Winston Churchill’s diabolical plan for the vivisection of India into Hindustan, Pakistan, and Princestan roped in defiant princes like Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal who, as Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes, tried to build a consensus for the princes to stay out of a Congress-ruled India. What egged him on in his role as saboteur was the promise of prime ministership or governor generalship of Pakistan by Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The Nawab acted as a stalking horse for the Nizam of Hyderabad, whose intention was to stay independent of both India and Pakistan, and moved in tandem with Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir and Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyer of Travancore.
What they were planning clashed headlong with Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of an India that would include the territories under British rule as well as princely states, both big and small. In this, he was backed by Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and, of course, Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon.
A word about how Mountbatten handled this. The Nawab of Bhopal was apprehensive about being a part of Congress-ruled India. He resigned as Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes and announced that he would be free to choose the destiny of his state when the British left India. This is also pretty much what he conveyed to Mountbatten. The Viceroy’s position on the matter was clear. He noted that while the Independence Bill provided that any state that decided not to join either dominion, the British would consider a separate relationship with it, in effect he would not act on any representation to him from the princely states in this matter. This is how he shut the door on the Nawab of Bhopal and others like him.
For the record, it might be said that the princes were under great pressure and wanted to retain their hereditary rights and privileges in a new democratic India.
Veteran Editor Sandeep Bamzai in his book “PRINCESTAN: How Nehru, Patel and Mountbatten made India”, tells the rivetting story of how Nehru got hold of a bombshell of a letter from the Nawab of Bhopal, secretly handed over to Jinnah before he left for London to meet Churchill. The letter provided explosive details of how some Indian princes, working hand-in-hand with the Muslim League, planned to keep their British connections either as individual entities or as part of a combined state on part of Pakistan. Ultimately, the plan to balkanize India went up in smoke.
Bamzai, providing access to other great acts of sabotage against India helmed by Churchill, details a ‘private’ letter from Churchill to Jinnah, where the British Prime Minister exchanges a coded signature for his messages to Jinnah and seeks a similarly secret name from Jinnah so that they could communicate on their plans without being discovered. However, those plans never worked.
Writes Bamzai, who is CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Indo-Asian News Service: “Nawab of Bhopal’s plan as a saboteur in conjunction with Travancore and Jinnah had been foiled, the vagrant princes subdued.”
Excerpts:
Despite Lord Wavell and Political Department boss Sir Conrad’s best efforts, Travancore too slipped out of their grasp. Sir C.P., the canny Dewan of Travancore, like Pandit Ram Chandra Kak in Kashmir — deputies who called the shots on behalf of their respective rulers — had been muted. Both smartly established lines of communication with the Nizam of Hyderabad, who in turn used the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes, the Nawab of Bhopal, as the conduit to Jinah. Nehru, realizing that incalculable damage may be done to India, asked Blitz and (K.N.) Bamzai to hold on to their expose on monazite sands deliberately.
Nehru finally got an opportunity in the form of the Nawab of Bhopal’s top-secret letter, handed over to Jinnah prior to his departure for London to meet Churchill. The letter, considered a bombshell, hinted at a commitment on the part of the Indian princes, in conjunction with the Muslim League, of the maintenance of the British connection — either as individual units or as a combined state on part of the state of Pakistan, akin to a Confederacy (as mentioned earlier). Confirmation of this move come through another devastating letter marked ‘PRIVATE’, penned by Churchill to Jinnah dated 11 December 1946:
I should greatly like to accept your kind invitation to luncheon on December 12. I feel however, that it would be wiser for us not to be associated publicly at this juncture. I already greatly value our talks the other day and now I enclose the address to which any telegrams you may wish to send me can be sent without attracting any attention in India. I will always sign myself as GILLATT. Perhaps you will let me know what address I should telegraph to you and how you will sign yourself.
It was later learnt that GILLATT, an Englishwoman, was Sir Winston’s secretary and the address was her London home. Obviously a channel had been kept open between Jinnah and Churchill and others interested in British India. In his speech to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on 7 July 1946, and then again three days later in a press conference, Nehru spoke about the issue of minorities and how it was a domestic problem and how British interference in it was not desired. This gave Jinnah the opening he was looking for, and he withdrew the Muslim League’s acceptance to the Mission Plan on 29 July 1946. Nehru got the opportunity he was looking for, and as mentioned earlier, went on to highlight the plan to balkanize India and export monazite sands from India. While denouncing the move, he made a veiled reference to the source of his information and said that it was a friend who had given him the information.
Nawab of Bhopal’s plan as a saboteur in conjunction with Travancore and Jinnah had been foiled, the vagrant princes subdued. Jinnah however continued with his furtive plans, his public pronouncements completely at variance with his secret dealings and machinations.
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