India got independence on 15 August 1947. At the time of independence, there was a king in the country who had the most gold at that time. It is said that he had so many pearls that if he wanted, he could have covered all the sidewalks of Piccadilly Circus in London with them. Today we are talking about Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan. Who was called the richest man not just in India but in the world. Today we are going to tell you some facts related to Mir Osman Ali Khan.
trucks were full of gold
According to a report by Financial Express, Mir Osman Ali Khan had more than 100 million pounds (45359 tons) of gold. Apart from this, there were diamonds, pearls, rubies and other jewels worth around 400 million pounds. Famous historians Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins write in their book “Freedom at Midnight” that the Nizam of Hyderabad had so much gold that dozens of trucks filled with gold bricks used to stand in the mud in his garden. Because the weight of these trucks was so much that their wheels had sunk. Apart from this, at that time the Nizam had so many pearls that if he wanted, he could have covered all the sidewalks of London’s famous Piccadilly Circus with them.
425 kg gold was handed over to the government
Historians say that when the India-China war broke out in 1965, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had started a campaign to raise funds. During this time, the government had started the National Defense Gold Scheme. According to the information, Nizam had invested 4.25 lakh grams (425 kg) of gold in this scheme. This is also mentioned in a speech of Lal Bahadur Shastri.
According to a report of The Hindu dated 11 December 1965, when Lal Bahadur Shastri came to Hyderabad, the Nizam welcomed him at the airport. After this, on the same day, Lal Bahadur Shastri, while addressing a rally, congratulated Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan for investing 4.25 lakh grams of gold in the National Defense Gold Scheme. According to the information, the price of that gold at that time was around Rs 50 lakh.
India’s first billionaire
Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan is also called the first billionaire of India. The total wealth of Osman Ali, who took over as Nizam in 1911 at the age of just 25, was equal to two percent of America’s GDP.
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