Jung

Jung, SIR SALAR, chief minister to the Nizam of Hyderabad, was a member of a princely family which since the founding of the Nizami dynasty in 1713 had furnished the state with its chief ministers, and was born in 1829. Under his uncle, the chief minister, Salar Jung was trained in official work, and in 1853 succeeded his uncle in his important office. He at once began to reorganise the administration of the state, then in a most deplorable condition. The finances were in such a state that the British government had even to pay the troops the Nizam was permitted by treaty to maintain in his own name; and in order to repay the loan the province of Berar was ceded to the British. Salar Jung's first care was to reduce to obedience the mercenary Arab soldiery. Then the robber chiefs of the hill districts were crushed; courts of justice were established at Hyderabad; the police force was organised; the construction and repair of works of irrigation were attended to; and schools were established. During the Mutiny of 1857 Sir Salar Jung remained faithful to British interests in face of the opposition of the people, who sided with the insurgents. The Nizam Afzul, an apathetic, suspicious, and capricious monarch, had lent his reforming minister no aid; he had rather hampered and hindered him. But on his death in 1869 Sir Salar Jung shared with the most powerful noble of Hyderabad the post of regent. In 1876 he visited England with the hope of obtaining the restoration of the Berar province, but in this he was disappointed. After thirty years of wise government, he died suddenly on 8th February 1883. He was a Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India.