Hyderabad—the city of nawabs, the Charminar and biryani? Or a city plugged into the neural network of global technology? Hyderabad is both of those cities all at once, and there is much more to it than meets the eye.
Beyond Biryani maps the journey from what was at best a proto-colonial city under a quasi-Mughal princely state till the 1940s to the modern and vibrant metropolis that Hyderabad is today. In the pages of this book, we see the beginnings of that transformation: the Britishers who steered the city in the direction of developing a scientific temper and the nawabs who championed the cause. And we discover the workings and patterns of the change: from the Chloroform Commissions to Ronald Ross’s discovery of malaria; from the setting up of Osmania University, India’s first vernacular university, to the newly independent India pushing for industrial laboratories, scientific research and strategic forays into nuclear fuel and missiles. Finally, we discover how, in the last thirty years, Hyderabad has taken giant leaps towards becoming a truly globalised city.
An alternative history of the city of Hyderabad, Beyond Biryani is a must-read for anyone interested in how a city can catapult towards modernity while staying rooted in its cultural heritage.