Bhopal and Pakistan

Hamidullah Khan was the Nawab of Bhopal in 1947. He was a staunch supporter of Pakistan & Jinnah. He governed Bhopal by Sharia. He wrote a letter inviting the King of Afghanistan to invade India. He was the great grandfather of Saif Ali Khan.

On August 2, 1947, Saif Ali Khan’s great grandfather, Nawab of Bhopal wrote a letter to Jinnah. He clearly states “I am a staunch supporter of Pakistan. I want to merge Bhopal in Pakistan. Hindus are untrustworthy. But Bhopal is 80% Hindu and surrounded by India. I am cut off. Hindus are intimidating me to join India. I know Pakistan has no means of helping me. But I want to know how much Pakistan can help me. I would never sign and join India, come what might. I will continue to serve Pakistan and Islam!”

In other words, Saif Ali Khan’s family tried everything in their power to merge Bhopal in Pakistan. But as Bhopal was in the center of India, neither Jinnah nor Nawab had military means to resist India. Had Bhopal been a frontier kingdom, it would have been a part of Pakistan.

Source: https://twitter.com/BharadwajSpeaks/status/1392103671249268740 and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Papers. From Jinnah’s letter collection in Lucknow AIML office. Digitized and published in 1994-95 by the Government of Pakistan and recommended for inclusion in Memory of World Register.