Hyderabadi ‘Vintage Khan’ debunks claim of Nizam insulted in Rolls-Royce showroom in London

Delinking Nizam from the Roll-Royce garbage truck story, Khan, the author of the pictorial book ‘Automobiles of the Nizams,’

Hyderabad: Amid resurfacing photographs and claims that the seventh Nizam was insulted in a Rolls-Royce showroom in London which made him buy numerous RR cars and turn them into garbage collecting trucks, Hyderabadi vintage car enthusiast Mohammed Luqman Ali Khan, who is fondly known as ‘Vintage Khan’, said that the claims are false.

Delinking Nizam from the Roll-Royce garbage truck story, Khan, the author of the pictorial book ‘Automobiles of the Nizams,’ said: “I am appalled to witness the resurfacing of false attributions and mindless claims about this self-explanatory photograph. It is fervently done by a few boastfully devout Hyderabadis.”

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He further added that having researched extensively on the cars of the Nizams, he feels duty-bound to reaffirm that no such incident is recorded in archives.

Explaining about the photograph, he shared: “The car in the photograph is a Ford and not a Rolls-Royce. The street shown is not one from Hyderabad – Deccan. Clothing seen in the photo is not common to Hyderabad. The so-called “brooms” in front tyres were there to protect tyres and tubes, positioned to sweep-away shrapnel and sharp objects which plagued roads after aerial bombardment in the war days.”

“Rolls-Royce was a big name, but not as big as the other cars owned and preferred by the Nizams. Like many other car-makers, R-R too vied to obtain orders from the Nizams, correspondence of the time revealed. No question of R-R refusing an order placed by the Nizams,” he added.

Khan concluded that it is said to be a true story but from a different princely state, not Hyderabad.