Although statuesque and grand, she was also shy, sensitive and cultured. Letters from her arrived in perfect calligraphy. She shunned publicity, and will probably be best remembered for her striking image in profile taken by Cecil Beaton on his wartime visit to Bombay in March 1944. The picture captures a handsome and autocratic-looking lady wearing a white sari, serene on the terrace of her palace, and was in stark contrast to the normal images of war that were emerging from elsewhere in India.
Beaton was impressed by her "sensational" looks, the "climate of restfulness and serenity" she created about her, as well as by her love for philosophy and literature, her proficiency in many languages and the "Ottoman perfection of her taste".
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He also photographed the Princess when she was in London for the 1937 Coronation, and she happened to be in New York in 1948 at the time of his affair with Garbo - Beaton and Garbo referred to her as "our Turkish friend". In the summer of 1949 he reported to Garbo that he had lunched with the Princess at her London home, Hyderabad House on Palace Green: "It was like being in Hyderabad again, with a wonderful Indian meal lasting much too long & everything so delayed that the afternoon was almost over before we'd finished the Turkish coffee. The Princess, in European clothes was very shy & giggly but very charming & interesting when given time & the chance."
The Princess was born at Tchamlidcha-Scutari on March 12 1913 (or possibly 1914 - the reference books are not clear), the only daughter of Abdülmecid II and his third wife, Mihisti. Her father was Caliph of the Faithful, with the additional titles of Successor of the Prophet Mohammed, Commander of the Faithful and The Shadow of God on Earth. A cultured man who spoke Turkish, Arabic, French and German, he composed music and was a highly proficient painter, producing landscapes and scenes from Ottoman history (which his daughter went to great lengths to buy when they came up at auctions).
He succeeded as Caliph in 1922, and the family resided in the Dolmabahçe Palace on the European shore of Istanbul.
In 1924 the Palace was surrounded by troops, and Adnan Adivar, adviser to Ataturk, warned the Caliph that he was to be deposed by the National Assembly and that he and his family must go. The family began their exile in Paris and Nice.
During this time they were supported by Asaf Jah VII, Nizam of Hyderabad, one of the richest men in the world, who dressed shabbily but made many charitable benefactions. He gave the Caliph a stipend of £4,000 a year.
The Caliph led life "apart from the worldly vanities", as he put it, and was often observed on the beach in Nice wearing bathing trunks and holding a parasol. During this time Reza Shah Pahlavi (the Shah of Persia), King Fuad I of Egypt and the Nizam of Hyderabad vied with each other to secure the princess as bride for their respective heirs. The Nizam won. It was in Nice that the princess married, on November 12 1931, Hymayat Ali Khan Azam Jah, Prince of Berar, son and heir of the Nizam. At the same ceremony her cousin Princess Nilüfer married another son of the Nizam.
There was none of the normal oriental splendour characteristic of such occasions; rather it was a simple ceremony of Islam, attended by members of the two families and friends. The Caliph presided over both weddings.
The two couples travelled to Hyderabad, where the Nizam broke protocol to greet them.
There was wild applause and shouts of blessing as the royal party made its way to the Palace. Both couples settled in the lakeside palace of Bella Vista, and attended state banquets of welcome, the guests eating off gold plates.
The Princess of Berar soon adopted Indian ways. She spoke Urdu like a native and had fluent English. But she was modern in her approach, believing that women should earn their own livings, and she helped to remove the habit of purdah in Hyderabad. She and the Prince had two sons, Prince Mukarram Jah (who married five times and lived variously in Australia and Turkey) and Prince Mukhaffham Jah, the present de jure Nizam.
During her time in Hyderabad, the Princess made a considerable impression. Philip Mason, of the Indian Civil Service, described her as "a commanding figure, handsome of feature, with a clear fair complexion and auburn hair… No one could ignore her or slight her. She was always essentially and indefinably royal, and it seems to me that if fate had so willed she might have been one of the great queens of the world."
When Walter Monckton arrived in Hyderabad in 1946 to try to disillusion the Nizam of the idea that Hyderabad could remain independent, he judged the princess "a woman tranquil yet resolute, whose personality dominated any room she entered". The Prince and Princess of Berar were also well known internationally. In 1937 they were amongst the relatives of ruling princes who attended the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and were seated in the North Choir Gallery of Westminster Abbey.
The Nizam died in 1967 and was succeeded by his grandson. The Prince of Berar died in 1970. For many years the Princess lived at Hyderabad House in Kensington Palace Gardens, later moving to an apartment where all the old-fashioned royal standards were maintained. It was noted that, even if she arrived in the country in a less than grand car, the driver still wore the livery of Hyderabad, with knee-boots.
In the 1990s she opened a hospital she had established at Purani Haveli in India. The crowds were keener to see her than the Chief Minister of Andhura Pradesh, NT Rama Rao, himself a film star.
There was an occasion when she was lunching with a friend in Oxfordshire, at which Princess Margaret was also a guest. The weather was inclement, and both Princesses were invited to plant cedars of Lebanon. Princess Margaret eventually did so - reluctantly - while the Princess of Berar performed her duty with her customary quiet dignity.
Today Princess Margaret's tree struggles, while the Princess of Berar's thrives.
Comment posted by Maqsood Qureshi
at 1/12/2007 8:02:00 PM
Hyderabadi: Please don't SPAM my Blog. Are you people bankrupt? Can't afford hoardings anymore? What's happening to all the money you're extorting from poor students? So-called Donation? Deccan Medical College? Blah-blah-blah college? Go deface walls like you always do. Your propaganda looks good there. Not on my Blog, alright? By the way, when did you people learn computers eh? Yours is NOT a political party! Dynastic politics! A ragtag bunch of cutthroats and hooligans!
I'm a die-hard supporter of former Chief Minister Sri Nara Chandra Babu Naidu and Telugudesam Party. Go read about him here: http://www.telugudesam.com
Comment posted by Maqsood Qureshi
at 1/12/2007 7:15:00 PM
DG: Alhamdulillah. Thanks for your input. History, Heritage, Legacy. That's all I have. Nothing else, otherwise. I'm an expatriate. Gives me identity, solace and morale.
Comment posted by Hyderabadi
at 1/12/2007 3:00:00 PM
THE HISTORY OF MAJLIS ITTEHADUL MUSLIMEEN PARTY IN HYDERABAD
The grip of the Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen on the community remains strong, With a Member representing Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha, five members in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, 40 corporators in Hyderabad and 95-plus members elected to various municipal bodies in Andhra Pradesh, the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is one of the foremost representatives of the city’s Muslims and the most powerful Muslim party in India and one can see the partys strenghth if it goes to Hyderabad old city and Parts of Muslim Dominated Villages of Andhra Pradesh everywhere u look u can see MIM written on walls ,lightpoles and buildings leaving aside green flags and posters of its Leadership and there small Offices . The Majlis has brought lot of development to the Old part of the city even after it is said it hasnt done anything by its opponents who are mostly Ex Majlis workers.The Majlis was formed in 1927 “for educational and social uplift of Muslims”. But it articulated the position that “the ruler and throne (Nizam) are symbols of the political and cultural rights of the Muslim community… (and) this status must continue forever”.The Majlis pitted itself against the Andhra Mahasabha and the communists who questioned the feudal order that sustained the Nizam’s rule. It also bitterly opposed the Arya Samaj, which gave social and cultural expression to the aspirations of the urban Hindu population in the Hyderabad State of those days.By the mid-1940s, the Majlis had come to represent a remarkably aggressive and violent face of Muslim communal politics as it organised the razakars (volunteers) to defend the “independence” of this “Muslim” State from merger with the Indian Union.According to historians, over 1,50,000 such `volunteers’ were organised by the Majlis for the Nizam State’s defence but they are remembered for unleashing unparalleled violence against Communal Hindus and the communists and all those who opposed the Nizam’s “go it alone” policy. It is estimated that during the height of the razakar `agitation’, over 30,000 people had taken shelter in the Secunderabad cantonment alone to protect themselves from these `volunteers’.But the razakars could do little against the Indian Army and even put up a fight. Kasim Rizvi, the Majlis leader, was imprisoned and the organisation banned in 1948. Rizvi was released in 1957 on the undertaking that he would leave for Pakistan in 48 hours. Before he left though, Rizvi met some of the erstwhile activists of the Majlis and passed on the presidentship to Abdul Wahed Owaisi, a famous lawyer and an Islamic scholar from jamia nizamia who also was jailed for nearly 10 months after he took over the Majlis leadership as the then govt wanted to abolish the Majlis party but Owaisi refused to do so and was seen as a person who had financially supported the party when it was a bankrupt and weak one after the Police Action in Hyderabad State.Owaisi is credited with having “re-written” the Majlis constitution according to the provisions of the Indian Constitution and “the realities of Muslim minority in independent India”, and fought the legal case for winning back darrusslam mim headquarters for years according to a former journalist, Chander Srivastava. For the first decade-and-a-half after this “reinvention”, the Majlis remained, at best, a marginal player in Hyderabad politics and even though every election saw a rise in its vote share, it could not win more than one Assembly seat.The 1970s saw an upswing in Majlis’ political fortunes. In 1969, it won back its party headquarters, Dar-us-Salaam — a sprawling 4.5-acre compound in the heart of the New City. It also won compensation which was used to set up an ITI on the premises and a women’s degree college in Nizamabad town. In 1976, Salahuddin Owaisi took over the presidentship of the Majlis after his father’s demise who also was also Jailed Various times .This started an
Comment posted by DG
at 1/12/2007 1:52:00 PM
Mashallah you seem very interested in historical things. It is in fact a good thing, as they say, those who dont know their past have no future :-)
Keep up the good work.
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