Part II: The Happenings in Hyderabad

Part II

The Happenings in Hyderabad

By Francis Xavier Neelam

Jail inside Residency

The reverberations of the uprisings in the north were being heard in the Nizam’s dominions also.  Many mutineers, mainly Muslims, after deserting their units headed for Hyderabad hoping for refuge, it being an independent state ruled by a Muslim monarch.  They expected they would be safe from the British who were hunting down the mutineers and executing them in large numbers.

News of the mutinies and the violent retribution on captured sepoys reached the soldiers in the employ of the native princes also.  Several maulvies and faqirs also visited the cantonments and preached revolt against the British. 

When a contingent of the 3^rd Cavalry of the East India Company, stationed at Buldhana was ordered to march to Delhi, they mutinied.  Majority of them were Muslims. To go and fight against the Mughal emperor was unacceptable to them.

The mutiny was brutally put down. Of the captured one was hanged; twenty one shot down and three more blown from the mouth of cannon. Many were flogged.  Thirteen troopers, under the leadership of Jemadar Cheeda Khan, escaped and headed for Hyderabad. Cheeda Khan carried a price of three thousand rupees for his arrest. The news reached Salar Jung, who promptly arrested them as soon as they entered the city and handed them over to the British Resident, as they were soldiers of the East India Company.  Major Cuthbert Davidson, the Resident in the court of the Nizam locked up Cheeda Khan in the Residency.

The news spread like wild fire through out the city.  As fellow Muslims the citizens felt that the mutineers should have been given sanctuary instead of being handed over to the British.  Mualvi Syed Alluddin preached a sermon calling upon the Muslims to secure the release Cheeda Khan.

By this time many deserters from Native Infantry and Cavalry units of the East India Company have already started trickling into Hyderabad.  A gathering of Rohillas and Arabs was reported in the outskirts.  Their leader was a Rohilla warrior named Turrebaaz Khan.  The city had been in ferment since the great outbreaks that occurred in the north.  Some placards, calling upon the Muslims to raise the ‘standard of faith’ against the British appeared in some places. 

The developments were being watched keenly by the Resident.  Salar Jung also kept passing information to him.  Major Davidson, a professional soldier, started fortifying the Residency as a precautionary measure.  He had three hundred sepoys of the Madras Native Infantry stationed in the compound along with some troopers of the Madras Light Cavalry and one troop of the Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry.  There was also a garrison in Secunderabad known as the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force under Brigadier Coffin. 

Although Salar Jung assured him that there was no cause for worry Maj. Davidson thought it prudent to get some reinforcements.  About hundred Europeans and some guns were sent by Brig. Coffin.  Some officers who were on a visit to the city volunteered their services.  The most important weapons, three guns of the Madras Horse Artillery, were mounted in strategic locations on the walls under the command of Capt. Holmes.  They were loaded with double charges of grape shot -- deadly weapons of  mass killing!

The defenders have been drilled to man their stations in seven minutes when the alarm was sounded. 

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CONVICT NUMBER 3807

CONVICT NUMBER 3807

By Francis Xavier Neelam

The mail steamer had just come in and dropped anchor in front of Ross Island. The pilot launch raced to its side, and the harbour master clambered up the rope ladder.  He collected the mail bag meant for the Chief Commissioner and handed it to a uniformed orderly. The giant Sikh rushed to Ross, jumped on a horse at the jetty and galloped to the Government House, where he handed over the bundle to Maj. Birch, the un-official Secretary to the Chief Commissioner.  

Maj.Birch was dressed smartly in a starched khaki uniform. He enjoyed his position as the confidant of many Chief Commissioners. People disliked him for it. During Gen. Barwell’s time he was even reprimanded for being quarrelsome.

Birch took out the letters and arranged them in a neat pile which he placed in a leather folder in the order of their importance. On the top he placed a letter carrying the seal of the Home Secretary Sir C.J. Lyall.  He knew that Col. Cadell, V.C., the Chief Commissioner and Superintendent of the penal settlement of Andaman & Nicobar Islands was anxiously waiting for it.

A uniformed orderly came down the stairs to announce that the CC was on his way.  He brought a bundle of files and placed them on the huge teak table.  He wiped the leather upholstered chair and the table top with a cloth, checked the newly installed electric fan and table lamp, opened the windows and spread a fresh white towel on the back of the chair.  He also checked the attached bathroom to see if the water cistern was full or not. 

Foot steps on the wooden staircase heralded the arrival of Col. Cadell.  Two armed Sikhs in ceremonial dress marched in step before him. They halted in front of the tall doors of the office, turned and saluted. Cadell, dressed in immaculate white drill suit and sun helmet returned the salute and entered the office.  Birch sprang to attention and saluted while the orderly pulled the chair back for Cadell to sit at the table.

Cadell returned Birch’s greeting and settled in the chair. He seemed to be in a jovial mood.  His sailing boat Greyhound has won the annual regatta again.  He was very proud of his boat and his Sikh body guards.  As soon he sat down his eyes fell on the Home Secretary’s letter. 

“Ah Bill! I hope Allauddeen gets it this time…”, he remarked as he slit the envelope with an ivory paper knife. 

“I too hope so sir”, Birch replied as Cadell started to read the letter.

Cadell’s face clouded.  He pulled at his walrus moustache in irritation and anger. 

“My dear Cadell,” the letter said. “In reply to your demi-official letter of 9^th August last, regarding conditionally released convict Moulvie Ala-ud-din,” wrote Lyall in his flowing handwriting, “I am desired to express the regret of the Governor General in Council that he is unable (the words ‘for political reasons’ were written and struck off) to sanction the absolute release of the convict from the Andamans”.

The letter was signed on 12 October 1889, at Simla.

Cadell stood up and stamped the floor in anger.  He curse loudly, “That damned Vizier of the Nizam…its his work”.

Birch knew the reason for Cadell’s anger.  Over the last few years Cadell had sent many letters to the government for the absolute release of Moulvie Allauddin of Hyderabad.  He even met Salar Jung, the Prime Minister of the Nizam, during a conference in Simla and pleaded his case.  Finally he decided to send a DO letter to his friend JC Lyall hoping he could do something.  But, it appeared from the struck off portion of the letter, that political reasons were responsible for denying absolute release to the poor Moulvie.  The letter meant that the Moulvie will die in the Andamans, without any hope of returning to his native place or seeing his loved ones.

Why was Col. Cadell, known for his penchant for hanging people, especially Mutiny convicts, taking such personal interest in the release of the prime accused in the attack on the Hyderabad Residency?  What did Allauddin do to make Cadell write so many letters for his release. 

The answers to these questions reveal the strange camaraderie that existed between the convicts and the jail authorities in the Andamans during the penal era.

Strangely, convicts branded as most dangerous by the government or the princely states that transported them were the most favoured by the prison authorities.  They became trusted servants, orderlies, clerks, scribes and confidants.  They were rewarded with promotions, land grants, remission of sentence and even an early release from the penal settlement.

The political prisoners, on the other hand, were treated as most dangerous by the jail officers.  While an ordinary convict, usually a murderer, could get a ticket-of-leave or even absolute release after serving for about fifteen years while the politicos or the Mutiny convicts were not released even after serving their full term.  Recommendations for their release were repeatedly turned down by the government citing the reason that their return may lead to a revival of seditious activities in the state.

Maulvie Allauddin was one such. Because of his good conduct and great learning he was in the good books of the Superintendents right from the time of his arrival in the Islands.

The reason for Maulvie Allauddin’s presence in the Andamans goes back to the happenings in Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam’s dominions, on the 17^th of July 1857. 

(Next --- The Happenings in Hyderabad…)