K Chandrasekhar Rao vows to bring back Nizam jewels

Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has promised to bring back the Nizam’s famous jewellery to Hyderabad once the government’s other priorities are sorted out.

“Where will I park them if I bring the jewels now They are very precious and antique items. They require a suitable place with high security,” the chief minister told this newspaper.

Once the government’s priorities are on track, I will take up the issue with the central government and see that the jewels are housed in Hyderabad,” Mr Rao told DC.

The 173 pieces of jewellery are currently under the custody of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the CM said that the government would take up the issue at an appropriate time.

The Chief Minister added that the Nizam’s jewels would be a major tourist attraction of the state once they were brought back as they were famous worldwide.

“I will pursue with the Centre once priorities like 24-hour power supply, drinking water supply, two-bedroom housing scheme and others are on track,” he said.

Sources in the government said that a discussion had taken place a few months back regarding the jewels and a suitable place to house them. Once such place is the banks of the Hussainsagar in the heart of the city.

“We did visualise a pearl shaped building on the banks of Hussainsagar to house the jewels. Of course, it needs the approval of the central government, which is now the custodian of the jewels,” an official said.

Mr Chandrababu Naidu, as Chief Minister of undivided AP, had pursued the issue of the Nizam’s jewellery with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, to relocate them to Hyderabad. He had almost succeeded but his government fell.

The Centre had even sent a team to identify a suitable location for the jewels and the state government had showed the Salarjung Museum, neighbouring Kela Mandi near Afzal Gunj, Health Museum in Public Gardens, Banjara Hills and a few other places.

The central government wanted not only a suitable place, but also one with high security to protect the jewellery. But the subsequent state government did not follow up on the matter.

The Nizam’s jewels were a big hit with the public when they were displayed in New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Superb and rare, the 173 precious jewellery items of exquisite workmanship cover a period ranging from the 18th century to the early 20th century. It is one of the largest and richest collections of jewels in India.

It remained in the custody of the “H.E.H. Nizam Jewellery Trust” and “H.E.H. Nizam Supplemental Jewellery Trust” formed by the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, in 1951-1952 to safeguard the ancestral wealth of the family. The trustees kept this treasure of great historical value in the vaults of Hong Kong Bank.

The Government of India acquired the jewels in 1995 after a prolonged legal battle, paying a whopping Rs 218 crore then (now worth over Rs 1000 crore or more) and shifted the jewels to the vaults of Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai.

The first ever exhibition of the jewels took place at the National Museum in 2001 and subsequently at Salarjung Museum Hyderabad.

The collection includes sarpeches, necklaces, belts and buckles, bracelets and bangles, earrings, armlets, toe rings, finger rings, pocket watches and watch chains, buttons and cufflinks, etc.

There are also diamonds from the celebrated mines of Golconda, Colombian emeralds, Burmese rubies and spinels and pearls from Basra and the Gulf of Mannar.

The most outstanding piece in the collection is the Imperial Diamond, now known as the Jacob diamond, weighing 184.75 carats, which is a fabulous weight for a single gemstone. It is almost double the size of the Kohinoor (in its present shape).