Operation Polo by Indian Army
Source: Indian Express
Prelims
Overview
- About Operation Polo
Why in the News?
On this day 75 years ago, the Indian Army launched Operation Polo, the military action to integrate the princely state of Hyderabad with the Indian Union.
About
- Operation Polo was the code name given for the September 1948 police action against Hyderabad state by the then-independent Dominion of India.
- It was a military operation in which the Indian armed forces annexed the Nizam-ruled princely state.
- India, on the instructions of Home Minister Sardar Patel, did the operation in Hyderabad.
- The operation was started on September 13, 1948, and completed on day 5, September 17.
- Sardar Patel had major doubts about the Nizam of Hyderabad’s intentions due to the state’s location.
- Hyderabad state was in the heart of India, surrounded by land.
- The Nizam was not interested in forging connections with India, which implied he had other ideas in mind.
- As a result, Sardar Patel put up an inquiry team to find out what the Nizam was up to. i.e. Hyderabad was friendly with Pakistan yet opposed to India.
- On 18 September 1948, Operation Polo was terminated after the Indian Army accepted the surrender of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s army.
The areas liberated
- The state of Hyderabad under the Nizam included:
- the whole of current-day Telangana,
- the Marathwada region in Maharashtra included the districts of Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani.
- Districts of Kalaburagi, Bellary, Raichur, Yadgir, Koppal, Vijayanagara and Bidar in current day Karnataka.
- The state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka officially observe September 17 as the Liberation Day.
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