Bahadur Shah Zafar - Last Mughal Emperor

Bahadur Shah Zafar (Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar) was the twentieth and final Mughal Emperor (24 October 1775 - 7 November 1862). When his father, Akbar II, died on 28 September 1837, he was the second son and became his father's heir. However, he was merely a nominal Emperor because the Mughal Empire was simply a name, and his authority was imperfect to the walled city of Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad). After convicting him on many charges following his role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British deported him to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma (now Myanmar). Zafar's father, Akbar II, was imprisoned by the British and was not his father's first choice. One of Akbar Shah's queens, Mumtaz Begum, pressed him to name her son, Mirza Jahangir, as his successor. However, after Jahangir attacked their Red Fort resident, the East India Company exiled him, allowing Zafar to take the throne.

Bahadur Shah Zafar governed over a Mughal Empire reduced to just the city of Delhi and the surrounding area as far as Palam by the early nineteenth century. During the 18th century, the Maratha Empire ended the Mughal Empire in the Deccan, and the territories of India that had previously been under Mughal sovereignty were either absorbed by the Marathas or declared independence and became tiny kingdoms. Under the protection of Maratha general Mahadaji Shinde, the Marathas established Shah Alam II on the throne in 1772 and retained suzerainty over Mughal affairs in Delhi. In mid-nineteenth-century India, the East India Company became the dominating political and military force. Hundreds of kingdoms and principalities divided their territories outside of the company's authority. The corporation valued the Emperor and rewarded him with a pension. The monarch gave the business permission to collect taxes in Delhi and keep a military presence there. Zafar was uninterested in statecraft and lacked "imperial ambition." The British deported him from Delhi after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Bahadur Shah Zafar was a well-known Urdu poet who wrote several Urdu ghazals. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, some of his work was lost or destroyed, but a considerable amount was saved and assembled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. Several famous Urdu writers, including Mirza Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq, lived in the court he ran.

Sepoy battalions arrived at the Mughal Court in Delhi as the Indian uprising of 1857 spread. Many Indian rulers and troops welcomed and declared Zafar the Emperor of India because of his agnostic attitude toward religion. Zafar conducted his first official audience in some years on 12 May 1857. Several sepoys were there, and they were characterized as treating him "familiarly or disrespectfully." When the sepoys first came at Bahadur Shah Zafar's court, he inquired why they had come to him because he couldn't afford to keep them. Bahadur Shah Zafar's behaviour was erratic. When he was told that they wouldn't defeat the East India Company without him, he gave in to the sepoys' demands.

On 16 May, sepoys and palace servants executed fifty-two European inmates of the palace discovered hiding in the city by sepoys and palace servants. Despite Zafar's protests, the killings took place under a peepul tree in front of the palace. According to those who were not followers of Zafar, the executioners' goal was to implicate him in the crimes. Bahadur Shah II claimed responsibility for the mutineers' acts after he joined them. Despite his displeasure with the looting and mayhem, he publicly supported the insurrection. Bahadur Shah was later believed not to be directly responsible for the slaughter, but that he might have been able to prevent it, and he was so treated as a consenting party during his trial. The city's administration and the new occupying army were described as disorganized and problematic, with haphazard operations. The Emperor appointed Mirza Mughal, his eldest son, as the commander-in-chief of his armies. Mirza Mughal, on the other hand, lacked military expertise and was rejected by the sepoys. Because each regiment refused to take instructions from anybody other than their officers, the sepoys were without a commander. The administration of Mirza Mughal was limited to the city. Gujjar herders began levying their own highway tolls outside the city, making it more difficult to feed the population. During the Siege of Delhi, when the British were assured of victory, Zafar sought refuge at Humayun's Tomb, which was then on the outskirts of Delhi. On 20 September 1857, company soldiers led by Major William Hodson encircled the tomb, and Zafar was seized. The ensuing day, Hodson shot his sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan and his grandson Mirza Abu Bakht, at the Khooni Darwaza near the Delhi Gate, under his authority, and declared Delhi captured. Bahadur Shah was kidnapped and carried to his wife's haveli, where his kidnappers mistreated him. When informed of his sons' and grandson's executions, the former Emperor was so startled and depressed that he could not respond.

The trial, which sprang from the Sepoy Mutiny, lasted 41 days, featured 19 hearings, 21 witnesses, and over a hundred Persian and Urdu papers and their English translations were presented in court. At first, it was proposed that the trial be held in Calcutta, where the directors of the East India Company used to meet in conjunction with their business dealings. But, instead, the trial was held at the Red Fort in Delhi. As a result, the case was the first to be heard at the Red Fort. Zafar was accused with four counts during his trial:

• Inciting and abetting soldier mutinies
• Encouraging and assisting various individuals in waging war against the British government
• Assuming sovereignty over Hindostan
• Causing and abetting the murder of Christians

Bahadur Shah II defended himself against these claims on the 20th day of the trial. In his defence, Bahadur Shah asserted his total helplessness in the face of the sepoys' will. The sepoys reportedly used to affix his seal to empty envelopes, of which he was completely oblivious of the contents. While the Emperor may have exaggerated his power in front of the sepoys, the reality remains that the sepoys believed they were powerful enough to impose their will on anyone. The mutineers hounded the eighty-two-year-old poet-king, who was neither inclined nor capable of offering true leadership. Despite this, he was the main defendant in the insurrection trial. Zafar's most trusted confidant and his Prime Minister and personal physician, Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, had stated that Zafar did not participate in the uprising and had surrendered to the British. However, when Zafar finally achieved this, Hakim Ahsanullah Khan betrayed him by testifying against him during the trial in exchange for a pardon. As a result, Zafar was not sentenced to death but rather deported to Rangoon, Burma, to honour Hodson's pledge on his surrender. He was attended by his wife Zeenat Mahal and a few other family members. On 7 October 1858, at 4 a.m., Zafar, his wives, and two remaining sons embarked on a journey to Rangoon in bullock carts escorted by the 9th Lancers under Lieutenant Ommaney.

He supposedly became ill in 1862, when he was 87 years old. His health began to deteriorate in October. Zafar is sinking from pure desuetude and paralysis in the region of his throat, according to British Commissioner H.N. Davies on 6 November. Davies ordered the collecting of lime and bricks in preparation for his death, and a location for his burial was chosen near the back of Zafar's enclosure. Zafar died around 5 a.m. on 7 November 1862. At 4 p.m., Zafar was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda at 6 Ziwaka Road, Yangon, near Shwedagon Pagoda road. After the grave of Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah was discovered on 16 February 1991, the shrine of Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah was constructed there. Zafar's life, according to Davies, is very undefined.

Wives

• Begum Ashraf Mahal
• Begum Akhtar Mahal
• Begum Zeenat Mahal
• Begum Taj Mahal

Sons

• Mirza Dara Bakht Miran Shah
• Mirza Muhammed Shahrukh Bahadur
• Mirza Kayumar Bahadur
• Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur
• Mirza Muhammad Quwaish Bahadur
• Mirza Mughal
• Mirza Farkhanda Shah Bahadur
• Mirza Khizr Sultan
• Mirza Bakhtavar Shah Bahadur
• Mirza Abu Nasr
• Mirza Muhammad Bahadur
• Mirza Sohrab Hindi Bahadur
• Mirza Shah Abbas
• Mirza Abdullah
• Mirza Kuchak Sultan
• Mirza Abu Bakr
• Mirza Jawan Bakht

Daughters

• Begum Fatima Sultan
• Kulsum Zamani Begum
• Rabeya Begum
• Raunaq Zamani Begum

Bahadur Shah Zafar was a Sufi follower. He was known as a Sufi Pir who accepted murids or pupils. He was hailed as one of the leading saints of the age by the daily Delhi Urdu Akhbaar, the heavenly court-approved. In contrast to his three royal brothers, Salim, Mirza Jahangir, and Babur, he lived as a lowly scholar and dervish before his ascension. Major Archer described Zafar as "a man of scant shape and stature, modestly attired, nearly approaching meanness" in 1828, a decade before he succeeded to the throne. His appearance is that of an impoverished munshi or linguist. Zafar absorbed the nuances of mystical Sufi teachings as a poet. He was also a follower of Orthodox Sufism's magical and superstitious aspect. Like many of his supporters, he believed that his dual role as Sufi pir and ruler bestowed spiritual abilities on him. When one of his disciples was bitten by a snake, Zafar attempted to heal him by giving the guy a "seal of Bezoar" (a stone cure to poison) and some water that he had breathed. The Emperor was a firm believer in ta'aviz, or charms, particularly as a treatment for his piles and to fight off evil spells. Several of his wives feared that someone had placed a spell over him, he informed a group of Sufi pirs during a period of illness. He requested that they take steps to clear this account of all suspicions. The group composed certain charms and requested that the Emperor mix them with water and consume it to protect him from evil. The Emperor was always in contact with a group of pirs, miracle workers, and Hindu astrologers. He sacrificed buffaloes and camels, buried eggs, arrested alleged black magicians, and wore a ring that cured his dyspepsia on their recommendation. He also gave cows to the impoverished, elephants to Sufi shrines, horses to the Jama Masjid's khadims, or clergy. Zafar openly said in one of his poetry that Hinduism and Islam shared the same spirit. His court, which symbolized a cosmopolitan composite Hindu-Islamic Mughal culture, put this theory into practice.

He was an Urdu poet and calligrapher who wrote a lot.

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Javed Siddiqui portrayed Zafar in the drama "Ek Safarnama set." In 2008, Nadira Babbar and the National School of Drama repertory group performed it in Purana Qila on the Delhi ramparts. Lal Quila (1960), a Hindi-Urdu black-and-white film directed by Nanabhai Bhatt, featured Bahadur Shah Zafar heavily. In 1986, Doordarshan aired a television show called "Bahadur Shah Zafar." It had Ashok Kumar in the major role.