Bhopal Plan and the Hindu Maharajas

Bhopal has been the heart of British India and even post- independence India. The last Nawab Hafiz Muhammad Hamidullah Khan Bahadur used to be on the British side as a tradition of the Bhopal Nawabs since 1778 when the first Anglo-Maratha War broke out. During the Second World War, Nawab Hamidullah delivered such a forceful speech in support of British that Adolf Hitler, the German Dictator, started inquiring about the location of Bhopal in the map so that he could bombard it first, according to the Bhopal-based Historian Dr. Mohd. Haneef Khan, who wrote the history of Bhopal Princely State.

Bhopal as such was established as Bhojpal by the Hindu King Bhoj in 11 th century with the capital at Dhar. Gradually the State of Bhopal was established in 1724 by the Afghan Sardar Dost Mohammed Khan, who was a commander in the Moghul army posted at Mangalgarh, which lies to the north of the modern city of Bhopal. Dost Mohammed helped the Gond Queen Kamalapati in executing her husband’s assassins and restored Gond kingdom to her. After her death and declining Mughal Empire, Dost Mohammed acquired the title of Nawab and declared Bhopal as an independent State. Bhopal always sided with the British in 1857 and even after. According to the list Dr.Khan sent on 27 October 2007, most of the Dewans of Muslim Bhopal were Hindus. They included Vijaya Ram, Raja Kishori Lal, Ghasi Ram, Kesari Singh, Himmat Ram, Gulshan Ram, Khushwant Rai, Thakur Prasad, Awadh Narayan and Chatur Narayan Malviya along with many Hindu officials.

Bhopal must be rather the only State where the women Nawabs ruled continuously for more than a century. In 1819, 18 year old Qudsia Begum( also known as Gohar Begum) took over the reins after assassination of her husband.She was the first female ruler of Bhopal. Although she was illiterate, she was brave and refused to follow the purdah tradition.She declared that her 2 year old daughter Sikander will follow her as the ruler.None of the male family members dared to challenge her decision, according to the official history of the Bhopal State. Nawab Gohar Begum Qudsia ruled till 1837.Before her death, she had adequetately prepared her daughter for ruling the State. Nawab Sikander Jahan Begum took over in 1844 and ruled till 1864 to be followed by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum( ruled during 1864-1901) and Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum“Sarkar Amma”(ruled during 1901-26).She was the first President of the All India Conference on Education and first Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University(AMU), who abdicated the throne in favour of her son Hamidullah Khan in 1926. He nominated his eldest Nawabzadi( daughter), Abida Sultan, who gave up her right to the throne and opted for Pakistan in 1950. The Government of India excluded her from the succession and her younger sister Begum Sajida succeeded her. Abida Sultan Begum entered Pakistan Foreign Service and died in 2002.Her son Nawabzada Shaharyar Khan also entered Pakistan Foreign Service and rose to become the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan as well as the Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board.

Nawab Sajida Begum married Iftikhar Ali Khan, the eighth Nawab of Pataudi, the region now is part of Haryana state. She was mother of Nawab Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, the famous Captain of Indian cricket team who married the well-known film actress Sharmila Tagore (Ayesha Sultan Begum Sahiba). Nawab Sajida Begum, who died in 1995, was succeeded by her son Nawab Mansur Ali Khan and after his demise in 2011 ,his son and famous actor Nawabzada Saif Ali Khan is considered the head of the Bhopal Royal family and even “ Nawab”. His elder son, Nawabzada Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan( born in October 2001) by his first wife and film actress Amrita Begum(Amrita Singh) is first in succession. Saif, as Sajjid

Ali Khan, got his second marriage registered with another film actress Kareena Kapoor and has one son Nawabzada Muhammad Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi born on 20 December 2016. Hamidullah Khan was the Chancellor of Chamber of Princes in 1931-32 and during 1944-47, he was enjoying so much of influence over other Princely States. Being very closed to the British rulers and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Hamidullah tried his level best to have a thirds Union apart from Indian Union and Pakistan Union. But when partition was accepted by the Congress and the Muslim League, he defected from the Central India States’ Union he had founded.

“ The Maharajas of Jodhpur and Indore were under the Nawab’s influence. Against the advice of Sri C. S. Venkatachar, ICS, then his Prime Minister, the Maharaja of Jodhpur approached the Maharajas of Baroda and Udaipur to join him in acceding to Pakistan. With Jinnah’s blessings, he attempted to project Pakistan right across India through the States of Jodhpur, Udaipur, Indore, Bhopal and Baroda. The territories would extend from the borders of Pakistan to Bhopal in the East and Navsari in the Surat (now Navsari)District of Gujarat in the south.”, records K.M. Munshi in “Pilgrimage to Freedom”. This was the Bhopal Plan, the brain-child of Hamidullah. Unfortunately for his Plan, Munshi had taken the Maharajkumar of Jaisalmer to Gandhiji and Sardar Patel. Even after that he was induced by the Maharaja of Jodhpur  to accompany him to see Jinnah, he raised certain questions. The Maharaja of Jodhpur threatened to kill the Constitutional Advisor to the Viceroy, V. P. Menon, ICS, whipping out a revolver since Menon was keen on the Maharaja joining the Indian Union.

Udaipur was a link between Jodhpur on the west and Indore and Bhopal on the east, and the dream of the Nawab of Bhopal acceding to Pakistan could succeed only if Udaipur came into the proposed Pakistan enclave. Munshi who was the Constitutional Advisor to the Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur notes :

When the Maharana of Udaipur received the invitation from the Maharaja of Jodhpur to join the Bhopal Plan, the descendant of Rana Pratap replied : “ My choice was made by my ancestors. If they had faltered, they would have left us a kingdom as large as Hyderabad( which was the largest then).They did not; neither shall I. I am with India.” The Bhopal Plan was blasted off by the Maharana of Udaipur i.e. Mewad. As a last resort, the Nawab of Bhopal even tried to convince V.P. Menon to agree to hold plebiscite but the proposal was flatly refused saying : “It was absolutely unnecessary; that even in the case of such large States as Gwalior and Indore, we have not held plebiscites.” And the Nawab signed the merger agreement on 1 June 1949.

Next Column : The Nizam of Hyderabad and Sardar Patel

( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )