How Hyderabad’s Bhalki Conspiracy case brought the curtain down on Indian mutiny of 1857
The last embers of the 1857 mutiny died down in 1862 in Hyderabad, when an alleged plot against the Nizam and the British Residency was foiled
Not many are aware that the 1857 sepoy mutiny that erupted in north India finally came to an end down south in Hyderabad. The last embers of the mutiny was extinguished only in 1862, in Hyderabad, five years after the commencement of the revolt, when the Nizam’s government arrested all those people connected to an alleged plot against the Nizam and the British Residency. This rebellion had been inspired by the 1857 mutiny.
The case was popularly known as the Bhalki Conspiracy case and is largely viewed by many as the last echo of the 1857 revolt. The spark was ignited in Aurangabad and spread to Hyderabad in the form of an attack on the British Residency and ended up as a conspiracy case.
The Nizam had been a loyal ally of the East India Company government and the British sincerely believed that his loyalty to them was impeccable. When the revolt took place in north India, feelings of discontent were rampant among the British troops stationed across India, including the ones stationed in Secunderabad, as part of an alliance with the Nizam.
In the words of Hyderabad Resident Col Cuthbert Davidson, British-Indian troops had the temerity “to judge in what they will fight and in what not.” So, the British was hesitant to deploy their own forces to crush the mutiny. They thought that the Nizam’s army was the best reliable force to stop the spreading of the mutiny to the Deccan and south India. “I believe our only reliance for the continuance of peace in the Deccan must be placed on the fidelity of the native government,” Davidson wrote in a letter to the India government.
The unthinkable happened
When the Nizam wanted to send the 1st and 2nd cavalry of the Hyderabad Contingent troops stationed at Aurangabad to join forces with the British to crush the revolt in Mhow, they refused. Aurangabad was part of the Nizam’s princely state. The cavalrymen declared that “Nizam ke sarhad ke bahar nahi jayenge… Deen ke uper kamar nahin bandhenge” (We will not cross the frontiers of Nizam’s dominions and we will not fight against our own co-religionists). They feared that they would be finally sent to Delhi to fight The Emperor. The rebellion, led by Jamedar Amir Khan and Dafedar Mir Fida Ali, came as a rude shock to both Nizam and British governments.
An exchange of fire took place between the rebels and British troops headed by General Woodburn at Aurangabad. Mir Fida Ali was caught and court-martialed and hanged, while the native infantry and artillery corps were made to march past the gallows for the execution. Out of them, 21 were shot dead and three were blown away by guns. Capt Abbot, who arrived from Nasik, said, “We have already disposed of a goodly number of 94 prisoners we took in the first haul of the net; one has been hanged, 4 shot, one was blown away by from a gun, a frightful sight indeed, his head ascended about 20 yards in the air and his arms were thrown about eight yards in either direction.”
Tremors in Hyderabad
The Hyderabad Contingent troops stationed at Buldhana were also affected by his Aurangabad mutiny. Some of the sepoys who had deserted Buldhana under the leadership of Jamedar Chhida Khan arrived in Hyderabad but he was arrested immediately after his arrival and sent to the residency for a trial. His arrest and possible execution led to unrest in the city and people started congregating at Mecca Masjid on July 17, 1857.
By the evening, 300 Rohillas headed by their leader Turrabaz Khan laid siege to the Residency and demanded that the Nizam government release Khan and co. Firing ensued between Rohillas and Major HC Briggs forces of the Residency. In the meantime, Nizam also dispatched Arab guards to quell the insurgents. But Rohillas escaped, reportedly with the help of the same guards, wrote Sarojini Regani in Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1972).
After some time, Turrabaz Khan was arrested and sentenced to life. Later, he was caught and shot dead following his escape from the jail. This did not put an end to the 1857 disturbances in the Nizam state. In 1862, the Nizam’s government unearthed a conspiracy to attack the Nizam and the British Residency in Hyderabad when a person named Rao Saheb Peshwa, supposed to be a nephew of Peshwa Nana Saheb, was arrested on March 4. He enjoyed so much popular support that many a time he successfully evaded arrest by the police with the help of locals. As many as 59 people were arrested later in connection with the conspiracy case which came to be known as the Bhalki Conspiracy case. They were tried and awarded sentences ranging from fine to life imprisonment. Rao Saheb committed suicide in custody, thus silencing the last echo of the 1857 mutiny.
“In Hyderabad, throughout the Mutiny, the loyalty of the Nizam and of his able minister, Salar Jung, had been the surest guarantees of peace,” hailed Colonel George Bruce Malleson in his book The Indian Mutiny of 1857, published in 1891.
