. After his retirement in 1887, he went to 
Europe and travelled in different countries for 
some months and was in England during the 
summer, shortly after Queen Victoria’s Golden 
Jubilee. The house occupied by Sir Asman Jah 
in London during the Jubilee, 19 Rutland Gate, 
was taken for him and he stayed there with his 



i6i 


suite. I lunched with him two or three times and 
it made me sad to see his solemn, immovable, 
cheerless face which looked like a mask ; there was 
no life in it and no expression, and he hardly spoke 
a word. After sitting in the drawing room for a 
few minutes in complete silence, patting his pug 
dogs, he used to go into the dining room accom¬ 
panied by his guests, and there at the lunch table 
he would sit silent as before. When the meal was 
over, the company would walk back to the drawing 
room, sit there for a few minutes and then break 
up. He was overwhelmed by some great sorrow, 
as all could see ; and I, who knew a little of his 
previous history, could guess that it must be 
remorse or regret at having incurred the lasting 
displeasure of his master. After his return to 
India he spent some months at Poona, and at last 
when he returned to Hyderabad, he did not live in 
the city, but at Bolarum. His health had broken 
down and he was eagerly awaiting his death ; and 
died at the early age of 27 or 28. . 

His career had been full of promise, because he 
had a brilliant intellect and a prodigious memory, 
and was an eloquent speaker. I have heard from 
Sir Faridoon Mulk, who had been his Private and 
Political Secretary at one time, that the young 
Salar Jung once on a railway journey borrowed 
the poems of Byron from him and began to read 
“ The Prisoner of Chillon. ” After an hour or so 
'he gave him back the book and repeated nearly a 
\ whole canto I 

l..o 1 once heard hiimmake an after-dinner speech ; 
11 



162 


it was at a banquet given in honour of Lord 
Randolph Churchill, who visited Hyderabad in 
jggb, A very tall, square-shouldered, overgrown 
boy with a broad unbearded face, he towered 
above the audience. He had the ease and self- 
confidence of a practised speaker and filled the 
large crowded hall with his clear, resonant voice. 
His manner was cool, dignified and impressive ; 
and his fine delivery showed that he possessed the 
natural talent of an orator. 

During his short term of office it was said that 
he went through his ministerial work with a keen¬ 
ness, diligence and capacity not expected in one so 
young, and made his secretaries feel that he was 
master of the situation. With his intellect and 
capacity, and with the great natural qualifications 
he possessed, he might have become in due time a 
worthy successor of his great father, but fate had 
marked his short life for a tragedy ! 

But for the timely birth of his son, Nawab 
Yusuf Ali Khan, in 1889—the sole relic left of the 
great Salar Jung family, the very name ‘ Salar Jung’ 
would have been lost. 

Salar Jung’s younger brother, Nawab Munir- 
ul-Mulk also died very young. He was a thin, 
frail-looking young man with a beautiful expres¬ 
sion on his face, indicating fine sensibility and 
delicacy of sentiment. He too was a man of great 
promise, in whom the hopes of all well-wishers of 
the family and of all old servants of the State were 

centred, and his death was a cruel shock to all. 
11* 



163 

It seemed to forebode at the time the extinction 
of Sir Salar Jung’s family. 

The Third Salar Jung, Mir Yusuf Ali Khan, is 
the son of Nawab Mir Laik Ali Khan Imad-us- 
Saltanat. He was bom in 1889 and during his 
minority his estate was managed by Mr. Dunlop 
and other high officials under the Nizam’s personal 
direction. He received as good an education as 
was possible under the existing conditions, and 
the Nizam always treated him with particular 
regard and affection and showed a paternal 
solicitude in all his affairs. He was educated 
at the Nizam College and his English teacher, 
Mr. Cooney, had been at one time Headmaster of 
the St. George’s Grammar School and was said to 
be one of the best English teachers in Hyderabad. 
He was a friend of mine and from him I used to 
hear good accounts of his pupil. Mr. Cooney was 
also teaching Nawab Moinuddin Khan, son of 
Sir Asman Jah, and. at that time both the pupils 
were profiting by their education and showed 
fair promise. 

Nawab Salar Jung was made Prime Minister 
in 1912 when Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad vacat¬ 
ed that office rather unexpectedly. The British 
Resident, Colonel (afterwards Sir) Alexander 
Pinhey, strongly supported the selection, for the 
name of Salar Jung, as he said, was a name to 
conjure with ! The new Prime Minister being 
young and inexperienced, was given two special 
Advisers to- help him in his responsible work. 
One of them was Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk, a man 



164 

respected by all Hyderabad, an able and trust¬ 
worthy official of long- standing who had enjoyed 
the confidence of the late Nizam and was treated 
with much consideration by His Exalted High¬ 
ness the present Nizam. The other was Sir 
Faridoon Mulk, another veteran, who had served 
as Private and Political Secretary since the time 
of the Second Salar Jung, Nawab Imad-us-Saltanat, 
and who by his sagacity had been able to main¬ 
tain his position and personal influence under 
four Prime Ministers. 

The work of administration under the young 
Minister was carried on in this way for about 
two years,* when His Exalted Highness consi¬ 
dered it more expedient to take it directly under 
his own supervision. The Nizam thus became 
his own Prime Minister, and Sir Faridoon Mulk, 
the medium for ministerial work. The arrange¬ 
ment lasted till the year 1918 when the idea of 
having an Executive Council matured and steps 
were taken to select a suitable person of suffi¬ 
ciently high status and experience—in consulta¬ 
tion with the Government of India—to be its 
President. This brought Sir Ali Imam to Hyder¬ 
abad, who immediately after his arrival, drew 
up the constitution of the Executive Council and 
had it inaugurated in November, 1919. 

Nawab Salar Jung is perhaps the only one 
amongst the nobles of Hyderabad who has shown 
marked ability for managing his great ancestral 


1912^1914. 



estates with practical efficiency in all details. 
And it redounds to his credit that he is the only 
nobleman whose estate is not encumbered with 
debt. Equally remarkable is his proclivity for 
business. He is interested in companies and 
is one of the directors in some important ones. 
To have freed himself from the restraint of the 
old “ dignified ” prejudices of his class so far as 
to have become a practical man of business, 
shows uncommon adaptability. 

Sir Asman Jah 

When Nawab Sir Salar Jung, Imad-us-Saltanat, 
was made to retire in the early part of 1887, His 
Highness the Nizam appointed Nawab Bashir-ud- 
Dowlah, Sir Asman Jah, to succeed him as Prime 
Minister. He was the head of the elder branch 
of the Shams-ul-Umara family, and the Nizam's 
brother-in-law. He was a man of prepossessing 
appearance, tall and dignified in his bearing, 
courteous like all the old nobility of Hyderabad, 
and possessed of wealth which made him richer, 
as people thought, than the richest sahukar 
(banker) in Hyderabad. He had not the advant¬ 
age of being highly educated, but the oriental 
education he had received was sufficient to 
enable him to perform the duties of his high 
office satisfactorily with the help of able secre¬ 
taries. It may be mentioned in his praise that 
he refused to take the honorarium of the Prime 
Minister, which was Rs. 10,000 a month. He was 
a man of mild and amiable disposition, concilia¬ 
tory in his ways and loyal to his master ; but some 



i66 


of the high officials around him began to intrigue 
in their own interest and this led to his downfall. 
The Jacob diamond case in which the Nizam 
himself had to give evidence, perhaps hastened 
the catastrophe. The Minister lost his popularity 
and came to incur the easily aroused suspicion of 
his sensitive Master. A web of intrigue was 
woven round him by designing people and he had 
to vacate office in favour of his cousin, Nawab 
Iqbal-ud-Dowlah, Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, in 1893 or 
1894. He died in 1898, leaving an only son, 
Nawab Moinuddin Khan, afterwards Nawab 
Moin-ud-Dowlah. 


Sir Viqar-ul-Umara 

Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, the younger brother of 
Nawab Khurshid Jah Shams-ul-Umara, was a 
nobleman who represented a new type among the 
nobility. A lover of things European, he preferred 
to live after their style —in externals. A sportsman 
by inclination and habit, he was fond of big game 
shooting and sports and built for himself a shooting 
box on the Ananthagiri Hill beyond Gangawaram, 
which is now known as ‘ Vikarabad. ' He was 
surrounded by a number of sporting men who had 
once been connected with the Hyderabad Contin¬ 
gent, and he kept a fine stud of horses and had a 
polo team of his own. In the eighties of the last 
century he began to build on the top of a hill beyond 
Jahan Numa palatial villa which came to be known 
as ‘ Falaknuma. ’ He loved ‘ the grand style ’ 
and was heedless of expense. With such tastes, 



167 

it was not difficult for him to become popular and 
to run into debt! 

As regards mind and ability and experience 
of work, it cannot be said that he achieved any¬ 
thing like distinction as Prime Minister. He too, 
like his predecessor, had to depend largely upon 
his secretaries, and some of them were men who 
were inclined to serve their own interests with 
greater zeal than his. By their insinuating 
manner and flattering subservience they could 
keep him in good humour, and so control his confi¬ 
dence. I remember some of these tacticians and 
their doings, but it is needless to dig out such 
trifles from beneath the dust of half a century. 

Sir Viqar, to his misfortune, soon became a centre 
of intrigue owing to his weak but good nature ; 
and of this His Highness the Nizam became aware 
through secret reports which reached him from 
time to time. One of the sources of information, 
and perhaps the most reliable, was Nawab Akbar 
Jung, Akbar-ul-Mulk, c.s.i., the lynx-eyed, lion- 
hearted Kotwal. The Nizam's suspicions increas¬ 
ed from day to day, until a sort of bitterness 
entered into their mutual relations, and he decided 
to change the Minister. An order was passed 
suddenly in 1901 removing Sir Viqar from office 
and appointing Maharaja Kishen Pershad, the 
Peshkar, in his place. 

Sir Viqar died soon after this while he was 
out on a shooting expedition in one of his jagirs. 



i68 


I renxcmbcr his personal appearance, his. dig¬ 
nified manner and his awe-commanding . pre- 

sence to this day. He was a man of few words, 
and spoke in a grave, impressive tone. One 
could not forget in his presence that he belonged 
to the highest nobility and was related to the 
Nizam. His figure and his broad whiskered face 
reminded me of the poet Gray s lines . Lion 

port and awe-commanding face.” He left two 

sons, Nawab Sultan-ul-Mulk and Waliuddin Khan, 
Nawab Wali-ud-Dowlah. * 


The latter, after having been educated at 
Eton for sometime, returned to Hyderabad, 
joined the Imperial Cadet Corps, and in course of 
time was made Military Minister by His Exalted 
Highness the Nizam, and later, a Member of the 
Executive Council where he was one of my col¬ 
leagues for many years. He acted as President 
of the Council more than once, and with his good 
nature and pleasing manner was liked by all of 
us. In 1935, by a sudden impulse he made up 
his mind to go on pilgrimage to Mecca and started 
a few days before I did. When I reached Kara¬ 
chi, I was informed that a radio message had been 
received at Hyderabad informing the Nizam of 
his sudden death at Medina. I am mentioning 
these facts to show how the great family of Shams- 
ul-Umara was rapidly reaching a stage at which 
its prestige would be lost and its importance 
diminished—perhaps for ever. 


* See p. 230. 



169 


In this connection I should like to mention 
also the fate of Sir Viqar’s eldest son, Nawab 
Sultan-ul-Mulk, a very handsome young man with 
graceful manners, uncommonly gentle and re¬ 
fined and possessing a fine intellect and great 
capacity for business. He was just the type that 
would have adorned the office of Prime Minister 
or President of the Council. But fate was deter¬ 
mined to interfere in Hyderabad affairs. In 
1909 or 1910 his mind suddenly gave way, and 
he had to be sent to England for treatment un¬ 
der the charge of Dr. Lawrie, who had been 
Residency Surgeon at Hyderabad. But he did 
not recover completely and was brought back 
to Hyderabad some 22 years ago, and has remain¬ 
ed in obscurity since. He has a number of sons 
and grandsons ; but will they ever occupy the same 
high position among the nobility of Hyderabad- 
as he did ? 

A similar fate has overtaken the other branches 
of the Paigah family. Sir Asman Jah left only 
one son who became Nawab Moin-ud-Dowlah. 
He was Member of the Council (Military Depart¬ 
ment) for some time and lived as a private gentle¬ 
man after his retirement. He was an excellent 
horseman and a fine shot, but his health was 
undermined and he died at the early age of 50. 

He has left some sons, of whom the eldest is 
Nawab Zahiruddin Khan Bahadur, Zahir Yar 
Jung, a young nobleman of good education—- 
a .graduate of the Osmania University. His 



170 


graceful manners distinguish him from the majo¬ 
rity of our young nobility of the present day, 
and he shows some promise. He is a young man 
who may prove useful in the service of the State 
and enhance its prestige by bringing once more 
before the public eye some of the nobler quali¬ 
ties of his ancestors, the great Paigah nobles. 

Nawab Sir Khurshid Jah 

Nawab Sir Khurshid Jah Shams-ul-Umara 
Amir-e-Kabir was the second of three brothers : 
the eldest, Sir Asman Jah was his half-brother, 
and Sir Viqar-ul-Umara was his own brother, but 
younger. Sir Khurshid Jah did not hold any 
office but was regarded by people generally as the 
typical representative of the great Shams-ul-Umara 
family on account of his conservative style of 
living which was quite Moghlai. And he was 
favoured by the late Nizam’s personal attention 
more than any of his brothers ; possibly because 
he seemed more anxious to preserve the traditional 
prestige of his family. His ways and habits and 
style of living, all combined to keep him aloof 
from State affairs. 

Nawab Sir Khurshid Jah and his brothers, Sir 
Asman Jah and Sir Viqar-ul-Umara were allied to 
the Nizam’s family by marriage, each of them 
having married a daughter of the Nizam, Afzal-ud- 
Dowlah; and this gave the family a very high 
status. So it was natural for him to think that 
the office of Dewan could not enhance his dignity. 



1 7i 


Nawab Sir Khurshid Jah had two sons: the 
elder was Nawab Imam Jung, Khurshid-ul-Mulk, 
and the younger, Nawab Zafar Jung, Shams-ul- 
Mulk, who together with Sir Asman Jah had the 
honour of representing His Highness the Nizam 
at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. 

Nawab Zafar Jung was the son of Nawab 
Afzal-ud-Dowlah’s daughter and therefore nearer 
in kinship to the ruling family. Nawab Sir Khur¬ 
shid Jah died in 1902 and Nawab Zafar Jung did 
not survive him many years. He died in 
1907. Like the other branches of the Paigah 
family. Sir Khurshid Jah’s family has also been 
unfortunate. After his death his son, Nawab 
Zafar Jung, Shams-ul-Mulk, a first cousin of the 
late Nizam, succeeded his father nominally as 
head of the Paigah but was not vested with full 
powers. The estate was placed under the super¬ 
vision of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Brian Egerton by 
the order of the Nizam. Nawab Zafar Jung died 
young and his eldest son Nawab Lutfuddin Khan, 
who became Nawab Lutf-ud-Dowlah afterwards, 
succeeded him as head of his branch of the family ; 
but the estate continued to be managed by Sir 
Brian Egerton until the final settlement (based 
upon the Reilly Commission Report) was made 
by His Exalted Highness in the year 1928. 
The three Paigahs were then restored to their 
rightful claimants, but their prestige had de¬ 
clined. Special committees were appointed by 
His Exalted Highness to assist the Paigah Amirs 
in the work of administration. 



1J2 


Nawab Lutf-ud-Dowlah, a remarkably able 
man of high principles and strong character., 
served on the Council from its inauguration, 
in 1919 till his death in 1937- I had great 
admiration for him on account of his sincerity, 
unswerving rectitude, independence of judgment 
and ardent loyalty to his Master and the State. 
I looked upon him as the one man among the 
nobles of Hyderabad well qualified to be Presi¬ 
dent of the Council. But suddenly he deve¬ 
loped symptoms of cancer and had to go to 
Vienna for expert treatment and died near 
Aden on his way back- This showed that fate 
was again at work ; and his death was an 
irreparable loss to the State. He has left children, 
but it does not seem likely that any of his' 
sons will ever attain the same elevation and 
fill the same place in the public eye.. They will 
be fortunate if they have inherited any of his 
qualities. 

The great Paigah family—the barons of 
Hyderabad—liege vassals of the Nizam, connected 
with the ruling family by ties of intermarriage, 
enjoying high, almost regal prerogatives and 
privileges and an annual revenue of about 
£400,000—were an estate of the realm. But 
time and fate have put them into the background 
of Hyderabad history; and their disappearance 
will leave unimpeded the levelling movements of 
the times. And then will be gone for ever the 
pomp and splendour of regal Hyderabad of which 
they were the reflectors. 



Maharaja Sir Kishen Per shad 

Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad was appointed 
Minister by the late Nizam after the retirement of 
Sir Viqar-ul-Umara in 1901. He was a special 
favou rite ; for, with his polished manners and res¬ 
pectful behaviour towards his master, he could not 
fail to please. And his learning and taste for the 
fine arts, and the spirit of Muslim culture which he 
had imbibed from the Qur’an, made him deserv¬ 
edly popular with all sections of the public. 

I first had the honour of meeting him soon 
after his appointment as Minister, and it was by 
his order that I was appointed Under-Secretary in 
.the Legislative Department, of which my uncle, 
the late Nawab Emad Jung, was then Secretary. 
I had frequent opportunities of seeing him when¬ 
ever I officiated for my uncle, w r ho was Home 
Secretary, or for Mr. Faridoonji who was Private 
and Political Secretary. He was always affable 
and courteous; and his unaffected politeness, 
which became all the more attractive by his 
sympathetic manner, made him in my eyes a type 
| that was not common even in those days when the 
st a n d ard of good breeding was much higher than 
it is now. Apart from Government work, we 
used to talk about various matters of general 
interest and, occasionally, of English literature. 
Thus in course of time our official relations changed 
imperceptibly into friendship and mutual regard. 

In those early days, before he had fully grasped 
the details of the administration, he had as advisers 



174 


some able and experienced secretaries. The chief 
among them was my uncle, Nawab Emad Jung, 
who had been alternately Judge of the High Court, 
Chief Justice and Home Secretary under four 
successive Ministers. His complete knowledge 
of the working of all the Departments was useful 
to the new Minister whom he tactfully and 
judiciously guided till 1904.* The late Nizam, 
who knew the worth of Nawab Emad Jung’s 
services, used to ascertain his opinion through the 
Maharaja in matters of special importance. 

The Maharaja received the high title of 
Yamin-us-Saltanat (the right hand of the State) 
from his gracious master, and some time after that, 
the honour of G.C.I.E. from His Majesty the King 
Emperor. Such a distinction had not been con¬ 
ferred on any Prime Minister of Hyderabad since 
Salar Jung I, who was a G.C.S.I. 

The most praiseworthy feature of the 
Maharaja’s long period of service was that he 
never caused the least displeasure to His Highness 
in any way. Always obedient and loyal to him, 
he succeeded in making the relations between 
master and servant personal and cordial. They 
were based upon affection and esteem. 

It is pleasant to recall how solicitous of his 
Minister’s health the Nizam was during a period 
of illness, when he graciously allowed him the use 
of the Falaknuma Palace for a change—an un¬ 
common honour. 

* See Chapter V. 



i?5 


All went peacefully and prosperously till the 
unexpected and untimely death of the Nizam in 
September 1911. It was a dismal day for Hyder¬ 
abad. Almost everyone of his subjects felt his 
lamentable death as a personal loss, and it can 
easily be imagined what his favourite, the Maharaja, 
must have felt. It proved ominous for him. 

After the installation of the present Nizam it 
seemed as though the Minister was losing ground, 
rapidly and unaccountably, so far as relations with 
his new master were concerned. In 1912 it became 
evident that he would not be able to retain office 
long. I happened to be officiating for Sir Faridoon 
as Political Secretary in those days and used to 
see the Minister twice a week, and I could gather 
from his conversation that he thought a change 
imminent. Not many days had passed when the 
change did occur, and so suddenly and so quietly 
that it seemed to have been planned beforehand. 
One morning when I went to see the Minister at 
i Saroomagar, I found his palace almost deserted— 
'silence everywhere, no visitors in the anterooms 
and no ‘ chobdars’ or servants to be seen anywhere. 
And when I was announced at last, and the Maha¬ 
raja himself came down to see me, the very first 
words he uttered were that he had sent in his 
papers ! 

A few days before his fall he had shown me an 
anonymous letter received by him, in which it 
was said that some people were secretly preparing 
a forged document in order to make him suspected 




176 

bv the Nizam as disloyal. The names of some of 
the plotters were mentioned, and also the place of 
their meetings. The Minister had given the letter 
to me to have enquiries made through the District 
police. But before any information could be had 
from that quarter, he fell. 

There had been many plots in the previous 
regime, but none of them had ever been so heinous 
and so’ daringly criminal as this. Fortunately it 
was the first and last of its kind. The immediate 
steps taken, as suggested by the British Resident, 
to get to the bottom of it was a careful examina¬ 
tion of the forged signatures on the memorial by 
a well-known handwriting expert from Calcutta, 
Mr. Hardless. It showed that all except two or 
three were forgeries. The author of the crime 
was removed from his post but the Nizam’s mercy 
saved him from punishment.* 

After his retirement from service, Maharaja 
Sir Kishen Pershad occupied himself with his 
favourite pursuits : .literary and artistic. Occa¬ 
sionally he used to send his Private Secretary to 
me to know how things were going on and, possibly, 
to find out how he stood with the Nizam on the 
one hand, and with the Resident on the other. 
My advice always was that he should remain un¬ 
perturbed and go on quietly pursuing his usual 
avocations, giving special attention and care to the 
improvement of his great estate, so that he 
might soon be out of debt. Generous to a fault, 
he was constantly reduced to the necessity of 

* See Chapter V. - ■ ■ ‘ * 1 



borrowing, and his Private Secretary had to find 
the money. As time went on, the Maharaja’s 
affairs, instead of being straightened out, became 
more and more involved. He had not the strength 
of mind to make a firm decision and adhere to it. 
His generous heart was always in the way, and his 
amiable qualities only served to make him weak. 
Years as they passed taught him to live the 
unostentatious life of an ordinary gentleman —but 
his expenditure was not reduced and his debt 
remained unpaid. 

In 1926 when certain changes, with a view to 
reform in the administration, became necessary, 
it was a matter of primary importance to change 
the personnel of the Executive Council. This 
meant the selection of a suitable person as Pres¬ 
ident, but the matter was a somewhat difficult one. 
The alternatives were : either to import a man 
from British India or to choose one from 
amongst the nobles of Hyderabad. Besides bear¬ 
ing in mind the risk involved in having an outsider 
whose principles and political sympathies could 
not be known beforehand, we had to recall the 
Viceroy’s advice, that it would be well to select 
one of the nobles of Hyderabad, if possible. The 
names that suggested themselves, chiefly on the 
ground of previous service as Prime Minister, 
were those of Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad and 
Nawab Salar Jung Bahadur. But His Exalted 
Highness was not disposed to nominate Nawab 
Salar Jung. So the claim of Maharaja Sir Kishen 
Pershad could not well be overlooked, and I 



178 


ventured to submit to His Exalted Highness my 
own views in the matter. The Maharaja, I ex¬ 
plained, had filled the office of Prime Minister for 
over 10 years with credit; that he had been a 
careful and loyal servant; that his behaviour on 
the whole had been so praiseworthy that he had 
earned the good opinion and esteem of the British 
Government. And I laid particular stress on his 
fidelity to the Nizam, which seemed to me above 
suspicion. His Exalted Highness hesitated for 
some days, and as I had to use stronger arguments, 
I insisted on the great risk involved in taking an 
unknown man from outside. And as it was 
thought prudent to ascertain the views of the 
Resident first, I spoke to Sir William Barton about 
it. He did not know the Maharaja personally, 
but had evidently heard of his. declining age and 
uncertain health and growing, infirmities. These 
he mentioned as possible objections, but I succeed¬ 
ed in convincing him that they were not so serious 
as to make us overlook the greater danger in 
choosing an outsider, on account of the disturbed 
political conditions prevailing in India. 

Sir Kishen Pershad was appointed President 
of the Executive Council in 1927 and continued 
as such for a period of ten years. It was gratifying 
to the people of Hyderabad to see once more at the 
head of affairs one who was so highly thought of 
by all, and who could bring back with him some 
of the grace and dignity of the old regime and lend 
to the Presidentship some of the lustre of the 
Dewanshift. 

12 * 



i79 


I served under him as a member of the Council 
till I retired towards the end of 1929 ; and I found 
him as gentle, affable and courteous as he had 
always been. One of his noble characteristics 
was that he was willing to work in concert and 
friendly accord with his colleagues. Self-assertion 
was unknown to him, for he had the refined 
gentleman’s inborn tact of guiding by silent sugges¬ 
tion. He proved to be an excellent President, 
and people regretted his retirement when the time 
came for it in 1937. Sir William Barton who had 
at first hesitated to agree to his selection, came to 
acknowledge after three years’ knowledge of him 
and his ways that the selection had been more than 
justified. In his speech at the farewell banquet 
given to him by the Maharaja, he referred to him 
and his pre-eminence among the Hyderabad 
nobility by calling him “ the last of the Moghuls.” 
This was perhaps on the ground of his being one of 
the last few noblemen in Hyderabad who re¬ 
mained conscious of the fact that Hyderabad was a 
princely State still reflecting, though faintly, the 
glory of the Moghal name. 

The Maharaja did not live very long after his 
retirement. He died in 1940 at the age of 76. His 
! life had been saddened towards the end by some 
;; family troubles and anxiety as to the future. 

As a man of high thoughts and liberal views 
and broad sympathies, he was very tolerant in 
religious and social matters. Indeed so much 
so that he made people think that he belonged to 



all religions and to none in particular ! Though 
his marriage with a Mohammedan lady proved 
him to have been a Muslim, the burning of his body 
after death restored it to Hinduism. He called 
himself a sufi and a fakir. Sufism, as he under¬ 
stood it, was perhaps no more than a quest of the 
abstract spirit of religion beyond any denomina- 
tional form of it. So far as I could judge, he did 
not reveal any of the peculiar characteristics of 
mysticism, and I never heard of any absorption or 
emotional contemplation leading him towards 
spiritual ecstasy. The habit of his mind seemed 
to be eclectic, rather than intuitive. And though 

he liked to call himself a. fakir, the stern self- 

abnegation which is the essential quality of a 
fakir, seemed to be beyond him. 

He had always been anxious to obtain a Firman 
from His Exalted Highness regarding the devolu¬ 
tion of his estate after him ; and his desire was 
thathissonby his Rani, Khwaj a Pershad, should 
be his successor. He asked me to use my influence 
to persuade the Nizam to issue a Firman to that 
effect; and upon my submitting the matter to 
His Exalted Highness I was told there was no need 
for hurry. And time showed that His Exalted 
Highness was right. 

The unfortunate Khwaj a Pershad had been 
brought up with great expectations as he was the 
sole survivor of the many sons by the Maharaja’s 
Hindu wives. His name, Khwaj a Pershad, had 
been suggested by the Maharaja’s faith in the 



i8i 


mysterious powers of the great saint of Ajmer, 
to whom probably repeated supplications had 
been made by him for the birth of a son and heir. 
But the boy was ill-fated and did not choose to 
follow the ways of his father; nor did he reveal 
any qualities that could entitle him to be thought 
a worthy son. After the Maharaja’s death, His 
Exalted Highness was pleased to issue a Firman 
in 1943, naming him successor to the estate, but 
on that very day he left for Bombay—to meet his 
doom. Thus was another great family of Hyder¬ 
abad nobles, which had had a long and distinguish¬ 
ed career in the State, brought to its end. 

Of the other great nobles of Hyderabad, 
below the Prime Ministers, who held high official 
positions and remained long at their posts as 
grand figure-heads, ornamental as well as useful, 
I should like to mention some of those whom 

I knew personally and under whom I served as 
a judicial officer. 

Nawab Fakhr-ul-Mulk 

Nawab Fakhr-ul-Mulk was Assistant Minister 
for the Judicial Department for over 30 years. 
He belonged to a side branch of the Salar Jung 
family, became Moin-ul-Moham under Salar Jung 

II and continued in that office till his retirement in 
1918. He was a man who liked to live like an 
aristocrat. He built for himself a palace on one 
of the hills beyond Khairatabad and furnished it 
gorgeously and lived in it surrounded by his large 
f amil y with something of baronial pomp and 



i 82 


as one who had entertained hopes of becoming 
Prime Minister. His lavish expenditure led to 
extravagance —and debt. With all his weaknesses, 
he had the noble qualities of his race, and was a 
perfect gentleman, kind-hearted and courteous. 
His politeness was of the lofty style and bore the 
hall-mark of aristocracy. 

It was a pleasure to me to be received by him, 
not as an official on business, but as a friend, and 
to be treated by him with marked consideration. 
He had a special regard for me because he had 
known and respected my father and uncle since 
the time of Salar Jung I, as men who had been 
selected on account of their high merits. He 
knew me from the time I returned from England 
and was appointed as a District Judge in 1897, 
and I served under him until I reached the highest 
post in the Judicial Department, that of Chief 
Justice. After my appointment as Political Sec¬ 
retary, wedid not meet often, but mutual esteem 
continued as before. 

He knew my character and tastes and habits, 
and whenever an occasion presented itself, he 
suggested that my services should be utilised. 
And it was he who got me nominated to the 
Honorary Secretaryship of the City Improvement 
Board when it was formed in 1913 at the sugges¬ 
tion of the Resident, Sir Alexander Pinhey. He 
was its President and his recommendation 
was approved by the Cabinet Council and sanc¬ 
tioned by the Nizam. I served on the Board 
till 1937. 



i83 


As Home Secretary under him I put up a 
scheme for founding a Poor House in Hyderabad, 
which was sanctioned by His Highness. 

Nawab Shiliab Jung, Iftikliar-ul-Mulk 

Another man who held a very high and un- 
ique position among the nobility was Nawab Shi- 

hab Jung Iftikhar-ul-Mulk. He was the Moin-ul- 
Moham in charge of the Police Department from 
the time of Salar Jung II. He was a nephew of 
the great Sir Salar Jung, and naturally took pride 
in the relationship. He was fair of complexion 
and good-looking, with a face that seemed at 
times a little haughty and proud, and his manner 
also seemed to partake of these qualities. But on 
getting to know him better one found that these 
were only appearances, and that his heart was 
good. His figure was short and stout and some 
spinal defect had made him hunch-backed, so 
that he was not able to hold himself up straight, 
and in his walk there was something shambling 
and awkward. But he managed to hold his 
head high, and could inspire in people not only 
respect, but awe. His life was one of strict 
privacy; he did not go out much and he did not 
receive visitors, and even his Secretaries seldom 
saw him. Their papers had to be submitted in 
boxes and orders were passed on them in his own 
handwriting, and without delay. He was in the 
habit of keeping awake nearly the whole night, 
doing office work during the quiet hours when 
there was nothing to disturb him. Interest in 



184 


work was a trait of his character, and his night 
vigils left no trace upon his face, which was always 
fresh and ruddy. He was known to be over¬ 
sensitive, and was easily annoyed with those who 
failed to show the respect due to him. I had not 
much to do with him officially except once in 1902 
when he acted as Prime Minister at the time of 
the Delhi Durbar during the absence of Maharaja 
Sir Kishen Pershad, who had accompanied H.H. 
the Nizam to Delhi. As officiating Minister 
Nawab Shihab Jung used to receive Government 
Secretaries on fixed days, not at his own house 
but at the Aftab Mahal in the Chow Mahal Palace, 
by special permission of His Highness. I was 
officiating for Mr. Faridoonji as Private and Poli¬ 
tical Secretary and so had the opportunity of 
seeing and getting to know Shihab Jung Bahadur 
from week to week for over a month . Under his 
grand and pompous exterior I discovered kindly 
and gracious qualities; and when the time came 
for us to part, he had the goodness to assure me 
that all the time I had worked with him he had 
been very pleased with me. Alter some years 
I again had the opportunity of working under him. 
It was in 1909-10 when I was Home Secretary, 
and from the Home Secretariat papers relating 
to the Police Branch had to be submitted to him 
as Police Minister. In 1910 a rumour was heard 
that a change was likely to take place in the 
Home Secretariat, and I received from him a 
letter in his own handwriting expressing anxiety 
and concern on account of the impending change. 



185 

He felt the matter rather keenly, he said, because 
ofhis esteem for thememory of my uncle, Nawab 
Emad Jung, and his personal regard for me. I 
have preserved the letter as one of the most 
precious things in my possession. 

* * * 

It is a consolation and a pleasure to me to 
recall these names from amongst the representa¬ 
tives of the old Hyderabad nobility—true patri¬ 
cians with whom ended the patrician regime. 

Rajas Rai Rayan and Sheoraj 

No picture of Hyderabad would be complete 
unless sufficient prominence was given in it to 
eminent members of the Hindu community to 
whom the Nizams have invariably shown marked 
consideration and favour. The Nizams' rule has 
been distinguished throughout its history by a 
benevolent spirit of toleration and all religions 
have been treated by them with the justice and 
impartiality befitting Islamic rulers. They have 
never made any distinction between Hindus 
and Muslims so far as their rights as subjects were 
concerned. Their .Hindu subjects have never 
had any cause for complaint in this respect, and 
whatever may have been said of late years by 
detractors and malcontents for political purposes 
may safely be set down as ‘ propaganda.’ I 
say this without hesitation because I have known 
Hyderabad immune from such sinister activities 
—before it began to receive its inspiration from 
British Indian politics. What I wish, therefore, 



i86 


to bring into proper perspective in my picture of 
Hyderabad is the position of the Hindus and their 
admitted status. 

A fact that must never be overlooked is the 
traditional practice of giving the highest or next 
highest place in the administration to a Hindu 
nobleman. This has made the Peshkar ’s or Assist¬ 
ant Prime Minister’s office hereditary in the 
family of Raja Chandulal, of which Maharaja Sir 
Kishen Pershad was a scion. Besides this, here¬ 
ditary offices of the highest importance and trust 
have been held by successive generations of some 
of the more prominent among the Hindu families 
such as Raja Rai Rayan Amanatwant and 
Raja Sheoraj Dharamwant. State Records— 
which were the very foundation of the State 
administration—were entrusted to their custody 
and care and jagir lands were granted to them in 
perpetuity to maintain them in affluence and suit¬ 
able dignity. I have personally known these 
two Rajas and regarded them as models of refine¬ 
ment and high-bred courtesy. They were devo¬ 
tedly loyal to their Master, the Nizam, and 
sincerely attached to their Muslim fellow-subjects. 
My friendship with them was ancestral; the 
relations between them and my father, Nawab 
Rifat Yar Jung, and my uncle, Nawab Emad 
Jung, were always cordial and in my own time 
the family sentiment remained unaltered. With 
Raja Sheoraj in particular, it almost became an 
affectionate regard combined with the respect 
due to an elder member of the family ; for even 




187 

in his old age when totally blind, he used occa¬ 
sionally to invite me to have tea with him either 
in his City Palace or in one of his gardens, Inder 
Bagh or Karan Bagh. Such incidents remain 
engraven on the heart and cannot be erased or 
effaced by any device that can be made use of 
by ' propaganda!’ And in this, I think, lies the 
true force of the claim of Hyderabad that it is 
perhaps the only place in all India where there 
has been true, that is, unsimulated cordiality 
between Hindus and Muslims. May it last for 
ever ! 

Another important fact worth mentioning 
is the high rank and status, fully recognised by 
Hyderabad, of the Rajas of Samasthans—such 
as Wanparthy, Gadwal and others, whose domains 
were like small principalities, self-governing and 
self-contained—but owing fealty and allegiance 
to the Nizam as their liege-lord. The ruling 
Nizam, solicitous of their welfare, always safe¬ 
guarded their rights and privileges. 

I consider it a privilege to have been on terms 
of friendship for a long period with the two Rajas 
I have mentioned, and also with that gallant 
sportsman, the Raja of Jatpole, who always 
brought me latest photographs of the tigers he 
shot! Gadwal was a friendly young man, some¬ 
what corpulent but not ungainly, and had a face 
that always wore a kindly smile. He died young 
much to the regret of all his friends—mostly 
Muslims. 



i88 


Wanparthy was tall and slim with regular 
well-chiselled features. I often recall his simple 
but stately manner which became truly graceful 
by his innate modesty and courtesy. He never 
failed to call on me whenever he visited Hyderabad 
and I think of him as a friend whose departure 
from this world was premature. He died in the 
pr im e of life and his place has not been filled. 
Jatpole, whose manliness always impressed me, 
was a fine type, unassuming and gracefully res¬ 
pectful, with a spontaneous engaging manner 
and a refreshing country-simplicity in his ways. 
I have a pleasant recollection of our meeting at 
Ooty in 1917 when we went to the Governor’s 
garden party together. After that I did not see 
him so often in Hyderabad as in former times, and 
in a few years his health declined fast and he 
departed this life, while still comparatively 
young. I have not yet ceased to regret his dis¬ 
appearance, and hope that his place will be filled 
with the same grace and dignity by his successor 
whom I have known since his childhood. 

I have known other Rajas but they need not 
be mentioned specifically except Anagundi, the 
last sad relic of the great historic raj of Vizia- 
nagaram. He used to call on me when he came 
to Hyderabad, and I could read the history of 
his family in his eyes full of a sad expectancy. 
He was a picture of forlorn hope and I could imag¬ 
ine him as ajghost haunting the ruins of his 
ancestral Humpi. Another remarkable personage 
whom I had the pleasure of knowing was the Rani 



189 

of Simapalli—a lady well-known for her ability to 
rule. I saw her once at the birthday durbar of 
His Highness the late Nizam ; and once she did 
me the honour of coming to see me. These are 
enlightening memories. 

I hope I have not treated these fine specimens 
of the Hindu community in any thing like an offi¬ 
cial manner, or in a spirit other than that of amity 
which makes no communal distinctions whatever. 
And this I take to be the true Hyderabad spirit 
coming down to us from our ancestors. Old 
Hyderabad was the only place in India where, I 
believe, such perfect concord between Hindus and 
Muslims was possible. Will the modem prog¬ 
ressive politician allow us to preserve it so as to 
give India a much needed lesson ? 

Besides the great nobles,—courtiers par excel¬ 
lence—whose names have been mentioned, there 
were some other men who had earned distinction 
by their merits and who were specially favoured 
by the Nizam and were either included in his en¬ 
tourage or were in close touch with him. They 
were:— (1) Moulvi Ahmed Hussain, Chief 

Secretary, (2) Nawab Sir Afsur-ul-Mulk, A.D.C., 
and (3) Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk, Kotwal. 

Sir Amin Jung 

Sir Ahmed Hussain—Nawab Amin Jung—was 
also a member of the Executive Council for a 
time. An interesting personality—a compound 
of amiable simplicity and practical shrewdness.” 
He came from Madras in 1895 and was appointed 


190 


Assistant Secretary in the Nizam’s Peshi Office 
at the recommendation, it is said, of Mr. Eardley 
Norton, with whom he had been working as a 
legal practitioner. 

A man of humble origin, as he himself told his 
friends with admirable candour, he found himself 
suddenly brought face to face with the Nizam of 
Hyderabad. He was a favourite of Fortune, 
who created a convenient vacancy for him when 
Nawab Survar-ul-Mulk, Peshi Secretary, had to 
retire suddenly in 1896. The Assistant thus 
became Secretary and was known later as Chief 
Secretary to His Highness the Nizam of Hyder¬ 
abad. In course of time he was made C.S.I. 
and K.C.I.E. 

He was an important person in the entourage. 
Confined for the greater part of his life within the 
four walls of a room, over-busy transcribing royal 
Firmans, he had not much opportunity for deve¬ 
loping originality. And as he had no mischievous 
tendencies in him, he managed to keep the noise¬ 
less tenor of his way to hoary old age, winning 
the esteem of his fellow-beings by his meekness. 

Love of books distinguished him from the 
majority of our officials and induced him to collect 
a good library and house it in a suitable building 
erected for the purpose. This, a monument in 
itself, helped to draw an atmosphere of erudition 
around him and may possibly have afforded 
the consolation of a student which he needed 
in later years to alleviate the sorrows of life, such 



i9i 


as the premature deaths of several grown-up 
sons. 

At the Council Meetings, which he attended as 
officiating Finance Member, I learned to appreci¬ 
ate some of his estimable qualities. His ingenuous 
and unassuming disposition was in no way affected 
by his venerable beard which ‘ swept his aged 
breast ’—without which I could almost have 
imagined him a child ! We became friends and 
had a genuine affection for each other, and I 
have felt deeply for him in his misfortunes which 
crowded on him in his declining years and made 
unhappy his prolonged sojourn in an empty world. 
But as he is a man who has studied the Qur’an 
and meditated over its lessons with occasional 
side glances at Sufism, I hope he will find the 
bitterness of some of his recollections mitigated 
by its never-failing message. 

Mirza Mohammed AH Baig 

Sir Afsar Jung, Afsar-ud-Dowlah, Afsar-ui- 
Mulk—Mirza Mohammed Ali Baig —came to Hy¬ 
derabad (from Aurangabad) in 1883 as A.D.C. to 
His Highness the late Nizam on the death of 
Agha Nasir Shah who had been nominated for 
the post at first. A slim, handsome, young man, 
fair in complexion and whiskered after the fashion 
of the day, it was a fine sight to see Ali Baig 
driving his tandem along the Bund Road. 

As time passed, Ali Baig became a favourite 
with his master on account of his soldierly bearing. 



192 


courtly manners and easy adaptability. A first- 
rate horseman, a keen sportsman and an excellent 
shot, he could not fail to win the good-will of one 
who had the same qualities latent in him, and 
who was to give them full play till he was looked 
upon as an expert himself. Ali Baig’s silent 
accommodating manner which anticipated his 
master’s wishes, did not fail to have its full reward; 
and in course of time he became Nawab Afsar 
Jung and a man of consequence. He was raised 
to the rank of a colonel in the British army after 
the Chitral expedition, and received the honour 
of K.C.I.E. 

He continued to rise in favour with the 
Nizam and benefited more and more by his muni¬ 
ficence ; and on the death of Col. Neville he was 
made commander of the Nizam’s Regular Forces. 
The selection was a good one, for the reforms 
effected by him in equipment and efficiency from 
time to time, made our troops more or less up-to- 
date. It was a happy inspiration that sug¬ 
gested to him the extension of the military lines 
towards the ancient fortress of Golconda. With 
resourcefulness, careful attention and unremit¬ 
ting energy he succeeded in a few years in giving 
to Hyderabad a picturesque, well-planned, military 
cantonment extending from the outskirts of 
Saifabad right up to historic Golconda, prolific 
of memories. 

His ability was duly recognised by the British 
Government; he served on the staffs of some 
generals during the Great War of 1914, was 



m 


appointed A.D.C. to His Majesty the King 
Emperor, and was made a Member of the Victorian 
Order. His gracious master, the Nizam, also 
conferred on him the titles of Afsar-ud-Dowlah, 
Afsar-ul-Mulk and raised him to the rank of 
Commander-in-Chief of his forces. 

These were his worldly honours, but higher 
honours were in store for him. He went on 
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1923, and spent months 
at Medina, during which he is said to have re¬ 
hearsed a scene out of the old patriarchal page 
of life—a shepherd pasturing a flock ! I heard 
this from people at Medina who still remembered 
and spoke of him with affection and admiration. 
He had the privilege of visiting the Holy 
cities twice and returned with a deeper sense 
of the vanity of worldly honours. But he conti¬ 
nued to be active as before so far as his duties 
were concerned ; though his inner renunciation 
of worldly vanities was becoming confirmed into 
habit. Thus by degrees his character rose higher 
in the eyes of those who watched its evolution. 
The capable self-made man of the world—soldier 
and courtier—had gradually grown to be a sancti¬ 
fied spirit. People who had regarded him as 
being too much Europeanised, were surprised to 
see the change, except the more thoughtful 
amongst us who could understand the silent 
working of the hidden propensities of the human 
soul. 

It is not without pride that I think of Sir Afsar 
as a man belonging to Hyderabad. His ancestors 
13 



194 


had served with the Hyderabad Contingent, in 
which some of mine had also served, had long 
settled at Aurangabad and had no home elsewhere. 
He was one of those able and estimable men whom 
Aurangabad presented to Hyderabad as an indi¬ 
genous type quite capable of holding its own 
against the claim of any outsider. 

In March, 1930, the news of his death suddenly 
reached me one morning at Vikarabad. My first 
feeling, after that of momentary surprise, was that 
he must have realised that beatitude for which 
he seemed to have been longing. 

He used to tell me how sudden his wife’s 
departure had been to enter upon a happier 
phase of life, and I could guess that he wished for 
a similar end. Whenever he and I talked of death, 
it was with a sense of serene satisfaction, remem¬ 
bering that every human being has to be ready 
for the journey. He sometimes asked me, though 
I was a much younger man, to pray for him ; and 
often did I pray for him for that Peace which is 
everlasting! 

Strange that on the morning of his death 
my Qur’an should have opened at this verse : 
“ O Soul satisfied ! return unto thy Lord, pleasing 
and pleased. ” Could any message be more 
reassuring ? 

Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk 

Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk (Mir Akbar Ali 
Khan), Kotwal of Hyderabad, was one of 
13* 



195 


the most notable men that Hyderabad has pro¬ 
duced. He began life as a private soldier in the 
Hyderabad Contingent, but he belonged to a 
respectable Syed family and soon proved himself 
to be a man above the common standard. He 
first distinguished himself as a soldier during the 
Indian Mutiny when he saved the life of his 
superior officer, an English Major, and in doing 
so received a sabre cut on his own back down to 
the waist. This brought him into notice and he 
was recognised as being not only a brave soldier 
but possessed of such intellect as might make him 
a useful officer in the Intelligence Department. 
Some time afterwards, when the Commander-in- 
Chief of India, Sir Robert Napier, proceeded on 
the Abyssinian campaign, he took Mir Akbar Ali 
Khan with him and employed him in collecting 
such secret intelligence as might be useful; Mir 
Akbar Ali Khan was worthy of the trust reposed 
in him, and it was not long before he was able to 
get a plan of the fort of Magdala which he sub¬ 
mitted to his chief. This valuable service made 
the taking of the fort easy and was duly acknowl¬ 
edged by his name being mentioned in the special 
despatches sent to London by Sir Robert and, 
later, by his being made C.S.I. Probably he 
was the first Indian Muslim who received such 
an honour. 

The Government of India informed the Nizam’s 
Government of Mir Akbar Ali Khan’s valuable 
services and thought that the Nizam, whose subject 
he was, might be pleased to show his appreciation 



ig6 


by granting him a munsab and a jagir. Sir Salar 
Jung who was Prime Minister and Regent, granted 
him a munsab of Rs. 1,000 a month and a jagir 
near Amba (Mominabad). Besides this, he was 
promised a suitable appointment under the 
Nizam’s Government, but had to wait till the time 
of Salar Jung II, who appointed him Kotwal in 
1884 and got him the title, Nawab Akbar Jung. 
His appointment was a boon to Hyderabad be¬ 
cause he soon made the police efficient and in 
course of time as good as the British Indian police, 
if not better. His name was a terror to evil¬ 
doers and it was said that his police seldom 
failed to detect any crime committed within its 
jurisdiction. The public felt confident that in 
cases of theft and robbery the stolen property, 
or the bulk of it, would be recovered. His secret 
service was so vigilant that almost every move¬ 
ment of a questionable nature in Hyderabad 
became known to them in proper time, and every 
suspicious person arriving at Hyderabad from 
British India was ‘ shadowed ’ and kept under 
observation while he remained here. 

The Kotwal enjoyed the special confidence of 
the sovereign and had to submit a daily report of 
important events such as might be of interest to 
the Nizam. This duty which he had to discharge 
conscientiously made him disliked by certain 
officials who were constantly involved in intrigues. 
He also became unpopular with the Prime Minister, 
Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, for similar reasons, but the 
-Nizam continued to extend his support to him 



I 97 


till his death in 1905. He was given the titles 
of ' Dowlah, ’ and ' Mulk ’ and his gracious 
master did him the honour of being his guest at 
Saifabad for a day or two in the year 1898. 

I recall an intrigue that was set up against him 
in 1899 or thereabouts by a clique which had 
managed to obtain the ear of Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, 
the Prime Minister, known to be hostile to him. 
They hoped to be able to misrepresent him and 
his motives to the new Resident on his arrival. 
Akbar-ul-Mulk hearing of their intention deter¬ 
mined 'to forestall them by placing before the 
incoming Resident an account of his services to 
the British Government. Colonel Barr recognised in 
him an old soldier-friend whom he had known in 
his youth, and the intrigue was quashed. 

I had the opportunity of looking over Mir 
Akbar Ali Khan’s papers when he was having 
an account of his services written, and I could see 
how useful he had been to the British as a soldier 
and to the Nizam’s Government, afterwards, in 
a civil capacity. His record was an extraordinary 
one and made him in my estimation only second 
to the great Sir Salar Jung in courage, capacity, 
perseverance and achievement. An account of 
his career was written at the time to which I refer 
by his Assistant, Captain Boardman. He pre¬ 
sented me with a copy but, unfortunately, it was 
lost. 

Akbar Jung, Akbar-ul-Mulk is one of the most 
eminent Hyderabadis whom we cannot afford 



196 


by granting him a munsab and a jagir. Sir Salar 
Jung who was Prime Minister and Regent, granted 
him a munsab of Rs. 1,000 a month and a jagir 
near Amba (Mominabad). Besides this, he was 
promised a suitable appointment under the 
Nizam’s Government, but had to wait till the time 
of Salar Jung II, who appointed him Koiwal in 
1884 and got him the title, Nawab Akbar Jung. 
His appointment was a boon to Hyderabad be¬ 
cause he soon made the police efficient and in 
course of time as good as the British Indian police, 
if not better. His name was a terror to evil¬ 
doers and it was said that his police seldom 
failed to detect any crime committed within its 
jurisdiction. The public felt confident that in 
cases of theft and robbery the stolen property, 
or the bulk of it, would be recovered. His secret 
service was so vigilant that almost every move¬ 
ment of a questionable nature in Hyderabad 
became known to them in proper time, and every 
suspicious person arriving at Hyderabad from 
British India was ‘ shadowed ’ and kept under 
observation while he remained here. 

The Kotwal enjoyed the special confidence of 
the sovereign and had to submit a daily report of 
important events such as might be of interest to 
the Nizam. This duty which he had to discharge 
conscientiously made him disliked by certain 
officials who were constantly involved in intrigues. 
He also became unpopular with the Prime Minister, 
Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, for similar reasons, but the 
-Nizam continued to extend his support to him 



till his death in 1905. He was given the titles 
of Dowlah ,’ and ‘ Mulk ’ and his gracious 
master did him the honour of being his guest at 
Saifabad for a day or two in the year 1898. 

I recall an intrigue that was set up against him 

in 1899 or thereabouts by a clique which had 
managed to obtain the ear of Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, 
the Prime Minister, known to be hostile to him. 
They hoped to be able to misrepresent him and 
his motives to the new Resident on his arrival. 
Akbar-ul-Mulk hearing of their intention deter¬ 
mined 'to forestall them by placing before the 
incoming Resident an account of his services to 
the British Government. Colonel Barr recognised in 
him an old soldier-friend whom he had known in 
his youth, and the intrigue was quashed. 

I had the opportunity of looking over Mir 
Akbar Ali Khan’s papers when he was having 
an account of his services written, and I could see 
how useful he had been to the British as a soldier 
and to the Nizam’s Government, afterwards, in 
a civil capacity. His record was an extraordinary 
one and made him in my estimation only second 
to the great Sir Salar Jung in courage, capacity, 
perseverance and achievement. An account of 
his career was written at the time to which I refer 
by his Assistant, Captain Boardman. He pre¬ 
sented me with a copy but, unfortunately, it was 
lost. 

Akbar Jung, Akbar-ul-Mulk is one of the most 
eminent Hyderabadis whom we cannot afford 



to forget. In the early days of his Kotwalship 
an incident occurred which caused great terror in 
Hyderabad and completely upset all law and 
order for a few days. On the ioth Moharrum in 
the year 1885-86 there was a quarrel between 
some Arabs and policemen near the Purana 
Pul (Old Bridge) which gradually became a riot. 
It was said that some children belonging to the 
family of the great Arab Chief, Sultan Nawaz Jung, 
who were going on an elephant towards the 
river to see the alams were stopped by the 
police. The Arabs accompanying them at once 
made this a quarrel with the police, and as 
soon as the news reached Sultan Nawaz Jung, 
he is said to have given orders to his Arabs to 
attack the police wherever they could fin d them. 
The result was that in a few hours the Arabs were 
in possession of a number of police stations and 
the police were powerless against them. It was 
like an open revolt against constituted authority, 
and the disturbance was so serious and so wide¬ 
spread that special and strong measures had to 
be taken. The military were called in, but order 
was not restored until two or three days had 
passed. Whatever the causes of the Arabs’ 
excitement may have been, their actions were 
certainly criminal and disloyal. 

The Prime Minister, Nawab Salar Jung Imad- 
us-Sultanath, ordered an enquiry to be made into 
the affair by appointing a commission and Sultan 
Nawaz Jung being held responsible for his Arabs’ 
misconduct was ordered to leave Hyderabad for 



199 


a time. He remained at Poona until he was 
permitted to return, but he had to pay a heavy 
penalty. 

The manner in which Sultan Nawaz Jung was 
dealt with had a sobering effect upon the Arabs. 
It made them know that the Sarcar was more 
powerful than their Chiefs. 

Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk’s devotion to His High¬ 
ness was extraordinary ; and he had the instinct 
of a blood-hound to trace down intrigue whether 
high or low. Many were his enemies on this 
account, but he went on his way till his death. 
It is said that towards the end of his career some 
men about the palace had succeeded in some 
measure in instilling poison into the Nizam’s mind 
to bring him under suspicion as one who supplied 
false information, but he did not live long enough 
to see any outward signs of the Nizam’s dis¬ 
pleasure. 

Among the last great services he rendered was 
his successful attempt to evoke the enthusiasm 
of the Nizam’s subjects by birthday celebra¬ 
tions on a magnificent scale. He was a man of 
imagination and uncommonly resourceful; his 
methods were simple but far-reaching in effects. 
He used his influence with the chief sahukars of 
Hyderabad and they co-operated with him in a 
grand spectacular display. They not only pro¬ 
vided large sums of money but also vied with one 
another in doing every thing that was likely to 
contribute to the special significance of the fete 



200 


The Jalsa took place at night in the Public Gardens 
which became a fairy scene—a ‘ Midsummer 
Night’s Dream.’ I remember the bursting enthu¬ 
siasm of the thousands of people of all ranks who- 
were waiting for the arrival of His Highness since 
the evening. It is not possible to describe the 
rich costumes which seemed to reflect in all direc¬ 
tions the light that fell on them from the hundreds 
of lamps along the garden paths. 

A picturesque pavilion had been erected to 
serve as an Address Hall on the site of the 
present Jubilee Hall. It was a quaint structure 
composed of wood and iron, but very attractive ; 
its plan was well-thought out and the access from 
all parts of it to the high platform where seats 
were placed for the Nizam prevented overcrowd¬ 
ing in any one place. Though only a temporary 
structure, it had all the appearance of perman¬ 
ence, as indeed it actually remained in its place 
for the annual celebrations till the reign of the 
present Nizam when it was replaced by the 
modern building. 

The late Nizam’s 40 years Jubilee which took 
place in the year 1905 calls for special remark. 
Though the public celebrations took place after 
the death of the great Kotwal, yet it would not 
be far from the truth to say that he had helped 
to pave the way for them. It was well-known 
to those who were in the secret, that his chief aim 
was to stimulate the loyalty of the Nizam’s 
people so that it might become a power to be 



201 


reckoned with when self-seeking men and intri¬ 
guers round the Minister were busy devising 
means to make the Nizam unpopular. This gave 
him a high place in the esteem of the people of 
Hyderabad. 

Major Neville 

Major Neville, Commander of the Nizam’s 
Regular Forces from the time of Sir Salar Jung I 
down to the year 1897, was said to be distantly 
connected with the great family of the Nevilles— 
the Earls of Warwick. He represented a distinct 
type : somewhat reserved and aloof—perhaps with 
a natural English aloofness, but he was in sympa¬ 
thy with the people and the place where his work 
lay. An elderly person with whitish Dundreary 
whiskers, he was seen of an evening with Mrs. 
Neville by his side, driving his phaeton from 
his house near Fateh Maidan towards the Bund. 
The picture is still in my mind, of the pair in the 
phaeton and of the tall, large limbed white-spotted 
chestnut horse drawing it. It was a sight we were 
sorry to miss when the Nevilles died (husband and 
wife within a week or so of each other) in 1897. 
Mrs. Neville was a daughter of no less famous a 
person than Charles Lever, the novelist. Hers 
was a tall, broad, heavy figure which almost 
eclipsed her husband’s and she impressed people 
as being remarkably masculine in her ways. It 
was whispered that she was fond of a cigar ! I 
never saw her with one—but I often saw her 
striding along a raised platform adjoining one. 



202 


of the walls of her compound—as described in the 
old ballad of Hardicanute : 

Stately stepped he east the Wa 

And stately stepped he west- 

When the sad end came in June, 1897, the husband 
followed her to the grave after a week. Mean¬ 
while he had shot the old chestnut, their aged 
companion. Was there not the sad solemn 
grandeur of a classical tragedy in all this ? 

Major Gough 

The liberal and far-sighted policy of Sir"Salar 
Jung I included in its programme the employment 
of carefully selected English officers of good social 
position for important posts. He knew that 
besides introducing efficiency in the work of their 
departments, they would serve as models, in more 
ways than one, for our local officials. And he had 
the fine tact to make them feel that they were 
personally associated with him in his work. He 
made Major Percy Gough, who was connected with 
the family of the famous General Sir Hugh Gough, 
his Military Secretary. A fine imposing figure, 
dignified and reserved, but courteous, polite and 
sympathetic. I remember him quite well, because 
he lived in Hyderabad as one of its old inhabitants 
for a great many years. He was a friend of my 
uncle, Nawab Emad Jung, and lived not far from 
his house in the vicinity of the Rumboldt Kothi. 
The great thing with him and with the other Eng¬ 
lish gentlemen who served Hyderabad in those days 
was that they seemed to belong to it, and had no 



203 


desire to go away from it. They had a strong 
domiciliary feeling for the place; and this naturally 
evoked in Hyderabadis a responsive feeling of 
fellow-citizenship. It was a great gain for the 
State of the f Faithful Ally. ’ Mr. Hugh Gough, 
the son of Major Percy Gough, was a complete 
Hyderabadi. From childhood he was in the late 
Nizam’s entourage as an English child-compa¬ 
nion. In later life he served the State in the 
Police Department and closed his career in it in 
1911. After having been in England for some 
years subsequent to his retirement, he was called 
back to Hyderabad by His Exalted Highness, the 
present Nizam, to be with his sons, th eSahibzadas, 
as Controller. This showed the feeling that existed 
on either side, bom of old associations. Mr. Hugh 
Gough finally returned home to England in 1938 
and carried the affectionate regrets of Hyderabad 
people with him. 

Sir George Casson Walker 

Chief among the British Officers who helped 
to raise the prestige of the Hyderabad State 
Service was Sir George Casson Walker.* He, as 
Finance Minister, may be said to have saved the 
State from something like bankruptcy. Sir 
George remained with us from 1904 to 1911, and 
during all these years he was busy making plans 
for improving the financial situation in Hyderabad 
and placing it on a firm basis for the future. He 
had found the treasury almost empty on his 

* k.c.i-e., I-C.S 



204 


arrival, but he contrived to leave behind a large 
reserve on his departure. The work done by him 
was so solidly compacted in its details that it has 
lasted till now. 

Sir George Casson Walker, a conscientious, 
hard-working man was a chronic dyspeptic with 
a somewhat unhappy look. His manner seemed 
cold and uninviting at first. He was a man 
of few words, but on further acquaintance he 
seemed to expand and then came into full light 
his genuine and cordial manner. 

As the most important official in the State 
below the Minister, he wielded great authority, 
and Hyderabad people, whose self-regarding in¬ 
stinct made them fully aware of this, did not fail 
to make approaches by various routes, hoping to 
win favours. There used to be crowds of people 
at his house on Tuesday morning soon after 
9 o'clock, the time he had fixed for receiving 
visitors, many officials, big and small, and a 
mixed lot of people. As I did not wish to be one 
of them, I purposely delayed calling on Mr. Walker 
until a month or so after his arrival. When I saw 
him, I explained why I had waited so long: it 
was to allow him sufficient time to understand 
the ways of our people. I found him a little dry, 
as he usually was, but polite like an English 
gentleman. Afterwards I met him occasionally 
in a social way, and in time we became more 
intimate. I was then in the Legislative Depart¬ 
ment as Under-Secretary and sometimes officiated 



for Mr. Faridoonji as Private and Political i&ret- 
ary and for my uncle, Nawab Emad JunX ^fag'l 
Home Secretary. I was also Honorary Secre¬ 
tary to the Victoria Memorial Fund of which the 
Resident was the President. All this may have 
helped to give Mr. Walker a correct notion of my 
status among officials; and I found that he was 
willing to place me on important co mmi ttees and 
commissions from time to time. In 1904 there 
was an important commission appointed to enquire 
into certain charges brought against some of the 
Samasthans for having unlawfully withheld the 
amounts periodically due to the State. I presided 
over this commission, went through all the cases 
one after another, and wrote a report that may 
have helped him and the Government to come 
to the right decision. I have reason to believe 
that Mr. Walker appreciated my assistance in 
this and other matters. 

A proposal had been made to introduce legis¬ 
lation regarding our currency and coinage, and 
bills were to be submitted to the Legislative 
Council for the purpose. While they were under 
examination by Mr. Walker, the Prime Minister 
suggested to him that it might be helpful 
if he availed himself of the legal advice of 
certain officials, amongst whom I was one. Mr. 
Walker may or may not have liked the idea, but 
he did not wish to go against the Minister’s wishes, 
so it came about that I had the opportunity of 
meeting him frequently for consultation. Some¬ 
times he would send me a note asking me to have 


206 


a talk with him relating to some sections under 
consideration ; at other times he would send me 
a question for my opinion on some point involved. 
Thus I found his natural reserve wearing off from 
a genuine desire to get to know others’ views, 
which might be helpful in giving proper shape 
to the bills. After the work was finished, he had 
the goodness to send me from his office an 
extract from the report which he had forwarded 
to the Minister, stating that of all the officers he 
had consulted he had found my suggestions the 
most helpful. 

During Sir George’s tenure of office I rose to be 
a High Court Judge in 1907 and officiated as Home 
Secretary in 1909 and 1910. Sir George used to 
ask my opinion now and then regarding matters 
in connection with the judiciary in a private way ; 
and I have some of his letters with me still. This 
showed how desirous he was of obtaining correct 
information before he made up his own mind 
on them. 

I should like to mention, in connection with 
Sir George, that he had some confidence in me as 
he used to have in those who tried to be fair- 
minded and just in their views like himself. He 
once said to me that, as I knew Hyderabad and 
its people and their connections and antecedents 
from personal knowledge, it would be useful if 
I served on committees empowered to select 
candidates for English scholarships and for the 
Civil Service Class. And he actually obtained 
permission from His Highness to have me on such 



207 


committees when I could not sit on them as an 
ex-officio member. This rule was observed by 
him and by Mr. Glancy till the latter left Hyder¬ 
abad. Another matter of great significance in 
which he approved of my suggestion was that 
due regard should be paid to gentility when select¬ 
ing men for the service—instead of going merely 
by examination results. In the selection of 
nominees for the Civil Service Class I suggested 
that particular care in ascertaining family con¬ 
nections was advisable, so that we might admit 
only gentlemen. This, I said, would avoid much 
serious trouble of the nature that was becoming 
so rife in British India. I was glad to find that 
he fell in with my views. 

Mr, A. J. Dunlop 

Among the eminent British lent officers of the 
old regime who served Hyderabad for a long 
period and with distinction, Mr. A.J. Dunlop* is 
more intimately associated with this place and 
its people than others who succeeded him. He 
came from the Berar service in the middle of the 
eighties and served the State for more than a 
quarter of a century. To his vast knowledge and 
experience of revenue matters, he added sympathy 
with the people and regard for their interests and 
friendly feelings towards those officials with whom 
he was associated in his work. In this way, he 
came to be loved and esteemed by all and was 
looked upon as a man belonging to Hyderabad. 

' "* 


c. I. E. 




208 


He was a personal friend of my father and uncle 
and I am glad to say that in my early official 
career I had the opportunity of cultivating his 
acquaintance when I was serving as Under-Secret¬ 
ary in the Legislative Department. We met 
frequently at committee meetings to discuss drafts 
of bills and he came to have in course of time 
an opinion of me that induced him to offer me 
the Revenue Secretaryship. It was a great com- 
i pliment to a junior officer, as I then was, and I 
[ felt flattered by it, but I excused myself on the 
I ground that my career lay in the Judicial depart¬ 
ment. 

I once took the liberty of suggesting to Mr. 
Dunlop the desirability, not to say the urgent need, 
of having the multifarious revenue gashtis which 
were in a state of confusion, reduced to an orderly 
and compendious form. And I further pointed 
out to him how necessary it was to have a definite 
procedure followed in revenue cases and to have 
some finality in the decisions. I remember that 
he got a committee appointed to go into these 
matters and I can even recall the name of one of 
them, Moulvi Abdul Qader (afterwards Qader 
Nawaz Jung), but what the committee actually 
achieved and what the result of its recommenda¬ 
tions was, I do not know. 

His Highness the late Nizam was pleased to 
put Mr. Dunlop in charge of the management of 
the Salar Jung estate during the minority of the 
present Nawab Salar Jung. It is said that the 
estate was managed well under his control and 



209 


to the entire satisfaction of the ruler. This 
service of Mr. A. J. Dunlop is in no way inferior 
to the services rendered by him to the State in 
the Revenue Department at the head of which 
he remained as Director-General till his retire¬ 
ment in 1911. He was succeeded by Mr. G.E.C. 
Wakefield, C.I.E., O.B.E., another fine officer and 
a man of great practical ability. He too, like 
Mr. Dunlop, spoke Urdu fluently with a correct 
accent, and had a courteous and pleasing manner 
which made him popular. 

Mr. A. C. Hankin 

Soon after my final return from England in 
1896, I was staying with my father at the Waran- 
gal Subedari and there I met Mr. Hankin* one day 
at lunch. He had been appointed Inspector- 
General of the District Police a short time before 
that, and was on his inspection tour in the Warangal 
Suba. I was favourably impressed with what 
I saw of him and felt that we should be friends 
in future ; and so it actually was, all the years that 
he remained with us. Our friendship not only 
continued, but increased. We did not meet very 
often, but whenever we did meet, it was as old 
friends between whom there was no barrier 
of formality. 

Mr. Hankin’s service to the State can never 
be forgotten or overestimated. From the wretch¬ 
ed condition of inefficiency in which the District 
Police had remained for years, since the departure 

* c. 1. e. ; 1896-1920. 

14 



210 


of Colonel Ludlow, he raised it until it came to be 
looked upon as in no way inferior to the British 
Indian Police. The great thing under his able 
control of it was, that not a single event of import¬ 
ance that happened outside the Dominions, and in 
•any way likely to affect the conditions within the 
State and cause disquiet or disturbance, re¬ 
mained unkown to him. Similarly, the coming- 
in and going-out of suspicious characters who 
might be agents of mischief, did not escape his 
vigilance. Being an Englishman and a lent officer 
from the Government of India, he had facilities 
in obtaining information of secret movements 
in British India from the Heads of Police there. 
In the years, 1909 and 1910, there was a good deal 
of unrest in British India and some alarming 
symptoms of disloyalty had come under observa¬ 
tion in the Bombay Presidency, not far from our 
frontier. The dastardly murder of the Collector 
of Nasik was the first serious political crime by 
an Indian, which foreboded evils to follow. Mr. 
Hankin was daily receiving confidential informa¬ 
tion from British India and was able to put his 
police on its guard. He kept me in touch as 
officiating Home Secretary with all that was of 
importance. After his departure from Hyder¬ 
abad in 1920, this source of information from 
British India ceased, for the officer who succeeded 
him as Inspector-General of Police was an Indian, 
and could not command the same resources as 
had been available to Mr. Hankin. The result 
was, that our police lost touch with the police 
14 * 



211 


beyond the borderland remained ignorant of much 
that was brewing in India, and still more regret¬ 
tably, of the evils that were actually filtering in 
through our outlying districts. I look upon that 
gloomy period as the one in which many doors 
were thrown open for the free admission into the 
State territory of those infectious conditions 
which have brought about an alarming change 
in the disposition and outlook of the people of 
Hyderabad. 

Mr. Hankin was invited to come to Hyder¬ 
abad'at the time of the Prince of Wales’s visit 
in 1921 and was put in charge of some of the 
arrangements at the Falaknuma Palace. I had 
the pleasure of meeting him then, and once again 
afterwards when he came to Hyderabad on a short 
visit. Shall we ever have a man like him again ? 

Since the departure of Mr. Hankin and Mr. 
Goad from the District Police, a certain laxity 
had crept into the administration of that import¬ 
ant branch of the service. 

And when Mr. Wakefield left us in 1921, we 
lost another energetic British officer whose vigil¬ 
ance and first-hand knowledge of the conditions 
prevailing in the districts had helped to maintain 
order. 

It also happened, unfortunately, that Mr. 
Glancy’s long connection with Hyderabad came 
to an end at about the same time. 

Then followed, towards the end of 1922, 
the sudden and unexpected departure of Sir Ali 



212 


Imam and Mr. Abdullah Yusuf Ali—two more 
untoward events. All this had the effect of dimin¬ 
ishing in an appreciable measure, that salutary fear 
in the minds of the lower officials which superior 
personalities seldom fail to inspire. Hence during 
two or three years that followed, there was a 
perceptible decline in the sense of responsibility 
on the part of our district officials, and the 
weaker minds began to succumb to temptations. 



PART THREE 


Chapter IV— Impressions of the 
New Regime 

There are two pictures of Hyderabad in my 
mind : the old regime and the new. I have 
described some scenes typical of old Hyderabad 
as it was under the late Nizam, and I have also 
written in my reminiscences an incomplete account 
of the period which commenced at the accession 
of the present ruler. In the latter, there are still, 
many details to be filled in, to complete the picture 
of Hyderabad as it is now. But some of my 
notes relating to the Executive Council and its 
original members may help to throw some light 
on the picture of the new regime. Thoughts and 
events had long been tending in the direction of 
improved methods and improved administrative 
machinery, since the time of Salar Jung the 
First, and even at the beginning of the late 
Nizam’s rule experiments were made for this 
purpose by means of a Council of State and, at a 
later date, by establishing a Cabinet Council in 
the nineties of the last century. They ma y be 
said to have foreshadowed the present Council 
form of Government in Hyderabad. 



214 


The inauguration of the Executive Council 
under the Presidentship of Sir Ali Imam in 
November, 1919, was an event of great constitu¬ 
tional importance in the history of Hyderabad. 
It was a step towards setting our house in order, 
as the Resident had said to me ; but it was for 
time to show the nature and extent of our success 
in the attempt. The Council was no more than 
the old Prime Minister thrown into commission. 
It raised the question whether the substitution 
of several wise or unwise heads for one of indifferent 
quality, was going to prove beneficial. It was 
obvious that success would depend upon the 
careful selection of those heads. 

The original members of the Council were : 
Sir Ali Imam : President 
Sir Faridoon Mulk : (without portfolio) 

Sir Reginald Glancy : Finance Department 
(Sir Amin Jung, acting) 

Nawab Wilayat Jung (Wali-ud-Dowlah) : Judicial 
Department 

*Nawab Latafat Jung (Lutf-ud-Dowlah) : Army 
Department 

Nawab Tilawat Jung Public Works Department 
Nawab Aqeel Jung: Commerce and Industries 
Department 

Rai Murlidhar, Raja Fateh Nawazwant (later 
Mr. Abdullah Yusuf Ali): Revenue Department and 
Nizamat Jung: Political Departmemt. 

I sat on the Council for ten years from its 
inception and at the time of leaving it I wondered 

See page 172. 



215 


if I had the satisfaction of feeling that we had 
really achieved much. And since my retirement, 
there have been some occasional changes in its 
personnel, but I am not in a position to say, for 
want of authentic information, what advance has 
been made towards higher standards of adminis¬ 
trative efficiency, and what measures of permanent 
value have been adopted. 

As regards the morale of the service through¬ 
out the State, I should be glad to hear that it had 
risen higher or, at least, that it had not fallen 
lower. 

The Council has been in existence for more 
than twenty years and ought to be able to place 
before the public, a satisfactory record of its 
achievements. But our poverty in men and our 
indifference to character, may keep it down at 
the level of mediocrity for some time to come. 

Sir Alt Imam 

Sir Ali Imam came to Hyderabad surrounded 
with a halo. Not that he was not a fine figure 
of a man, but the borrowed lustre which he brought 
with him from the Government of India as an 
ex-Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council 
made him peculiarly interesting in our eyes. It 
was like a magic robe. 

The noticeable thing about him was his easy 
affable manner which sat gracefully on his dig¬ 
nified bearing. He had the air of n man who 
thought nothing difficult, and he went about his 
work—whatever it was, airily and with a cheerful 
confidence in himself, thus inspiring confidence in 



2l6 


others. A perpetual ‘ Oh, Yes, 111 do it’ kind of look 
about him, set in a smile, was more than half his 
success in high quarters. He had, moreover, 
a readiness of comment, which implied quick 
decision and raised in people’s minds a presump¬ 
tion of infallible judgment. And a certain 
good-natured pompousness completed the pleasing 
picture. 

His schemes were brought forward as being 
above discussion—just ready to be set afloat. 

1. The Retrocession of Berar. 

2. The Reclamation of uncultivable' lands 

for colonization. 

3. Franchise. 

All these momentous projects were soon shap¬ 
ed in his mind, hastily drafted and placed before 
His Exalted Highness to be issued as Firmans. 
None of them, so far as I remember, was ever 
discussed in Council; but that was not a serious 
objection in those days when the infant Council 
was still uncertain as to its own prerogatives and 
the procedure of the new Constitution had not 
had time to stiffen in its mould. Sir Ali was 
a super-optimist; he meant well, but could not 
always foresee what ulterior consequences would 
ensue from the grandiose proposals so confidently 
put forward by him. His mind was alert and 
imaginative, but seemed to be lacking in fore¬ 
sight. 

The Berar letter was hurried over by him in 
a somewhat quixotic manner, and unfortunately 



217 


he carried the Nizam with him. The draft pre- 
pared by his brother, Mr. Hasan Imam, was a 
engthy chain of lawyer’s arguments and did not 
sound overpolite. I was obliged to suggest to 
His Exalted Highness that the greater part of 
it might, with advantage, be sent in the form of 
a legal note enclosed in a friendly letter to the 
Viceroy. But Sir Ali objected to this on the 
ground that the demand would lose its force. 

The Nizam hesitated for a while, but the ‘prestige’ 

of Sir Ali carried the day-with what conse¬ 
quences we know. The publication of that letter 
in newspapers was senseless bravado. 


The Reclamation Scheme was passed by the 
Nizam when I was away ill at Coonoorin 1922, 
and Sir Faridoon also was away. On my return 
to Hyderabad I heard with amazement that vast 
areas containing valuable timber were bein cr 
‘exploited’ by our good officials by the simple 
expedient of pronouncing them ‘ inferior ’ in the 
interests of their friends. Sir Ali never got to 
know what was actually happening, and as he 
left Hyderabad towards the end of 1922 suddenly 
and in a pique, he never had the chance of remedy¬ 
ing the evil. 


At the suggestion of Sir Faridoon, who did not 
like to appear on the scene in his own proper 
person, the task of making His Exalted Highness 
understand the real situation fell on me. I told 
him briefly that our forests were being destroyed, 
and my remarks were borne out by the statements 
of the Inspector-General of Forests, Nawab Hamid 



Yar Jung, who had come in purpose to inform 
me of the fact. His Exalted Highness was at 
last persuaded to issue a Firman ordering re¬ 
examination and re-valuation of some of the 
areas already allotted to people. A Commission 
was appointed to enquire, but its report was not 
satisfactory; so another enquiry was ordered, 
and again the report was that no valuable forest 
area had been given away. I had my own 
opinion of the Commissioners, and time made 
its own comment on their report. We continued 
to hear for a long time afterwards that timber 
worth lakhs of rupees was being sent away quietly 
from those parts. Such was the anti-climax of 
the Reclamation Scheme. 

The somewhat impulsive offer of Franchise 
which His Exalted Highness had been induced 
by Sir Ali to make prematurely, seemed to me 
a little rash. Prudence would have suggested 
that the object aimed at, should be approached 
by gradual stages and that something substantial 
should be granted by instalments as conditions 
improved, instead of hastily promising what 
sounded grand and raised immoderate expecta¬ 
tions in the minds of clamorous reformers. I 
ventured to advise that the draft submitted by 
Sir Ali be re-considered, pointing out to His 
Exalted Highness that the word ' franchise ' had 
an ominous import, that its history had not run 
smooth in other countries, and that it was not 
consistent with caution to make such a large 
promise before we were able to decide how far 



t 219 


we could actually go in the existing circumstances 
and what should be the first steps to take. His 
Exalted Highness whose mind is clear, kept the 
matter under consideration for some days, but 
Sir Ali’s power of persuasion again led him to 
say: ‘ ‘ Well, since he insists on it, let it go. ’ ’ And 
it went forth. Expectations were raised, but 
nothing could be done because Sir Ali did not 
remain here long enough to satisfy them, or even 
to sketch out a working programme. Years went 
by, indistinct sounds of dissatisfaction began to 
be heard in the country, and there appeared signs 
of discontent and excitement among self-consti¬ 
tuted leaders of ‘ political ’ opinion; and here and 
there some active forms of mischief manifested 
themselves. 

The Council knew very little of what was going 
on in some of the frontier districts, and whenever 
it asked for information, the head of the police 
cheerfully replied, “All’s wen.” It was not, and 
I told His Exalted Highness and the Council that 
our District Police was blind. He commanded 
me to send for the Director-General and speak 
to him, and I did so, but things did not improve. 
The Director-General thought it quite sufficient 
to submit to His Exalted Highness, newspaper 
cuttings in which undutiful sentiments were 
overboldly expressed by some petty demagogue. 
When some years had thus gone by, I reminded 
His Exalted Highness that the promise of franchise 
had not been carried out and that it was time 
something was done to avoid the imputation, that 



220 


his word was not intended to be kept. By-his 
command I placed the matter before the Council, 
and a Committee was appointed to draw up a 
working proposal as an intermediate stage in the 
progress of the scheme. After the usual inevit¬ 
able delays caused by incidental hitches, our 
report was ready ; but it was fated to be delayed 
once more owing to certain changes that took 
place in the personnel of the Council in 1927. 

My own idea about such reforms has always 
been that they should be made by gradual instal¬ 
ments in a calm atmosphere of mutual good-will, 
and in the traditional gracious and dignified 
manner of Princely Hyderabad. To recognise 
the just rights of the people and to enable them 
to take part (as they became fit to do so) in the 
management of public affairs under the benefi¬ 
cent guidance of a Ruler whom they love and 
revere, is what we all desire. And this was the 
spirit in which the last Ruler of Hyderabad 
usually viewed the relationship between himself 
and his subjects. He was recognised as a gene¬ 
rous loving father by his people while he was also 
a conservative guardian of the wiser traditions 
of his State. “ Hyderabad must do things in its 
own way, and not adopt alien methods unguarded¬ 
ly. ” This was his wise policy. 

Sir Ali Imam and I had a brotherly regard 
for each other and I was really sorry when he 
decided, too hastily as I thought, to leave Hyder¬ 
abad before his term expired. It was offended 
dignity that compelled him to take that step ; 




221 


and in my opinion the provocation was too slight 
to have been allowed to produce such a serious 
result. A letter was handed to him by some 
officious gentleman who had returned from North 
ndia, and its contents caused him serious annoy¬ 
ance. It had been addressed to the editor of 
some petty newspaper by one of the members of 
the Executive Council, as an explanation regarding 
some financial matter in a tone of apologetical 
self-justification. It might be surmised that some 
blame was intended to be thrown by implication 
on the. Council, of which Sir Ali was President; 
but he took the insult to heart, and was over¬ 
powered by its effect. It did not seem to occur 
to him that the insult (if such it really was) could 
easily be ' snubbed ;' a little contempt would 
have done it or a mild reprimand. But Sir Ali 
exaggerated its importance and told His Exalted 
Highness with some warmth that it was a ques¬ 
tion of honour with him, and that either 
‘X’must leave the Council, or he himself. This 
attitude was hardly reasonable and the Nizam 
could not understand it; and though I had several 
talks with Sir Ali by command of His Exalted 
Highness, it was all to no purpose ) he had taken 
the trifle too much to heart. So, instead of 
remaining on to put Council members in their 
proper places as a cooler man of power would 
have done—he decided to resign. Finding him 
determined—I will not say obstinate— His Exalt¬ 
ed Highness asked me what I thought of the 
situation. Much as he and I would have liked 



222 


Sir Ali to stay, we both felt that it would hardly 
be just to accept his condition, namely that the 
member in question should be removed from 
office, which would have meant dismissal. I 
submitted that the offence was not so serious as 
to call for such a severe punishment, and His 
Exalted Highness agreed. I had occasion to 
explain the matter to the Resident also in the 
same way. 

Sir Ali Imam’s arrival had raised great expecta¬ 
tions and his untimely departure changed the 
course of events in Hyderabad, and much which 
could not then be foreseen, has come out of it. 
His presence, suggestive of power wholesomely 
exercised, would have kept unscrupulous officials 
in awe. 

Though he was a little impulsive and hasty 
and self-conscious, his nature was not ungene¬ 
rous, and he was not self-seeking. If he had 
remained on, he could have done much valuable 
work—cleansing and constructive. His great 
scheme for bringing under cultivation and popu¬ 
lating vast areas of fallow land in the Dominions, 
when completed, would have meant increased 
prosperity. He could have rendered useful service 
to Hyderabad by recasting the whole system 
of departmental work, cutting out unnecessary 
accretions and rooting out that despicable form 
of selfishness, corruption. He could have helped 
to maintain a higher standard of public conduct, 
but it was not to be. 



223 


Nawab Sir Faridoon Mulk* 

Mr.. Eardley Norton, a well-known barrister 
practising at Madras and a successful man 
of the world, is said to have celebrated Mr. 
Faridoonji in verse as “ the cheeriest humbug in 
^ Hyderabad.” It was a comic label which 
stuck to poor Mr. Faridoonji for a long time and 
made me curious to look into the interior of the 
man to find out the truth about him. As I got 
to know him and had more than one glimpse of 
his heart, I began to think that it was the good¬ 
ness of it and no trickery that prompted the 
ceaseless desire to please. Genuine good nature 
was father to his unchanging “ all-hail ” manner 
which had become a mannerism. 

-1 found Mr. Faridoonji an interesting study. 
His neatly-trimmed peaked beard and carefully 
waxed moustache so Frenchified him as to raise 
in men’s minds a suspicion of insincerity. I 
resolved to carry my investigation beyond the 
outward appearance and watch him from year to 
year till I saw the mask crumbling away. At last 
I found, that his over-polished sociality of manner 
could no longer conceal from me what was natural 
and lovable in him. 

I had seen Mr. Faridoonji for the first time 
in 1884, an d met him as an acquaintance in 1891 
on my first return from England, and again in 
1896 after my second return; and this time as a 

* K.C.I.E., C.S.I., C.B.E. 



224 

friend. It was not long before we felt drawn 
towards each other, and his affection for me was 
genuine —strengthened, possibly, by the fact that 
my uncle, Nawab Emad Jung, was an old friend 
whom he respected. 

My estimate of his character, tested by time, 
is this : a cheerful nature with a ceaseless desire 
to please as a means to being pleased. He remind¬ 
ed me of Goldsmith's lines: 

“They please, are pleased; they give to give esteem, 

Till seeming blest, they grow to what they seem. " 

A haunting fear of disobliging anyone by word 
or by manner, and an almost feminine softness 
and inability to say ‘ no ' made him what he 
seemed. But with all this, he had a practical 
shrewdness which enabled him to keep out of 
intrigue, though he must have been perilously near 
it at times. His happy disposition and irrepressible 
sociability were of great help to him in keeping 
on the best of terms with Europeans and Indians 
alike. His effusive gush and beaming smile were 
very useful personal assistants. 

His popularity with the British was bound to 
increase his influence with the Prime Ministers 
under whom he served, and this made his position 
as a “ Liaison Officer ” unassailable. Not only the 
Ministers but the Nizam himself looked upon 
him for a long time as almost indispensable. 
He served under four Ministers down to the time 
of the third Salar Jung and uniformly maintained 



225 

his position and influence by keeping on the 
straight path with his unfailing courtesy. 

He was always good company —full of gay 
talk and sparkling anecdotes, ready gossip and 
repartee, from the smallest talk to Byron’s 
Childe Harold. There was a perpetual play of 
sunshine about him, and he gave it to all free of 
cost. 

As he had once been a contributor of articles 
to the Pioneer, he could be looked upon as a pen¬ 
man, and this too was an advantage. It was easy 
for him with all his uncommon gifts and qualifi¬ 
cations to please the Ministers and the officials, 
and to make the entertainment of English people 
by them the more cordial. By his fortnightly 
At Homes ’ he brought Hyderabad and Secunder¬ 
abad still closer together, and the officers of the 
British garrison, meeting some of the higher 
officials of Hyderabad on these occasions, found 
the distance between the East and the West con¬ 
siderably shortened. This, I think, was one of 
Sir Faridoon’s most valuable ‘ Liaison ’ services 
to the State, and we realise it more fully now 
that he is gone and has left no replica behind. 

Though he was made Prime Minister ‘de facto’ 
from time to time, and His Exalted Highness 
graciously conferred on him the titles of‘Dowlah’ 
and ‘ Mulk, ’ the natural man in him remained un¬ 
changed while these favours were being showered 
upon him by his gracious Master in rapid succes¬ 
sion. He was like a delighted. child whenever 

15 



226 


some fresh favour was shown. I had the 
privilege of sharing his joy with him on some of 
these occasions. He had my sincere sympathy 
in his troubles in later years, of which very few 
people knew anything. 

The time came in 1918 when he and I had to 
work together. I found him reasonable and 
patient and willing to accept advice. From 
time to time I discovered qualities in him which 
deserved praise, though he did not put them out 
on show. Self-knowledge and that of the world 
made him more humble as he advanced in life; 
the vain glitter of rank and power receded from 
his sight; and the inherent nobility of his nature 
asserted itself more and more. 

From his original post as Private Secretary 
to Salar Jung the Second he had gradually risen 
to be Political Secretary and then Political Minister 
to the Nizam’s Government. He was a trusted 
counsellor of His Exalted Highness, but there 
was never seen in him the slightest trace of self- 
importance—to say nothing of the self-assertion 
or arrogance of office. 

He was neither selfish nor ambitious in the 
usual sense of the words. Free from envy 
and jealousy, he was in nobody’s way and found 
nobody in his. He was a large-hearted man and 
rather liked to pull people up than to thrust 
them down, and though he liked to be liked, he 
was not a patron of toadies ! 

He was almost like a child in genuine feeling 

15 * 



227 


towards those who had won his regard; even 
when he was at the height of influence and 
power, his head remained humbly bent, “ even 
as a fruit-laden bough.” according to an Oriental 
poet. When trial came—such as might have 
wrung another man’s heart or filled it with gall, 
Sir Faridoon’s heart remained clean and calm ; 
he stood self-poised and self-comforted. 

His sincere loyalty to His Exalted Highness 
the Nizam and his great respect for him added 
lustre to his other good qualities. Another man 
in his position, intoxicated by prosperity, might 
not have behaved quite in this manner. Sir 
Faridoon remained a true Hyderabadi at heart 
and a devoted servant of the Nizam to the very 
last. 

This is the highest praise I have to offer as 
a tribute to the memory of one who had won my 
affection and esteem by the goodness of his 
nature. 

Having spent his whole life amongst Muslims, 
he had a leaning towards Muslim ways, and lies 
buried in an enclosure at the back of the house 
in which he had lived—a significant token. 

Sir Reginald Glancy 

I met Mr. Glancy as First Assistant Resident 
in 1910 when Sir Charles Bayley was Resident, 
and we soon became friends. In 1911, on the 
departure of Sir George Casson Walker, Mr. Glancy 
came over to us as Finance Minister in his place. 


228 


and Hyderabad was fortunate in this. The 
presence of an English gentleman like him in our 
midst after Sir George Casson Walker’s departure, 
had a steadying effect on all affairs and helped 
to preserve the dignity and refinement we were 
accustomed to associate with the higher spheres 
of administration. 

Though less inflexible than Sir George, Mr. 
Glancy was yet able to guard the finances with 
the conscientious care of a good steward. He 
occasionally yielded to pressure and sanctioned 
allowances besides pay to persistent claimants, 
but he was not lavish, and he never seemed to- 
relish the sweet uses of patronage. He held a 
position which was very high in those days, that 
of Moin-ul-Moham, next to the Prime Minister 
in rank, but he did not forget that he was an 
English gentleman. He gave himself no airs, 
nor did he parade his power. It was a lesson in 
official courtesy to see him taking counsel with 
elders like Sir Faridoon Mulk in important affairs. 

In 1919, under the New Constitution, he became 
Sadr-ul-Moham of Finance and Member of the 
Executive Council, and I had the pleasure of 
working with him as a colleague. We sat on the 
Salaries Commission together and it was an educa¬ 
tion to me to follow his modest method of offering 
helpful suggestions tentatively. There was no 
self-assertion in anything he did. 

In 1921 he had to leave Hyderabad owing 
to some, urgent matter at home. .When His 



229 

Exalted Highness heard of his intention, he com¬ 
manded me to tell him that if he could make it 
convenient to remain on for some time longer, the 
Nizam would greatly appreciate it. Mr. Glancy 
expressed his gratitude for the gracious message, 
but regretted that urgent private affairs called for 
his immediate presence at home. His Exalted 
Highness was sorry to hear this and wondered who 
the most suitable person would be to take his 
place. I ventured to suggest Mr. Hydari’s name 
who had reverted to the British service. His 
Exalted Highness ordered me to consult Mr. 
Glancy, who agreed that Mr. Hydari would be 
suitable. His Exalted Highness approved and Sir 
Ali Imam did not demur, so Mr. Hydari was sent 
for and became Finance Member. 

Musing over these events and what followed, 

I have come to realise the importance of un¬ 
expected incidents in the unseen chain of cause 
and effect in human affairs. Accident had thrown 
Mr. Hydari on to the path of ambition. 

Sir Reginald became the Governor-General's 
Agent in Rajputana after his return from England 
and served in that capacity for a number of years. 
After his retirement from service he was made a 
member of the India Council and remained there 
till his death. When I sent him a copy of my In 
Memoriam verses on His Majesty King George V, 
he did me the honour (without informing me of his 
intention) of having them brought to the notice 
of Her Majesty Queen Mary whose appreciation 
he conveyed to me some time after. This was 


230 


a further proof of his true and lasting friendship. 

. We continued to correspond and his letters seldom 
failed to convince me of his serious concern about 
the welfare of the world. The highly inflammatory 
conditions existing in Europe and threatening the 
peace of the world, made him almost despond¬ 
ent, for the impending danger was ever present 
to his mind. Occasionally he seemed very 
depressed and on one of these occasions I reminded 
him (quoting another English friend’s words) 
that God was not going to ‘abdicate.’ This, I 
believe, put heart into him and I was glad.. The 
explosion he had dreaded came at last in Septem¬ 
ber, 1939, but he had already gone to his Maker. 
Noble in mind and handsome in person, he had 
the easy manner and graceful courtesy of an 
English gentleman of the old school. His tall 
.figure and dignified bearing not only attracted 
attention, but claimed admiration. He has a 
prominent place among my memory-pictures and 
his letters are treasured mementos. May he rest 
in peace! 

Nawab Wali-ud-DowIah 

Nawab Waliuddin Khan, Wali-ud-Dowlah, the 
second son of Nawab Sir Viqar-ul-Umara (once 
Prime Minister), was a half-English boy in his 
upbringing, having been sent to England at the 
early age of nine to be prepared for Eton. After 
spending some time at a small school at Cheam 
(Surrey), he joined Eton and remained there for 
some years, hoping to proceed to Oxford or Cam¬ 
bridge after that; but, unfortunately, this did not 



'231 


come to pass. Some time after his return to 
Hyderabad, he joined the Imperial Cadet Corps 
and received military training in the company of 
India’s young Rajahs and Nawabs —a beneficial 
experience on the whole. Later on he was 
appointed by His Exalted Highness as Moin-ul- 
Moham (Minister) of the Military Department. 
When the Executive Council came into being, he 
was made a Member as Sadr-ul-Moham of the 
same Department, and was one of the foundation 
members. Besides many amiable qualities, he 
had .the easy good nature and polished man¬ 
ners of his family. He cannot be described 
as a man of firm purpose because he was 
pliable by nature and obliging; but he had 
both the good sense and the willingness to 
follow good counsel. He always sided with what 
he believed to be right. Without showing any 
marked originality himself in his conception 
of the real needs (and the duties) of the admin¬ 
istration, he could always be led in the right 
direction. He was loyal to his master and loyal 
in friendship. Towards the end of his career, 
some of the religious currents which had remained 
in his nature as subterranean springs, became more 
active and forced him to decide almost impetuously 
to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1935 I heard of 
this shortly before his departure and intended 
to see him to say good-bye, but he anticipated 
me by coming to my place one day without notice 
to tell me that he was leaving Hyderabad that 
very afternoon. I saw him off at the Railway 




232 


station and that was the last sight I had of him in 
life. He died at Medina and was buried in the 
“ Jannat-ul-Baqee” —not far from the relics of the 
Prophet’s family—a marvellous promotion, as 
I thought when I stood by his grave some days 
afterwards. 

Nawab Tilawat Jung 

Nawab Tilawat Jung, another of my collea¬ 
gues, was a foundation Member of the Council and 
took rank next to the Paigah nobles, the Nawabs 
Wali-ud-Dowlah and Lutf-ud-Dowlah. He belong¬ 
ed to a side branch of the Nizam’s family, 'was a 
graduate of Madras University and a well-educated 
man of active intellect. His mind possessed a 
subtle power which enabled him to pursue 
devious ways of thought to arrive at desired 
conclusions. 

His service experience was considerable. At 
the outset of his career he had been in the Educa¬ 
tion Department for some years, and after the 
accession of the present Nizam, he had been selected 
for the high and important office of Moin-ul-Moham 
of the Public Works Department. 

He was not without a taste for literature and 
there was a time when his reading even extend¬ 
ed to such out-of-the-way books as Machiavelli’s 
Prince. He seemed to have made a study of it — 
a fact so remarkable that it has remained in my 
memory. 

He remained on the Council till the end of 1926. 

I have another reason for recalling his memory. 



233 

He had been educated at the Madrasa-i-Aizza, my 
school and was the first Morshadzada (a member 
f the Nizams family) who had graduated. 

Nawab Sir Aqeel Jung 

Nawab Aqeel Jung, another foundation mem- 

th :^ tincti “ 01 J»vi, g sat on the 

recorrl P I 9 I 9- I 945 — an unprecedented 

record. Probably he will remain unrivalled in this 

He was originally a revenue officer, but had 
been selected by His Exalted Highness to be in 
charge^ °f the Patgahs under Sir Brian Egerton 
His knowledge of affairs was extensive and varied 
and his mind was well-balanced. He was always 
patient and tactful and could remain calm and 
unperturbed. His equable disposition and 

g °° .'7 111 towards alI > made him popular with the 
officials—especially when they realised that there 
was very little iron in his composition. 

As senior member, he was made acting Presi¬ 
dent on several occasions, but did not lose his 
head on that account, or even when he was 

m Jr 937 ' He WaS a true son of his 
ather, Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk —in goodness of heart 

and amiabffity, and like him, a true friend mindful 
ot old associations. 

His father had been a great friend of mv 
father, and when the latter was Subedar 
(Revenue Commissioner) of the Warangal Division 
byed Aqeel had been entrusted to his care for being 
trained m revenue work. This was another link 
between us, and he never failed to come round to 



234 


see me occasionally after my retirement. The 
day before his death, he called, as had been his 
custom of old, and seemed to be in his usual 
indifferent health ; but there was nothing in his 
appearance to cause any alarm. The next morn¬ 
ing he died of heart-failure ; and I lost a good 
friend; Hyderabad, a good official. 

Raja Fateh Nawazwant 

Rai Murlidhar, Raja Fateh Nawazwant, who 
was a Member of the Council for a period, was 
another esteemed friend. He was a naturalised 
Hyderabadi; his father, Rai Mannoolal, had been 
employed by Sir Salar Jung as engineer in the 
seventies and Rai Murlidhar, first appointed 
as 3rd Taluqdar at Aurangabad, had gradually 
risen successively to the rank of First Taluqdar, 
Deputy Commissioner of the Inam Department 
and a member of the Revenue Board and Subedar; 
and finally, Sadar-ul-Moham of Revenue. He also 
served as Sadar-ul-Moham of the Sarf-e-Khas for a 
period. 

He was a B.A., had a good knowledge of 
English and Persian, and was a man of noble 
character—modest, courteous and sympathetic 
and kind to all. He had no pride and was not only 
prompt and careful in discharging his duties, but 
just and scrupulous regarding the rights of others. 
This made him popular and respected by all. 

It is a pleasure to me to recall that my father 
and uncle had shown regard for him and that I, in 
■my turn, respected him for his high character and 



535 


looked upon him as a friend to be proud of. There 
was the stamp of old Hyderabad on him, and 
ough an orthodox Hindu, he looked like a Moulvi 
of the earlier regime-his well-kempt beard com- 
pleted the illusion! In him, Hyderabad lost a 
memorable type of Hindu gentleman, a type that 
had helped to bring-about a brotherly feeling 
between the two communities. 

Mr. Abdullah Yusuf All 


There came to Hyderabad in 1921-22, at Sir Ali 
Imam £ recommendation, some men who are still 
remembered on account of their distinctive merits. 
For Mr. Abdullah Yusuf Ali I have always had a 
very high regard. He is well-known in England 
as an Indian of exceptional literary ability ; and in 
India he is still better known as having presented 
to the: world a very helpful rendering of the Qur’an, 
with just the kind of clear suggestive commentary 
that is appreciated by the modern reader. It was 
unfortunate that he could not remain long with us ; 
his duties called him back to England which was 
his permanent residence, in 1922-23, though he 
returned periodically to India to lecture at the 
Islamia College, Lahore. 


Official life in Hyderabad had less attraction for 
him than the duties of a servant of Islam, and 
the literary man in him was above the official. 
He was a type quite out of the common, with an 
independence and elevation of spirit not easily 
understood or appreciated by the man in the 
street. We were members of the Executive 


236 


Council in the Ali Imam regime. We saw a good 
deal of each other and got an insight into much 
that could not be reached from the office table; 
while our literary tastes and meditative propen¬ 
sities brought us still closer together. It was a 
wrench when we parted towards the end of 1922, 
on his deciding to go back to the place of his 
domicile and the post of higher duty. 

I had the pleasure of meeting him again after 
some years in 1935 at Mecca during the Haj, and 
afterwards at Jeddah. At Mecca I was able to 
look farther along the avenues of his mind which 
in spite of his English habits, had led him to the 
home of faith; and I found that his heart was kept 
constantly open to receive inspiring suggestions 
from the historic associations of the Sacred City. 
In this way the commentary on the Qur’an 
which he was shaping in his mind, was gradually 
gathering beams of the pristine light emanating 
from the Kaaba. 

Knowledge of his inner nature convinced me 
that a man like him, if lost to the country as an 
official, is regained as a far more useful worker in a 
higher sphere, where the nature of the service is 
purer and more exalted and its effects more lasting 
and more beneficial. If he had remained on with 
us as Revenue Minister, could he have done any¬ 
thing of equal value ? But I regret his absence 
from Hyderabad for a different reason ; a mind 
like his would have exerted on our young men a 
wholesome influence on the educational and cultur¬ 
al side. And, further, he would have served as 



237 

a good model to students in these unsettled times 
when some of the vagaries of undigested modem 

thTfef "r ” 0t mli! f ly to <>« 

itL- His example would have served as a 
light to guide those who were seeking to make their 
education a straight and smooth path to nobler 
manhood. He who could resign the pomp and 
circumstance of office without any regret so that 
e might discharge the duties of a professor of a 
college and earn the higher distinction of coming 
before the world as a helpful interpreter of the 
Quranic message, would have been a fine example 
And as an eminent scholar of repute, he would 
have been just the man to restrain, by precept and 
by suggestion, the unseemly arrogance of immature 
knowledge with which we are threatened on every 
side. We have been witnessing so many alarming 
symptoms of recalcitrance and revolt among 
college students of late years that their education 
may be regarded as mis-education and misguidance 
pointing towards mischief. 


Sir Richard Chenevix Trench 

A general survey of the unsatisfactory condi¬ 
tions that prevailed in the Dominions induced 
His Exalted Highness in 1926 to adopt certain 
remedial measures. One of them was to appoint a 
British lent officer as Director-General of the 
District Police, as had been the custom before 
And another was the placing of the Revenue 
Department under the control of a British officer, 
is had been the practice since the time of Mr. A. J 


Dunlop. Besides this, it was deemed expedient to 
have a British lent officer as a Member of the 
Executive Council with the Revenue and the 
Police portfolios. Among the officers nominated 
by the Government of India for the posts 
mentioned above, one was Colonel Richard 
Chenevix Trench. He came towards the end of 
1926 and was a welcome accession to the Council. 
Besides the dash of a gallant Colonel, there was 
something engaging in his manner and his advent 
promised a needed change from the humdrum 
ways and unaccountable delays traditionally as¬ 
sociated with the Revenue Department, and it 
was expected that his presence would make 
wavering officials apprehensive and cautious. 

My relations with Colonel Trench were not only 
across the Council table; they extended far 
beyond—to friendship confirmed by esteem. 
Several things brought us into closer touch, help¬ 
ing to reveal ourselves to each other. There 
was a time when we sat together as a final court 
of appeal in Revenue cases, and I had the oppor¬ 
tunity of knowing and appreciating his capacity 
for separating the relevant from the irrelevant 
matter with which Revenue cases were generally 
overladen. The directness and lucidity of his 
judgments I also found admirable. When I 
retired at the end of 1929, our meetings became 
rare ; but we continued to be in touch with each 
other off and on till his departure from Hyderabad. 
And since then there has been a spasmodic cor¬ 
respondence between us, which has served to keep 



239 

alive the old feelings. I have several reasons for 
wishing he had continued longer in the Hyderabad 
service and thrown in his English weight to balance 
affairs. It was unfortunate that he left just when 
he had begun to discriminate between the lights 
and shadows in the Council administration and 
was able to see into the motives of some of those 
who were directing its affairs. I still regret our 
loss. He had prophesied that my tastes and 
■habits would save me from boredom when out of 
office and I sincerely wish him the same composure 
and satisfaction amidst congenial activities. 

The Rt. Hon’ble Sir Akbar Hydari 

Mr. (afterwards Sir Akbar) Hydari, came to 
Hyderabad as Accountant-General in 1905 in the 
time of Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Casson Walker. 
He was a well-educated ‘ cultured ’ man with 
pleasing manners, and we soon came to have a 
liking for each other. Our acquaintance ripened 
into friendship and it was gratifying to find in him 
one who appreciated the feeble attempts of my 
Muse to become vocal. 

When some two or three years had passed, the 
Accountant-General found his way to the Home 
Secretaryship in 1910. It was said that the chief 
reason for this change was that Mr. Casson Walker’s 
successor as Finance Minister was going to be one 
who had been Mr. Hydari’s junior in the British 
Indian service. On this account the latter had 
scruples in serving under Mr. Glancy, as Account¬ 
ant-General, and had succeeded in persuading 


240 


Mr. Walker to arrange his transfer. To me it mat¬ 
tered little where I worked—whether as Home Sec¬ 
retary or as a Judge of the High Court, which was 
my proper place. Hearing of the impending 
change, the late Nawab Shihab Jung, Police 
Moin-ul-Moham—an old friend of my uncle, 
wrote to me a very kind letter to enquire whether 
there was any truth in the rumour. He expressed 
his deep concern on my account, as the successor 
of Nawab Emad Jung, for whom he had a personal 
regard. 

Before giving over charge to Mr. Hydari I 
wrote to him in Shakespeare’s words : “ for this 
relief much thanks.” Another man with less true 
conception of the dignity of the High Court might 
have thought of the higher prestige of the Home 
Secretaryship in the eyes of Hyderabad, but I had 
been trained after English traditions and thought 
differently. I was therefore glad to get back to 
the hard but more intellectual and less harassing 
work of a Judge. The calmer atmosphere of the 
High Court was more congenial to my tempera¬ 
ment, and freedom regained was doubly welcome. 

Mr. Hydari remained at the Home Office for 
many years and did good work. He took great 
interest in educational matters—the Department 
of Education being under the Secretariat—and at 
a later stage helped to mature the scheme of the 
Osmania University, which had been under 
contemplation for a long time. 

He retired from the State service, but in 1921 
when he was acting as Controller-General of 




241 


Accounts at Bombay, an unforeseen event led 

to his recall to Hyderabad. Mr. Glancy, the 
Finance Member of the Executive Council, was 
obliged to go home on urgent private business. 
The Nizam seemed at a loss regarding the selection 
of a suitable person for the important Department 
of Finance, and I ventured to suggest Mr. Hydari’s 
name on the ground that he had gained valuable 
experience of our finances as Accountant-General. 
It is well-known how he worked as Finance 
Member of the Executive Council for a number 
of year's, how his restless energy pushed on the 
’ scheme of the Osmania University to completion, 
what he achieved in the Railway Department and 
how he gradually rose to prominence as a British 
Indian statesman till his death in 1941. 

He was a man of great capacity, for laborious 
work and had uncommon pertinacity in carrying 
out his aims. Though sometimes differing from 
him in opinion while we were colleagues in the 
Council, I never failed to appreciate his solid and 
noble qualities, for which he had my admiration, 
and hoped to discover in him some distinct sign 
of greatness of soul. But his pursuit of expediency 
in quest of popularity and his adroitness in ad¬ 
justing practical means to desired ends, seemed to 
prevent him from rising to greater heights, a fact 
I always regretted. 

Though not a literary man himself, he had a 
feeling, for literature, as he also had for a certain 
kind of art. And it is to his credit, that, with all 

his engrossing official work and far-reaching 

16 



242 


schemes, he found time to read books and talk about 
literature, and came before the public as a 
man of culture. He liked to extend liberal 
Government patronage to compilers of books 
supposed to be useful, and the role of Maecenas 
pleased him—and perhaps the control of the State 
finances made it the more easily practicable. 

Ambition of worldly pre-eminence was an 
instinct with him and spurred him on to his aims. 
His consistency in pursuing them, his self-control 
and patience under provocation amounting to 
insult, I have known and admired. I remember 
an occasion when a rude rejoinder was made by a 
Departmental Secretary to some comment of his. 
We were all shocked, but Hydari said not a word 
by way of protest, and we respected him for it. 

In 1930 Sir Akbar Hydari with two others was 
sent to the Round Table Conference. His am¬ 
bition had got on to the Highway of success. 

Hydari was one of those who might truly say: 
“ The world is too much with us.” The world, 
we know, teaches us its own ways, and overlays 
some of its own qualities upon our innate desires. 
It never left him alone and never gave him breath¬ 
ing time. It was indeed unfortunate that ‘ ‘ enthu¬ 
siasms of mere earth, as he confessed in one of 
his letters to me, should have prevailed with him 
oftener than higher and more impersonal aims of 
which he was not unconscious. Unfortunate, 
too, that his untiring energy gave people the 

impression that he was goaded on to constant 

16 * 




243 

endeavour by his desire to rise above others in the 
world s estimation. Appearances were sometimes 
against him, and in spite of his leaning towards 
the more refined amenities of life, his activities 
seemed to remain confined within narrow bounds 
He once wrote to me that he regarded prayers as 

e ey of life but these words may be variously 
interpreted. J 


It seemed as though he could not remove his 
gaze from the worldly ideal of life. Hence it was 
suspected that his obsequious reverence of reli¬ 
gious men and priests was not altogether uncon¬ 
nected with personal hopes. 

Now that he has gone to his rest, it makes me 
sad to think of all this. I pray that he may rest 
m peace. 

. When time at last' brought the golden prize 
within his reach—he was appointed Sadr-e-Azam 
* n 1937—who could say whether he was really 
happy ? Who could say whether the prayers 
of his well-wishers had done this, or whether it 
was the attention of the mundane authorities 
which he had gained by the conspicuous part he 
had played as the Nizam’s representative at the 
Round Table Conference ? This naturally had 
the effect of weakening whatever hesitation the 
Nizam might have felt in selecting him for the 
Presidentship of the Executive Council. As for 
joining the Federation, neither could the Nizam 
nor could Hyderabad be easy in mind until all the 
consequences of joining it could be clearly known. 


244 


A warning had come from an eminent English 
lawyer consulted by some of the Ruling Princes, 
to the effect that they would inevitably lose some 
of their powers and prestige if they joined. This 
increased the anxiety of the Hyderabad public, 
and must have made Hydari uneasy in mind. 

It was in such circumstances that the Firman 
of His Exalted Highness announced the appoint¬ 
ment of the Rt. Hon’ble Sir Akbar Hydari, Nawab 
Hydar Nawaz Jung, P.C., D.C.L., as Sadr-e-Azam 
for a period of five years. It did not cause much 
rejoicing in Hyderabad—the clouds were gather¬ 
ing. 

All this was disquieting to me ; and as an old 
friend of Hydari, I wrote to him that though I 
congratulated him on attaining his object, I hardly 
thought the prize worth winning. And I went 
even so far as to say that I could see black clouds 
rising above the horizon, and advised him to pray 
to be guided aright. This was his reply : 

“..Knowing how you are finding it more 

and more irksome to keep in touch with the ‘mere enthu¬ 
siasms of earth, ’ I appreciate your having troubled to write 
at all' to congratulate me on the appointment. I deeply 
value the good wishes of old friends like you and am grateful 

for the blessings you invoke on my behalf.Thank 

you very much also for your advice. I have long believed that 
‘ prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night ’ 
and never shall my soul be empty of it, Insha-allah, though 
my lips be silenced when I die...’’(April 3rd, 1937). 

In my mental vision of him I seemed to see 
him enveloped in ominous shadows. After that 






245 

followed some untoward events : the accident in 
which his arm was broken—the first signal of 
calamity, and then Lady Hydari’s prolonged 
declme which nothing could arrest. I saw her 
sometimes at His Exalted Highness’s dinner parties 
m one of the places of honour, but her face had no 
light m it; it was a pathetic protest against 
cumbersome dignity ; a sad comment on the fleet¬ 
ing vanities of life. 

Lady Hydari’s illness and Hydari’s nervous 
breakdown under strain, and his high blood 
pressure which resulted in his collapse at Delhi 
are sad events still fresh in my memory. And 
that last solemn scene—the saddest and most 
impressive of all, -his remains being borne up the 
steps of the Khairatabad mosque through a crowd 
of well-wishers and ill-wishers, bestowers of loud 
praise and of whispered blame,—what a lurid 
light it throws upon the path he had been so 
eager to pursue—that of glory which led to 
the grave ! 

“ Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust. 

Or Flatt’ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death ? ” 

Bitter to me was the thought of the utter 
vanity of all that glitter which had lured him on 
to this end. He was one of my old and esteemed 
friends whose career in Hyderabad I had watched 
for over thirty years, and I had lived to see the 
climax of it as a mournful elegy: 

Sic transit gloria mundi ! ” 


PART FOUR 


Chapter V.— Thoughts on Men 
and Matters 

In this chapter the reader will find Sir Nizamat compar¬ 
ing the unsophisticated past of Hyderabad with its “ modern” 
and " progressive ” present. He speaks of a change in our 
mental habits and in our mode of living, of the loss of that 
tone and colour which belongs to the days that are no more. 
He tells us of the pestilential qualities inherent in modern 
progress which, in his view, are tending to become an epide¬ 
mic wherever they go. Speaking generally, there is perhaps 
no denying of a growing irreverence towards the sanctities 
of life and an increasing tendency to mistake mere change 
for real progress. One may or may not agree with all that 
Sir Nizamat has to say about the prevalence of noxious 
ideas, the confusion of thoughts and of the unmindfulness 
of some of the best traditions of the past, but I would again 
say that Sir Nizamat speaks for himself! 

I have thought fit to begin this chapter with Sir Nizamat's 
estimate of two very striking personalities whom Hyderabad 
has prematurely lost—Sir Ross Masood and Nawab Bahadur 
Khan—both of whom I personally knew and admired for 
their many lovable qualities. 

Sir Ross Masood 

Aligarh and Hyderabad have been in the habit 
of exchanging benefits since the foundation of 
the M. A. 0. College by Syed Ahmed Khan (one 
of India’s truly great men) in the seventies of the 
last century. Of the presents we received from 


247 


ligarh no 1 the least precious was the grandson 
of its founder-Ross Masood. It was good to 
have such blood infused into the veins § of the 
Hyderabad Service for its health. Birth, in¬ 
herited qualities, family traditions, English Asso¬ 
ciations and social contact with people of conse¬ 
quence m several places made Masood’s fine 

figure the more impressive, and his character the 
better worth study. 


Our first meeting was dramatic ; and it was 
at a social gathering. In the midst of a crowd 
I saw-a tall well-built man whose head towered 
above all, and whose large oval face, with its fair 
palish complexion and thick black moustache 
upturned at the ends, was a picture of gravity and 
self-possession. As soon as my eyes rested on 
him, who is that man ?” was the question that 
rose from the depths ; and it was instinctively 
answered by some good friend who adroitly manag¬ 
ed to draw us together. Is there not a free¬ 
masonry between sincere hearts, which is the best 
introducer ? It made us old friends at once! 
Experience had taught me that the chief charac¬ 
teristic of genuine friendship is that it knows no 
such process as prolonged cultivation, and so 
this new friendship was born full grown. Years 
passed like months and the feeling remained in 
my heart that Masood belonged to Hyderabad 
for ever ; for the fear of the parting, that was 
a coming event/' never cast its shadow before. 
Our friendship had entered upon its eternity and 
did not admit of any misgiving. 


248 


Masood was a constant visitor at my place 
and many were the delightful evening drives we 
had together, during one of which we selected the 
present site of the Osmania University. Our 
conversation usually took us out of the stale and 
unprofitable Hyderabad ways of thought. It was 
sometimes about English poetry and sometimes 
about Persian ; and though Iqbal seemed for a 
long time to lord it over Masood’s mind, I did 
not fail to draw his gaze away towards higher 
luminaries, such as Firdausi and Omar Khayyam 
and Hafiz; and he was prompt to own allegiance 
to them. He once brought me a valuable book 
relating to Firdausi which had once graced his 
father s library; and at another time (1925) a 
copy of Nizamis “ jlyVl ” printed in 
London in 1844. Once he presented me with a 
pocket edition of Omar Khayyam and, in 1921, he 
gave me a magnificent parchment-bound edition 
‘ de luxe ’ of Montaigne’s Essays. This came to 
me with the remembered charm of old friendship. 

Ross Masood visited Japan in 1925 and re¬ 
turned full of it; and what he had to say about 
Japan and the Japanese was addressed to a se¬ 
lect audience at Poona, and is to be found in the 
form of an interesting little book—more interesting 
now m the light of the recent catastrophe which 
has destroyed Japan. 

It seemed likely at one time that Nawab 
Masood Jung (as he had become by the Nizam’s 
favour) would be transferred to the Political De¬ 
partment, but it was not to be. He was called away 



249 

father’s “if™ Universit y. ^igai-h (his grand- 

inrt that ^ ° BUS ) ’ to be Vice-Chancellor; 
and that was a sacred call. He left us, and I 

never saw him again. He used occasionaJly to 
i e me to Aligarh and later on to Bhopal 
when he was there, but fate was against it. 

ShaLrpL^-^^ ° £ him in * 

“ H a for ** 11 ^ 

MohaSnmad Bahadur Kha» 

, A t>°rn into an age which apparently 

had little right to expect the advent of such a 
soaring spirit. He was a reformer in the best 
sense of the word—a regenerator whose work was 
with the higher tendencies of the soul. He seemed 
to be an out-of-date pattern which had drifted 
down to our generation from our magnificent 
past: the glorious youth of Islam. He was a man 
whom men of faith might regard as having moved 
in spirit somewhere near the outer circle of the 
Companions of the Prophet ’’—that noble 
brotherhood from which had emerged men capable 
of leading armies and administering conquered 
kingdoms. They were unschooled, but had re¬ 
ceived their training in that best of schools—the 
purifying and elevating atmosphere of the Pro¬ 
phet’s holy presence. 

It was more than fortunate—indeed it was a 
blessing for Hyderabad to have received after 


250 


thirteen' hundred years, in a decadent age like 

this, one who was thrilled by the thought of it_ 

Mohammad Bahadur Khan ! 

This Bahadur Khan, a soldier of God, though 
apparently at times he might have been mis¬ 
taken by the thoughtless for a political demagogue 
and a platform orator in these days of perverted 
notions, was, in fact and at heart, an ardent and 
sincere lover of the peace and harmony pre¬ 
figured in the Quranic ideal of good life. My - 
personal knowledge of his cherished beliefs is 
sufficient to assure me that there never "was a 
moment’s hesitation in his mind in accepting 
whole-heartedly, the benign commandment 
(u<jVI jj-uirV).* He was a peace-maker—as was 
proved by the part he once played in allaying a 
serious communal riot. 

With all his bursting enthusiasm and torren¬ 
tial eloquence, he could manage to keep his heart 
attuned to faith and love and concord; and in 
this he showed his real greatness. . As a true 
Muslim he was, of course, a good fighter in a good 
cause, but it was not fighting that he was after. 
He had to fight for peace and righteousness as 
essential to the moral, social and political 
well-being of the community. Primarily, he was 
not a man of politics, but when he mounted the 
rostrum to face a multifarious public obsessed 
with politics, he could not always avoid using 
their favourite mode of speech. 


* E>o not cause disorder in the land. 



251 


It seemed to me as though his spirit was in 
eager and constant pursuit of some alluring vision 
on whmh fell the light of a far-off age of glor" 
And to me he himself was a fleeting vision of it • 

ltehe? a t a yT gIlt in ‘° light and S ° 

His personality was a revelation in more ways 
than one. Besides his uncommon worth, there 
is the no less memorable fact that he was an 
indigenous product and a pure Hyderabad!. He 
came to prove to all India that the soil of Hyder¬ 
abad contained such precious ore within its depths. 

t J ^ rf n hiS § randfath ^ and known his 
lather and I knew him as a boy. He was educated 

c le y a ome , and his school career was by no 
means remarkable. He remained in complete 
obscurity m his chrysalis state till he came out to 
dazzle all beholders. What was his college ? And 
what was his university ? Nature and life, the 
only academy m which genius is fostered and 
nurtured and taught to grow towards the highest ! 

My estimate of him, his work and his worth 
may be found in these lines which I wrote soon 

after his death : — 


A brave and righteous leader sent 

By Providence men's hearts to guide_ 

Not his the voice of power and pride, 

But of great deeds and high intent. 

In every uttered word his breath 
Flashed forth a pure heart's truth as light ; 
He saw the dawn beyond the night. 

And chose the way that conquers death! 



252 


and in the following Persian lines which came 
to me one day immediately after prayers : — 

olj <3tcJ j_y 

j-i .C2 Ojf" y* 

Jjl j! ^jjl fjti |j£I j 

j 1/ 

Past and Present 

“ From the time of the late Nizam to the pre¬ 
sent day there has been a transition period of 
not less than 33 years which has brought about 
many important changes affecting personal and 
communal life. And what is surprising is not 
so much the change of outward appearances as 
the change of mental habits. This affects the 
power of choosing the proper course in life. Peo¬ 
ple now seem to be guided in their choice more by 
imitation than by judgment. 

“It was inevitable that with the changing con¬ 
ditions of life around us we should change our 
mode of living. But was there any need to aban¬ 
don those habits which served to uphold our self- 
respect merely because they belonged to the past ? 
The tone and colour which they had given to old 
Hyderabad life we miss more and more every day. 
This is owing largely to the influx of ‘ modern ’ 
ideas from outside ; but I feel that if we had been 

* The light of faith illumined the way of the heart 
And the heart's emotion surged up in speech 
He brought with him from the Eternal those powers which 
Imparted to the voice of the Deccan the fervent tone of liberty. 



253 


mindful of some of our best traditions—espe¬ 
cially those enshrining wholesome and noble 
principles of conduct—and our old regard and 
reverence for the sanctities of life, we should have 
been better off than we are now. 

“ ^ seems to me that our boasted modernism 
only means 

Freedom from decent self-restraint; 

Claim of all knowledge divine and human; 

A consciousness of infallibility ; 

Contempt for religion and scorn of morality. 

To this may be added as serviceable auxiliaries, 
falsehood, deceit, mutual distrust, suspicion, ma¬ 
lice and rapacity under various disguises. 

“ But Hyderabad is a progressive State,” we 
hear, by way of justification or apology. Let us 
hope Hyderabad is so, and be it so in the best 
sense of the word ! If modernised it must be, 
let it be modernised decently. 

“ To some of us, however, there seems to be a 
pestilential quality in modern progress, and a 
tendency to become an epidemic wherever it goes. 
As an idea it was born of confusion of thoughts, 
wishes and hopes that followed in the wake of 
the Great War of 1914, and then it was well- 
meaning. Repudiation of.evil, reformation and 
reconstruction of the social system, readjustment 
and settlement of human needs—all this was 
included in the idea, making it optimistic as a 
hope and ameliorative as an aim. But the vision 
soon became overclouded by the dust raised by 



254 


hasty pioneers who began to pull down the past 
to clear the ground for the future. They had no 
patience and no discrimination, and proceeded on 
the false assumption that the past had bred no¬ 
thing but evil, and that religion and morality, 
decency and moderation were only so many 
clogs on progress. To remove them they thought 
it expedient to encourage opposite tendencies, 
irreverence towards the sanctities of life, dis¬ 
respect towards superiors, disregard of truth and 
honesty ; and above all, presumption, arrogance 
and immodesty verging upon shamelessness. 
These seemed to them the most efficacious means 
of breaking with the past to advance towards 
progress. It was perhaps natural for Europe, 
semi-brutalised by the War, to think in this way 
and to mistake perversity for progress; but was 
the self-respecting East bound to adopt the same 
creed ? Was it forgetful of its own purer princi¬ 
ples and saner methods ? I have been watching 
with alarm the prevalence of noxious ideas in 
Hyderabad—where the soil, I should have 
thought, was not congenial for their rapid 
growth. 

“A false age naturally draws to itself all 
things false, and loves catchwords and delusive 
ideas. Then falsehood broadcasts them; na¬ 
ture’s radio circulates them; the unoriginal 
mind readily makes itself a receiver to welcome 
them. All this seems to have become a mass 
movement and commends itself on that ground. 
When all do the same thing, it must be right! 



255 


And all began to do it and continue to do it, be¬ 
cause, they believe, it came from Europe, the 
Academy of Civilization ! But do they under¬ 
stand what Europe really was at its greatest 
height, what it is even now, and what it can 
show us in spite of its degeneracy ? We are 
beggars in soul if we only pick up what it casts 
aside. And if, sometimes, it seems to be adopt¬ 
ing what is mean, selfish or vicious, let us 
reflect that it is for its own purposes, with which 
we need have little to do.” 

* * * 

“ Hyderabad, it seems, has made considerable 
progress in business during the past 25 years. 
Its cement-concrete roads are studded with shops 
which have crowded out dwelling-houses. Some 
may regard this as a welcome feature of progress, 
but it causes an apprehension of some irreparable 
loss in the minds of people who view life in other 
aspects as well. They are likely to feel that 
Hyderabad has lost the simple dignity of its former 
unpretentious life and some of the amenities of 
its easy social intercourse by becoming too 
business-like. ” 

* * * 

“ When I compare the scenes I now see, 
as I pass along the streets, with what I had seen 
some thirty years ago, my impression is that new 
covers have been put hastily upon old things ; 
and that men have put on clothes which do not 



256 


fit them ! This newly rigged-out Hyderabad 
may think itself a modern offspring of Bombay ; 
but it is no longer the oriental city admired once 
by M. Clemenceau.” 

* * * 

“ If one went in former days from the Resi¬ 
dency as far as Secunderabad to the North, 
Golconda to the West, or Saroomagar to the 
East, the general impression one received was ' 
that of charming suburban rural scenes. The 
few houses (and bungalows) sparsely located 
along the route were usually surrounded with 
tall shady trees which partially concealed them. 
There was an air of serene antiquity about them, 
and even the signs of neglect, visible here and 
there, only enhanced the charm. One misses 
them now! ” 

Mulkis and Non-Mulkis 

“ The magic word, Mulki, seems to have a 
strange fascination for people here. Literally, 
it means one belonging to the country, but tech¬ 
nically, it means a person who alleges that he 
belongs to the country in order to acquire the 
rights and privileges of citizenship. His chief 
desire is to be considered' eligible for government 
service.' The person who puts forward such a 
claim with great volubility is generally an alien 
by birth, whom a patronising rule of domicile has 
furnished with a 12 years’ Free Pass! This 
benevolent rule enacts that a man who has lived 



257 

in the Hyderabad State for 12 years, or who has 
served the government for 12 years (however long 
ago) shall be a Mulki in perpetuity! 

“ Xt is < of course, a great satisfaction to all con¬ 
cerned that the right grounded upon so slender 
a basis becomes an indefeasible heritable right. 
Inconsiderate philanthropy has seldom assumed a 
more amiable form. A son or a grandson of the 
first favoured person may, even after the lapse of a 
• century, come from some far-off country to claim 
this birthright. There is romance in the idea! I 
do not believe there is any other State in the world 
that can compete with ours in such thoughtless 
generosity. It is possible that the framers of 
our law may not have known the essential condi¬ 
tion of domicile, namely, the absence of intention 
to revert to the land of birth, or they may have 
regarded it as unduly obstructive to the spirit 
of adventure.” The influx of outsiders (a few 
good and many bad, and many more of an indiffer¬ 
ent type) has brought about as great a change in 
social as in official morals. And one of its results 
is the complete disappearance of the quiet, respect¬ 
able and self-respecting middle class official of 
the past—a survival of the times of the First Salar 
Jung. Under him a superior class of aliens was 
imported, much care and discretion being exercised 
in the selection, and the result was that we 
occasionally got a really superior type of man.” 

❖ * * 

" The gradual disappearance of that indige¬ 
nous type, which represented the old school of 
17 


258 


thought and morality, and conformed to the old 
high standard of decency and respectability in all 
essential matters, is to be regretted. The nobi¬ 
lity and gentry of Hyderabad towards the close 
of the last century, though not quite the same in 
these respects as their predecessors of the 
seventies, were yet of a higher type than is seen 
nowadays. This gradual decay of the best 
local product, together with the gradual growth 
and spread of a hybrid type, has undoubtedly 
lowered the standard, not of mere mechanical 
efficiency, perhaps, but of true worth and refine¬ 
ment. ” 


* * * 

“ I base the distinction between ‘ Mulki ’ 
and ‘ non-Mulki ’ on grounds very different 
from those generally accepted. It is not the 
accident of birth alone that makes a man Mulki 
in the best sense of the word ; it is the Mulki 
heart to give that does it. It implies devotion, 
self-sacrifice, absence of a mercenary spirit, will¬ 
ingness to give to the country of one’s best with¬ 
out any thought of recognition, remuneration or 
reward, and to work for the country as one does 
for one’s self or for one’s own family. Let a 
person work with this feeling in his heart for 
Hyderabad, and I would honour him as a Mulki 
whether he be a Christian, a Jew, or a Muslim, a 
Hindu or a Parsi; and whether he came from 
Bombay or Madras ; or from Delhi or Lucknow. ” 

* * * 

17* 



259 


" To the honourable men of the past the term, 
‘Mulki, connoted, above everything else, a sense 
of sincere devotion to the country which they 
felt to be their own ; and an inchoate patriotism 
lay deep in every heart. Their impulse always 
was to give something of their own to their 
country—talent, labour and good-will, as the 
general tendency, nowadays, is to take something 
from the country —official promotion, money, 
lands, etc. People’s common feeling then was 
that the country was their home, and that its chest 
contained their own savings which ought to be 
used with care and kept for the benefit of coming 
generations. Men’s common feeling now is that 
the country, the Sirkar, the public chest— 
all belong to them as property ! The result is 
that every man’s hand seems to be advancing 
towards the public chest, and innumerable are 
the pretexts by which the dexterous approach is 
justified. Even learning is exploited (to use their 
favourite phrase) as a means to this end.’ 

Intrigue and Influence 

“ What usually gives rise to intrigue in Indian 
States is perhaps the easy credulity of those in 
authority, worked on by the designing selfishness 
of low-minded but sharp-witted persons. 

“ There have been seen various types of intri¬ 
guers in Hyderabad in the past: (i) the learned, 
able, apparently refined, suave and' dignified 
personage whose dreams were of higher position 
and more influence ; (2) the clever, unscrupu¬ 
lous, resourceful adventurer who reached out for 



26o 


pre-eminence and power, missed his aim and 
fell; and (3) the selfish, low-minded, restless 
prowler and tale-bearer. These were a few pro¬ 
minent types known in Hyderabad in the early 
nineties of the last century. It would not be 
untrue to say that low intrigue was almost un¬ 
known in Hyderabad before the inferior type of 
alien came to find board and lodging here and 
began to multiply. ” 

* * * 

“ But though conditions have changed, there 
is still a possibility of adventurers seeking ad¬ 
vancement by improper means, such as flattering 
superiors ‘ to get into their good books.' ‘ I 
am your man, ’ is still a good admission ticket. 
The changing conditions, let us hope, will prevent, 
or at least, not encourage intrigue of any type, 
old or new. As education of the right kind begins 
to cleanse the minds of the younger generation, 
furnishing them with purer and nobler ideals of 
conduct and inspiring self-respect, the nimble- 
witted adventurer will find it less and less easy 
to insert himself into office through the front or 
back door. But degrees ought not to be allow¬ 
ed to become travelling tickets ! ” 

* * _ ,, * 

“The energies of ambitious minds have to be 
diverted from intrigue for self-advancement into 
newer and healthier channels of activity for pub¬ 
lic good. Eradicating the instinct of self-aggran¬ 
disement and nepotism, high moral standards 
are to be maintained. 



26 i 


Sir David Barr (Resident, 1901-1905) was once 
heard to say that what they called intrigue in 
Hyderabad was not intrigue in the European 
sense (which supposed intellect and finesse), but 
badmashi ’ pure and simple. Far be it from us. ’' 


The last case of ‘ badmashi, ' of which I 
came to have personal knowledge, occurred in 
. 1912. 

“ S° on after the accession of the present Nizam 
(H.E.-H. Nawab Sir Mir Osman Ali Khan) a dia¬ 
bolical plot came to light, and strangely enough, 
the author of it was a high officer of the City police. 
His object evidently was to rise over the heads 
of senior officers by winning the favour of the 
Ruler for having discovered a treasonable docu¬ 
ment against him—a memorial which was in¬ 
tended to be sent to H.E. the Viceroy. It bore 
the signatures, he alleged, of Maharaja Sir Kishen 
Pershad and other noblemen and high officials, 
and its purport was that the Nizam was not 
worthy of the place he occupied. It happened, 
opportunely for his purpose, that I had been act¬ 
ing as Political Secretary during Sir Faridoon’s 
absence for some time, so it was a plausible sup¬ 
position that I had been one of the Minister’s 
accomplices, and my name accordingly found a 
prominent place amongst the signatories. 

“ For strengthening his case he thought my 
testimony as the Maharaja’s Secretary would be 
of value, and as a ‘ well-wisher, ’ he sent me a 



262 


friendly message by one of his special agents, 
expressing great solicitude for my safety and 
suggesting that if I presented myself at the palace 
in the evening and threw myself on the Nizam's 
mercy by confessing that I had signed the memo¬ 
rial under duress, I might hope to be pardoned. 
The Nizam, he added, was in a very angry mood 
and might pass any order against me, at any 
moment, if I did not do so. I recognised the 
arch-fiend’s tone in this and made up my mind 
to defy him, and my answer was that I was not 
the person to gild lies for him! The next day 
the unholy messenger returned with his best 
professional smile and brought me further assur¬ 
ances of sincerity and good-will from his chief, 
who, he added, wished to convey his sense of 
obligation to my family for past favours—which 
had naturally increased his anxiety in my behalf ! 

“ I decided to report the matter to Sir Faridoon, 
who, in those days, had daily access to His Exalted 
Highness; and when he asked me, later, under 
orders from His Exalted Highness the name of the 
man who had brought the message to me, I gave it 
with little compunction. Not many days had 
passed before we heard that the obliging gentleman 
had received orders to quit the Dominions at short 
notice. This was soon followed by another event. 
A few days later, an enquiry was started at the 
suggestion of the British Resident (Sir Alexander 
Pinhey) and a well-known handwriting expert, 
Mr. Hardless of Calcutta was sent for to examine 
the signatures on the memorial. After some weeks 



263 

spent m careful examination, his report was that 
they were all forgeries except two or three which 
seemed doubtful. I was not deported and lived 
to hear, when some years had passed, that the 
wretched author of the plot had died a horrible 
death caused by cancer in the mouth. It reminded 
me of some lines of Horace read at Cambridge in 
1887: "Rarely has the halting foot of Retribution 
failed to overtake the criminal.” 


Chapter VI.—As Others See Him 

As with all literary men, papers consisting of old letters 
and memoranda had collected in the side rooms of Sir Niza- 
mat Jung's library. It was with modest diffidence that he 
gave me permission to examine their contents and the 
trouble I took over the search has been by no means in vain. 

The quotations given in this Chapter are extracts from 
various letters ranging from 1911 to the present day. Some 
specifically deal with one or two of his books ; others are 
tributes to his works in general or to his philosophy and 
personality. But each and every one of them expresses 
the unfailing sense of elevation which people experience 
when coming in contact with Sir Nizamat or his writings. 

Extracts from Letters 

Sarojini Naidu. 

“ It has been t,o me a great privilege as well as a 
great pleasure to be allowed to come into touch with a 
spirit so delicately and sensitively responsive to the 
tenderest chord of beauty ; a mind so attuned to fine 
ideals and lofty moods, albeit full of that melancholy 
and concentration and remoteness from the larger 
humanity of life which would appear to be inseparable 
from those spiritual and mental gifts I find in your 
verses.” 


“ You have a large vision or rather capacity for a 
large vision, and I think you will have in proportion the 
capacity for a large utterance, and we Indians need 
some poet who has a like vision and the voice.” 



265 

“I should instantly have said that they were un¬ 
doubtedly by a European or rather an Englishman, 
tor the European temperament finds otherveJIdes o'f 
expression. I am not only speaking of the purity and 
grace of the language and surprisingly varied range 
ot the vocabulary or the chaste instinct that has led 
you to choose words so restrained and fine and in keep¬ 
ing with the trend of your own mood or emotion. But 
I am speaking rather of the quality of mood and emo¬ 
tion and of temperament, and it does astonish me 
when I think or rather wonder if you have never felt 
The call of the Blood.” Have you never felt in your 
blood the glorious heritage of your race ? You who 
have all the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wine of Omar, the 
mystic intoxication of Ghalib, the supreme abandon of 
Roomi as your own, you who have the burning sands of 
J Arab deserts and the mystic roses of Persian gardens as 
| your own inheritance ? 55 


“ It is in your sonnets that you really begin to 
find yourself and the right vehicle for the grave, sad 
yearning and lofty thoughts and moods that are the 
real revelations of yourself—as your friends do not 

know you- I do not say either that you have 

added a new thought, a new vision to the existing wealth 
of English litera ture but nevertheless they are beautiful, 
with the recognisedjbeauiy and,distinc.tion of their 
lineal descent from the great old traditions of the early 
Vj ctQrian^days. Those days of Wordsworth and his 
large serenity, composure and dignity, a way incalcul¬ 
ably remote from haunts of selfishness and strife, and 
away from sense of folly and of crime.” 



266 


“ Your lyrics are full of charm and here and there 
touched with that unpurchasable magic that sets the 
poet above kings. But on the whole I do not think 
you have what Matthew Arnold called the ‘ Lyric Cry ’ 
that swift and passionate poignancy and ecstasy of 
pain or joy which in the simplest, most moving and 
final words find immortality.” 


“ I have been immensely interested in your home 
coming to Islam after long and devious journeys through ' 
classical and Gothic landscapes as well as Victorian 
gardens and castles.” 

Tennison. 

I know many people in grief and sorrow through 
the war, who, if they could read what you have written, 
would be helped and comforted. 

I know you are indifferent to fame (“ People too 
often mistake notoriety for fame, and one can be great 
without being famous,” you said in 1894 ); but (even 
if you prefer not to give your name) I venture to think 
that those poems ought to be published in England and 
widely circulated,—because of the revelation they 
would be to many who are groping in the dark, 
and the happiness they would give to others who 
share your ideals but despair of adequately expressing 
truths which seem too high to be put into mortal words.” 


You could help and cheer people who would not be 
helped by. Dante— because your poems are so much 
easier reading for an untrained mind. They are as 



267 

deaxjis_sunlight; so clear, so seemingly unstudied and 
spontaneous, that people will not be diverted away from 
the idea they enshrine-but the expression and the idea 
are one with you, and the reader will not so much think 

of the poet himself as of the immortal spirit of Beauty_ 

of which the poet is the servant. 


“ Each is w ^at the Abbe ‘ Joseph Raux ’ said poetry 
ought to be, ‘ the exquisite expression of an exquisite 
impression ”—but in your case it is still more—more 
than an impression, it is a certain conviction that 
beyond this visible world there is a world in which all 
the highest ideals are realities. Or rather, I should 
say that the highest ideals on earth are echoes of the 
great unseen realities. 

“ This is the teaching the world needs ; and who 
could resist such teaching when it comes in a form so 
crystal clear as your poems, so commandingly and yet 
persuasively beautifuland so brief that even the 
busiest man cannot pretend he has ‘ no time ’ to read it. 

“ But not only do your poems breathe the spirit of 
chivalry at its highest and best, but also you bring back 
some of the lost beauty from the heart of ancient Greece ; 
some such poems as yours may have been sung to 
beautiful music at Crotona in the garden by the sea, 
where Pythagoras used to tell his pupils the story of 
the age-long pilgrimage of the spirit.” 


John Law 

“ I can quite imagine such a book (the sonnets)— 
being “ discovered ” and becoming “ the rage. ” It 


268 


reminds me ofSpenser very much. All you said about 
the English Ianguage~was very interesting.” 


J. W. Wilmshurst, Editor of ‘The Seeker’ 

“ I am sincerely pleased with the book of sonnets. 
I am especially glad to know and to welcome the con¬ 
tents of the volume and to know of their authorship. 
My appreciation goes much further than mere literary 
approval. I know the inner truth of what the sonnets 
strive (so successfully) to express, and in their author 
I have no difficulty in recognising a spiritual brother. 

The great, heroic and spiritual love, expressed by 
such poets as Michelangelo and Dant e was and is an 
eternal reality, and the memory of a higher life in 
worlds other than this ; and the Nawab is of this spiri¬ 
tual family, and whether he is fully conscious of it as 
yet or not (but probably he is) his admirable sonnet 
sequence reveals a new and very striking example of 
what I am explaining, i.e., that the highest kind of 
love—the unity of spirit —as yet little understood on 
earth—belong to the divine immortal life, and began 
before this earth existed, and will outlast this earth.” 


Edward McCurdy 

I have read the book of sonnets that you were so 
kindas to send me, with very great interest and pleasure. 

I should say that English should be considered his 
native ,. languag e; one forgets entirely that he has any 

other native speech than ours, so entirely natural is the 
idiom. 



269 

I appreciate your reference to his kinship with Rudel 
and I find something of Petrarch, and some affinity with 
Drummond. But I would not wish to seem by these 

comparisons to lessen his entire originality. 

I thought the sonnets of the Nawab Nizamat Jung 
very fine indeed. It seems almost incredible that they 
are not written in the poet’s mother-tongue. I find on 
re-reading them a limpidity and simplicity which attract 
me extremely and in many ways remind me of Petrarch.” 


Two English Friends 

I remonstrate chiefly because I feel so strongly 
that you were created for some special purpose of God. 
Perhaps we all were; but you, with your glimpses of 
the other world, and the power (shown in your sonnets) 
to voice the exalted kind of truth so few men feel 
strongly enough to express with such conviction,—you 
who were surely meant to be a human channel through 

which inspirations might come to more earthly souls,_ 

cannot, without a kind of treason against Heaven, 
resign yourself to allow your poetic gifts and talents 
to atrophy, or even to faint.” 


“ Your work has been all the more noble because 
uncongenial ; and men who- dislike public affairs, and 
long for quiet, are often the men best able to do justice 
to public affairs. The others, with a thirst for power, 
are apt to use office for their own ends. Everybody, 
who knows you knows you would be impersonal or 
superpersonal, and that you have steadily acted on 
the motto of.” 




270 

From an English Friend. 

A friend whose sister was in great danger in 
Finland and who was very sad and anxious, wrote— 

“ The sonnets helped her (for just one evening) to 
forget all her troubles,—their beauty being related to 
eternity and the time when all earthly sorrows would 
be over and vanquished.” 


The Southport Guardian. 

“ The pursuit of eternal beauty which is the theme 
of the sonnet sequence, is presented with freshness of 
fancy and fertility in thought. Considerable skill in 
the sonnet is shown, and especially successful is the note 
of ecstasy and rhapsody.” 


William Turner, Principal, Nizam College. 

“ What I said and sincerely meant was that you 
were the only poet who had developed and carried 
further the possibilities of the sonnet form since Words¬ 
worth. 

“ I see that advancing years have not affected either 
your gift of feeling or expression.” 


Abdullah Yusuf Ali. 

These sonnets are splendid ! and they also express 
my mood ! I have admired and enjoyed them, and also 
showed them to all, who fully share my appreciation. 
God bless you and your poetic gift and make us realise 
the hope you dream of.” 



271 


Again, 

I am delighted to receive your letter and the <nft 
° f your two books-Sonnets and Rudel of Blaye. * 

They have set me dreaming. What chances and 

Ranges hfe brillgs , Yo „ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

after poem and anticipated Rabindranath Tagore if 
you M not been caught in the net of circumstanL ind 

dealt daily with other matters.” 


“ Here are a few choice morsels from the soul of one 
who has played many worthy parts in life, but none 
worthier than of a practical man who finds peace in 

poetry, wealth in the stores of History and Imagination 

consolation in the message of Religion and serene beauty 

m the personality and mysticism of the Preacher of 

Islam. 

That the Holy places of Arabia should inspire so 
sensitive a nature was to be expected. That he should 
clothe his thoughts in choice and faultless English and 
present them to the modern youth of Islam in India, is 
the good fortune of the modern youth of Islam in India.” 


“ ' The Death of Socrates ’ is a gem—a cup of cream 
out of Plato’s ‘ Crito ’ and ‘ Phsedo.” 


Sir Stuart Fraser. 

“ It is not everyone, I may say, who— even if he can 
compose a sonnet—can write so charmingly to a friend, 
picking up the threads as if we were conversing face to 
face five years ago. 55 


272 


“ I know the philosophically detached attitude 
which you take towards official life—its drawbacks 
and its rewards. Nevertheless I hope that this mark of 
appreciation from the Crown of your services in Hyder¬ 
abad will afford you some measure of satisfaction. 
Anyway your friends will be pleased to see such an 
honour so deservedly conferred. And I am genuinely 
glad that a Knighthood should come the way of one who 
has filled responsible office, but is a scholar and, a poet 
of possibly even greater distinction. 55 


“ I have only just finished the 182nd 'of the 
1 Thoughts 5 —each deserving the careful digestion of a 
tabloid sermon. You have laid under contribution the 
saints and sages, the philosophers and the poets of the 
world, enriching what you borrow with the reflections 
of one who is by nature and by culture a philosopher 
and a poet himself. 55 


To England, 1988 

“ May I say that in my humble opinion and that of, 
1 hope, an ordinary decent Englishman, this poem is 
worthy to rank with your beautiful sonnet, c To Eng¬ 
land, 5 which was published in the Times early in the 
Great War. I too certainly think that it is timely and 
needed, and friends to whom I have shown it wish 
that you would publish it. 55 

Again, 

“ I am sure that not only your friends but a consi¬ 
derable cultured circle in this country would welcome 
it, 55 ■' ■ ' 



273 


“ I always give myself the pleasure of reading your 
last letter, with always the result of realising that the 
poet’s epistolary gifts are beyond the reach of us 
pedestrian folk. Anyway it was a pleasure to beremind- 
ed how your visit to Mecca had given you fresh inspira¬ 
tion, one fruit of which was your lines : “ To England, 
1938.” Therein you clearly envisaged the horrors 
which darken our world of 1939. 

I feel sure that the author of the ‘ Sonnet to England ’ 
written during the Great War, will not withhold the 
homage of his heart from England in her present hour 
of need.” 


C. J. Santos (1934) 

“ I was really deeply moved and felt such a conso¬ 
lation to think that I had still a true friend in this 
world on whom I could rely in the hour of need.” 


An American Gentleman 

“ These volumes are indeed deeply appreciated not 
only for their literary value as additions to my collec¬ 
tions of autographed works, but as a charming souvenir 
of an acquaintanceship which has meant much to me 
in many ways. If you will pardon the personal note, I 
may say that it is to the high ideals and lofty standard 
set by the all-too-rare men of your own chivalrous type 
that I turn my thoughts when I think of growing older. 
I should like to mould myself in some such restrained 
pattern and I look forward to the serenity of your poise 
and certitude of steady, firm orientation of mind and 

'-spirit. 59 

18 • 


274 


Sir William Barton 

“ One likes to get the glimpses of the philosophy 
of life of one’s friends. It is a help and encouragement, 
and you have seen life in very many aspects and human 
nature at its best and its worst! ” 

Again, 

“ We both admire the calm philosophy with which 
you face life in these difficult days. It is not every one 
who can develop the inner calm, which is so strong a 
bulwark against hardships and suffering.” 


Elegy on the Death of George V 
Sir Reginald Glancy 

“ I have very interesting news for you. Your poem 
has been read by Her Majesty Queen Mary. Her 
Majesty was much touched and desired that an ex¬ 
pression of her appreciation of your charming tribute to 
His Late Majesty be conveyed to you. I am sure you 
will be gratified to know that your poem reached Her 
Majesty and was so favourably received. I only 
regret that it came too late for the press and the general 
public.” 

Again, 

“Your verse has always a very special appeal to me, 
not on personal grounds at all, but on purely literary 
grounds. I am all for the old style and dignity in 
poetry. I can say no more than that I admire this 
last elegy with all my heart because it does no justice 
to one who went through the most terrible time of trial 
18 * 





275 


< sans peur et sans reproche,’ setting an example to us 
all which should never be forgotten.” 


“ Many thanks for your ‘ Morning Thoughts.’ When 
I read them, it is borne in on me how many things I have 
done which I ought not to have done and many things X 
have left could only start again—but I suppose, one 
would only fall again.” 


“ They have a special appeal for me: they recall 
the culture in which we were brought up—the ideals, 
the accuracy of word and metre of those days, and 
above all yourself. I am afraid I do not express my¬ 
self well, but I am sure you know how I feel towards you 
and the expression of your moods.” 


Morning Thoughts 


Sib. Bbian Egeeton 

“ i have been studying some of it with the greatest 
interest and shah do so further at my leisure. Your 
philosophy is engrossing and makes one seriously 

think.” 


Nawab (Sib) Mahdi Yab Jung 

“ The style is very clear and the diction simple. 
It reminds one more of 18th century writers like Addi¬ 
son and Lamb than of the modern writers of Jour¬ 
nalese ’ Enghsh. The art of writing prose seems to be 
dying out, and I think that prose such as this will help 


276 


not a little to revive it. I consider your prose to be 
greater than your poetry.” 

“ It is extremely interesting and full of food for 
thought. You may find that it will not have such a 
small circulation after all.” 


Lady Tasker 

“ I like reading poetry slowly, and not all at a gulp. 
I love the prologue to the ‘ Death of Socrates.’ It ex¬ 
presses such a big truth so simply. Each of the poems 
is very fine, and the lines flow along in beautiful rhythm. 
I am sure these are some of the poems that you have told 
me about, as coming to you easily, without effort, 
from a subconscious mind perhaps.” 


Sir Duncan Mackenzie ‘ ' 

“ From the very cursory glimpse which is all that 
I have hitherto had time for, it looks emphatically as if it 
would be a welcome refuge from ‘ much study ’ which, 
in the words of Sulaiman-i-Adil, is undoubtedly ‘ a 
weariness of the flesh.’ ” 


Professor S. Ramkrishna Iyer 

“ Like the meditations of the philosophical Roman 
Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who justly ‘ scorned delights 
and lived laborious days ’ yours is at once original, 
diverting, refreshing and edifying. At moments of 
dejection, your ‘ Morning Thoughts ’ brings me solace.” 



277 


Col. Rockwell 

“ And now I shall leave Hyderabad richer not only 
by having known you personally and through the beauti¬ 
ful medium of your poetry, but- also through the illumi¬ 
nating philosophical utterances of your intriguing prose 
volume . 55 


Mrs. Rosenthal 

46 Many, very many, find at once a responding echo 
in my brain, voice thoughts that have remained unshap¬ 
ed iii my mind. Again thank you very much indeed 
and most genuinely. Your book is one I shall keep by 
me to read and re-read, and pick up to study and 
re-study . 5 5 


Sir Arthur Lothian 

“ I will turn with relief to your contemplative studies 
as a mental release from the tiresome labours of my 
working hours. 

Like you I regard most objects of ambition as illusion 
and the attainment of mental harmony as the only thing 
worthwhile. I too am deeply interested in religion, 
but not perhaps like you as the adherent of any faith. 
I would like to see all dogma disappear.” 


B. C. McEwen 

“ Now that I have read “ Morning Thoughts 55 I feel 
so deeply in your debt that mere 4 thanks seem quite 
inadequate. May I quote from your book : 





278 


c He who guides is a benefactor. This is the way- 
in which the greatest of all service may be rendered.’ 

If I can live up to your philosophy, I shall count 
myself fortunate indeed. ” 


Chamen 

“ I have read the book all through once and much 
of it many times and shall do so again, I expect many 
times. I really am so awfully glad you sent it to me. 
You have certainly clarified in mind much that was 
very hazy before, and I wish I could meet you and 
perhaps clear up some more, because there are still lots 
of things in heaven and earth that I should like to get 
clearer ideas about than I have at present, and you seem 
to have a way of analysing a complex that brings lots 
of hidden bits of it to the light that I had not detected 
the presence of before, although I suppose I ought to 
have.” 


K. SUNDAEA RAGHAVAN 

“ The Thoughts ” is a rosary of immaculate and 
invaluable pearls. They are gems which radiate the 
Upanishadic truths. The book is the expression, I am 
sure, of a life truly and nobly lived. I regard it as a 
guide book in the journey of life. I will keep it as a very 
constant companion, and find inspiration therefrom 
hereafter for my acts.” 



279 


Sir Akbar Hydari, P.C. 

“ Your ‘ Morning Thoughts ’ reflect with succinct¬ 
ness and lucidity a philosophy of life with which I pro¬ 
foundly agree, but which, alas, I have neither the time 
nor the literary ability to express nor the strength to 

practise. 

I hope that the contemplative life to which you have, 
as a poet, instinctively turned will be productive of verse 
and prose revealing the attainment of that tranquillity 
your spirit seeks.” 


Raja Bahadur Krishnamachari 

64 If is a mixture of religion, philosophy, morality 
rules of social conduct as well as everything that ought 
to interest a man who really appreciates that human 
life is the greatest gift that God could give to any body 
and it would be a wicked sin not to take advantage of it.’ 5 


Sir Michael O’Dwyer on ‘ To England, 1938 ’ 

44 Since Kipling’s 4 Recessional ’ I have read nothing 
which thrilled me so much by its genuine patriotism, 
its noble sentiments and its felicity of language. 

The sentiments to which it gives expression are 
particularly apposite at the present time when greedy 
materialism and brute force are so rampant displacing 
the old heroic and chivalrous feelings of the Age of Faith 
which shed a lustre on Christianity and Islam when 
Salauddin and Coeur de Lion were magnanimous 
opponents. ” 



J. Aizala 


“ I had the pleasure to read your most inspired poem : 
‘ A Moorish Chief to General Franco,’ in the English 
weekly, “ Spain. ” The poetical composition reveals 
not only the rare literary gifts of the author, but also 
the lofty religious ideals that should animate every 
mind. 

In order to make your poem more widely known and 
appreciated, I have translated it into Spanish, my 
mother-tongue, with the hope that it will reach the 
hands of many Spanish-speaking people, both in Spain 
and South America, and perhaps even those of the 
Generalissimo, whose efforts God is blessing in his 
latest campaign.” 


Coronation Ode * 


Sir David Barr 

“ I thank you for the copy of the Coronation Ode. 
Allow me to say that I think very highly of the Ode, 
and have shown it to several friends who share my 
opinion. I agree with Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk that it 
should be published.” 


Sir George Casson Walker 

“ I am not much of an authority on English verse, 
but we all thought it very good indeed, and I should 
be a proud man if I could write anything approaching 
it in kind and worth. Your command of English fills 

the Lad^?n d a«en?a2. eir ^ JuMee * one '* 



28 i 

me with astonishment and envy. Certainly Easterns 
beat the Westerns easily in linguistic acquirements.” 


Professor V. N. Bhushan 

“ The first thin § that trikes a reader of Sir Nizamat’s 
poetry is its scrupulous craftsmanship. Sonnets, odes 
lyrics, narrative poems—in all these he shows himself 
as a master of correct versification. This by itself is 
no small achievement. But Sir Nizamat’s greater 
achievement is in the thought-content of his poetry. 
More subjective than objective, he often fills his poems 
with effusions of deep personal feeling and experience. 
Not just fanciful, his ideas and thoughts have a striking 
philosophical and even mystical value. Especially 
in his poems where he writes of such profound themes as 
Beauty, Love, Truth, Light and Nature—Sir Nizamat 
is at his best and brightest. He writes as one who has 
deeply pondered some of the fundamental problems 
of the here and the hereafter, and as one who has 
genuine poetic inspiration. ” 


Extract from the ‘ TRUTH ’ dated London , January 
2, 1942 

India to England 
From a Correspondent 

“ Only those who remember the war of 1914-18 will 
recollect a remarkable poem ‘ India to England,’ 
which, if I rightly remember, appeared in the Times 
towards the end of 1914 and was widely quoted and 
often reprinted. The signature of Nawab Nizamat 
Jung Bahadur conveyed nothing to the outer public ; 


282 


and few realised that the writer was the same man who 
as Nizamuddin Ahmed, had been noted at Trinity 
College, Cambridge, for his interest in English Poetry, 
antiquities and history, and his gentle but firm cham¬ 
pionship of 4 the good, the true and the beautiful.’ 
His English friends, perhaps, had hardly realised what 
strength of purpose and intellect underlay his air of 
leisurely contemplation ; and it was with some surprise 
that they learnt how the poetically-minded student 
(who had been called to the Bar in London, but had 
seemed more engrossed in Spenser’s 44 Faerie Queene ” 
than in the Statute Books) had nevertheless risen to be 
Chief Justice in the independent State of Hyderabad, 
Deccan. Ultimately he was to be Political Secretary 
to His Exalted Highness the Nizam, the head of the 
Moslem World. (The Nizam writes poetry himself, 
and so has never supposed appreciation of the graces of 
life to be a handicap in practical affairs). 

The publication of 4 India to England ’ aroused a 
demand for other poems from the same pen ; and a 
selection from the sonnets of Nizamat Jung Nizamuddin 
Ahmed was issued in 1917, His Majesty the King 
accepting a copy. The Editor of the Sonnets, ap¬ 
parently writing from personal knowledge, laid stress 
upon the inference that far from a poetic spirit hamper¬ 
ing this poet in the service of mankind, he, on the 
contrary, had drawn from his love of great literature 
a steady inspiration to embody in life the constructive 
qualities he admired in the past. Commending 4 the 
comprehensive way in which he, in a few words, would 
indicate his impressions of poets and heroes long dead 
but to him ever-living,’ the critic added : 44 His appre¬ 
ciation was both ardent and just; he could swiftly re¬ 
cognise the nobler elements in characters which at first 
glance might seem startingly dissimilar; and he could 



283 

pass without apparent effort from the study of the lives 
of men. of action to the inward contemplations of 
abstruse philosophers.” Both “acutely fastidious 
and widely sympathetic,” his “ high impersonal ideas ” 
combined with a remarkable personality “ seldom 
failed to stimulate other minds—even if those others 
shared few, if any, of his intellectual tastes.” 

Since his retirement from politics he has taken a 
conspicuous interest in various reconstructive move- 
, ments, especially in the rebuilding of what we would 
call slum areas ; the former squalor being replaced by 
houses „ not merely convenient, but architecturally 
pleasing. In life and literature he has always been the 
■ sworn foe of ugliness. 

During the last twenty years he has often expressed 
his apprehension that in the headlong race for ‘ pro¬ 
gress ’ some of the most valuable aids to human hap¬ 
piness were in danger of being left behind. At a time 
when a section of the English Press was setting itself 
to belittle the long and honourable record of British 
achievements in and on behalf of India, his sole com¬ 
ment on the inflammatory articles was ‘The spirit 
of Hate is let loose ; and they call it ‘ Democracy.’ 

A devout Moslem, he expected Christians to main¬ 
tain an equal devotion to their own religion. And he 
became painfully concerned as to the decline in English 
literature and art, attributing it latterly to a decrease 
in spiritual consciousness. Four years ago a poem, 
written while he was on a pilgrimage to Mecca, was 
sent by him to London. Some of the quatrains read 
prophetically now, and it would seem that he anticipa¬ 
ted the world war and was endeavouring to prepare 
our minds for the ordeal: 






284 

" England ! ’Twas not thy pomp of martial power 
To which I gave thee homage of my heart. 

I saw thee in thy brightest, darkest hour, 

Guarding the great World’s peace, thy destined part. 

The vision of thy glory in mine eyes 

Was thy true self, a power ordained by Fate 
To strive for Good as Glory s noblest prize , 

This taught me, while a hoy, to hail thee great. 

God made thee guardian of the rights of man, 

God gave thee of His power to raise mankind 

Trod in the dust. He fixed thee in his plan 
As warder of the Trust to thee assigned. 

; The brute in man has risen from his lair 
I To make God’s peaceful earth a Hell of strife ; 

' The poison of his breath is in the air; 

His claws are closing round the heart of life. 

; England awake! And be thyself once more, 

The land of chivalry that Shakespeare owned. 

When faith and honour gave thee righteous power, 

I And saw thee on the Ocean world enthroned.” 

1 

* He concluded with the assurance that if England 
would “ keep Honour’s torch alight,” the Indian Mos¬ 
lems could continue to believe in England as the bul¬ 
wark between mankind and the Satanic evils threaten¬ 
ing and undermining the wreckage of reason, justice, 
dignity, faith, security, and every attribute which 
marks the difference between civilisation and sava¬ 
gery. At the outbreak of the war in 1939 and the sub¬ 
sequent European disasters in 1940 he did not appear 
surprised; but wrote to an English friend, 1 hough 
the tragedy and confusion seem like an apotheosis of 
Evil, and though God is mocked and man degraded, 
let us comfort ourselves with the assurance that God 
has not abdicated.” 




285 


The following lines sent to him by an English 
friend are far more eloquent than anything that I could 
say. 

The fairest dreams, the sweetest melodies, 

The purest joys, the beauty and the grace 
Of eager thoughts that from the poet's soul 
Fly forth for our enchantment and delight,— 

These words of flame, these mystic harmonies, 

These woven webs of air and dew and dawn, 

Are they but shadows ?—Verily, not so ! 

For into every shadowy image, Love— 

True love for God, a tenderness for man— 

A* heart infuses; so the poet's dreams 

Shall live when Earth and Time have passed away. 

Professor K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar 

fic Among Muslim writers of English, of English verse 
especially, particular mention must be made of Nawab 
Sir Nizamat Jung Bahadur. Born in 1871,. educated 
in India and at Cambridge, Sir Nizamat has occupied 
very important positions in the Hyderabad State. 

Hig. Casual. Reflections and Morning Thoughts use the 
medium of English prose, at times prose of a singular 
force and suggestiveness, for the communication of his 
inmost thoughts on the many problems, big and small, 
that confront men and women today. These prose 
pieces may almost be called miniature essays, in the 
course of which. Sir Nizamat is caught unawares mur¬ 
muring to himself, in the words of the old song* 44 says I 
to myself, says I. ” 

Sir Nizamat’s verses and sonnets have been collected 
and published with the titles. Sonnets and Other Poems , 
Love's Withered Leaves , and Islamic Poems . In the 


286 


earlier volumes we come across a number of love poems 
and Nature descriptions, the following extracts being 
fair samples of these : 

When I approach thee, love, I lay aside 
All that is mortal in me. With a heart 
Absolved and pure, and cleansed in every part 
Of every thought that I might wish to hide 
From God, I come. 

f A gleam of light sailed o'er the water’s breast 
From out the fading distance towards the shore 
Crowning with gold each swelling wave that boie 
This gloom of shadows deepening in the West. 

‘ Now here, now there, from shivered crest to crest, 

It leaped, it flew—and then was seen no more. 

Even in his 6 Islamic 5 poems Sir Nizamat reveals a 
similar poetic sensibility and ease in versification. The 
poems, however, are not 4 Islamic ’ in the narrow reli¬ 
gious or theological sense. Poetry must be inspired 
somehow, and it happens that several of Sir Nizamat’s 
poems are inspired by Islam, its sacred places, its Great 
Caliphs, its spiritual Empire. It is not necessary to be 
a Muslim to be able to appreciate the thought or language 
of these lines : 

Not in those realms where rivers flow. 

Of milk and honeyed wine, 

Or where with mystic light aglow, I 
The eyes of Houris shine ; [ 

Not there, O soaring spirit! lies I 
Thy home of bliss, thy paradise. 

Sir Nizamat has been described by his friend, Mr. 
’ A. Yusuf Ali, as a man 4 who finds peace in Poetry, wealth 
in the stores of History and Imagination, consolation in 
the message of religion and serene beauty in the person¬ 
ality and mysticism of the Preacher of Islam. 5 As the 




287 

recordation in verse of such a worthy gentleman’s mus- 
ings and prayerful meditations, Islamic Poems and its 
two predecessors deserve to be read with attention 
and respect.” 


* 


* *$£ 


“ Again, some of SirNizamat Jung’s “ Casual Reflee- 
tions ” and “ Morning Thoughts ” also deserve to be 
called miniature essays. Sir Nizamat writes serenely 
and wisely on a variety of themes-“ Life an Examina¬ 
tion, ” “Resignation,” “Seeking Refuge from Evil,” 
“Perpetual Change, ” “Good and Bad Thoughts,” 
“The Unreality of this World, ” “The Dust of Life’s 
Journey, ” “ Mind and Muscle, ” and scores of others; 
but these Morning Thoughts, ” elegant, personal, 
persuasive, trite, jotted down apparently without 
premeditation, come to us with a reassuring squeeze of 
one’s hand. Here is a sample of Sir Nizamat’s prose : 

1 Look at Nature’s face, and you look into her 
heart, and by looking into her heart you can reach 
God. You cannot see God except in His works, and 
His works are around you. They are Nature, and in 
Nature everything is good and beautiful. If you see 
anything that is not good and beautiful be sure it is 
your own blurred vision that makes it appear so.’ ”
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