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Author: The Daily Switch Team
Publication: Thedailyswitch.com
Date: May 12, 2021
URL: https://thedailyswitch.com/culture/my-wish-is-to-serve-islam-how-saif-ali-khans-great-grandfather-had-tried-to-merge-bhopal-with-pakistan#
Saif Ali Khan might’ve courted controversy after naming his son Taimur after a barbaric invader, but the rest of his family has a pretty interesting history as well.
Twitter account Bhardwaj Speaks, which has an encyclopedic knowledge of India’s history and culture, today dug up the details of Saif Ali Khan’s family history. Saif Ali Khan is the son of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, who was the Nawab of Pataudi. Saif Ali Khan’s great-grandfather was the Nawab of Bengal. He was a staunch supporter of Pakistan, and Jinnah.
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Bharadwaj @BharadwajSpeaks
How Saif Ali Khan's great grandfather tried to merge Bhopal in Pakistan: [Thread]
Saif's great grandfather was the Nawab of Bhopal.
He was a staunch supporter of Pakistan & Jinnah. He governed Bhopal by Sharia.
He wrote a letter inviting King of Afghanistan to invade India.
May 11, 2021
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Bharadwaj @BharadwajSpeaks
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"
May 11, 2021
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Bharadwaj @BharadwajSpeaks
Replying to @BharadwajSpeaks
He further says
"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!"
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Bharadwaj @BharadwajSpeaks
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!
6:35 PM ·
May 11, 2021
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On 2nd August 1947, weeks before the partition took place, Saif Ali Khan’s great-grandfather wrote a letter to Jinnah, the father of Pakistan. “I have throughout the last 8 or 10 years been in my humble way a staunch supporter of Pakistan and a loyal and devoted friend of the Muslim cause in India and of the Muslim League,” he wrote in the letter.
In the letter, Saif Ali Khan’s great grandfather spoke of how he wished to join Pakistan, but lamented that Bhopal was 80% Hindu and surrounded by Hindu states.
“My personal wish is to abdicate and serve Islam. As long as I can serve Islam and Pakistan and help and support you…I am prepared to serve Pakistan in any capacity,” he’d written.
Bhopal, though, was right in the center of India, and eventually merged with India. Saif Ali Khan’s family prospered — his father became the captain of the Indian cricket team, and Saif Ali Khan himself became a famous Bollywood actor. But this message sent by the family to the founder of Pakistan sheds light on a period of history that is often forgotten in India.
Source: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Papers. From Jinnah’s letter collection in Lucknow AIML office. Digitized and published in 1994-95 by Government of Pakistan and recommended for inclusion in Memory of World Register |
