The Last Mughal Emperor who led the first war of independence
The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was born in the Red Fort in Delhi. However, in a cruel twist, he was imprisoned in his palace and later exiled. Even after his death, he did not find a place on the soil of his motherland.
Bahadur Shah was born on October 24, 1775. His mother was Empress Lalbai, and his father was Akbar II, the 18th emperor of the Mughal dynasty. He was born at a turning point in history. At that time, the British were advancing towards North India by subjugating their native states, including Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Mysore. Under the clutches of British aggression, the sovereignty of the Mughal emperors was confined only to the Red Fort.
After his father’s death, Bahadur Shah was crowned on September 29, 1837, amidst various dramas. He was 62 years old at the time. He ascended the throne at a critical time for the Mughals. Since his grandfather’s time, the Mughal emperors had become pensioners of the East India Company. The mighty Mughal Empire was then in the hands of the British. They were gradually increasing their authority. They gradually tried to completely eradicate the Mughal name, including removing the emperor’s name from the coins and taking complete control of Delhi.
Bahadur Shah silently endured the emperor’s authority. He had no power to do anything. Because he knew his limitations, in such a situation, he would spend his time practicing poetry to forget his disappointment and lamentation. The emperor was a renowned poet of high-quality Urdu.
The one whose blood flows like Timur Long and Genghis Khan cannot easily accept defeat. That opportunity came twenty years after ascending the throne. He earned a unique place in history by coming forward to lead the Sepoy Rebellion. By leading India’s freedom struggle, he made a place in the hearts of countless people as a symbol of freedom. However, for this, he had to suffer endless suffering and torture. He had to lose his children, property, kingdom, everything.
Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, confined in the Red Fort, was then bowed down by the weight of age. He was about 82 years old at the time. One hundred years had passed since the Battle of Plassey. In these hundred years, the foundation of British rule had only become stronger. The cries of the people, oppressed and crushed by the misrule, plunder and oppression of the British, were at their peak. At that time, the sepoys and the people awoke with the dream of freedom. The fire of rebellion was kindled.
The rebel sepoys came to the Red Fort and requested that Bahadur Shah take the lead in the rebellion against the British oppression. The old emperor initially expressed his reluctance due to his age. However, it was not possible to find a more well-known or acceptable leader in India at that time. Therefore, he finally agreed to the sepoys’ request.
The mutinous sepoys were in a festive mood. They swore allegiance to Bahadur Shah Zafar. Late at night, the old emperor was proclaimed the independent emperor of India with twenty-one cannon shots. They gathered and chanted the slogans: “Khalq-e-Khuda, Mulq-e-Badshah, Hukum-me-Sepahi.” The world belongs to Allah, the king’s kingdom, and the sepoy’s command.
The news that Bahadur Shah Zafar was leading the rebellion sparked rebellions in India, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, and the Bengal region. The three sons of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar—Mirza Mughal, Mirza Jawan Bakht, and Mirza Abu Bakr—led the front in this war.
But fate’s cruel irony! The Sepoy Mutiny failed. The Sepoy-People’s Revolution lost momentum due to distinct reasons, including the non-cooperation of the local royal family, internal intrigue, lack of funds, and lack of military skill. Many people, like the Raja of Patiala or the Sikhs, directly participated on the side of the British. In the face of the British coordinated attack, the fall of Delhi became almost certain in early September.
September 20, 1857. The sepoys fell at the Lahori Gate, Siklal Fort, Jama Masjid, etc. in Delhi. The British army carried out brutal and indiscriminate killing and looting in these places. Bahadur Shah Zafar first took up residence in the tomb of Nizamuddin Auliya and later, along with his family members and about a thousand sepoys, took refuge in the tomb of his ancestor, Emperor Humayun. Many people, including General Bakht Khan and Maulvi Sarfaraz Ali, requested the emperor to leave Delhi. The emperor might have done so. But many people working for the British, including Mirza Ilahi Bux and Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, somehow forced him to surrender. Finally, the old emperor was forced to give up at a turning point in history. On September 21, a group of British soldiers led by the English commander Hudson arrested him along with his family members.
Although Hudson had promised respect and security to all the prisoners before their arrest, as the victorious army, they were not obligated to keep this promise. The British brutally and indiscriminately killed Bahadur Shah Zafar’s two sons, Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizir Sultan, his grandson Mirza Abu Bakr, and numerous Mughal descendants, members of Zafar’s court, and soldiers who supported the rebellion. They did not stop at just killing them but sent the severed heads of their two sons to the emperor, setting an example of cruelty.
His trial on charges of treason began in January 1858. On winter mornings, the restless older man sometimes fell asleep in the courtroom of the Diwan-i-Khas. He stared blankly, not understanding anything. His daily allowance was two annas. Earlier, no one from the vizier to the emir could come before him without permission. And now he would greet the English guards as he sat down. The English merchants to whom his ancestor, Emperor Jahangir, had once granted the right to trade in this country. They are the judges today!
A farce was held in the name of the trial of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar by the British Military Commission in January 1858. According to the Commission’s final decision on 9 March, the emperor was charged with rebellion against the British, murder, etc. and ordered to be sent into exile in Rangoon. The decision of the Commission stated that the death penalty was not imposed, considering his age. And with this, the history of Mughal rule in India officially ended. After that, the Mughals disappeared entirely from the history of India.
In October 1858, he and his family were taken to Rangoon, then known as present-day Yangon. On November 13, they were brought to Allahabad. From there, they were sent by ship to Rangoon. There, the exile of the last Mughal emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar, began in a room in an abandoned house. Bahadur Shah, who was accustomed to a luxurious life, spent his last days in loneliness, hardship, and mental anguish. In a cruel twist of fate, the unfortunate emperor of the Mughal Sultanate began to live in that abandoned wooden house with an allocation of eleven taka per day.
In his last days, Bahadur Shah spent most of his time meditating on the Creator, forgetting all his pains. On October 26, 1862, he fell seriously ill. Finally, on November 7, 1862, he departed from this mortal world. He wrote about his death—
No friends of mine came when the time came.
Death must be praised,
because it came alone at the right time,
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un.
With the silent departure of Bahadur Shah Zafar, another sign was added to the subcontinent’s history. If Bahadur Shah Zafar had been successful, if the rebellion of the sepoys and the people could have broken the shackles of British rule, then perhaps the history of this subcontinent would have been different.
On a quiet street in Yangon lies the dargah of Bahadur Shah Zafar II. This mausoleum bears silent witness to one of the most emotional periods in Indian history. Although locals knew that India’s last Mughal emperor was buried somewhere within the local army cantonment complex, no one knew where his grave was until 1991.
While digging for a drainpipe, some workers came across a brick structure believed to be part of the tomb of a former emperor. It was later renovated with public donations. Compared to the lavish tombs of Jafar’s ancestors in India, his tomb is quite simple.
In 1987, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi paid tribute to the emperor by visiting his tomb and remarked in the book kept for visitors, “You did not get two yards of land in Hindustan, it is true. However, the sound of our independence was raised from your sacrifice. It is not your misfortune, Zafar. Through the message of independence, your name is remembered forever along with the fame and glory of India.”