Vanished into the Thin Air

Thatte Bhat Jayashree

Description

This book is based on a major historical event of the freedom fight of the Hyderabad State in India, which took place a year after the country gained independence from the British in 1947. The book brings to life an in-depth exploration of characters based on ordinary people with extraordinary devotion and passion towards their motherland. They wholeheartedly fought to free their land from the clutches of a few Muslim fanatics who wanted to crush its diverse culture and convert it into an Islamic state. The story is narrated by the personified Terrain of the Deccan Plateau with exceptional sensitivity and grace. It showcases a comprehensive picture of the Dakhani culture during the Nizam era when Hindus, Muslims and people of all other religions took genuine interest in each other's traditions, festivals and celebrations. With the flaring of the religious fanaticism, coupled with political intervention, this culture just vanished into the thin air.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528955768
• Langue: English

Extrait

Vanished into the Thin Air
Jayashree Thatte Bhat
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-01-31
Vanished into the Thin Air Copyright Information © In Memory Of Acknowledgements Disclaimer Terrain The Nizam Terrain Vimal Vasant Vimal Terrain Vimal Nana Bal Terrain Terrain Vasant Terrain Vasant, Nana and Bal Vasant, Nana and Bal Bal Vasant Vasant, Nana and Bal Terrain Vasant Vasant and Vimal Vimal Vasant Vasant and Vimal Vimal Vasant Vimal Vasant Vimal Vasant, Bal and Nana Vimal Terrain Vasant, Vimal and Bal Bal Vasant, Bal and Nana Vasant Terrain Vasant, Bal and Nana Vimal and Leila Terrain The Nizam Vasant and Vimal Terrain Author’s Note Glossary A Caliphate A Darri Abdul Majid Khan II Annie Besant Baghe-Jahan-ara Bahadur Yar Jun g Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute Bhumipuja Catastrophe after India’s Partition Chanakya Chilman Cripp’s Mission Proposal Deodi or Haveli Dhaba Diwankhana Draupadi Goddess Sarasvati J. Krishnamurti Jewelry Khada Dupatta Khalsa Lassi Madame Blavatsky Mehr MIM Moksha Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah Non-Violence Rajpramukh Reference for Rs. 55 crores Saint Jana Bai Shabnum Suzerainty Swami Ramanand Teerth The Fabian Society The Mundup The Name—Pakistan The Police Action of Hyderabad The Quit India Movement The Razakars Tilak’s Sentence of Six Years in Mandalay Topi About the Author
Copyright Information ©
Jayashree Thatte Bhat (2020)
The right of Jayashree Thatte Bhat to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788786249 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781788786256 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528955768 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
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In Memory Of
All the people of the State of Hyderabad, born with different labels of faiths and religions, who worked together to create that unique blend—the Dakhani culture and strived to promote it with ‘Oneness’ at heart!
Acknowledgements
I feel incredibly lucky to be born in the State of Hyderabad at a time when it was soaked in its unique culture, known widely as the Dakhani culture; a culture founded on innocence yet an awe-inspiring magnitude of religious tolerance and magnanimity. Dakhani culture cradled me and raised me to be a part of a much larger social system and develop a truly secular and pluralistic outlook. My first and foremost thanks to my loving parents and their contemporary folks for being such staunch guardians of this culture that raised my generation with those values.
During the research for this book, I visited the city of Hyderabad many times for collecting as much information as I could on the subject. I was fortunate to meet many people, who had witnessed the historical event that I have covered in this book, and a few among them had actively participated in it. I was almost thrilled to meet a few family members of the Nizam and family members of some of the Nawabs of his darbar. All of them extended their exquisite ‘Hyderabadi’ hospitality to me and kept me spellbound with their account of the Nizam regime and the freedom fight for the Hyderabad State. Although these folks preferred to remain anonymous, I express my genuine gratitude to all of them for sharing their personal stories with me and enlightening me with the historical account.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to my family, who have always wished me well and supported me in all my endeavors. They make me realize, time and again, that writing is never a solo effort.
Lastly, and equally importantly, I sincerely thank Austin Macauley Publishers, without whose help, this book would never reach you all.
Disclaimer
This book, based on the historical account of the Freedom Movement of the State of Hyderabad soon after India gained her independence from the British Raj, details information about the Dakhani culture during the Nizam era. Except for the historical facts, all the events have been fictionalized and all persons appearing in this work, except those directly involved in the factual events, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Terrain
I have come here today to have a heartfelt tête-á-tête with you! Actually, it is for sharing with you my own beautiful story. I am sure you will listen to my story with full concentration and I know you will give a heartfelt response to my story.
Oh, but, I better tell you first who I am! Have you heard of the Deccan plateau of Indian peninsula? Well, I am the terrain of the Deccan plateau, the terrain of the largest plateau that covers almost two-thirds of India’s southern peninsula.
Now you must be wondering what can a boring terrain of a plateau, like me, have that could be interesting to anyone. I have neither a beautiful beach, with smashing ocean waves bringing its unlimited energy to the sandy land, with its palm trees swinging with the wind, with mind-boggling colours of the sky reflected on the water, nor do I claim to have a thick forest that doesn’t allow penetration of the sun’s rays with its abundant foliage. I possess none of these beauties of nature. I am far, far away from the tall mountains of the Himalayas that seem to defeat even the sky at times and also far, far away from the magnificent rivers of Ganges and Indus. But in spite of being so plain, I am not simple; in spite of not holding any of nature’s conventional beauty spots on my body, I am still very beautiful; and that is because I hold deep down within my guts, most beautiful stories—stories of the glorious past, stories of incredible people who walked on me, sometimes with heads held high with pride and elation, and at times, heads bowed down in complete shame. These people made history that no one can, and no one should, ever forget. I am here to narrate to you one of those beautiful stories.
Now picture it, an immensely large plain, flat as a huge table, not much vegetation or huge trees with thick foliage, but enough to feed its people, with innumerable stones of varying sizes sprinkled here and there and everywhere. This is as far as eyes can see on all sides of the plain. This is the Deccan plateau. Nights fall swiftly on the Deccan plateau, for there is no lingering dusk to soften the transition from daylight to darkness, and within minutes, you see hundreds of thousands of city lights illuminating the most precious centre of this plateau.
They say time is immemorial; it has neither a beginning nor an end! But I too have been there, hand in hand with time, like its true companion, the one and only companion, I may add! No one knows when my beginning was defined and when my end would be, either!
They also say time devours absolutely everything; it swallows all disappointments, defeats, griefs, and also victories, glories and splendour. Once they are swallowed by time, no one remembers them; these are gone forever! This may be true with time, but not with me! I remember everything; absolutely everything with all its details, with just one small condition, those things must take place in my presence, on me! Unlike my companion, time, I do not swallow anything. Anything at all! I keep everything treasured safely deep down my chest. I safeguard it for all my life.
Let me share with you one more of my secrets; I do open my chest occasionally, but only to those who are willing to share my treasures wholeheartedly.
And that is what I am going to do now; I am going to open my treasure. I am also going to carve out a tiny, almost negligibly small piece of my companion, time, hardly thirty some years, and tell you one of those exciting stories that I witnessed during that time. This tiny piece of time spans over the decade of the 1920s to the 1940s, and the fascinating story revolves around the city of Hyderabad, that was the heart and soul of the Nizam kingdom and the Nizam himself, the richest king in the world at the time. This story entails interesting facts about some people who walked, and ran and played and fought, with their full passions and emotions on my body, displaying to me and to the world a full spectrum of human emotions, their enormous strengths and pathetic weaknesses.
Nearly 400 years old, the city of Hyderabad was situated almost in the centre of the Deccan plateau, exactly where my heart is located. Along with its natural beauty of small hills, with flat hilltops surrounded by large, sweet water lakes, and man-made beauty of elegant palaces, mosques and minarets, bazars and bridges, Hyderabad was a jewel in the crown of the kingdom. A multitude of influences had shaped the character of the city. Its magnificent palaces and buildings, huge houses and tenements, spacious gardens and wide streets claimed history and an architectural individuality of their own, which made Hyderabad a city of enchantment.
Founded in the 16 th century by a king named Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah 1 on the banks of a river named Musi, the city grew spontaneously to accommodate the surplus population of Golconda, which was the capital of the Qutb Shahi rulers. The blue waters of river Musi had cut a deep valley in the huge plateau of the Deccan. Huge buildings sprang up along the river Musi, and within no time, the city grew to a phenomenal size. It became one of the richest cities in India due to the profits of the diamond sales. It was considered to be one of the most prosperous cities outside the Moghul Empire. The previous Sultan had e