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Syed Kasim Razvi (also Qasim Razvi; 17 July 1902 – 15 January 1970) was a politician in the
princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
of
Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...
. He was the president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party from December 1946 until the state's accession to India in 1948. He was also the founder of the
Razakar Razakar (رضا کار) is etymologically an Arabic word which literally means volunteer. The word is also common in Urdu language as a loanword. On the other hand, in Bangladesh, razakar is a pejorative word meaning a traitor or Judas. In Pakis ...
militia in the state. He held the levers of power with the
Nizam of Hyderabad The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...
, blocking the possibilities of his accommodation with the
Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...
. According to scholar Lucien Benichou, " azvican arguably be considered to have been the political figure whose influence and unrealistic vision proved the most detrimental to the interests of the State in the crucial years of 1947–48."


Early life and career

Kasim Razvi was born in United ProvincesSyed Qasim Husain Rizvi
Geni database, 20 January 2015.
and studied law at the
Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...
. He migrated to state of Hyderabad after graduation and did a short apprenticeship with Mohammad Ali Fazil in the Hyderabad city. Then he settled down as a lawyer in
Latur Latur(लातूर) is a city in Indian state of Maharashtra, and is one of the largest cities of the Marathwada region. It is the administrative headquarters of Latur district and Latur Taluka. The city is a tourist hub surrounded by ma ...
, Osmanabad district, where he had contacts through his father-in-law, Abdul Hai, who was a former Deputy Superintendent of Police. According to former Hyderabad civil servant Mohammad Hyder, Latur had loose law and order. Razvi amassed a small fortune in shady dealings. After joining the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (''Ittehad''), Razvi is said to have donated all his property to the party, which made him famous and earned him the title of ''Siddique-e-Deccan''. After the premature death of Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung (the founding leader) in 1944, the ''Ittehad'' party fell into fractious extremism. Razvi tried to establish his distinctiveness by advocating political reforms, even though they were not palatable to the ''Ittehad'' membership. Then he established his own association in Latur, named ''Majlis-e-Islah Nazm-o-Nasq'', ostensibly to bring about reforms but more likely to establish his own independent following away from the mainstream of the party. In February 1946, the extremists in the party led by Abdur Rahman Rais staged a violent protest over the reconstruction of a mosque, burning down the house of the prime minister
Nawab of Chhatari Lieutenant Colonel Saeed ul-Mulk Nawab Sir Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan, Nawab of Chhatari also generally referred to as Nawab of Chhatari (12 December 1888 – 1982) was Governor of the United Provinces, Chief Minister of United Provinces, P ...
and Sir
Wilfrid Grigson Sir Wilfrid Vernon Grigson CSI (1896 – 26 November 1948) was a British soldier and civil servant. Biography Wilfrid Grigson was born in 1896 in the Vicarage at Pelynt in Cornwall to Canon William Shuckforth Grigson and Mary Beatrice Boldero, ...
, the minister for revenue and police. The incident led to the resignation of the leader of the ''Ittehad''. In the ensuing contest for the new president, Kasim Razvi defeated Rais to emerge as the leader of the ''Ittehad''. His extremism matched that of Rais and the moderates in the party distanced themselves from both the candidates. From this point on, Razvi called the shots in Hyderabad politics.


Personal life

Kasim had 10 children (5 sons & 5 daughters). One of his granddaughters, Atiya Khan (daughter of politician Fouzia Ejaz, one of the daughters of Razvi) is an ex- supermodel and Sufi filmmaker in Pakistan.also a grandson, Yawar Aziz, son of Razia Aziz is a prominent figure in the North American Islamic community


Leadership of ''Ittehad''

The Razakars were Muslim separatists who advocated the continuation of Nizam's rule and tried to convince the Nizam to accede to Pakistan . After accession to Pakistan proved impossible owing to the distance of Hyderabad from Pakistan, Razvi encouraged the Nizam to take a hardline stance and ordered the Razakars to resist the accession of Hyderabad to the newly formed Government of India. Razvi even traveled to
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
and had a stormy meeting with Indian leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He is quoted to have said "Death with the sword in hand, is always preferable to extinction by a mere stroke of the pen", prompting the Indian government to call him "the Nizam's
Frankenstein monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compare ...
". P. V. Kate characterizes him as a religious Muslim fanatic who "insisted on the right of Muslims to enslave the Hindu".Kate, P. V., Marathwada Under the Nizams, 1724-1948, Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1987, p. 75. He was also implicated in the murder of patriotic progressive Muslims such as Shoebullah Khan who condemned Razvi's Razakars and advocated merger with India. Razvi launched criminal attacks on the Hindu population, leading to military action by India. After
Operation Polo Operation Polo was the code name of the Hyderabad " police action" in September 1948, by the then newly independent Dominion of India against Hyderabad State. It was a military operation in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the Nizam-ru ...
, in which the
Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...
defeated the Razakars and annexed Hyderabad, merging it with India, Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried under Indian laws on seditious activities and inciting communal violence. He was jailed from 1948 to 1957. He was released from prison only on an undertaking that he would migrate to Pakistan within forty-eight hours of his release. He agreed to migrate to
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
as a condition of his release from prison, where he died in obscurity in 1970. His family had been residing there since 1949. Kasim Rizvi was not in favor of cross border conflict and maintained that his goal was self-defense & the preservation of the Hyderabad State:
" the Razakars attack the Indian territories they will not help the cause of the Hyderabad State nor its Muslims. Why should the Muslims of Hyderabad unnecessarily want to destroy themselves and others? For what purpose will Hyderabad indulge in such useless actions? It is the Indian Union, in contrast, which has every reason to attack Hyderabad."
According to the Former Prime Minister of Hyderabad state
Mir Laiq Ali Mir Laiq Ali (died 24 October 1971) was the last Prime Minister of Hyderabad State under the rule of the Nizams. His official title was "President of the Executive Council of the Nizam of Hyderabad". Career Mir Laik Ali was an engineer a ...
many ‘anti-social elements’ joined the Razakars & regretfully stated that with the expansion of the movement; Kasim Rizvi was no longer able to control the Razakars.


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* * * opinion in ''The Hindu'' 27 April 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Razvi, Qasim Military history of the princely states of India People from Hyderabad State History of Latur 1970 deaths 1902 births Indian Muslims People extradited from India People from Latur Indian emigrants to Pakistan Muhajir people