In 1800, the Nizam of Hyderabad signed the Treaty of Subsidiary Alliance with the East India Company, becoming a loyal ally. But the people of the Deccan never accepted foreign domination. From 1812 onwards, sepoys in the Nizam’s army and the British Residency repeatedly mutinied – tying a British commander to a gun muzzle, marching through Aurangabad, Nizamabad and Raichur. When the Great Uprising of 1857 set North India ablaze, Hyderabad became a tinderbox. The Nizam and his minister Salar Jung remained staunchly pro‑British, but ordinary sepoys, Rohillas, Gonds, and vassal kings chose resistance. This is the story of the Hyderabad Sepoy Revolt – a forgotten chapter of the First War of Independence.
As early as 1812, Indian sepoys in the British Residency at Hyderabad broke into open mutiny. They tied their commander, Major Edward Gordon, to the muzzle of a gun and threatened to blow him up unless their pay and grievances were addressed. Sepoys in Nizamabad, Nanded, Parbhani, Berar and Mahadevpura also rose in revolt. Major Gordon was eventually released, but the ringleaders were executed. Communities such as Bhils, Hutkers and Marathas led anti‑British rebellions in the decades before 1857, led by figures like Raja Mahipat Ram and Mubarez-ud-Dowlah. These uprisings were the precursors to the great revolt of 1857.
When the 1857 uprising spread, the Hyderabad Contingent’s 3rd Cavalry was ordered to march to Delhi. At Buldhana, the sepoys revolted. Among them was Jamedar Cheeda Khan. He fled with 15 others to Hyderabad to bring the rebellion to the Nizam’s capital. But Salar Jung I, the Nizam’s prime minister, had him arrested and handed over to the British Resident – he was jailed inside the Residency itself.
On 13 June 1857, two inflammatory placards appeared on mosque walls in Hyderabad. They urged the Nizam to lead a revolt in the name of Allah – and if he was a coward, “he may wear bangles and hide himself in his house.” A faqeer was caught inciting the populace, claiming that the Bownepally Fauj (7th Light Cavalry) would join them. The atmosphere was electric.
After Friday prayers at the Mecca Masjid, where Maulvi Alauddin preached revolt, a green flag was hoisted. At 5:45 PM on 17 July 1857, Turrebaz Khan, a Rohilla Pathan jamedar, led about 500 Rohillas and Arab warriors in a direct assault on the British Residency (now Koti Women’s College). They took over two money‑lenders’ houses and opened fire. The British, alerted by Salar Jung, used artillery from the Madras Horse Artillery. The rebels fought all night but failed to free Cheeda Khan. Turrebaz escaped but was captured on 22 July and sentenced to life at Kala Pani. He broke out of prison on 18 January 1859. A reward of ₹5,000 (dead or alive) was announced. Betrayed by Kurban Ali, he was shot dead at Toopran village (Medak) on 24 January 1859. His naked, chained body was hung at the site of today’s Sultan Bazaar police station. But the people remembered – “Turum Khan” became a byword for valour in Dakhani Urdu.
📖 Full story: Turrebaz Khan · The Rohilla Who Stormed the Residency
Maulvi Alauddin, the Imam of Mecca Masjid, delivered the fiery Friday sermon on 17 July 1857 that triggered the attack. He was wounded in the assault (his right hand paralysed) but escaped. Later captured, he became the first prisoner sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans. He remained there until his death in 1884 – a living symbol of resistance who never bowed. His sacrifice is honoured alongside Turrebaz Khan as part of Hyderabad’s 1857 legacy.
While the Nizam sided with the British, the tribal tracts north of the Godavari rose under Ramji Gond, ruler of Nirmal, Utnoor, Chennuru and Asifabad. In 1858–1860, he united around 500 Gond fighters with over 500 Rohillas and Deccanis in a guerrilla campaign against the Nizam and British. For two years, he used the dense forests to frustrate colonial forces. On 9 April 1860, he was captured and hanged from a banyan tree on the outskirts of Nirmal. Approximately 1,000 Gond revolutionaries were also hanged from the same tree – an atrocity even more brutal than Jallianwala Bagh (1919), yet silenced by colonial and Nizam censorship. The tree became known as “Veyyi Purrela Chettu” (Banyan of a Thousand Nooses). Ramji Gond’s sacrifice inspired later Gond leader Kumram Bhim and is now commemorated by a stupa and a planned memorial museum.
📖 Full story: Ramji Gond – The Forgotten Hero of 1857
Raja Venkatappa Naik IV of Shorapur (in present‑day Karnataka) was a vassal of the Nizam but a staunch nationalist. He recruited Arabs, Rohillas and Marathas, sent emissaries to Nana Saheb Peshwa in the north, and planned a coordinated uprising. The British sent a strong contingent; the Raja’s forces fought fiercely, killing two British commanders. When Shorapur fell, Venkatappa fled to Hyderabad. Salar Jung arrested him and handed him to the British. Sentenced to death, commuted to transportation for life, the Raja shot himself rather than suffer the humiliation of exile. His trial exposed a general insurrection plan across the southern Maratha country and northern Karnataka – Miraj, Kolhapur, Nargund, Koppal, Raichur and Shorapur – all ready to rise.
The Nizam, Afzal-ud-Daula, and his minister Salar Jung received lavish praise from the British. Colonel Davidson, the Resident, wrote: “The British Government will not forget that it has owed to his highness the Nizam and his most able minister.” The houses of Abban Saheb and Jaigopal Das (who sheltered the rebels) were blown up. But the people never forgot. Turrebaz Khan’s grave is unknown, but his name lives in everyday Dakhani speech. A stupa at Koti bus stand (built 1957) and Turrebaz Khan Road (from Koti Women’s College to Putli Bowli) honour him. Ramji Gond’s banyan tree fell a decade ago, but a memorial stupa was unveiled by balladeer Gaddar in 2007, and the Telangana government announced a museum in 2021. Raja Venkatappa Naik’s body was never found – a martyr without a grave, yet his spirit endures.
The Hyderabad Sepoy Revolt of 1857 may have failed, but it proved that even under a “faithful ally” ruler, the common people and many soldiers chose freedom over submission. These unsung heroes – Turrebaz Khan, Maulvi Alauddin, Ramji Gond, Venkatappa Naik – kept the flame alive for the next generation.
🔗 Further reading: Turrebaz Khan · Ramji Gond
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