Hyderabad - A Biography : By Narendra Luther

Not being a born Hyderabadi, I had read quite a few books to know about the city of my current domicile. Of these,  “Hyderabad – A Biography “ by Narendra Luther is my most favourite. This book gives a detailed account of the period prior to city’s birth in 1591, and then presents an unbroken chronicle of it till the current age. From Bhagnagar, to Hyderabad to Cyberabad  everything is covered in it in perfect detail. It combines the popular history with research based historiography in a very engrossing manner. Oral history, interviews, recordings of eminent personalities have been very aptly used.

The Qutb Shahi Dynasty starting with Sultan Quli, Qtub-ul-Mulk and ending with Abul Hasan Tana Shah ruled here from 1518 to 1699, over eight Sultans. Then from 1720 to 1948 ten different  rulers  of Ashaf Jah dynasty rule over the area ( seven of them were titled Nizam for technical reasons ), culminating into its merger with independent India in 1948. 

Hyderabad is the daughter of Golconda Fort, which stands in ruin now, eight kilometers away from the center of the city. The fort was built about thousand years ago, during the Kakatiya rule. Rudramba Devi, the queen of Kakatyiya ruled for thirty four years from 1262 to 1296.. His grand son another courageous ruler, continued ruling till 1323, whereafter he was defeated by Ulugh Khan ( later known as Mohammad Bin Tughlaq ) and was imprisoned and taken to Delhi. This maverick ruler shifted the capital of Indian empire from Delhi to Devagiri in the south, which was later renamed Daulatabad. In 1346 in violation of the Tughlaq rule, the locals choose a leader called ” Zafar” as their king, who founded the Bahmani dynasty and ruled the area from 1347 to 1518, first from Gulbarga and then from Bidar. During the rule of Mohammad III, Sultan Quali, the son of a fugitive chieftain from Hamadan across the river Oxmania, up the north-west of Afganisthan, entered the service of Bahamani rulers and ultimately became the governor of Tilang province, which was controlled from the Golkonda fort. He had the ultimate power on Golkonda and vicinity after the death of Mohammad III. Sultan Quali, the first ruler of Qutb Shahi Dynasty started expanding his empire from the Golkonda  in 1518, from where this book really starts. 

Ibraihim the 4^th ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golkonda , in a confederation arrangement with the sultans of Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Bidar waged battle against Ram Raja the ruler of Vijayanagar and defeated and finished him. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the next Sultan loved and married a Hindu common girl called Bhagmati and her village and adjoining areas were converted into a township at Sultan’s order and was called Bhagnagar, the predecessor of Hyderabad. Char Minar was also built inside this township. Master civil engineers and craftsmen were brought from Iran. After Bhagmati died leaving a girl child Hyder Bakshi, the courtiers of  the Sultan could convince him to change the name of the city from Bhagnagar to Hyderabad, and thus  Hyderabad was born.

The City of Hyderabad was praised very liberally by the then Indian and foreign travelers to the city. Particularly the French Travellers Tavernier and  Thevenot were all praise for the magnificence of the city. It comes out in that age and time the Sultans used to have European physicians for their health care at Hyderabad.

After passage of time and generations, the  rule came to the hand of Tana Shah, the last Sultan of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty in 1672. Tana Shah was very liberal, poetic minded, merciful  and it is told that he was instrumental in resurrection of Kuchipuddi form of dance, which in those days were practiced by Brahmin boys, and girls were prohibited. He made many tactical mistakes and  somehow earned enmity from the Mogul emperor at Delhi. One of the reasons could be his hobnobbing with Shivaji,, the Marathi King Shivaji and his clan at the behest of his Prime Minister Madanna.  Ultimately he had to sign a humiliating treaty with the Moguls and sacrifice the life of his Hindu Prime Minister Madanna, But emperor Aurangjeeb was not happy with the treaty and he personally came to Golconda to lay a siege of the place in January 1687. Even after many months of siege no advance could be made by the Moguls. They had debacle after debacle. Their many plans failed. But Tana Shah had accepted a defeat mentally and made again many mistakes. Ultimately with the help of bribes Moguls  were able to open the gate of the Golconda fort and enter there. He was finally arrested and taken to Daulatabad to spend rest 13 years of his life in Jail.

There were some turmoil after the death of Aurangjeeb and finally in 1720 the first Nijam was appointed to rule Hyderabad at the behest of the Emperor in in Delhi. Hyderabad remained a rich place and the 10^th ruler Mir Osman Ali Khan ( but called 7^th Nizam  because of some title issue of a few of his predecessors)  although a miserly person, was supposed to be one of the richest persons of the world. First under the Moguls and then under the British, the Nizams of Hyderabad had some semi-independent, loosely subjected status. The British used to keep Residency Officers in Hyderabad to oversee their interest, but in matters of administration Nizams enjoyed a good deal of freedom. In Hyderabad land revenue was less than British India and income tax was non-existent. But there was an interesting system of Nazar for the Nizam.

Invitation were sent to nobels and officials on Id and birthdays, People invited were expected to meet the Nizam with some coins and gold coins. Registers were kept to see that everyone has attended. The Nizam would keep the gold coins in one bag and the other coins in another bag. The Nizam would even send Khasa, the part of royal meal to the nobles, who are supposed to come back with nazars to the Nizam shortly. Fruits would be sold from the Nizam’s personal gardens to the nobles, who would have to pay hefty price for the same, say Rs 24/- for a mango, even in those days. Whatever, the Nizam woild like would have to be offered as nazar. The Falaknama palace, was also presented as a nazar to the 6^th Nizam  and so was the King Kothi to 7^th Nizam. There is story in the book how the Nizams took some costly books to read and they were never returned.

In June 1947, when the shape of the political future of India became known, the Nizam declared that he would join neither India , nor Pakistan, but would assume independence, which was an untenable position for a landlock state with very little defense strength. The following years saw lot of communal tension in the city and the state and the infamous razakars took root in the city, to help the Nizam achieving his dreams.  In December 1947, Razvi imposed a new government on Nizam and Mir Laik Ali was appointed the Prime Minister.  The atrocities of the razakars increased and resistance from a section of the right minded enlightened Muslims against the razakars also increased simultaneously. Shoebullah Khan fell a martyr to the cause of communal amity. Other persons offering resistance to the razakars, Akbar Ali Khan, Mehdi Ali and Fareed Mirza however survived. There was blood in the streets of the city.

At one count around this time Nizam had 42 wives  and a force of 31660 persons, of these about 17000 numbers were in Subsidiary Force and Hyderabad Contingent, which were under British control. 

Finally the Indian Army took control over Hyderabad headed by General Choudhury, the commander for the Nizam’s Army was General  El Edroos. It was a short one sided battle with not much bloodshed. On 7^th March, 1950, the City wok up to a sensational story that Laik Ali, the last Prime Minister of  Nizam VII kept under house arrest, has been able to reach Pakistan. In the mean time the new constitution of India was promulgated, The full bench of the High Court in August 11, 1950 gave a decision that the detention of Laik Ali was repugnant to the Article 22 of the Constitution of India beyond January 26, 1950, and hence anyone helping him to escape was not culpable. Razvi the field marshals of the razakars, was charged in several cases including the murder of Shoebullah Khan. However, only one case of Bibinagar dacoity could legally survive and he was put in the Chanchalguda Jail in Hyderabad and later to Yervada Jail in Pune. He was released from jail in September 1957 , he came to Hyderabad, nominated Abdul Wahid Owaisi, as the head of Ittehad, am organization formed by him,  and left for Pakistan. In Pakistan Razvi started his law practice amongst the refugees from India. He died in Pakistan in 1970, and in the same year Laik  Ali also dies in New York.

On 6^th March, 1952 the first elected government was sworn in with oath of office being administered by the Nizam. The government was headed by Mr. Burgula Ramkrishna Rao of  Mehboobnagar district.  He was the Chief Minister of Hyderabad. 

After him there were twenty Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh ( the language based state formed later), of which eleven times the title of the Chief Minister was “Reddy” and five times it was “Rao”. Two of the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and P V Narasimha Rao later on held the position of  President of India and Prime Minister of India respectively at different times. The longest serving Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was Nara Chandrababu Naidu.

As proposed by Congress, policy since 1920, Andhra Pradesh was created on the basis of “one language one state” On October 1, 1953, Andhra Pradesh was formed comprising of eleven Telugu speaking districts of the erstwhile Madras state. ( Madras state was later renamed as Tamilnadu). Hyderabad was trifurcated, and the Telugu speaking districts were merged with the new state.The cultural difference between the areas of costal Andhra and those in the direct vicinity of Nizam’s rules were different and so were their attitude to life. These people, loosely called  themselves as from Telengana, till date feel that they have been given a raw deal and all the riches, even jobs,  of Hyderabad and Telengana region have been wrongfully appropriated to the people from other regions of Andhra Pradesh, they want two states, or three states, though  speaking the same Telugu language.

During his later years with the help of his Financial Advisors and lawyers Nizam made several trusts with monetary endowment from his side for the well being of the people who were related to him or who lived in the King Kothi with him, and he provided reasonable to good amount for everyone of them. In last few years Nizam had reduced the nazrana amount to between five to eleven rupees. Someone presented him a gold coin during that time, and he said curtly “ You think I am poor?”. Then he placed his hand on the coin and said “I have accepted it, now you can take it back”.

These chronicle and much more are in this book, which is a must read for everyone who loves Hyderabad.

Cold Steel : Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-Billion Dollar Battle for a Global Empire

“ Cold Steel ” is written by Tim Bouquet and  Byron Ousey. The later was advising the Luxembourg Government on their communication strategy  during the period covered by the book. As the name suggests,  the book is about Shri Lakshmi Mittal and the multi-billion dollar battle for a global empire. The book written like a fiction, puts together a compelling story on struggle for market domination between the two of the world’s largest producer of steel,  i.e. Arcelor  and Mittal Steel. 

Since during this time,  I was working  at  the Polish entity of Mittal Steel, I had a ring side view, but not in as much detail as is given in this book. Some of the  characters in the book are known to me, but that is besides the story. As is well known ultimately the controlling interest of  Arcelor was bought over by the Mittals and  Arcelor-Mittal became the largest steel company of the world. Subsequently, I worked at the combined head-quarter of Arcelor Mittal at Luxembourg too. 

The then CEO of Arcelor, Guy Dolle has been painted as a principled person, an expert in production of steel, not as good in public relation. On the other hand Shri LN Mittal and his son Shri Aditya Mittal are portrayed as master strategists, who traveled the entire world, met all the stake holders, had numerous meeting and made numerous presentations. They are master financial and PR strategists also and had no dogmatic approach on any matter always ready to accommodate.. The billion dollar savings because of the synergy  of  merging the operations of Arcelor with Mittal Steel and the complimentary nature of their product baskets made logical sense at that time to many shareholders. Use of Russian Servostal  as a poison pill from Arcelor’s side did not go well with the shareholders, it seems. Two highly internationally renowned investment bankers and brothers Yeol Zaoui ( Goldman Sachs) Michael Zaoui ( Morgan Stanley ) were in  opposite camps.As brothers they were very close, speaking to each other most of the days, and dining their mother once a week. They would be holidaying together, but when they were working on opposite sides they were strictly professional. The writers want us to believe, that there was one thing they never spoke out to one another is the deal.

After the acquisition, in 2007 Arcelor Mittal had grown to a company, with market capitalization of $ 128 billion, producing 116 million tons of steel generating a revenue of $ 105 billion. Its EBITDA was $19.4 billion  and net income of $ 10.4. Almost all the savings because of synergy promised by the Mittals were also achieved.

The political class of France, Germany. Luxembourg, India had played their respective roles and that is also well captured in the book. The names and roles of some of the executives on both sides are also well captured in the book. A battery of lawyers, investment bankers, PR firms were engaged by both the sides, and their names and roles also detailed as a part of the drama,

Prologue

However as Guy Dolle had put, the final outcome and success of this merger is yet to be pronounced. Because of the high Chinese demand and high steel price Arcelor Mittal made extra-ordinary profit in 2007 and a few months of 2008, which gradually came down over years. The turmoil after Lehman Brothers' collapse and the subsequent recession-like situation added woes to the steel industry.  Mr. Mittal lost many slots  in his ranking in the list of Forbes’ wealthiest persons.  The fall can be easily understood from the share price of Arcelor Mittal. Its shares were quoted at $103.1 as on June 2, 2008 and  on November 12, 2012, it is quoted at $ 14.85, a fall of 85% from the highest price.  Many of the subsequent expansion plans are on hold and Mr. Mittal’s dream of transforming Arcelor Mittal into a 200 million ton steel is still a distant vision. With profit margin of -0.85%, return on equity of – 1.29%, and book value of $ 35.58 , its shares are quoting on Nov 12, 2012, at 41% of book value, in short it is a disaster as of now. Only posterity will tell whether the acquisition  made any sense.

Whether the merger has worked or not, world steel production has gone up or not, steel quality has improved or not, many people in the game, the shareholders, investment bankers, and an array of advisers  have made huge money, and  even the employees, who unloaded their stock options at a huge profit. 

This  is an engrossing  story of modern day  mega-capitalism.

Extreme Money – The Masters of Universe and the Cult of Risk

“Extreme Money – The Masters of Universe and the Cult of Risk “ by Satyajit Das is a book on the present day bankers. After reading this book, you would feel tempted to withdraw all your savings from the bank, or plan to be as mischievous as possible  with your bank and be a part of the robbery that  is possibly going on even now.

 Though mostly focused on US and European Banks, I think, some Indian Bankers are also waiting in the wings for such an opportunity  to emerge. The Salary of the top level of executives in many Indian banks are also sky-rocketing and it is only possible that they are just waiting to catch up with their friends abroad, who are simply mastermind burglars.

I have attended the class of Mr. Das, when he was in India as a part of Euromoney Traning’s training program on  derivatives. His understanding on the subject and mastery over financial modeling was very appreciated by his enlightened class. But this book, shows much  more than his mastery over the subject, it shows his understanding of the entire world of rogue banking. Most of the rogue bankers got scot free, except a  few in the periphery.

“The analysis shows the dizziness of spiral debt. Borrowing by US Government, corporations and individuals have reached around 350% of what America produces in a year, its GDP. Consumers borrowing at a record level, every man woman and child in the USA ( a supposedly rich country), has borrowed around Rs 4000 dollar each from their Chinese counterparts ( who are supposedly less well off ). Complex, incomprehensible, untested financial products have accumulated unnoticed, outside regulatory perview. Banks are lending money to people, who will never be able to pay them back. “

In every line and every page of the book there is insight of an insider, who reveals the real truth of high end banking, particularly investment banking.

 While reading the book you will discover what pleases these bankers, their habits and wealth, who toil hard to make their own money and not for their customers and investors. They always believed that they are so complex that no one will understand them, no regulatory mechanism can touch them and  they will go on creating this unending web of risk management theories and draw every one into their greed lock.

Sample this :

" Crime without Punishment : In 2008 hedge fund returns averaged negative 20% Even marque funds took large losses. Hedge Funds investments fell by around $ 600 billion. Over 3500 hedge funds out of 8000 ceased operation. Devaney a hedge fund manager and bon vivant with a taste for high living, lost $100 million, and was forced to sell prized personal assets, properties in Aspen, Colorado and Miami, his helicopter, a Gulfstream jet and his cherished 142 foot yatch 'Positive Carry'. "

" The brave new economy was built  on debt. Individuals borrowed to buy houses, cars, gadgets or take holidays.  They borrowed to get education, and to get healthcare. They even borrowed to save, using debt-financed investments. Companies borrowed to invest and to buy each other. They borrowed to pay dividend, repurchase their own stock. ...America borrowed in good times, because it could and borrowed n bad times because it needed to. Vice President Dick Cheney stated " Reagan proved deficits don't matter".

The sheer magnitude of neglect revealed in this book, will make you boil inside you and  you will feel like doing something about these white collar robbers.  This is also an eye opener for you, why should you keep your money in gold and other real assets, and not in bank accounts totally , however, allured you are. The housing bubble has also to be watched against, although India probably has not reached that stage as yet.

The domino effect of this rogue banking is what we are seeing everywhere, particularly Europe, who have been half-heartedly drawn into this circus.

This book is worth reading from cover to cover and should find a permanent place in your almanac.