When India attained independence in August 1947, it was not the end of the story. A handful of princely states (functioning under the British crown) had still not agreed to join the Indian Union, among them the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad. Osman Ali Khan, the seventh and last monarch of the state had decided to stay independent. It led to Operation Polo, the military offensive through which the princely state was annexed to India on September 17, 1948. And that’s not all there is to the story. Telangana, the Telugu speaking region which comprised half the princely state, was undergoing its own social changes, especially the Telangana Armed Struggle, a peasant uprising backed by the Communist Party of India. At our Online Talk #Hyderabad1948, journalist Yunus Y Lasania recounts the turbulence in the princely state at the time of independence and Partition.

The event link will be shared a couple of hours before the talk

About the speaker

Yunus Y Lasania is a journalist with over eight years of reporting under his belt. He last worked as the state correspondent for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with Mint (HT Media) covering both the Telugu states. He is also the host of Beyond Charminar, a podcast series (run on www.sunoindia.in) on the history of Hyderabad, focussing on the city’s lesser-known aspects. Currently, he is writing a book on oral history accounts of people who lived in the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad (1724-1948), until it was annexed to India. Yunus is also the City Editor of www.siasat.com, the English news website of Siasat, one of Hyderabad's oldest Urdu newspapers.