Beyond Charminar

The city of Hyderabad has witnessed many vicissitudes, but one of the most important ones was its transformation from a provincial capital into a modern metropolis during the reign of Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of the erstwhile Hyderabad state.    Continuing from their conversation from the previous episode, host Yunus Y. Lasania and journalist Serish Nanisetti (who discussed how and why Hyder...

In 1908, Hyderabad witnessed its worst ever rainfall which resulted in The Musi river and other smaller lakes flooding the entire city and killing thousands of people. The city was made flood proof after that during the time of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam. However, in spite of those fail-safes, the city was once again flooded this year as heavy rains lashed the city on Oct 13. One of the ma...

The state-run Osmania General Hospital has been serving people in Hyderabad for nearly a century, which today primarily includes providing health care to people from Telangana’s rural areas who cannot afford private hospitals. The Nizam-era structure, built during the reign of the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, has however been shut since 22 July, and is yet another heritage structure that may not...

The stories of Dalits in India and their role in different movements in India remains largely untold. In Telangana, the Communist Party of India-led peasant rebellion from 1946-51 was one of the social and political revolutions which changed the lives of those who were being oppressed by Jagirdars, i.e. the landlords. The region, then under the Nizam-led princely state of Hyderabad (which comprise...

We all know of the Nizams and their wealth, especially of Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1937 when he was the richest man in the world. But much before that, in the first half of the 19th century, the years that passed between the third Nizam Sikander Jah and fifth Nizam Afzal-ud-Dowla were not all rosy. The kings were forced to borrow money from a ban...

The Golconda or Qutb Shahi dynasty founded Hyderabad in 1591. Its history isn’t known to much of the Hyderabadis, let alone the smaller details of Qutb Shahi heritage scattered in and around Hyderabad. In an effort to document Golconda history, author and journalist Serish Nanisetti gives us an idea of how the fort and city grew, and also a basic understanding of the complex history of the Persian...

Imagine living in a house where the furniture hasn't changed for over 100 years. That's the kind of heritage Zubair Noor-ul-Haq lives with today. He’s one among the very few Hyderabadis who have managed to preserve the past in the form of their homes and priced possessions, when most of Hyderabad's heritage is slowly being pushed aside. Mostly, those grow up in Hyderbad today don't really know how...

Recently, Hyderabad was included in the UNESCO’s culinary heritage list, as the Creative City of Gastronomy.  Hyderabadi’s love their daily cup Irani chai and Osmania biscuit. Hyderabad's oldest Irani hotel, Grand hotel which started in 1935 is still running strong. However, most people are not aware of the Iranian roots, and how the early owners of these cafes or restaurants migrated from Iran. I...

The twin City of Secunderabad, established in 1806/7, was built as the British cantonement, after the East India Company signed the treaty of Subsidiary Alliance with the Nizams in 1798. In this episode, our host Yunus is in conversation with Mr. Shapoor Toorkey, a Parsi old-timer who has seen Secunderabad grow from then. Mr Toorkey comes from a very illustrious family, his grandfather was the fir...

"Even most Hyderabadis don’t realise that what we speak today is Hyderabadi, definitely not Dakhni, it is closer to the standard Urdu" says Mr Sajjad Shahid. As language is an important thread that speaks about the culture and the power equation of a place at any time, Yunus reached out to Mr Shahid to explore the linguistic roots of the Hyderabad region. Even as Telugu is the language of the regi...

While the Nizams stood against acceding to India or Pakistan, the peasants from rural Telangana revolted against the landlords with the support of the communists. Commonly called the Telangana armed struggle, it's an important communist revolt in Indian history. In this episode, our Yunus speaks with Mr Raghupal, who's from a communist family at that time, about what led to this anti-feudal strugg...

In Part two of our episode on Operation Polo, host Yunus interviews  Mr Mohammad Khaja Mohinudeen, now in his eighties. He was among those leaders who led and participated in the 1948 Telangana armed struggle.  He was also forced to go underground for a brief period and spent considerable amount of time with Makhdoom Mohiuddin, a poet and communist leader. Mr Mohinudeen escaped the clutches of Niz...

History, as we know, is told by the winning side, in the way they'd choose to. During Indian independence, the military action Operation Polo annexed the princely state of Hyderabad to India, against the communists and the Nizam rule. This part of history is often not spoken about as much as we speak of the freedom movement or the partition. Yunus Lasania, in his two-part episode on Operation Polo...

In this episode of Beyond Charminar podcast, we continue our conversation with Yunus Lasania, who will host the subsequent episodes of Beyond Charminar. We will also speak to the convener of INTACH Hyderabad Ms Anuradha Reddy about Errum Manzil. Erram Manzil is an Indo-European Baroque styled structure built by Nawab Safdar Jung Musheer-ud-daula Fakhrul Mulk in 1870, which the ruling Telangana gov...

Hyderabad's heritage & history when told by journalist Yunus Lasania sounds so intriguing in the weekly history walks that he organises in Hyderabad. So we at Suno India decided to bring this tête-à-tête with Yunus in our introductory episode of Beyond Charminar.  In this episode of our podcast, he discusses why the rich history of Hyderabad heritage is often ignored, some interesting things h...