Move to relocate World War-II memorial in Secunderabad draws ire of retired officers

Days after the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) approved the shifting of the World War II memorial pylon that lies just outside the Parade Ground, former officers have sent a legal notice to the SCB. 

“This is a formal notice that the resolution passed on October 6, 2026, regarding Item No. 08 is legally unsustainable, illegal, and constitutes a direct breach of the binding undertaking recorded before the Hon’ble High Court for the State of Telangana,” says the notice sent by Retd Colonel Sunkara Srinivasa Rao.

Two memorials in Parade Ground

Colonel Rao (Retd) calls the effort to relocate the 80-year-old stone masonry structure a destruction of its ‘historical authenticity, structural integrity, and site context.’ There are two memorials to soldiers in the Parade Ground of Hyderabad, the one in the corner, seen from the main road and Metro, is a newer addition that honours the soldiers after India’s Independence. One of the names is that of Flight Lieutenant Andre Rudolf D’Costa who died in action in 1971 while straffing a goods train from a Hunter aircraft in what is now Bangladesh. The memorial has soldiers’ motto in Sanskrit: Shauryam Daksham Yudhhe, Balidan Param Dharma (rough translation: Bravery and skill in battle, sacrifice is duty). The other pylon erected by crowd-funding by the citizens dates from 1945. It has multi-lingual messages about martyrdom but now only the message in Kannada remains. “Samaradalli sattu Amaranada” (rough translation: Died in battle and became immortal). A relic of a time when the Nizam’s dominion encompassed parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

“We are not against the elevated corridor but the government can use the land on the other side of the road. The Cantonment Board is going against their sworn affidavit where they promised not to demolish or damage the pylon and only the greenery will be affected,” says Colonel Rao (Retd).

“The quad-lingual inscriptions in English, Telugu, Marathi, and Kannada honours the soldiers of the erstwhile Hyderabad State who served in WWII. Moving the monument is a constructive demolition that violates the Telangana Heritage Act,” says the notice sent by the former officer who played a role in the restoration of the other war memorial in the corner of the Parade Ground in 2019. Recently, when the Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan visited the city, he paid tributes at the memorial.

The Parade Ground is named after Gen. K.V. Krishna Rao, who saw action on the Burma, North West Frontier and Baluchistan fronts during the Second World War. The pylon that is almost on the road is a simple construction of blocks of dressed granite with a huge peepul tree growing out of it at the top.

Inside Parade Ground, earthmovers have dug up a huge portion of land around the war memorial. “I am not at liberty to say what we are doing,” said an Army official as the workers moved around a rectangular trench.