How Hyderabad Nizam's Goa Dreams Came Crashing

New Delhi: Goa may be a favourite holiday destination for many Hyderabadis today, but Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, saw it as a gateway of international trade for the landlocked Hyderabad state in 1947.

When it became imminent that the British were planning to leave India in 1947, the Nizam’s government started looking for possible alternatives. Till then, trade to and from Hyderabad was smooth as the state was surrounded by British provinces through which goods could transit without a problem.

To smooth over likely difficulties in the event of the British leaving India, Hyderabad planned to lease or purchase a port in Goa for exclusively importing goods to Hyderabad. In the months preceding India’s Independence in August 1947, secret talks were held in London and Lisbon through Sir Alexander Roger, a high-ranking British officer, to secure Hyderabad’s future trade via Goa, according to declassified files of the Nizam’s sunset months.

As soon as Mir Nawaz Jung arrived in London as the Agent-General of Hyderabad in April 1947, he discussed the Goa proposal with Sir Alexander, who arranged a meeting with a Portuguese representative in June 1947. Hyderabad initially proposed to buy the Goa port, but the idea was rejected by the Portuguese authorities, who informed them that they would not be relinquishing their authority in Goa even after the British left India. The alternative proposal was to allow Hyderabad port use without any customs duty on either side and also permission to land Hyderabad’s transport planes in Goa.

Jung flew to Hyderabad in July 1947 to further discuss the proposal and was told by Hyderabad Prime Minister Laik Ali to close to deal within a month, with Sir Alexander being paid 10,000 pounds sterling as his fee.

The talks, however, did not progress for several months as the Portuguese government dilly-dallied. “Discrete enquiries made here in London have given me the secret information that about two months ago, before the Partition of India, the British Foreign Office gave a hint to the Prime Minister of Portugal that a settlement with Hyderabad in respect of Goa may be politically inconvenient. The idea is that it would embarrass the British Government who are all out to please the makers of the new Dominion of Hindustan,” Jung wrote to Hyderabad in a letter sent through a personal courier in October 1947.

After August 1947, the Hyderabad government changed its stand. It sought to warn the Portuguese that if they did not agree to its proposal they would “run the risk of being thrown out of their possessions from Goa as a foreign element, without the alliance or support of any Government on the continent of India.”

Amid the changed circumstances, the Portuguese insisted that Hyderabad should first reach an agreement with India for the passage of goods between Goa and Hyderabad, as goods would have to be transported through Indian territories.

The Portuguese also wanted Hyderabad to ensure a reasonable volume of traffic from Goa.

The third condition was that the Portuguese sovereignty should remain intact and the work relating to the development of the harbour and the railway line should be handled by a joint stock company with stakes from Hyderabad, Goa, as well as India.

The negotiating team in London left the matter for Hyderabad to decide. “With your great experience and business acumen, it should now be possible to make a proposal which will be acceptable to Portuguese, advantageous for Hyderabad and attractive to Dominion of India,” Jung wrote to Prime Minister Laik Ali.

The Hyderabad government also considered the idea of using ports at Bombay or Masulipatnam after an agreement with India.

But Sir Alexander warned against such a move. “Bombay being entirely under the control of the Dominion of India, there is a greater danger to Hyderabad if relationships between Hyderabad and India become strained. These political difficulties would be definitely less marked in the case of Goa since interruption of traffic to and from Goa involves international complications which, of course, the Dominion of India Government would be concerned to avoid,” Sir Alexander wrote to Jung.

In the end, all the Nizam’s Goa plans came a cropper as Hyderabad was integrated with India after the Police Action in September of 1948.