The Hyderabadis: From 1947 to Present Day. Book Launch & Panel Discussion

Get ready for an exciting book launch and panel discussion about the amazing journey of Hyderabadis through history! This in-person event will dive deep into stories, culture, and changes since 1947.

Whether you are a history buff or just curious, come hang out, ask questions, and celebrate this fascinating tale with fellow enthusiasts.

Book Description:

From the annexation of the princely state of Hyderabad in September 1948 to the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 and the eventual creation of Telangana in 2014—these broad brushstrokes of Hyderabad’s history are well-documented. What has long been missing, however, is the perspective of the people, the different communities who lived through these upheavals—the communal violence of Independence and Partition, the push for a linguistic re-imagination of the state and its bifurcation, the long-drawn-out struggle for statehood—and those who were forced to adapt to a rapidly changing India. For the first time, Daneesh Majid brings their stories to light. Drawing from generational interviews, oral histories, literature in Urdu and English and his own personal experiences, he drafts a modern history of Hyderabad.

The book was longlisted for the Ramnath Goenka Sahitya Samman Award (Best Debut) and has also been shortlisted for the Wise Owl Literary Awards (Non-Fiction).

Copies of the book will be available for interested readers courtesy the SAGA Foundation.

Biography:

Daneesh Majid is a writer who concentrates on South Asian culture, security and Urdu literature. He has worked for Siasat.com, the online English edition of the prominent Urdu daily. His writing has been featured in numerous South Asian media outlets, such as Mint Lounge, The Hindu Business Line, Express Tribune, The New Indian Express, The Wire, The News Minute, The Print, Madras Courier, DailyO, The Nation (Pakistan) and Dhaka Tribune. He is an alumnus of Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. The Hyderabadis: From 1947 to the Present-Day is his first book.

Panelists:

Haroon Siddiqui is a well-known and widely respected senior newspaper journalist, columnist and editorial page editor emeritus of the Toronto Star, Haroon Siddiqui has reported from more than 50 countries and shaped media coverage of Canada for fifty years through ten prime ministers. Haroon Siddiqui is a Member of the Order of Canada and former editorial page editor emeritus of the Toronto Star. He is the recipient of the Canadian Journalism Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award (2023) and the World Press Freedom Award. A former president of PEN Canada and Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, he is the author of Being Muslim and the memoir My Name Is Not Harry (2023).

Ali Adil Khan is an art critic, curator, writer, and collector. He is the founder and director of the Shehla and Adil Giving for Arts (SAGA) Foundation and the South Asian Gallery of Art. Born in Hyderabad, India and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, he has been based in Toronto since 1991. Over the past two decades, he has built a significant collection of Modern and Contemporary art from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. His grandfather, Nawab Liaquat Jung, served as Finance Minister of the State of Hyderabad during the transitional period leading up to the Indian annexation of Hyderabad in 1948.

Brian T. Cannon is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Historical Studies and the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He holds a joint Ph.D. in History and South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. His current book project, "Claiming Caste: Land, Water and Hierarchy in North India, c. 1660–1950," examines how ownership of land and water shaped contests over hierarchical status in Marwar (Jodhpur) state. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays program, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies.

Meenakshi Alimchandani is a Canada based literary and film consultant, who specializes in South Asian literature and film. Meenakshi consults for Canadian publishers and promotes well-known authors like William Dalrymple, Gurucharan Das, Amitava Ghosh, M.G Vassanji, Anar Ali, Lisa Ray and Ruby Lal to name a few. She has been a moderator at the JLF Toronto 2019 and 2021 as well as at the Author Evenings at the Aga Khan museum and the Oakville Centre for the Arts. In addition, she has been a speaker at the Jaipur Bookmark (Jaipur Literature Festival), the Apeejay Kolkata Litfest as well as the Kerala Litfest. Meenakshi is the co-coordinator of a Book Club called Books that Bind which is focussed on diverse and multicultural literature.

Moderator: Hema Ganapathy-Coleman, Ph.D., Director, Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities.

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Host or Publisher Centre for South Asian Civilizations