It took two to tango to set stage for September 17, 1948 in Hyderabad

A week before the tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled into Hyderabad, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made it clear on the floor of the Constituent Assembly: “India could never agree to Hyderabad having independent relations with any other power for that would endanger her own security. Historically, Hyderabad has at no time been independent. Practically, in the circumstances of today, it cannot be independent.” The message on September 7, 1948 was a much stronger message than the earlier missives.

Weeks earlier, on June 4, 1948, Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel in Dehradun wrote to Nehru. “I feel and feel very keenly that we should do nothing in Hyderabad whether in regard to its internal constitutional problems or in regard to its accession, which we cannot justify in all good conscience to the world and to our own people.”