Nizams Dominions

Nizam's Dominions is the designation of an extensive territory in the interior of Southern India north-west of the Presidency of Madras, in lat. 150 10'-210 42' N., and long. 740 40'-810 32' E.; from south-west to north-east 480 miles in length, and in its extreme breadth 340 miles, covering an area of 95,000 square miles, with a population estimated at upwards of 10,000,000. The surface is a slightly elevated tableland, naturally very fertile, but poorly cultivated, yet, wherever it receives moderate attention, yielding harvests all the year round. The products are rice, wheat, maize, mustard, castor-oil, sugar- cane, cotton, indigo, fruits (including grapes and melons), and all kinds of kitchen vegetables. The pasturages are extensive, and sheep and horned cattle are numerous. Marsh and jungle, however, occupy a great space, and originate fevers, agues, diseases of the spleen, etc., though the climate is quite healthy where these do not abound. The mean temperature of the capital, Hyderabad, in January is 740 30', and in May 930. The inhabitants manufacture for home use woolen and cotton fabrics, and export silk, dressed hides, dye-stuffs, gums, and resins. The principal rivers are the Godavari (Godavery), with its tributaries the Dudhna, Manjera, and Pranhita; and the Kistna (Krishna), with its tributaries the Bimah and Tungabhadro. Good military roads traverse the territory. The revenue of the Nizam is reckoned at £1,553,000 yearly. The ruler is a Mohammedan, but his subjects are mostly Hindis, SEE HINDUISM; SEE INDIA; and thus far Christianity has failed to make any headway among them.

History. — In 1687 the territory now known as the Nizam's Dominions became a province of the Mogul empire; but in 1719 the governor or viceroy of the Deccan, Azof Jah, made himself independent, and took the title of Nizam ul-Mulk (regulator of the state). After his death, in 1748, two claimants appeared for the throne — his son Nazir Jung, and his grandson Mirzapha Jung. The cause of the former was espoused by the East India Company, and that of the latter by a body of French adventurers under general Dupleix. Then followed a period of strife and anarchy. In 1761 Nizam Ali obtained the supreme power, and after some vacillation signed a treaty of alliance with the English in 1768. He aided them in the war with Tippoo, sultan of Mysore, and at the termination of that war, in 1799, a new treaty was formed, by which, in return for certain territorial concessions, the East India Company bound itself to maintain a subsidiary force of 8000 men for the defense of the Nizam's Dominions. The present Nizam, or ruler, Afzul-ul-Dowlah, who succeeded to the government on the death of his father, May 19, 1857, remained faithful to the British during the mutiny of 1857-58.