Dadabhai Naoroji – 1893 Comments on the Hyderabad Plot

Below is the text of the question asked by Dadabhai Naoroji, the then Liberal MP for Finsbury Central, in the House of Commons on 21 August 1893.

MR. NAOROJI (Finsbury, Central) In the absence of the hon. Member for Elgin and Nairn, I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether he is now aware that a person named Jowad Hussain has been arrested in Hyderabad, Deccan, on a charge of plotting to murder the British Resident, Mr. Plowden, or to blow up the Residency with dynamite; and that the arrest is stated to have been in consequence of the production to the Nizam by Mr. Plowden of a letter purporting to warn him that such a plot existed; whether there is any ground to believe in the existence of such a plot; and, if so, are any other persons stated to be implicated in it; what was the cause of the banishment from Hyderabad, on 15th ultimo, of the Political and Financial Secretary, the Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Mehdi Ali; and having regard to the circumstance that similar designs on Mr. Plowden’s life when he was Resident at the Court of the Ruler of Cashmere were attributed to that Ruler, and were without inquiry afterwards put forward as one of the causes officially assigned for his deposition, Her Majesty’s Government will direct that a full and careful iuquiry be made by some independent authority into the facts connected with the alleged plot, and the other recent events in Hyderabad which have been brought to their notice, so as to insure that no injustice is done to the Nizam’s Government?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. G. Russell,) North Beds. As regards questions 1, 2, and 3, the following information has been received by telegraph from the Viceroy:— One Jowad Hussain, arrested in Hyderabad, but not on Resident’s initiation, is principal person charged with complicity in plot to murder Resident. Facts not yet elicited, but Departmental inquiry is being held by two Judges of Nizam’s High Court. Mehdi Ali resigned and left State under Nizam’s orders in consequence of implication in one lakh of rupees bribery case. Complete correspondence regarding this incident posted 13th instant. In view of the fact that an inquiry into the alleged plot is now being held by two Judges of the Nizam’s High Court, the Secretary of State thinks it unnecessary, at the present stage of affairs, to order a separate inquiry to be held.