UN General Assembly
1948

People often asked how it was that, while professing Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violence, India should yet have thought fit to resort to the use of force in Hyderabad. To those who knew the facts, the surprise was not that India had intervened but that India had not intervened much earlier. As long ago as 24. January 1948, a minister of the Hyderabad Government, in tendering his resignation to the Prime Minister, had said: « It pains me to be a member of a Government which allows looting, arson and murder unconcernedly; and that of my own brethren. The Bibinagar outrage, a report of which has been brought to me by a responsible person deputed by me especially for the purpose, has shocked me beyond all expression. I am certain about this: either we suppress this gangsterism ruthlessly, or we abdicate.» The Prime Minister, vainly attempting to persuade him to reconsider his resignation, had written: « I agree that there have been several unhappy incidents during the past few months, owing to various reasons.»