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“Farsi language is the sign of Muslims being the victorious people of the subcontinent”
By: Prof. Dr. Omar Khalidi
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA, USA
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Iranian religious scholar migrated from Iran to Bijapur, capital of Adil Shahi Kingdom around the middle of the seventeenth century. Like many other migrants from Iran to Deccan, Syed Muhammad Ali was also welcomed at Bijapur and in Bijapur he married the daughter of Mulla Ahmad, the leading religious scholar and the Prime Minister of Ali Adil Shah II, who ruled Bijapur from 1656-1672. Later on the descendants of Syed Muhammad Ali joined the service of Asaf Jahi rulers in Hyderabad Deccan. From 18th to the middle of the 19th century, there were at least three members of Syed Muhammad Ali’s descendants who became Divans (Prime Minister) of Asaf Jahs in Hyderabad Deccan. They were Mir Alam, Munir al-Mulk and Siraj al-Mulk.
Upon Siraj al-Mulk’s death in 1853, his young nephew Mir Turab Ali Khan, better known as Salar Jung I, succeeded him as Divan (Prime Minister) of Hyderabad Deccan. Salar Jung I remained Divan (Prime Minister) of subcontinent’s largest princely state for next thirty years. Salar Jung I passed away on 8 February 1883 after three decades at the helm of affairs, at a time the reigning King, the Asaf Jah, the sixth , Mir Mahbub Ali Khan was still a minor and Salar Jung I was the Regent of the Kingdom.
According to Nawab Sarwar al-Mulk, the Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan’s tutor and a close confidant of Salar Jung I, quotes in his autobiography, “My Life” that “One day I was on attendance of Salar Jung I incidentally I said, “Today Moulvi Mushtaq Husain[Maulvi Syed Mushtaq Husain (1841-1917) better known as “Viqar al-Mulk, a close associate of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan of Aligarh Muslim University] told me a strange thing that Urdu should take the place of Farsi as the official language of Hyderabad Deccan.
Salar Jung I who was reclining on pillows, suddenly sat up and said, “By Allah, no.” And he laid such emphasis on his words, that I was puzzled and thought to myself that I had unwittingly offended him.
Salar Jung I replied “You Hindustani [the Muslims of Hyderabad Deccan used to call the Muslims living in the British upper India as Hindustani which was common in Deccan up to even the 1960’s, and because Nawab Sarwar al-Mulk was from North India so Salar Jung I referred to him as Hindustani] people replaced Farsi with Urdu and thus you were effaced and annihilated in northern India because the Farsi language is the sign of Muslims being the victorious people of the subcontinent. You are effaced in your region and you want to efface Muslims in Deccan by replacing Farsi. We conquered India by sword, so long as I am living, Farsi shall also live in Deccan.( Nawab Sarwar al-Mulk, “My Life”, translated by Jivan Yar Jung, London, Arthur Stockwell Publishing Company, 1934)
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