Who was the Lieutenant General who played a guiding role in the merger of Hyderabad State ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (2), Rajendra Singh — Lieutenant General Rajendrasinghji Jadeja, who as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command held overall command over the military action that brought Hyderabad State into the Indian Union. When the Nizam of Hyderabad refused accession and negotiations under the Standstill Agreement broke down, the Indian Army launched Operation Polo on 13 September 1948; troops entered Hyderabad territory under the overall supervision of Lt. Gen. Rajendrasinghji, while Major General J. N. Chaudhuri commanded the actual invading force on the ground. The Nizam's forces surrendered within days, a ceasefire was declared on 17 September, and Hyderabad's formal accession followed on 18 September 1948. Rajendrasinghji's guiding role at the command level over the whole operation is exactly what this question is asking for, distinguishing him from the officer who executed the operation in the field.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Cariappa was a senior and highly decorated Lieutenant General at this time, but his command responsibility in 1948 lay elsewhere: from January 1948 he headed the Delhi and East Punjab Command, soon renamed Western Command, directing operations against Pakistani-backed forces in Jammu and Kashmir. He went on to become independent India's first Indian Commander-in-Chief in January 1949, but the Hyderabad operation of September 1948 was not under his command.  (c) Srinagesh's 1948 postings were also tied to the Kashmir theatre rather than Hyderabad — he served as Adjutant General at Army Headquarters in early 1948 and then as overall commander of Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir through to the ceasefire of January 1949. He later rose to GOC-in-C Southern Command and eventually to Chief of the Army Staff in 1955, but that Southern Command posting came after Rajendrasinghji's, not during the Hyderabad operation itself.  (d) Lockhart, a British officer, served as independent India's first Commander-in-Chief of the Army from August 1947, but he had left that post well before Operation Polo — he was succeeded during 1948, ahead of the September action, by General Roy Bucher, another British officer who is recorded as having urged caution on the Cabinet over military action against Hyderabad. Lockhart's own tenure does not connect him to the operation this question describes.

Concept: Hyderabad's accession was the largest and most militarily consequential of the princely-state integration episodes after August 1947, precipitated by the Nizam's refusal to join either India or Pakistan and by escalating disorder within the state, including the activities of the Razakar militia. When negotiation under the Standstill Agreement of November 1947 failed to produce accession, the Government of India ordered a short, decisive military operation — codenamed Operation Polo — that ended Nizam rule as an independent political entity within five days.

State PCS 2025 Q12 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q12 — History PYQ with Answer