The seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan was the fifth richest man to ever walk on the world, as per the Forbes list of 2008.

The Nizam’s worth has been estimated by Forbes to be around $210.8 billion, if his riches are adjusted to the present value of the dollar. The world’s richest man living, Bill Gates pales in comparison, as he is worth only $56 billion!

At the peak of his “earning” period in 1936, Osman Ali Khan’s worth was estimated to be $2 billion. This was when the Nizam had completed a quarter century as the ruler of Hyderabad state and tales of his riches had travelled far and wide.

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Mir Osman Ali Khan, who had been conferred the title of His Exalted Highness by the British the only Indian prince to be given this status, presided over Hyderabad state which at that time sprawled across 2,23,000 square km or the present size of Great Britain.

His territories spread over present day Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and what is interesting is that his private estates (jagirs, also called sarf-i-khas land) accounted for a significant 30 per cent of this land mass.

The Nizam was not rich merely because he excelled in the art of money making. He also inherited much riches from his father. This included jewellery, pearls, kilos of uncut diamonds, tonnes of bullion, and huge quantity of currency notes.

Interesting to note when Mir Osman Ali Khan became the ruler of Hyderabad in 1911, the state treasury was nearly bankrupt, his father Mahbub Ali Pasha being profligate.

But that was the state of the state; the personal wealth of the Nizams accumulated through six generations remained intact.

The Nizams had inherited the state from the Mughals who had conquered it from the Qutub Shahis who ruled from Golcanda .

Included in their territories were the world famous Golconda mines that yielded big size diamonds.

The Nizam established their rule at a time when the Mughal empire was collapsing and north India was in turmoil.

Nadir Shah had sacked and pillaged Delhi and stripped the capital of its riches but it is possible that the first Nizam was able to make away with some riches from the Capital.

In the subsequent decades even as the Nizams became big players in the South, they made their pile from various conquests of local rajas or deals with even bigger chieftains like Hyder Ali, the father of Tipu Sultan.

Whose Riches Are It, Anyway?


Even as the heirs of the Nizam, the Government of India and the Pakistani government get set to settle the issue of £30 million lying in a bank account in NatWest Bank in London, the question is whose money is it anyway?

As is known, the money was put in the account of the Pakistan’s high commissioner to London, Habib Ibrahim Rahimatoola by the Nizam’s finance minister Mir Nawaz Jung. At that time September 1948 - the cash deposited was merely one million pounds.

Though shrouded in mystery the money was probably sent abroad to be used for lobbying for an independent Hyderabad state. With many claimants the sum in question was frozen in spite of strenuous efforts by Mir Osman Ali Khan during his life time to get it back.

The representatives of Osman Ali Khan’s grandson Mukarram Jah who was annointed as the Nizam after him are said to have been instrumental in convincing the Government of India to agree to come to the negotiating table.

Mukarram’s belief is that as the officially recognised heir of Osman Ali Khan, he should be the beneficiary of the £30 million.

But the other progeny of the Nizam and the progeny of this progeny - who total some four hundred, have other ideas.

With Hyderabad state now abolished and there being no Nizam, they say that the riches should be distributed in accordance with the provisions of the Muslim personal law.

However, some analysts say that the money transferred was that of the Hyderabad state and did not belong to Mir Osman Ali Khan’s sarf-i-khas . Therefore , there is no question of the money going to the heirs of the Nizam.

But irrespective of this issue, doesn’t the manner in which Osman Ali Khan made his money, morally oblige the Indian government to ask for the entire moolah for the people of Hyderabad?

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