Page:Hyderabad in 1890 and 1891; comprising all the letters on Hyderabad affairs written to the Madras Hindu by its Hyderabad correspondent during 1890 and 1891 (IA hyderabadin1890100bangrich).pdf/82

Page 74 General individually testified to the utter inability of the samasthan to pay a much less sum than that demanded, that this, strangely enough, resulted in the peishkush being raised to Rs. 15,000 II, S., that the Raja Sahib appealed against this to His Highness the Nizam repeatedly without avail-all this your readers know from my letters. In this letter I shall put before them a case which, though not as "bad" as that of the Raja of Anagondi, serves to show equally well what policy the present Government is guided by with respect to its dealings with the Hindus. Gurgunta is a small principality in His Highness the Nizam's Dominions yielding an annual income of about Rs. 40,000: and it has been in the possession of the Hindu family that now stands dispossessed of it, for a longer period than Hyderabad itself has been in the hands of the Nizams. The last Raja died in January 1890, and the samasthan passed as inheritance to his two widows and daughter. These latter had been in the enjoyment of the revenues of the State hardly for a month, when a Talaqdhar appeared on the scene with a band of sepoys and policemen and took forcible possession of not only the samasthan but their private estates. The why and wherefore of this arbitrary proceeding it is hardly necessary we should speculate upon-they are transparent to all. The Ranis having failed to get justice from the Minister has, I am informed, placed her case in the hands of Mr. Nelson, Barrister-at-law, and instructed him to carry it up to His Highness the Nizam himself. What action is Highness will take in the matter-remains to be seen. An item of interesting news comes to me from a trustworthy quarter. A young Hindu gentleman-one of the most intelligent men in His Highness's Educational Department-whose services had received a recognition in the shape of a valuable gold watch presented to him in the name of the Government by the Nawab Vicar-ul-Umrah Bahadur, went to see the Nawab off at a certain railway station. The Nawab wished to know where the Hindu had been born; and on being told he was a pucca Hydrabadee