Qasim Razvi

Qasim Razvi was the leader of a local militia, the Razakars of Hyderabad, who blocked accession into India after the partition against the wishes of the local populationFact|date=April 2008, and fought against the Indian forces during Operation Polo.

Razvi held views that Hyderabad should eventually join Pakistan in a major war against India, as clearly evidencedFact|date=April 2008 by some of his speeches and publications in Hyderabadi newspapersFact|date=April 2008. Razvi was politically powerful and a close advisor of the Nizam, whom he encouraged to defy the Indian government, and block the accession of Hyderabad into India. At the height of the crisis, Razvi had placed his allies in influential posts, and was virtually dictating the Nizam's policy on the issue. Razvi even traveled to Delhi and had a stormy meeting with Indian leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He is quoted to have said "Death with the sword in hand, is always preferable to extinction by a mere stroke of the pen." [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799076-2,00.html] , prompting the Indian government to call him the "Nizam's Frankenstein monster."

After Operation Polo, Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried under Indian laws on seditious activities and inciting communal violence. He was released in the 1950s, and he later fled to Pakistan.

References

*"Patel: A Life" by Rajmohan Gandhi