Book review: October Coup

When we think of Independence, we think of a clean separation- the Union Jack was taken down, the Indian Tricolour was hoisted and there were celebrations all around. Most Indians are unaware of the fact that it took well over a year for Hyderabad to be brought into the Indian Union. People from and in Hyderabad are vaguely aware of the people and events leading to and culminating in the episode of Septemper 16–19, 1948. Depending on who you speak to, it is variously called Police Action or the Annexation of Hyderabad. We know there was bloodshed, but what we gloss over is what happened after Hyderabad was brought into the Indian Union.

Mohammed Hyder was the Collector of one the border districts of Hyderabad. He witnessed first hand the destabilizing activities of the Razakars and the Congress. He lived through the time when various players were trying to stir up trouble, where individuals took advantage of the instability to indulge in their own nefarious activities.

Post Annexation, unlike most other civil servants, he chose to remain in Hyderabad instead of fleeing to Pakistan, and he faced the brunt of a system that tried to justify their actions by proving that it was the Hyderabad State that had been fermenting trouble.

Read the book to understand how history cannot be boxed into neat chapters, each with its own honourable heros and ignoble villains. Revenge, sadism, justification are, unfortunately, human traits, and the full brunt of that was brought to bear on civil servants like Hyder.
The book could have been written in a better style, and could certainly have been condensed into fewer pages. The long passages where petitions and judgements were quoted verbatim did not appeal to me, though they might to another reader. I will still recommend the book, because it is necessary that we read accounts from different perspectives, so we realise that what we call “Truth” is often just how you look at things.