On August 13, 2024, people joined a rally organized by BJP Minority Morcha as part of ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign to commemorate Independence Day at Charminar in Hyderabad.
On October 2, 1942, the city of Hyderabad witnessed an extraordinary form of protest. Marching women shouted: “Gandhi ka charkha chalana padega, Goron ko London jana padega (As Gandhi’s wheel spins Whites have to leave to London).”
This was a flagrant challenge to his rule in a region where Nizam Osman Ali Khan’s writ ran. A few hours before the demonstration Sarojini Naidu was arrested but other women have continued with the peaceful protests and were also arrested. Among them was Padmaja Naidu who unfurled the flag near Residency Building.
The event showed that HYDERABAD knew who the real rulers were even if their ruler sat on the yellow masnad at Chowmahalla palace. It was not like their attack upon British residency on July 17,1857 when minister Salar Jung saved it for british and Nizam.
Times had changed. This defiance of authority by Nizam and support for merger with India was even wider spread than what happened before Operation Polo which had become fait accompli.
Hyderabad did not witness any fervour over India’s independence movement on August 15, 1947 –but not quite so; as on August 7th, Congress called for observing ‘Join Indian Union Movement’ throughout princely state of Hyderabad.
This state with three linguistic regions has been boiling after India won its independence. The Satyagraha began there and crystallized into Join Indian Union Movement.
In 1938 five members of GANDHI’S PARTY proclaimed themselves such at BHELUPUR village near VARANASI – then police would bundle them (jatha) into the nearest police station and later imprison them.
The Join Indian Union Movement was the most powerful mass awakening in which political activists unfurled the Indian Tricolour in public. The Nizam’s princely police machinery could not stop this groundswell of support for merger with India.
The heroes to have participated in this event were common people who disappeared from public view soon after Hyderabad became a part of India.
Padamati Mala Kanakayya and Padamati Mallayya, two brothers, had been far ahead of time when they hoisted Tiranga atop Warangal on July 29, 1946 itself much before it’s officially known as “the National Flag”. On July 22, 1947 the current tricolour flag was accepted by the Constituent Assembly.
They hoisted it at Warangal city and faced an assembled mob of Razakars and Nizam’s police who tried to snatch it. And thus they died that day: first one being KANAKAYYA, his brother survived six hours before he died during a raid on their village.
Exactly two weeks later, on August 11th 1946, Veerabattina Mogalayya climbed up the eastern gate of Warangal fort to raise Indian Tricolor. He challenged both terror of Nizam’s stormtroopers called Razakars and Police but also displayed his loyalty. Here too he had lost a leg during a clash with communal elements trying to disrupt a meeting at Andhra Saraswat Parishat. Later Mogalayya was traced out and murdered by razakars in front of his mother.
The freedom fighters in Begumpet village, Nalgonda are almost lost to history but the Tricolor is hoisted all through the year. The Tiranga was hosted here, in a square of the village by Chigulla Mallaiah, Jitta Ramachandra Reddy and Baddam Narasimha Reddy of Nalgonda-Rangareddy Pala Utpathidarula Paraspara Sahayaka Sahakara Sangham (Milk Producers Cooperative Society– NARMUL) on August 15, 1947. On Dasara and on Independence Day; this is when the flag is changed. The statue for Mahatma Gandhi besides where the flagpole was placed there in 1979.
The Freedom struggle in Nizam’s Dominion exceeded beyond just Telangana area. In September 1947, Ganpati Amrite was shot dead by razakars while hoisting Indian National Flag at Umari village which is now part of Maharashtra state.
“The Tiranga time has come for forgiveness for all those who sinned so grievously both before and after the police action. Without that there is no chance of any enduring peace or security for any community people here,” Padmaja Naidu wrote to Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on October 1, 1950, exactly eight years after she had planted the flag at Residency Building Hyderabad.
