Turrebaz Khan · The Rohilla Who Stormed the Residency
July 17, 1857 · 500 rebels · A Jamedar’s revolt · “Turum Khan” — a name synonymous with courage in Dakhani Urdu
When the Great Uprising of 1857 swept across North India, the Nizam of Hyderabad remained “faithful” to the British. But the people of Hyderabad did not. And no one exemplified that defiance more than Turrebaz Khan — a Rohilla Pathan warrior whose name, to this day, is synonymous with courage and valour in the Dakhani Urdu of Hyderabad. Known affectionately as “Turum Khan,” he led a band of 500 Rohillas and Arabs in a dramatic assault on the British Residency on July 17, 1857. The attack failed. Turrebaz Khan was captured, sentenced to Kala Pani (exile to the Andamans), escaped, was betrayed, shot dead, and his naked body was chained and hung in public at what is now Sultan Bazaar Police Station. Today, a granite pillar with four elephants stands in his memory. This is his story — a story that proves that in 1857, Hyderabad was not silent.
Turrebaz Khan was a Rohilla Pathan, the son of Rustum Khan, a Pathan resident of Hyderabad. He joined the British Army and served as a Jamedar (junior officer) in the British Cantonment of Aurangabad. Very little is known about his early life — but what is known is that he was not a man who could watch injustice in silence. When the news of the 1857 Uprising reached the Deccan, Turrebaz Khan made a choice that would cost him his life: he turned his military training against the very army that had employed him.
The immediate trigger for Turrebaz Khan’s attack was not a grand political ideology — it was loyalty to a comrade. Jamedar Cheeda Khan, another soldier who had revolted against the British, had been captured and imprisoned within the British Residency compound in Hyderabad. Turrebaz Khan resolved to free him. He knew the Residency was heavily guarded. He knew the consequences of failure. He attacked anyway.
Turrebaz Khan gathered a force of approximately 500 men — a mix of Rohilla Pathans and Arab warriors. He was joined by Maulvi Ala-ud-din (also known as Moulvi Allauddin), a religious leader who shared his anti-British fervor. Together, they launched a coordinated assault on the British Residency — the seat of British power in Hyderabad, the building from which the Resident controlled the Nizam’s court and the Hyderabad Contingent.
The attack was fierce but ultimately unsuccessful. The British and the Nizam’s forces rallied. Several of Turrebaz Khan’s comrades were killed in the fighting. He was captured on July 22, 1857 — just five days after the assault.
The British did not treat rebels lightly. Turrebaz Khan was sentenced to exile for life to the Andaman Islands — the dreaded Kala Pani from which few ever returned. He was charged with sedition, and the British rulers confiscated his property. His family was left with nothing. For the British, this was the end of Turrebaz Khan. But Turrebaz Khan had other plans.
On January 18, 1859 — just before he was to be deported to the Andamans — Turrebaz Khan escaped from prison. The details of the escape are lost to history, but the sources record that he managed to flee while still in Hyderabad. By this time, the British had already suppressed the 1857 Uprising across most of India. But for the British and the Nizam, one escaped rebel was still a threat.
The Nizam’s government immediately announced a reward of five thousand rupees on Turrebaz Khan — dead or alive. The announcement was made on January 19, 1859, just one day after his escape. Turrebaz Khan became a hunted man.
Turrebaz Khan went underground, moving secretly and attempting to rally forces for another attack. But he was betrayed by Kurban Ali, who informed the Nizam’s soldiers of his whereabouts. On January 24, 1859, British and Nizam forces received information that Turrebaz Khan was in Toopran village (in present-day Medak district, Telangana). They surrounded the area where he was staying. Turrebaz Khan was shot dead by enemy soldiers.
But the British did not stop at killing him. They wanted to make an example of him. His body was moved from Toopran to Hyderabad. There, it was chained and hanged naked in public at the location where the Sultan Bazaar Police Station now stands. The sources record this with stark horror: “Englishmen treated the body of Pathan Turrebaz Khan in a cruel and humiliating way.”
The display of Turrebaz Khan’s naked, chained body was meant to terrify the people of Hyderabad into submission. It did not work. The memory of Turrebaz Khan — “Turum Khan” — became a legend. His name was whispered in the bylanes of Begum Bazar and the chowks of the old city as a symbol of defiance. Parents named their children after him. Poets wrote couplets about his courage. The British had killed the man, but they had created a martyr.
The Government of India did not forget Turrebaz Khan. Long after the British left, the nation he fought for built memorials to his memory:
- Granite Pillar with Four Elephants: A granite pillar, guarded by four statues of elephants at the cardinal directions, has been installed in his memory. It stands as a silent sentinel to his courage.
- Stupa at Koti Bus Stand (1957): In 1957, on the centenary of the 1857 Uprising, the government built a stupa at the city bus stand in Koti in his honour.
- Turrebaz Khan Road: The road from Koti Women’s College to Putli Bowli X Road was named after him — so that every passerby would remember the man who stormed the Residency.
In the Dakhani Urdu spoken in the streets of Hyderabad, “Turum Khan” is not just a name. It is a synonym for bravery. When an old Hyderabadi says someone is “Turum Khan,” they mean that person is fearless, unyielding, willing to fight against impossible odds. That is the true legacy of Turrebaz Khan — not a pillar or a road, but a place in the living language of the people. A hundred and sixty years after his death, his name still means courage.
ð The Rohilla who refused to be faithful:
• He was responsible for putting Hyderabad on the map of India’s First War of Independence (1857).
• While the Nizam remained a “Faithful Ally” of the British, Turrebaz Khan showed that the people of Hyderabad were not faithful to the Empire.
• His attack on the Residency was a direct assault on the symbol of British paramountcy in the Deccan.
• His escape from a Kala Pani sentence, his betrayal, and his brutal public execution only magnified his legend.
• He is one of the unsung heroes of the 1857 Uprising — recognized by the Government of India’s Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav as such.
• His memory lives on in Hyderabad’s street names, memorials, and everyday speech — proof that the Empire’s attempt to erase him failed completely.
Jai Hind · Vande Mataram
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