Mulki question under the Nizam

In 1937, a special committee was appointed by Nizam to study conditions in the State and make suitable proposals for political reforms

This article is in continuation to the last article on Mulki issue in then Hyderabad State. These series of articles will help candidates preparing for the recruitment exams conducted by Telangana State Public Service Commission and other recruitment boards in the State.

The north Indians formed a clique to keep others out of the administration in Hyderabad State. They regarded themselves as the State’s rulers and displayed superiority complex galling to the Mulkis. A major irritant was the de facto disregard for the Mulki rules by the outsiders on the grounds that they were better educated and qualified. The administrative posts were restricted on these grounds to persons of the “urban classes” only. This experience sensitised Mulkis to the various excuses for ghair-mulki favouritism.

In 1937, a special committee was appointed by Nizam under the chairmanship of Dewan Bahadur Aravamudu Iyegar to study conditions in the State and make suitable proposals for the introduction of political reforms. Some memoranda accused the “non-mulki” of spreading the “venom of communalism”, demanded the discontinuance of the practice of employing ghair-mulkis and urged the formation of a Public Service Commission. Resentment against the north Indians was accentuated by the large number of positions they occupied; their attitudes towards the Mulkis; the increasing number of matriculates, graduates, and post-graduates within the dominions after the establishment of the Osmania University; and the growing unemployment during the depression of the 1930s. Then on, non-Mulkis deprived the Mulki of his bread and butter.

The locals of the State visualised a mulki as one whose forefathers for generations had lived in the State and served it loyally, while the legal definition of a Mulki laid down in the civil service regulations was more limited.

The Mudaliyar committee recommended that “consistently with the sovereign rights of the Ruler, it is essential for the internal and external security of the State that the people should have an effective association with the Government. In order that such association of the people might be secured and their needs and desires properly ascertained it is necessary that public services should be manned by persons who have a lasting attachment to the State [i.e. the sons of soil]. An independent and impartial agen- cy should be established to raise the standard of efficiency and the morale of the public services”.

As a consequence of these recommendations, a comprehensive scheme of reforms announced on July 19, 1939, by the government proposed that the then existing Mulki rules should be made more stringent and suggested certain procedures for recruitment. These proposals were duly sanctioned by the Nizam.
The definition of Mulki was also suitably amended when Article 39 was modified later (in 1945). The period was one of declining governmental authority in Hyderabad state.

Prof. Adapa Satyanarayana
Retired Professor, Dept. of History, OU
Ph. 9573405551