The last Nizam ran a bloated government

Hyderabad: Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, is often credited for establishing a string of educational institutions, such as Osmania University and the Jagirdars’ College. The functioning of these institutions, however, suffered due to bad governance in the sunset years of the last Nizam, according to archival records.

Jagirdars’ College — now known as the Hyderabad Public School, which is celebrating its centenary this month — paled in comparison with similar institutions in other princely states. The annual budget for the ‘college’ was Rs 2 lakh, but it had only 200 students and had the status of a primary and secondary school, according to a review of the administration done in 1942 by Rustom Jung Bahadur, who had served in Hyderabad as well as the Central Province.

“It was established on the model of a public school — which is hardly suited for the sons of Jagirdars as they acquire expensive tastes, as they grow up, and are apt to live beyond their income,” the review pointed out.

The school principal, usually a Britisher, would get a salary of Rs 1,750, which was more than the salary of the director of Public Instruction. The position, he suggested could well be held by an Indian teacher with a modest pay, particularly when Hyderabad had many qualified teachers who had been trained abroad with government scholarships.

“When I remember of the great seats of learning like Nalanda, Taxila, the Madrasa at Bidar or Shantiniketan or great teachers like Syed Ahmed, Ranade, Gokhle, Shrinivas Shastri, Satish Chandra Bose or C.V. Raman, I do despair of Hyderabad yet finding a suitable Indian for the Jagirdars’ College,” wondered Rustom Jung Bahadur.

Like Jagirdars’ College, Mahbubia Girls’ School had European teachers and principal. The annual salary and allowance bill for 11-member teaching staff came to Rs 1.2 lakh. The Osmania University College for Women had 41 professors and lecturers for a total student strength of 180 in 1941-42. The task of selecting candidates for overseas and other scholarships was entrusted to a board, but Rustom Jung felt that these scholarships were cornered by influential officers for their relatives and friends.

Overall, most government departments had excess staff, the salary structure and perks of different departments varied greatly and there was no check on working hours and holidays. “The Hyderabad Government is probably the most generous in the matter of holidays,” the review pointed out.

Hyderabad had 69 holidays in a year, compared to 32 in other princely states. The number of official holidays in British India was even smaller. The extra holidays meant a loss of '35 lakh to the Hyderabad government. In addition, the shorter number of working hours during Ramzan meant the loss of another six working days. “This kind of pampering of officials emasculates the staff generally and develops a sort of ennui,” Jung wrote in his report. These privileges also meant the government had to employ more people to do the same amount of work.

Every government department in Nizam’s administration had excess staff. There were as many as 53 peons to serve 12 officers and 111 clerks in the office of the chief engineer of the public works department. The total length of roads under PWD was 5,295 miles, but there were 403 travellers’ and inspection bungalows — one bungalow for every 13 miles and each of them manned by a retinue of staff.

The director of Public Gardens had an establishment of 194 men and women, and five clerks, to supervise them. The large staff, however, did not result in better upkeep of the park. “Anyone visiting the Hyderabad Pubic Gardens on the one hand, and the Maharaja Bagh in Bangalore or the Public Gardens at Mysore would not fail to be struck by the contrast they present,” Rustom Jung Bahadur observed in his report submitted to the Nizam.

In the medical and sanitation department, the office of the director (health) had 46 clerks and 47 ‘menials’, as against 32 clerks and 17 servants in the same office in the Central Province, which administered 392 hospitals and dispensaries compared to 151 in Hyderabad state. On the other hand, the agriculture department, which needed more people, was understaffed, unlike other provinces.

The review also suggested the creation of a public accounts committee, similar to the ones operated in British India, to check wasteful government expenditure. The committee, he said, should have ‘personnel quite independent of government officers and should be elected by the legislature.’ But the Hyderabad government – dominated by feudal elements in the garb of modern administration – was not ready for such reforms.

[Dinesh C. Sharma is a journalist and author based in New Delhi]