Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: Muhammad Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar, also known as Bahadur Shah or Bahadur Shah II (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862), was the last Moghul emperor of India and the last sovereign of the Timurid Dynasty. He was the offspring of Akbar Shah II and Lalbai, a Hindu woman. Upon his father’s death on September 28, 1838, he ascended to the throne of the Mughal Empire, but the British East India Company exercised actual power.
Technically, the British were emissaries of the Emperor. His remaining political authority was confined to the Red Fort in Delhi, where he resided on a British pension. The British referred to him with some derision as “King of Delhi.” Due to his unwilling participation in the 1857 mutiny, he was tried for treason by the British and exiled to Burma, where he died. How a monarch could mutiny against himself is a mystery.
His nom de pseudonym (takhallus) as an Urdu poet was Zafar. Some argue that he is the finest poet of all time. He is recognized as one of the greatest poets in this language of his time. His poetry lamented loss and the debasement of India.
Shah Bahadur’s eulogy lamented the fact that he was unable to be buried within “two yards” of his cherished homeland. However, it is unfair to characterize him as feeble or as presiding over the decline of his empire. Since Alamgir II, a puppet of the Afghan monarch Ahmad Shah Durrani, no Mughal had wielded genuine authority. Bahadur Shah II did, however, oversee a period of flourishing culture within the confines of Delhi’s limited social life. Relations between religious communities, which would become increasingly strained under Britain’s “divide and rule” policy, were extremely cordial, with a great deal of interaction and festivity sharing.
Eventually, he became a symbol of Indian anti-British resistance. This goes back too far into the past. Nevertheless, he deserves credit for leading where he could, culturally, poetically, and as a champion of interreligious harmony in a country that has long taken delight in its openness and tolerance.
Laxman Narasimhan Biography: Age, Height, Career, Family, Personal Life, Net Worth
Bahadur Shah Zafar As Emperor
Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: As Bahadur was the son of Akbar Shah II and his Hindu wife Lalbai, he was the emperor. When he ascended to the throne, he inherited only the city of Delhi, which had been occupied by the British since 1893. In reality, his authority scarcely extended beyond the Red Fort. Alamgir II ruled as a puppet of the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Durrani, and as a weapon in the hands of his own vizier, who made him emperor and subsequently assassinated him. When the Peacock Throne, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, and the contents of the state treasury were stolen, the Moghuls were already impoverished (ever since the 1739 Persian siege of Delhi under Nader Shah).
Shah Alam II, Alamgir’s son, was the first Moghul to receive a pension from the British (1803-1805). Akbar, the father of Shah Bahadur II, held the title of emperor but possessed neither wealth nor authority. Legally agents of the Mughal emperor under the Treaty of Allahabad (1765), when Shah Alam II surrendered the right to collect taxes in Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar, the British maintained the fiction that the emperor was sovereign at the expense of their own power and authority. The emperor was granted a pension, the authority to collect some taxes, and the ability to maintain a token force in Delhi, but he posed no threat to any Indian power.
Bahadur Shah Zafar Cultural Director
Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: In his 2007 biography of Shah Bahadur II, William Dalrymple characterizes Delhi as a thriving multi-cultural, multi-religious society that was roughly half Muslim and half Hindu. Shah Bahadur, the son of a Hindu mother, participated in Hindu festivals, as did other Muslims.
Bahadur Shah II possessed neither an interest in statecraft nor imperial ambitions. Indeed, it is challenging to comprehend how he could have had such ambitions. Arguably, he did what he could to champion the type of multi-cultural society over which his finest predecessors had ruled, with the exception of periods when Hindus and Sikhs were persecuted. At his court, poets such as Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq (Dhawq) convened. The British accused him of leading a lavish and wasteful lifestyle. This appears to be supported by scant evidence.
Using the pen name Zafar, he was a renowned Urdu poet and, according to some, the greatest, who composed a significant number of Urdu ghazals. He was a musician and calligrapher as well. Despite the fact that a portion of his work was lost or destroyed during the disturbance of 1857-1858, a substantial collection survived and was subsequently compiled into the Kulliyyat-i Zafar. His poetry is pervaded by a feeling of loss. This self-eulogy is attributed to him, although this attribution has been contested. In honor of Bahadur Shah II, India has issued a commemorative postage stamp in Urdu. Even if he did not write this poem, it certainly reflects his own feelings.
- My spirit is not content in this ruined land.
- Who has ever felt contentment in this fleeting world?
- Tell these feelings to go elsewhere to reside
- Where is there room for them in this blood-stained heart?
- The nightingale neither mourns for the horticulturist nor the hunter.
- In the springtime, fate decreed that I would be imprisoned. I had asked for a lengthy life, but was granted only four days.
- Two passed by wistfully, and two waited.
- How unfortunate is Zafar! Even two yards of land were unavailable for burial in the land of the adored.
- One of the other verses states: Zafar, regardless of how intelligent and eloquent a person may be, he is not a man who in good times forgot God and in bad times did not fear Him.
Revolt of 1857
Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: As the Indian rebellion of 1857 spread, the Indian regiments occupied Delhi and, despite Zafar’s own reservations, proclaimed him their nominal leader. Zafar was regarded as a figure who could unite all Indians, Hindu and Muslim alike, and who the Indian princes would accept as sovereign. The restoration of the Mughal Empire would likely be more acceptable to these rulers as a unifying force than the dominance of any other Indian kingdom under Zafar, who was the least menacing and least ambitious monarch. Now an octogenarian, Zafar allowed his name to be used as the revolt’s titular leader despite his strong reservations.
War of independence is a more accurate term, although it was referred to as a “mutiny” because it began with British-employed soldiers rebelling against their officers. Regardless of the preferred descriptor, it was a war in which the people of India rebelled against the rule of a foreign, colonial power, and in permitting his name to be used, he aided in this rebellion. In theory, Shah Bahadur II was the legal sovereign of a significant portion of India. Sadly, he witnessed the transformation of a thriving, culturally rich, and peaceful city into a bloodbath of death and devastation.
Zafar sought refuge at Humayun’s Tomb, which was located on the outskirts of Delhi at the time, and hid there when it became clear that the British would win. The tomb was surrounded by British forces commanded by Major Hodson, who demanded his surrender. The British executed numerous male members of his family and imprisoned or exiled the surviving members of the Mughal dynasty. In 1858, after being found guilty of treason, Zafar was exiled to Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), along with his wife Zeenat Mahal and a portion of the remaining family members. His trial was not permitted by the law. Nevertheless, it signaled the end of over 300 years of Mughal rule in India. Victoria of the United Kingdom was proclaimed sovereign (later Empress) of India by the British, which indicates that she did not assert sovereignty prior to 1858.
In exile, Bahadur Shah passed away on November 7, 1862. He was interred in Yangon, close to the Shwedagon Pagoda, at a location that became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah.[2] In 1886, his wife Zinat Mahal passed away.
Bahadur Shah Zafar Legacy
Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: Modern India recognizes him as one of the country’s earliest nationalists, one who actively opposed British rule. In 1959, the All India Bahadur Shah Zafar Academy was established specifically to raise awareness of his contribution to India’s first national liberation movement. Several Hindi/Urdu films have depicted his participation during the 1857 rebellion, including B.R. Chopra’s Bahadur Shah Zafar (1986). In 2002, Arjeet gupta directed The Living Moghuls: from Royalty to Anonymity, a brief television film about his living descendants.
There are streets in New Delhi, Lahore, Varanasi, and other cities that bear his name. Bahadur Shah Zafar’s monument has been erected at the Vijayanagaram palace in Varanasi. Old Dhaka’s Victoria Park has been renamed Bahadur Shah Zafar Park in Bangladesh. His poetry remains a valuable cultural legacy. He was as much a victim of circumstances as he was a maker of history, but he deserves credit for fostering a multi-religious society in Delhi, where he did have some authority, that reflects the more tolerant periods of the Mughal legacy.
Bahadur Shah Zafar Family
Bahadur Shah Zafar Biography: It is documented that Bahadur Shah Zafar had four wives and numerous concubines. His spouses, in order of marriage, were:
- Beatrice Ashraf Mahal
- Begum A. K. Mahal
- Begum Mahal Zeenat
- Begum Taj Mahal
Zafar was the mother of 22 males, including:
- Mirza Fakhru (also known as Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur)
- Mirza Maulvi
- The phrase Mirza Khazr Sultan Jawan Bakht
- Mr. Quaish Mirza
- Mirza Shah Abdul Abbas
He had a minimum of 32 daughters, including:
- Rabeya Begum
- Begum Fatima Sultan
- Kulsum Raunaq Zamani Begum
The majority of his sons and grandsons were slain during or after the 1857 rebellion. The following three lines of descent are known for survivors:
- Son: Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur (also known as Mirza Fakhru); grandson: Mirza Farkhunda Jamal; and great-grandchildren: Hamid Shah and Begum Qamar Sultan.
- Son: Jawan Bakht, grandson: Jamshid Bakht, and great-grandson: Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht (married Sultana Begum, who presently operates a tea stall in Howrah).
- Son: Mirza Quaish, grandson: Mirza Abdullah, great-grandson: Mirza Pyare (married Habib Begum), great-great-granddaughter: Begum Laila Ummahani (married Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy) and lived in anonymity for years with her children (her surviving sons Ziauddin Tucy is a retired government employee and Masiuddin Tucy is a food consultant).
Existing today are descendants of Mughal monarchs other than Bahadur Shah Zafar. They include the Bengali lineage of Jalaluddin Mirza, who served at the Maharaja of Dighapatia’s court, and the Toluqari family, which also claims to be descended from Baron Gardner.
