It all began in 1798 when the Nizam entered into a Subsidiary Alliance with the British. As part of the treaty the Nizam was to foot the bill for a contingent of Imperial troops who arrived shortly thereafter along with a motley assortment of camp followers and encamped in the vicinity of Bolarum, north of the Hussain Sagar. Within no time the makeshift city of tents transformed into a well defined settlement.
The rapid pace of development bears testimony to British ingenuity for the crafty ‘shopkeepers’ made the Nizam pay, not just for upkeep of the Subsidiary Force but also for the infrastructure. Alternatively coercing and appeasing the Nizam and his government, the British spent lavishly on the emerging city and according to some accounts, enriched themselves individually too, by fudging accounts and claiming inflated payments with the resultant burden on the exchequer eventually leading to financial ruin of an otherwise affluent state.
To curb growing resentment against such nefarious activities, the Resident sought permission to name the new settlement after Sikandar Jah when he succeeded as the third Nizam in 1803. The ploy, clearly designed to satiate eastern vanity, ensured that Hyderabad kept honouring dubious and exorbitant claims. So brazen was the conduct of the British and so lax the accountability that ‘poor Nizzy pays for all’ became an accepted axiom in condoning financial irregularities of dishonorable officers who were caught lining their pockets at the Nizam’s expense. The fact that the cantonment at Secunderabad enriched Hyderabadi culture is indisputable as also the verity that the two share a common history. It is therefore a travesty that the cantonment, a large and culturally significant quarter of Secunderabad, has been kept isolated from the administrative protocols governing the rest of the city.
Amongst the multitude of structures with a rich history is the Rashtrapati Nilayam, the old Bolarum Residency of the British which now serves as the southern retreat for the President of India. Although well maintained, the sprawling complex consisting of buildings and exquisite gardens has lost one of its most significant elements – the monumental Flagstaff on which the national flag was first hoisted when Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union. To their credit, the engineers in charge did commission a miniature model of the steeple before knocking it down but a competent conservationist would have insisted and saved such an important cultural asset.
Though many in the city are familiar with a some examples of built heritage within the cantonment limits, few are aware about the existence of structures like Deccan House, The Abbey and numerous other monumental buildings which have survived despite the passing of two centuries. Amongst buildings with high associational value is ‘The Retreat’, one of several quaint colonial bungalows, which served as Sir Winston Churchill’s residence in 1896. It was during his sojourn at Secunderabad that the redoubtable statesman first met his early flame Pamela Chichele-Plowden, daughter of the then British Resident at Hyderabad, at a polo match. Churchill, then a subaltern in the British army was the star performer of the meet and is said to have swept the lady off her feet. Their courtship, which lasted till 1902, was amicably terminated in England. The traumatic change from the warm and romantic climes of Hyderabad to damp and frigid London seems to have brought the lady to her senses, for Churchill, who had by then barely advanced in rank to captain, paled in comparison to her new suitor Victor, the 2nd Earl of Lytton, who had already succeeded to the peerage upon the death of his father Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of India. A practical choice if one considers the fact that in later years Victor lorded over Bengal as Governor while Winston offered little other than ‘blood, toil and tears’!
Though administrative control of a large part of Secunderabad was returned to the Nizam’s government towards the close of British rule, public perceptions of the twin city as being a parasitic appendage to Hyderabad has lingered. This is largely due to core cantonment areas being kept insulated from planning and development controls, especially those which safeguard the city’s built heritage. It is time that the Cantonment Board accepts established criteria for listing of heritage buildings and brings unique specimens of architectural and cultural value within the gambit of the HMDA protection programme. Only then will the people of Hyderabad consider that the prodigal twin has truly returned to the family fold.
(The writer is a well known heritage activist)
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad> Nizam /by Sajjad Shahid / January 12th, 2014
