'Razakar' trailer ignites political heat in Telangana ahead of assembly polls

A trailer of a multilingual movie has become a new flash point between the BJP and ruling BRS in communally-sensitive Telangana and also has a potential to snowball into a major controversy just months ahead of the assembly polls.

The trailer of the movie “Razakar” that was released two days ago on the occasion of Telangana liberation day on September 17 led to heated and animated debate among politicians.

The 2-minute long movie trailer released by Ghoshamahal MLA Raja Singh depicts explicit and graphic details about the alleged brutalities and atrocities by Razakars in the Hyderabad state on the Hindu population during the Nizam’s rule.

The trailer also has dialogues by the protagonists that ‘Hindu Kafirs who doesn’t convert into Islam should be hanged to death’, ‘a Muslim state should be established in Hyderabad’. The trailer also shows sensitive scenes of a razakar pulling off the sacred threads of Hindu Brahmins etc.

Hyderabad State, comprising Telangana and parts of present day Maharashtra and Karnataka, acceded to India on September 17, 1948, about 13 months after India gained independence. This followed an Indian military operation codenamed 'Operation Polo' against the Nizam’s Army.

The Razakars were a volunteer paramilitary force of the nationalist party in the Hyderabad state under Nizam’s rule. Formed in 1938 by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Bahadur Yar Jung, Razakars expanded considerably during the leadership of Aligarh-educated Qasim Razvi around the time of India’s independence.

After the integration of erstwhile Hyderabad into the Indian Union, Qasim Razvi was initially jailed. Later, he was allowed to move to Pakistan, where he was granted asylum.

Producer of Razakar movie, BJP leader, Gudur Narayana Reddy said that with this movie an attempt was made to show the untold story about the atrocities and brutalities unleashed by Mulsim Razakars on Hindu population under Nizam rule. The movie title has a tagline of ‘Silent Hyderabad genocide’.

It all started with Karimanagar MP and BJP general secretary, Bandi Sanjay offering his comments about the movie trailer on X.

“Literally Goosebumps watching the trailer of the movie Razakar… Current generations should know about the struggles of Hyderabad Liberation. Let’s engage with history even as their pseudo intellectuals try to erase it,” said Sanjay on X while sharing the trailer.

In a sharp reaction to the trailer, BRS working president and state IT and industries minister, K T Rama Rao said “Some intellectually bankrupt jokers of the BJP are doing their best to instigate communal violence and polarisation for their political propaganda in Telangana We will take up the matter with censor board and also the Telangana police to ensure that the law & order situation of Telangana is not affected,” on X.

The movie directed by Yata Satyanrayana and is now being likened to the controversial ‘Kashmiri Files' will be released in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam. However there is no clarity on the release date.

“No doubt Razakars are a dark chapter in the history of Telangana. But certain political parties are trying to use the episode for their advantage by targeting one section of the society. They are trying to distort history. As per many historians there were even Hindu Razakars which means sevaks or volunteers in Urdu. They were also recruited by neo rich Hindu landlords like Doras to protect their interests. Its being wrongly projected that all of the Razakars were Muslims recruited by Muslim ruler to torture Hindus. They committed many heinous crimes, atrocities and brutalities on everyone. This movie is nothing but another propaganda movie like ‘Kashmir Files’ distorting the history suiting their line just before the polls flaring up the communal tensions,” noted academician and political analyst Prof Ghanta Chakrapani told DH.