Bahadur Shah II
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Bahadur Shah Zafar exiled in Rangoon, 1858. This is perhaps the only photograph of a Mughal emperor ever taken. |
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Zeenat Mahal, wife of Bahadur Shah Zafar. |
Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar, or
Bahadur Shah II (
1775-
1862), also known as
Bahadur Shah Zafar (
Zafar was his
nom de plume, or
takhallus, as an
Urdu poet), was the last of the
Mughal emperors in
India. He was born on
October 24,
1775, and was the son of
Akbar Shah II. He became the Mughal Emperor upon his father's death on
September 28,
1838.
Emperor Bahadur Shah II presided over a Mughal empire that stretched barely beyond the modern city of
Delhi. The
Sikh Empire in the
Punjab and
Kashmir, the
Maratha Empire and the
British Empire were the most dominating political and military forces in the India of the 19th century. Hundreds of minor kings fragmented the land. The emperor was paid some respect and allowed a pension and authority to collect some taxes, and maintain a token force in Delhi by the British, but he posed no threat to any power in India. Bahadur Shah II himself did not excel in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions.
As the
Indian rebellion of 1857 spread, Indian regiments seized
Delhi. Seeking a uniting figure for all Indians,
Hindu and
Muslim alike, most rebelling Indian kings and the Indian regiments accepted Zafar as their Emperor of India, under whom the smaller Indian kingdoms would unite until the British were defeated. Zafar was the least threatening and least ambitious of monarchs, and the legacy of the
Mughal Empire was more acceptable a uniting force to most allied kings than the domination of any other Indian kingdom.
When the rebellion was crushed, he fled to
Humayun's Tomb and hid there. However, he was captured and his sons
Mirza Mughal and
Khizar Sultan and his grandson
Abu Bakr were executed in his presence by
Major Hodson and, famously, their severed heads presented to him.
He was exiled to Rangoon, Burma (now
Yangon,
Myanmar) in
1858 along with his wife
Zinat Mahal, and the remaining members of the family. A formal end was declared to the
Mughal Dynasty that began with
Babur in
1526. The title of
Emperor of India was eventually (in 1877) taken over by the British monarch, in the person of
Queen Victoria, and held until
1948, with retroactive effect to August 15, 1947.
Bahadur Shah died in exile on
November 7,
1862 and is buried near
Shwe Degon Pagoda,
Yangôn, and the place of his burial is currently known as
Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah [
1]. His wife Zinat Mahal [
2] died in 1886.
Bahadur Shah Zafar was also one of the greatest
Urdu poets in Indian history. He wrote a large number of Urdu Ghazals, out of these Urdu poetry, a large chunk was lost and destroyed during the unrest of 1857-1858, yet a large collection still survive, which was later on compiled as Kulliyyat-i Zafar. The court that he maintained, arguably pretentious and decadent for a ruler whose writ extended only to
Delhi's Red Fort, was home to other writers of high standing in Urdu and South Asian literature, including
Ghalib,
Dagh,
Mumin, and
Zauq (Dhawq).
Modern India has found him as one of the first nationalists, who actively opposed the foreign British. Movies in
Hindi/
Urdu were made about him and his role during the rebellion, and even streets have been named after him, such as
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi.
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Sons of Bahadur Shah. On the left is Jawan Bakht. |
At least three lines of descent from Bahadur Shah Zafar are known:
*Delhi line -- son: Mirza Fathul Mulk Bahadur (alias Mirza Fakhru); grandson: Mirza Farkhunda Jamal; great-grandchildren: Hamid Shah and Begum Qamar Sultan; great-great-granddaughters (daughters of Begum Qamar Sultan): Begum Tahira Sultan & Pakizah Sultan Begum.
*Kolkata line -- son: Jawan Bakht, grandson: Jamshid Bakht, great-grandson: Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht (married Sultana Begum). Currently she owns a tea stall in
Kolkata.
*Hyderabad line -- son: Mirza Quaish, grandson: Mirza Abdullah, great-grandson: Mirza Pyare (married Habib Begum), great-great-granddaughter: Begum Laila Ummahani (married _____ Tucy).
There are also other descendents of other mughal kings beside Bahadur Shah Zafar II. Most of them used to have or inherited governor or courtier positions; some were viziers or worked in the court of the shah. When the mutiny came most of them fled the capital and changed their family name from mirza, mughal, beg,... to something more common. Thereby many mughals today who are direct descendents of the mughal kings have other professions.
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Zafar, pictured in a 1919 book of Hindustani Lyrics |
The following poem was written by Bahadur Shah Zafar as his epitaph.
In Urdu''Lagta nahiin hai jii mera ujray dayar mein
Kis kii banii hai aalam-e-na-payedar mein
Kah do in hasarataun se kahiin awr jaa basen
Itanii jagah kahan hai dil-i daaghdaar mein
Umr-i daraaz maang ke laaye the chaar din
Do aarazu mein kat gaye do intizaar mein
Hai kitana badanasiib Zafar dafn ke liye
Do gaz zamiin bhii na milii ku-i yaar mein
English TranslationMy heart is not happy in this despoiled land
Who has ever felt fulfilled in this transient world
Tell these emotions to go dwell elsewhere
Where is there space for them in this bismirched (bloodied) heart
I had requested for a long life a life of four days
Two passed by in pining, and two in waiting.
How unlucky is Zafar! For burial
Even two yards of land were not to be had, in the land (of the) beloved
Urdu:''Zafar aadmi usko na jaaneye gaa, ho woh kitna hi saahib-e fehm-o zakaa;
''Jisey eish mein yaad-e Khuda na rahee, jisey teish mein khaof-e Khuda na rahaa.
Zafar, no matter how smart and witty one may be, he is not a man
Who in good times forgot God, and who in anger did not fear Him.
*
List of Indian Monarchs*
Mughal Emperor*
Urdu poetry*
Ghazal*
List of Urdu poets*
Delhi*
India*
BBC Report on Bahadur Shah's possible descendants in Hyderabad*
An article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Delhi and Hyderabad*
Another article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Hyderabad*
An article on Bahadur Shah's descendants in Kolkata*
Extracts from a book on Bahadur Shah Zafar, with details of exile and family*
Links to further websites on Bahadur Shah Zafar
