Narendra Luther, the man who unravelled Hyderabad secrets, dies

HYDERABAD: Civil servant, historian, author, poet and chronicler Narendra Luther passed away after a brief illness here on Tuesday. He was 89. He is survived by wife Bindi Luther, daughter and son. A 1955 batch IAS officer, Luther served in various positions before retiring as the chief secretary of the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1991.
Luther’s death has created a void in city’s history and heritage circles, which he had enlivened with his research digging out the rare aspects of Hyderabad’s history, traditions, culture, its nobility, architecture and governance since the city’s birth in 1591.
A naturalist to the core, Luther was moved by Hyderabad’s unique rock formations that took millions of years to shape. He was associated with the Society to Save Rocks and was instrumental in bringing some of the geological formations under urban development authority regulations in 1981 to conserve them for posterity. His love for Mother Nature and Hyderabad’s natural heritage was so profound that he built his house on a huge rock with a portion protruding into the living room.
He was born at Hoshiarpur (Punjab) in 1932 and his family was in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) when the partition took place in 1947 and they later migrated to the Indian side of Punjab. Fluent in Urdu, Luther found Hyderabad his second home and penned a number of books on city history, heritage and architecture. He also documented Raja Deendayal, the royal photographer of the Nizam VI, whose photographs give an insight into the life and times of the princely Hyderabad at the turn of the 19th century.
Luther was one of the authors on Hyderabad who believed in the legendary Bhagmati and the love story of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, who founded Hyderabad, and Bhagmati. Scholars like Luther believed that the city was founded on love and Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.
As a bureaucrat, Luther was closely associated with Andhra Pradesh from the time of its formation in 1956. He was posted in Kurnool in 1956 and shifted to Hyderabad in 1959 and since then he had enriched Hyderabad’s geological and architectural history on one hand, and its culture and traditions on the other. As the head of city civic body, he implemented the slum improvement programme.
His works include the monogram on Hyderabad’s founder, Secunderabad and the life and times of the Nizams. Among his various recognitions were the Golden Astor awards.
City historians Anuradha Reddy, Sajjad Shahid, Prof Ameerullah Khan and Mohammad Safiullah joined chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in condoling his death. KCR recalled his services as a bureaucrat working in various capacities in the united AP government.