At around 11 in the night of Sunday (September 25) while I was scrambling through WhatsApp I found a piece of disturbing news. The three-line news posted by Advocated Masood Khan said that his eldest brother Dost Mohammad Khan has passed away.
Dost, among his close circle was also called Khalid. I went into a shock. I had known Khalid from late 1970s. I was finishing my journalism degree and Khalid was pursuing MA. We knew each other but never became friends as such. A few years later I saw him in Jeddah and said hello. Like millions of our age we too were looking for job in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Dost who was too lean smiled back at me. That was the beginning of relationship which became strong as days passed by in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We began meeting during non-office hours and discovered that we had a host of common friends. Dost was friendly and loved inviting friends over sumptuous dinners on weekends. Those who met at his place and at the residences of other friends included a long list. Maslehuddin Saadi saheb, Tariq Ghaiz saheb, Dr Raheem saheb, Ziauddin Nayyar saheb and many others knowledgeable persons loved meeting regularly and discussing developments in India and at other places of interest.
For some strange reason, one day Khalid decided to pitch me against Saadi saheb. Saadi saheb was a senior member of the group. He was a young man during the infamous Police Action of Hyderabad. He like many other Muslims from and around Hyderabad carried scarred memories of those times. People of Saadi saheb age group had seen things in different perspective. They did not trust the Congress party and its policies. They thought that the Congress had deceived the Muslims and was not taking action against the hardcore communal elements. I was post Police Action product who had heard numerous atrocities that were carried out against the Muslims during those turbulent times. I had also heard the horrific stories of the Razakars (A so called voluntary group of Muslims many of who unleashed unspeakable atrocities against the Hindus).
As a young undergraduate I also had opportunity to interact with persons like Keshav Rao Jadhav, a Socialist or a Lohiite. I was going to him for English language coaching. Jadhav saheb was a great intellectual of balanced perspective. As a child he had learnt Urdu and wrote some poetry in that language. He had witness a small part of the rule of the Nizam, its debacle and the sordid development in its wake. Because of ‘different’ understanding of those times, Saadi Bhai was called a ‘secularist’ which in fact was an abuse. But for me he continued to be an interesting respectable elder who had deep knowledge of worldly affairs, Urdu literature and Sufism.
One day Khalid invited Saadi Bhai, Tariq Saheb, Raheem Bhai and few other friends over dinner and triggered a debate of on the situation of Muslims in India, especially Hyderabad. I had no inkling of his plans. After the good supper Saadi Bhai started asking some pointed questions to me on the Indian current affairs, the political developments in Andhra Pradesh, especially in Hyderabad and my connectivity with religion. Soon, I realized that I was facing a test. After an interesting, not acrimonious, debate of over two hours, Saadi Bhai declared that I was not a ‘strayed away Muslim’ or a government crony but a person who is trying to find his mooring without following a beaten track to understand his country and people.
In the whole exercise Khalid was the winner because it was his game.
Khalid had the habit of chipping in bits of information or opinion that were never totally innocent. It was his tactic to know what the other person is thinking. He could also be called an agent provocateur.
He was a refined gentleman with a few rough edges of growing up in the Old City. His house which was once a Devdhi was located close to the City Police Commissioner’s office. We remain in contact after returning to Hyderabad. If ever he felt like seeking some advice he would approach me and I would contact him whenever I thought that his help was required. Slowly, I became a family friend. I had developed personal relations with almost all his brothers. His wife became good friend of my wife. I also had the opportunity to meet up several times his father Qadeer saheb. He was a knowledgeable person who practiced law.
I came to know later that Khalid’s grandfather Abdullah Khan was the governor of Gulbarga during the times of Mir Osman Ali Khan. During the turbulent times of Police Action as the Indian army was taking over all important offices in the Hyderabad State, Abdullah Khan managed to slip out of Gulbarga with the money he had in the government treasury at that time. After reaching Hyderabad, as a loyalist of the Nizam, he decided to handover the khazana (treasury) that he had brought with him to the Nizam.
Those were the last days of the Nizam. He approached a relative and friend of his in Yousuf Tekri and sought his help to go to King Kothi Palace where the Nizam lived. The two friends reached there in the dead of the night and after persuading Nizam’s Peshi officials with great difficulty managed to meet him.
Abdullah Khan handed over the treasury to the Nizam, bid him a big salaam and left the palace thinking that he has carried out a difficult mission of loyalty successfully.
The same day the Indian military officials got wind of his meeting and caught hold of him. They began drilling about the transaction. He did not hide any information. But the Military Officers believed that he had breached the government rules because he gave away the treasure to the Nizam even after he had ceased to be ruler of Hyderabad State. To put pressure on him it is said the officials confiscated several of his properties and removed him from the government service. Some people believe that he also suffered incarceration for some time. He lost all his wealth including houses and landed property but survived to give good education to his progeny. Those were the times when some of the senior officials of the Nizam had fled to Pakistan thinking that they would be prosecuted and persecuted. But Governor Abdullah never entertained such thoughts ever. He stayed back and fought his case legally. From this dire situation Khalid’s father rose to become a successful lawyer and was able to provide reasonably respectable education and life to his progeny.
Khalid never told me anything about his grandfather. In fact, people of his generation would not talk about those dark times because of two fears. One that they thought that they would be accused them of lies and exaggeration and two, they cared too much about their dignity. I gathered bits and pieces of this and many such episodes by talking people whom I thought would know about the days after Police Action in Hyderabad State.
As I said fateha at the kachchi grave of Khalid and prayed for him at the ancient graveyard near Santoshnagar I thought of the difficulties his family had gone through, survived and rose to live a life reasonably respectable life. God bless them all.
Mir Ayoob Ali Khan is a senior journalist who has worked with Saudi Gazette, Deccan Chronicle and Times of India. He is now associated with Siasat.com
| 
