HYDERABAD, 16th March, 1891..
Ekbal Ali has come back to the scene of his activities. Unlike the typical Mahomedan, he is not a lover of idleness or delay. No sooner did he know that Hyderabad could not get on without him, that he bid goodbye to the British Service and started and slept not a wink until he was amidst his friends and well-wishers. He was in receipt of a monthly salary of 1500 H. S. Ps. when he threw up his judgeship; now he gets 2000 Rs. a month. As long as he was in the High Court, his patrons could not increase his pay without making him supersede Ali Raza Khan and others and thus making enemies of them. But now that he is free, they could create a law commission and put him at the head of it on 2000 Rs. a month—and plead State necessity. How political these men really are! But then they might profitably remember that what at one moment succeeds, ends not only in failure but in ruin at another.
Sometime ago, a correspondent drew public attention in the columns of a local paper to the way in which a distinguished Nawab amuses himself on festive occasions. The 'way' will amuse your readers immensely and at the same time give them an idea of the stump of the men who are entrusted with the destinies of ten millions of people here. The Nawab referred to, who has evidently a talent for the dramatique—the character of it I leave it to you to determine—acts a part on occasions of parties to his friends at his residence. He dresses himself like a woman—if the man-woman is an edifying sight, how much more so must the Nawab-woman be!—and sits on a wooden platform before a pot of toddy and sells toddy at a gold mohur—and not two pice as stated by the correspondent in the local paper—a measure to friends and admirers. In this character, the nobleman is perfection itself.
The Nawab Imad Nawaz Jung has filed his explanation in connection with the so-called Second Treasury Frauds case. page 85
