The Last Nizam and His People: Profiles and Sketches from Hyderabad
Narendra Chapalgaonkar, Sharadchandra PanseAbout a year after Indian Independence, the atmosphere of fear ended and the feeling that freedom has reached here changed our family life also. My father and his colleagues were released from jail, and my school started teaching us in Marathi, the mother tongue of most of the boys. The change was teaching me the meaning of Independence. What was happening around me made a deep impact on my mind. Years after it, when I began writing profiles, people who had played a notable part in the history of the last days of Nizam’s rule, were also in the proposed list.
I had written a biography of Swami Ramanand Tirth, who had led the movement for democratic rule in Hyderabad and its accession to independent India. I had consulted relevant material from National Archives in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh Archives in Hyderabad and many other sources. The last Prime Minister of Hyderabad, Mir Laik Ali, has written an autobiography Tragedy of Hyderabad giving some details, which were not available elsewhere. Some Urdu books also are published, some of them defending Nizam rule and his encouragement to communal organisations.