SIXTH NIZAM

The sixth Nizam was H.E.H Nawab Mir Mahbub Ali Khan Bahadur[1869– 1911]

He was a man inspired, driven and even obsessed by his overwhelming desire to improve the condition of his people. The sixth Nizam took an active part in the administration of the state, especially after the death of his capable Prime Minister Salar Jung. His constant struggle was to regulate its finances. He had many setbacks due to the lack of financial acumen of the otherwise capable ministers. His people had to face calamities like floods and famine and the British policies.   

The sixth Nizam himself managed not only to reduce the levels of corruption but, after 1901, with the ministerial services of Maharaja Kishen Pershad and the assistance of J.C.Walker, Financial Adviser (later minister), but also achieved economic stability. It was due to the dedication of the sixth Nizam and the other gifted men and women that the State started to flourish and its people progressed to enhanced well being.

The Sixth Nizam was a man who loved the people of Hyderabad and who became the most beloved (Mahbub) of the people of Hyderabad. Not infrequently he would, at night, put on dress of a poor man and slip out incognito to mix with the people on the streets and in the ‘chai khanas’ – tea houses. He would listen to the grievances and the aspirations they voiced. His belief was that he could serve them effectively when he heard their grievances first hand.

He was a large hearted man who alternated between bouts of pursuing pleasure and performing his duties with great diligence. He was a man of dignity, compassion, humility, rigid integrity and unbounded generosity – a man whose greatest happiness was the happiness of his people of Hyderabad.