The making of most cities cannot be credited to one individual alone. But, if writer-bureaucrat Bakhtiar K Dadabhoy is to be believed, the story of modern Hyderabad, the land of the erstwhile Nizams, was first scripted by Mir Turab Ali Khan Salar Jung (1829-1883), known otherwise as Salar Jung I, who served as diwan of the state for three decades. "It was Salar Jung who, by his reforms of the medieval oligarchy that was Hyderabad, ushered the state into the modern era. The idea of an organised system of government in Hyderabad owed its birth to his vision. Before him, there was no concept of a regular and systematic form of government with separate departments and secretariats. He established courts and reorganised the police. He overhauled the land revenue system, built roads and tanks and created or renewed irrigation works. He founded educational institutions and introduced the railways. His labours brought the Nizam's government from a condition of organised brigandage to one of the most enlightened in India," he says, in an email interview.

For Dadabhoy, who has previously penned the biographies of the illustrious conductor Zubin Mehta and entrepreneur JRD Tata, this was sufficient material to honour Salar Jung's memory. "I confess I knew nothing about him till I started doing research for an article that I contributed to an anthology on Hyderabad about 10 years ago," says Dadabhoy, who spent his early years in Secunderabad. Like many, the writer admits to have associated the name Salar Jung with a museum in Hyderabad, which houses the collection of his grandson Salar Jung III. The article enabled him to see the diwan in different light. Over four years ago, Dadabhoy's curiosity got the better of him, and he began work on researching Salar Jung's life story, resulting in a new book, The Magnificent Diwan (Penguin India).