This is a small part of one of the palaces owned, but never lived in, by a man who, in 1937, was regarded as the richest in the World. Mir Osman Ali Khan was the Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad and his family had ruled this Indian State with absolute authority for the previous 217 years. By 1937 his personal wealth was estimated to be US$211 Billion (at today’s values) and even as recently as 2008, he was thought to have been the 5th richest person in history. Amongst Hyderabad’s many natural assets, it has had a history of being the World’s finest and, until the late 19th century, only depository of diamonds. For many years Hyderabad had been the centre of the World jewellery trade and income from this helped lay the foundations for this immense wealth. From 1937, things began to change; political, economic and moral pressure in the aftermath of the Second World War brought about the creation of the unified Indian State in 1948 and, after refusing to join unification and seeking Independence, the Nizams lost the authority to rule in Hyderabad when the territory was forcibly annexed by the Indian Army.
Over the next 20 years, until his death in 1967, Osman Ali Khan’s personal wealth roughly halved, mainly as a result of legal battles with his descendants (he himself had 7 wives, 42 concubines and at least 149 children – in all the Nizam line had some 14000+ dependants!) and the Indian Government. Upon his death, his 35-year-old eldest grandson, Barkat Ali Khan, became the titular Nizam of Hyderabad and inherited the larger part of his dwindling fortune and increasing legal wrangles. Within 5 years, Barkat Ali Khan had become so disillusioned with the whole process that he bought and moved to live on a half-million acre sheep station about 600kms north of Perth in Western Australia. Things got worse. His First Indian wife, Princess Esra refused to stay with him and he ended up marrying a further 4 wives. In 1974 the Nizams were stripped of all their titular roles. One of his subsequent wives, a secretary named Helen Simmons, died of Aids in 1989 after a relationship with another man, causing an ugly and distressing media sensation. In 1996, liquidators moved in to sell off what was left of the Nizam’s fortune – vast amounts of it having been looted in the intervening years by unsupervised employees. Shortly afterwards, Barkat Ali Khan disappeared. He now lives in a 2-bedroom apartment in Turkey, discovered there by an Australian investigative reporter.
Of the Nizam’s former wealth, a large part of it was acquired by the Indian government and, in the early part of this century some of the palaces began to undergo restoration as a result of efforts made by Barkat Ali Khan’s first wife, the afore-mentioned Princes Esra. Today’s photo is of one of these palaces – Chowmahalla – probably the principal palace of the Nizam reign and an incredible place to visit.
daybydaybyphoto 