Discovery of India Building Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai - 400 018. Phone : 2496 4676-80 Newsletter Fax : 2497 3827 Vol. 22 Issue 4 APRIL 2021 Website: www.nehru-centre.org Price Rs. 10/- Per Copy Annual Subscription Rs. 100 At a glance... Indian Armed Forces: In Service of the Country ART GALLERY Liberating Hyderabad GROUP SHOW Like the ruler of the princely state of He had organized a brigade called Sanjukta Barik and others Jammu and Kashmir, the ruler of the the Razakars. The organization Date: Tuesday 27 April 2021 state of Hyderabad too refused to aimed at creating a theocratic and to Monday 3 May 2021 accede to the union of India. Soon totalitarian state. Venue: AC Gallery after the announcement of British government's plan of 3 June 1947, the From July 1947 to June 1948, Nizam, ruler of Hyderabad, declared negotiations between the state of that on 15 August 1947, Hyderabad Hyderabad and India's ministry of would become an independent states continued with no settlement Dear Reader, sovereign state. in sight. In between the Nizam even It has been a year since the Covid-19 threatened to join Pakistan but pandemic caused major disruptions Geographically, the state of the facts of geography prevented him in the regular services of cultural Hyderabad is located in the heart of from doing so. Finally on 21 June c e n t r e s w o r l d w i d e . L i v e t h e I n d i a n u n i o n w i t h a 1948 negotiations with Hyderabad performances came to a standstill, predominantly Hindu population. broke down. Three days later travel took a backseat and ‘work- f r o m - h o m e ’ b e c a m e t h e n e w The idea of an independent state Lord Mountbatten left India and buzzword. We were just getting back within the territory of the Indian Shri C. Rajagopalachari succeeded to normal when numbers started union was therefore unrealistic and him as India's Governor-General. rising again and a new surge of the doomed at birth. But the Nizam tried virus emerged. In such a scenario, it is his best to retain his independence. In increasingly difficult to open our Tension now began to mount both in spaces to public. Much as we would addition to the Nizam's own desire, Hyderabad and India. It was love to have visitors back into the there were two other factors forcing reported that arms were being Centre, we are sure you do appreciate him to insist on independence. smuggled into Hyderabad by air that this is not only for the safety of all Firstly, all the important government from Karachi. According to the of us but of all of you as well. posts including those in the army and information available there were The Nehru Centre awaits normalcy to the police were occupied by Muslim 2,00,000 Razakars with small arms. set in before opening its doors again. officers. It was a fear of revolt on their The state forces numbered 42,000 Till then, do enjoy reading our part that the Nizam had to guard besides an unknown number of monthly newsletter and keep sending against. Secondly, the influence of a your feedback and suggestions. Pathans, who had previously been Muslim communal organization imported into the state. The called Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen was a n e i g h b o u r i n g p r o v i n c i a l Chief Executive, matter of concern. Its leader was one governments were extremely Nehru Centre. Kasim Razvi, a fanatic demagogue. concerned about the border raids by contd. on page 2 Nehru Centre Newsletter - April 2021 1 Razakars and in May 1948 it was Both the southern thrusts were found necessary to station troops entrusted to infantry and armoured around the state of Hyderabad in formations from Madras Area.” order to prevent incursions and to give some measure of confidence to The Air Force provided air support to the people. However, inspite of the 1 Armoured Division and also measures taken, the activities of the attacked Warangal and Bidar Razakars continued unabated and airports which were being used for they even attacked missionaries and gun-running from Pakistan. Pt. Nehru with Nizam of Hyderabad nuns. and Major General J. N. Chaudhuri The situation was serious indeed. There were regular assaults on General Ajit Rudra, GOC of Madras Indian territory and the Hindu Area. The air element of Operation population within the state of Polo was commanded by Air Hyderabad was being subjected to Commodore Subroto Mukerjee. atrocious treatment. A reign of terror prevailed in Parbhani and Nanded The execution of Operation Polo has districts. Under the circumstances been succinctly described by Arjun the Government of India had no Subramaniam in his book India's choice but to send Indian troops into Wars: “At 1:45 p.m. on 12th Hyderabad to restore law and order September 1948, the Indian Army and establish peace. It was also commenced a five-pronged thrust necessary for the purpose of along the frontier with four provinces establishing a sense of security in the of the union of India: Central a d j o i n i n g I n d i a n t e r r i t o r y . Province, Bombay, Mysore and Accordingly, the southern command Madras. The major thrust was from was instructed on 9 September 1948. the West where the Sholapur- Hyderabad highway presented the Nizam of Hyderabad receiving The state of Hyderabad had a border best opportunity for 1 Armoured Sardar Patel at the airport of 644 km with the rest of India. It was Division to steamroll past stubborn The fighting lasted for three days. a formidable task to plug the entire state forces and Razakars at Bidar Actually, there was hardly any border, particularly because a n d c a p t u r e H y d e r a b a d . A fighting. There were only sporadic considerable strength of the Indian subsidiary thrust by additional skirmishes. Nizam's forces were ill army was deployed in Kashmir at troops assigned to 1 Armoured trained with no capacity to face a that time. Operation Polo, the code Division was to commence from the battle hardened army. “By the early name given to action against north-west with the aim of capturing m o r n i n g o f 1 7 S e p t e m b e r , Hyderabad, was carried out under Aurangabad and Jalna, two 1 Armoured Division was poised to the leadership of Lieutenant General important towns in the north western take Hyderabad.” The same evening Rajendra Singhji, GOC-in-C areas. A north-eastern thrust was at 5.00 p.m., the Nizam surrendered Southern Command, Major General planned from Adilabad, a southern and the state of Hyderabad became a J. N. Chaudhuri, the GOC of 1 thrust from Kurnool and a major part of the Indian union. Armoured Division and Major south-eastern thrust from Bezwada. What Nehru said.... Many persons warned us of the risks and dangers that we faced and of the communal trouble that might besmirch our land, but our people have falsified these prophets and demonstrated that when crises come, they can be faced with courage, dignity and calm... We rejoice today and rightly, but let us remember that a great nation and a great people do not lose their balance, whether in adversity or success. .... Broadcast on A.I.R., 18 September 1948 Nehru Centre Newsletter - April 2021 2 NEHRU PLANETARIUM Thus shines the Sun The Sun has been the only natural source of energy as all other sources for the production of energy like coal, petroleum or hydrostatic (dams) plants are either fossil fuels or generate energy artificially. Even then, these sources too are the result of energy received from the Sun. It was around the mid-nineteenth century that biologists and geologists proved that the Earth in its present form must have existed for at least the last few hundred million years. If the Earth was so old then what could be the mechanism for energy production in the Sun? Studies showed that if coal was the source of energy and considering the present size of the Sun it would have exhausted its coal reserve in just about a thousand years. The first step towards solving this mystery was Albert Einstein proposed in the late nineteenth century by British Earth in its present form. The K-H contraction alone mathematical physicist and engineer Lord Kelvin could not account for the energy from the Sun. and German physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz. By this time it had In 1905, Albert Einstein formulated his famous theory become clear that the Sun is a gaseous body. They 2 of relativity and the simple equation E = mc , where E argued that the Sun was slowly contracting is the energy, m is the mass and c is the speed of light (shrinking) under its own gravity. With the Sun 8 which is 2.999 x 10 meters per second. This equation shrinking, the gas inside it too was getting meant that matter (mass) and energy are compressed and releasing energy or heat. This interconvertible, i.e. mass can be converted into process of production of energy is known as energy and vice versa. Energy is in the form of a Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) contraction.