The Last Nizam

Title: The Last Nizam
Author: John Zubrzycki
Publisher: Picador
Price: Rupees 395
Pages: 382

John Zubrzycki's story of the last Nizam is frustrating to read, not due to any fault of the author though. In fact, the book is quite well written, the narrative flows smoothly and the text is replete with excellent historical insights. The frustrating quality in book comes from the lack of vision and the sheer incompetence with which its main protagonist, Mukarram Jah, stumbles through his life. Zubrzycki has refrained from getting judgmental on Mukarram Jah; his is a more laidback style and he lets the historical facts do the job of exposing the real man behind the Last Nizam. "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him," goes a quote attributed to the Niccolo Machiavelli. By Machiavellian standards the Mukarram Jah can only be judged as a man who is incompetence personified.

Today Mukarram Jah is reduced to a lonely life in Turkey, much of his fortune is gone, creditors are hounding him, his reputation is in tatters and almost every member of his family has filed lawsuits against him. The nadir to which Jah has fallen feels even bleaker when we compare it to the fabulous fortune and glory that he had inherited only few decades ago. In 1967 when his grandfather nominated him to be his successor, Mukarram had inherited such a fantastic wealth that he was being billed as the richest man in the world. Being the Nizam of Hyderabad gave him access to the top political and business circles. There is nothing that he could not have done. He could have risen to any height in politics or made a name for himself in business.

In the end, he lost a marvelous opportunity of making a name for himself and doing something for the society, all because of his penchant for surrounding himself with incompetent men. Few decades of intrigue and mismanagement were all that it took for his wealth to vanish. The emeralds, diamonds, rubies and pearls, and other precious items were either auctioned off or stolen until nothing was left. It was a strange Australia adventure that saw Jah ruin much of his life. He had purchased the Murchison House sheep station, close to Perth in Australia as an unlikely escape from the warring relatives trying to fleece him in India. But the warring relatives would not let him go, wherever he went. Financially things went from bad to worse.

The number of relatives suing him in Hyderabad passed 800. For a long time he could sell off jewels and other assets from his extraordinary treasure trove, but this led to problems with the Indian government and further claims from those wanting their cut. What added to Jah's problem was the fact that he was not an astute businessman. He loved heavy machinery. In Australia he purchased a 260-tonne former mine sweeper, which he drove like a maniac. The sheep station was lost; the Perth mansion sold. The marriage to his Australian wife Helen broke up and she later died of AIDS. Jah's private misfortunes had become newspaper gossip in Perth. In 1996 he left the country, the Australian adventure over.

In writing his saga on the last Nizam, Zubrzycki, an Australian journalist, displays an extensive first-hand knowledge of India. His account of the early history is dense reading at times but the reader is gripped, as the book goes on, by the strangeness of a world of fairytale and corruption, and by the tale of a man out of place and time, who lost an almost incalculable fortune but had a pride in his identity. "I know I am the Nizam of Hyderabad", Jah once told The West Australian, "and that's all that matters."