Hyderabad: The British Residency Building, situated in the Koti Women’s College premises, has been finally restored to its past glory. On Thursday, a memorandum of understanding was signed by four parties, including the state’s Heritage department, Osmania University and the World Monument Fund (WMF), to protect and safeguard the heritage 216-year-old monument.
Built as a British seat of power between 1798-1806, the Residency Building (in which Osmania University’s Womens College moved into post independence), the structure is an architectural beauty. It usually leaves visitors in awe. The restoration work there included restoring the papier mache ceiling of the building’s Darbar Hall.
In fact, architects working on the structure also discovered that it is not exactly papier mache but compressed paper that the ceiling is made of. Work had started about (or over) seven years ago, after the WMF stepped in to save the Residency Building. The monument is likely to be thrown open for the public in May, and tickets will have to be purchased online a day in advance to limit the number of visitors there per day.
History of the Residency
It was built after the British and the second Nizam of Hyderabad (1762-1803) signed a treaty in 1798, formally allowing the British to settle down here.
The Residency building was essentially the first major British building in Hyderabad. It remained so until 1947, when the British left and it was after until September 1948 (when the Hyderabad state was annexed to India through the military offensive Operation Polo), that it came under the eventual state government, which decided to hand it over to Osmania University.
The structure in fact was also the place where angry Rohilla (Afghan soldiers) working in Hyderabad attacked the British during India’s first war in independence on July 17, 1857. The charge was led by Maulvi Allauddin and Turrebaz Khan, who led citizens of Hyderabad from the Mecca Masjid to the Residency building after the Friday prayers.
The attack however failed as the British could counter them. The foreign powers had state support, and it was none other than Salar Jung-1 (Turab Ali Khan), who decided to stay loyal to the British and informed them of the impending attack. In fact, the phrase ‘Turram Khan’, used in Hyderabad, comes from the valour of Turrebaaz Khan, who refused to give up and was shot dead eventually.
The British Resident who signed the Treaty of Subsidiary Alliance with the Nizam was a Scotsman named James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who was married to Khairunnisa, daughter of a local nobleman. It is said that a scale model of the British Residency in the premises was built by Kirpatrick for Khairunnisa who observed purdah. The scale model was also damaged in 1978 after a tree fell on it, and has been restored.
Nizam’s of Hyderabad – background
The Nizams of Hyderabad originally came from a highly ranked Mughal commanders working under emperor Aurangzeb. The first Nizam’s (Kamruddin Khan) father and grandfather in fact were part of Aurangzeb’s army, which had come down to Hyderabad in 1687 to take over the Golconda king kingdom, run by the Qutb Shahi kings (1518-1687) who founded and ruled from Hyderabad.
The first Nizam in 1724 decided to formally settled down in the Deccan, and left the Delhi Mughal court. He took over his position as Subedar of the Deccan after killing the existing governor in Aurangabad. However, it may be noted that the Nizams were never kings, as Kamruddin Khan promised to stay loyal to the Mughal throne.
Nizam Ali Khan was the 2nd monarch of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, which ruled the Hyderabad state from 1724 to 1948. Raymond’s life in Hyderabad was spent at a time when both the British and the French were trying to gain influence, and this particular gentleman’s fame rose. He spent his life trying to stop the growing British influence, but to no avail.
While the French eventually lost their hold in the Hyderabad state under the Nizams, Raymond did manage to become the favourite of the second Nizam, so much so that the latter bestowed him with some elegant titles like ‘Dragon of War’, ‘Bravest in the State’, among others. The area where Raymond was buried after his death in 1798 came to known as Moosarambagh.
The French, which had an army of 15,000 troops roughly in Hyderabad, were made to leave after Nizam Ali Khan signed the Treaty Subsidiary Alliance with the British in 1798 here (under the then Resident James Achilles Kirkpatrick). Under the treaty, the British agreed to extend their protection to the Nizam against any power in India with whom he happened to be at war.
The Treaty concluded in 1800, and it essentially reduced the Nizams to the position of a subservient ally of the British. The rulers of Hyderabad not only lost their sovereignty, but also their internal suzerainty, which was impaired to a great extent.
Raymond, who was the commander of a French army, could not stop the growing colonisation by the British, and it is said that he was at the same time disillusioned by the state of affairs in France, which was witnessing a revolution while he was in Hyderabad. According to legend, in March 1798, he shot and buried his two dogs and horse, then killed himself. His grave was marked with an obelisk, behind which there is a beautiful pavilion.
