Bahadur Shah II.

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Bahadur Shah II painting around 1854
This photograph by Robert Christopher Tytler shows Bahadur Shah II at the age of 82 shortly before his conviction in Delhi in 1858. It is possibly the only photograph ever taken of a Mughal emperor

Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar , also Bahadur Shah Zafar II (born October 24, 1775 in Delhi ; died November 7, 1862 in Rangoon ) was the last, only nominally ruling Grand Mughal , and briefly Emperor of India . Bahadur Shah II is also considered a famous poet in the Urdu language .

Zafar's role as the Mughal

Bahadur Shah was the son of Akbar Shah II and his wife Lalbai. After his father's death on September 28, 1838, he became a Grand Mughal.

The Mughal Empire , to which a conglomerate of imperial provinces, subordinate princely states and semi-autonomous cities and villages was once assigned, had already lost its dominant influence on the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. As before, however, the Grand Mughal residing in the Red Fort in Delhi was regarded as a nominal sovereign by both the Indian population and the Indian provinces and states. Accordingly, at the beginning of the 19th century, the British East India Company had identified itself on official papers and coins as the vassal of the Grand Mogul and gave the Delhi-based representative of the company strict instructions to treat the Mogul with the respect that the supreme ruler had from Hindustan state. However, as early as the 1830s, British policy began to change on this point. Up until 1857, a series of measures and events demonstrated to the Mughal and his court what insignificance the British now attached to them. From 1832 onwards, the British East India Company no longer presented the ceremonial gift (referred to as " nazr "), which would have publicly underscored the company's obligations to the Great Mughal . High-ranking representatives of the company refrained from visiting the Mughals when they were in Delhi.

The name of the Grand Mogul was removed from the rupees issued by the British East India Company, and from 1850 all British subjects were prohibited from accepting titles and honors from the Grand Mogul. The sphere of influence of Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Mughals, was limited to his palace, the Red Fort. No Indian nobleman was allowed to visit him here without the permission of Thomas Metcalfe , the company's highest-ranking representative. Metcalfe also tried to influence the succession to the throne. It was customary for the Mughal Mughal to choose the one among his sons who, in his opinion, was the most suitable successor. Metcalfe tried first to enforce the primogeniture and refused any recognition of the son that Bahadur Shah Zafar had chosen. Shortly before the outbreak of the uprising of 1857, however, Metcalfe increasingly pursued the policy of extinguishing the line of rule with the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar. As a result of this policy, a number of dignitaries at the court of the Grand Mughal were ready to support the rebels.

Role in the Indian uprising of 1857

Bahadur Shah Zafar II was nominally the leader of the anti-British uprising of 1857 . In addition, support for the insurgents was not shared by all members of the Mughal court. The British side was supported, among other things, by Zafar's favorite wife Zinat Mahal , who may also have linked the hope that the British would secure the succession of their son Jawan Bakht to the throne . Jawan Bakht, unlike his older half-brother Mirza Mughal, never took an active role during the uprising. In the course of the uprising, Bahadur Shah II was briefly proclaimed Emperor of India . After the rebellion was put down, the British East India Company was disbanded in 1858 and British India became a formal crown colony. Bahadur Shah II was found guilty of complicity in the revolt in March of the same year at the age of 82 by a court martial , deposed and banished to Rangoon in the British-occupied part of Burma , where he died on November 7, 1862. Its territory was transferred to the newly founded colony of British India on August 2, 1858, together with all other territories under the direct control of the British East India Company, effective November 1. The British Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India in 1876 following the Mughal rule.

family

The sons of Bahadur Shah, left Mirza Shah Abbas, right Jawan Bakht

Bahadur Shah Zafar had four wives and numerous concubines. His wives were:

  • Begum Ashraf Mahal
  • Begum Akhtar Mahal
  • Begum Zeenat Mahal (also Zinat Mahal ) (1821-1882)
  • Begum Taj Mahal

He had twenty sons, including:

  • Mirza Dara Bakht Miran Shah (1790–1841)
  • Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur (also Mirza Fakhru) (1816-1856)
  • Mirza Mughal (1817-1857)
  • Mirza Khizr Sultan (1834-1857)
  • Mirza Abu Bakr (1837-1857)
  • Mirza Jawan Bakht (1841-1884)
  • Mirza Shah Abbas (1845-1910)

He had thirty-two daughters including:

  • Rabeya Begum
  • Begum Fatima Sultan
  • Kulsum Zamani Begum

Web links

Commons : Bahadur Shah II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Frederick Sleigh Roberts : Forty-One Years in India. 2 volumes. Siegismund, Berlin 1904, ( digitized volume 1 , digitized volume 2 ).
  • Surendra Nath Sen: Eighteen fifty-seven. With a foreword by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad . Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Delhi 1957.
  • Ursula Beisinger: The origins of the uprising of 1857 in Oudh. Frankfurt am Main 1959, (Frankfurt am Main, University, dissertation, from December 16, 1959).
  • Christopher Hibbert: The great mutiny. India 1857. Reprinted edition. Penguin Books, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-14-004752-2 .
  • Tapti Roy: The politics of a popular uprising. Bundelkhand in 1857. Oxford Univ. Press, Delhi et al. 1994, ISBN 0-19-563612-0 .
  • PJO Taylor: What really happened during the mutiny. A day-by-day account of the major events of 1857-1859 in India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi et al. 1999, ISBN 0-19-565113-8 .
  • Saul David : The Indian Mutiny. 1857. Penguin Books, London et al. 2003, ISBN 0-14-100554-8 .
  • William Dalrymple : The Last Mughal. The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 . Bloomsbury, London a. a. 2006

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dalrymple, pp. 38f
  2. ↑ Dalrymple, p. 39
  3. ↑ Dalrymple, p. 37
  4. ↑ Dalrymple, pp. 221f
  5. ↑ Translated extracts from a very good book about Bahadur Shah Zafar. July 9, 2007, accessed January 3, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Akbar Shah II. Mughal Mughal of India
1838–1858 		End of the Mughal Empire
New title created Emperor of India
1857 		Victoria
personal data
SURNAME Bahadur Shah II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION last Grand Mughal of India (1838–1858)
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Delhi
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1862
Place of death Rangoon , Burma