The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday issued a gazette notification to celebrate September 17 as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’.
“In order to remember martyrs who liberated Hyderabad and to infuse the flame of patriotism in the minds of the youth, the Government of India has decided to celebrate the 17th day of September every year as Hyderabad Liberation Day,” said the home ministry notification.
The notification said that the day must be celebrated as ‘liberation day’ as the state of Hyderabad did not accede to Indian union for 13 months after independence on August 15, 1947.
The region, which was under Nizam’s rule, got forcefully annexed on September 17, 1948 after the controversial police action namely ‘Operation Polo’, initiated by the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The operation led to massive violence, largely perpetrated by the Indian Army. Though the Sunderlal Committee, appointed by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had found the complicity of Army in the widespread carnage and concluded that between 30,000–40,000 people (a figure relatively less according to victim narratives) had died in total in the state, the report which was not released until 2013.
Other independent committees and observers estimated the number of deaths to be 200,000 or higher.
“There has been a demand from the people of the region that 17th September may be celebrated as Hyderabad Liberation Day,” says the notice as a justification for the announcement.
Since coming to power in 2014, the BJP-led Narendra Modi government had held events on September 17 every year in last few years to popularise the narrative of ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ among the masses.
