BRIEF HISTORY
 

The forebears of the Asaf Jahi dynasty came to India from Samarkhand, in Central Asia, but the family actually originated from Baghdad. In 1724, the Moghul Governor of the Deccan, Asaf Jah, Nizam ul-Mulk, Qamar ud-din Khan, established himself as an independant ruler. Hyderabad brecame the capital and later lent its name to that of the state he created. The first Nizam's successors became closly allied to the British, frequently assisting them in subduing their enemies, the Mahrathas, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, and the French. In later years, the Nizam's troops invariably took part in all the main campaigns undertaken by the Indian army. Large numbers of troops took part in the First and Second World Wars. These contributions earned for the Nizam unequalled titles and honours from a grateful Emperor. The state was the largest and premier princely state in the Empire. The Nizam ruled over a cosmopolitan population of over 16 million people, and over lands extending to 82,698 sq.miles of homogenous terrritory. These advantages persuaded the Nizam to attempt an independent existence, when the British withdrew from the sub-continent in 1947. He refused to join either India or Pakistan, preferring to form a separate kingdom within the British Commonwealth of nations. Unfortunately, the majority of his subjects were Hindus and his territory was surrounded on all sides by Indian territory. Attempts by certain groups of Muslim fundamentalists to ferment trouble and seize power, prompted the new Indian government to invade and annex Hyderabad by a, so-called, police action in 1948. Although the Nizam then acceded to the Dominion of India, power simply slipped from his grasp. He received the ceremonial post of Rajpramukh in 1950, but resigned from this office when the states were re-organised in 1956. Hyderabad was then split and dismembered along linguistic lines. The state that was once so well noted for its religious and ethnic toleration, ruled by a highly cultured and intellectually brilliant elite who maintained all that was best in the old Mughal order, was now no more.