Nizam of Hyderabad

Regarding “Battle Royal Still Rages Over a True Gem of a Collection,” Nov. 5:

The Nizam of Hyderabad was perhaps the richest man of his time. He was frugal in his own person, but to say he was a rich miser who smoked leftover cigarette butts makes an impression.

The Nizam was generous in ways that counted. He established the first university in India which imparted education in all disciplines at the highest level in a local language--Urdu. He endowed educational institutions all over India such as the Hindu University of Benares and the Muslim University of Aligarh. All religions were respected. He endowed and aided Christian and Sikh institutions in Hyderabad. In Hyderabad there was a public education system.

He established a bureau of translation which translated books into Urdu as they hit the press all over the world. He built subsidized and free housing for the poor. There were too many things he did for his subjects to be recounted here. Hyderabadis all over the world will attest to the generosity and vision of the Nizam of Hyderabad. I am one of those.

SHAMIM IBRAHIM

Lomita