In modern Indian history, the accession of the erstwhile princely states is seen as excellent statesmanship on part of the Indian political leaders in their visionary nation-building exercise. But these accounts often wash out the violence that accompanied these accessions. And it is on those lines that the accession of the state of Hyderabad tells a very sordid tale.

Operation Polo, also known as Police Action, was a result of the standoff between the Indian government and its Hyderabad counterpart after Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad refused to join India post-independence in 1947. What followed was the picture painted of the Indian state thwarting the evil Nizam.

But what is entirely left out is the nature and intensity of violence that was unleashed by local goons, allegedly with the support from the army. The only known record of the violence is the state-sanctioned Sunderlal Committee Report, which states that roughly 40,000 people were believed to be casualties (death, displacement, material loss) of this military action.

Operation Polo: A People’s History is an important account to understand what day-to-day life was like between the 1947- 48 period, and how the event damaged citizens’ lives collaterally. Told through personal interviews of the stakeholders affected by Operation Polo, their oral testimonies are thoroughly corroborated with the existing accounts of September 1948. It will also throw some light onto the lives of communists and peasants who took part in the anti-landlord and anti-Nizam struggle that transpired along with bringing focus on the Telangana Armed Struggle, a very important social revolution that took place at a time in India’s history when peasants and people of lower castes were living in a very oppressed environment. It also covers the terror unleashed by the Razakaars led by the Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Qasim Razvi, who was a vociferous proponent of Hyderabad staying independent and advocated for militancy.

The book aims to produce an account told by the people at ground zero and hopes to presents the fact that people in a nation are not homogeneous, and an event is experienced differently by various people, while each accounts adds to the understanding of the bigger picture. This people’s history of Operation Polo and its repercussions for the people of Hyderabad hopes to serve as a reminder of how violence brings just as much pain and loss, not just in partition but also in the integrating of a nation.