Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah, popularly known as Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal ruler, was the eldest son of Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II, born to his Hindu wife Lalbai in 1775. Bahadur Shah was born when the British were still a modest coastal power in India. He ascended the Mughal throne in 1837 at the age of 62.

Bahadur Shah was a ruler with wide interest. William Dalrymple (The Last Mughal, 2006), describes him as “a calligrapher, Sufi, theologian, patron of paintings of miniatures, creator of gardens and a very serious mystical poet…” Interestingly, many remember him for his Urdu poetry more than for his role in the great uprising of 1857. He wrote poetry using Zafar, meaning ‘victory’ as the pen-name (takhallus). A large collection of his poetry was compiled later under the title Kulliyat-i Zafar. Bahadur Shah’s reign of 20 years (1837-1857) was regarded as the most ‘creative period’ of the Urdu literature. During his reign Delhi College was the centre of what historians call “the Delhi Renaissance.” He patronised many men of learning. Renowned Urdu poets Ghalib, Dagh, Momin and Zauq were his contemporaries.

Bahadur Shah was also known for his secular ideals. Once a year he made a trip to Mehrauli and paid his tribute at Jog Maya temple and dargah of the renowned Chisti saint Khwaja Bhakhtiyar Kaki. Prof. Mushirul Hasan, a well-known historian and former Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia writes, “Under him Hindu-Muslim unity found a powerful expression. Zafar also led the ‘first expression of anti-colonial movement in which Hindus and Muslims were united as people of Hindustan.’ He also banned cow slaughter, encouraged Hindu festivals like Ramlila and Holi.”

THE GREAT UPRISING

Bahadur Shah was 82 years old and in poor health when the revolting sepoys from Meerut stormed into the palace on 11 May 1857. According to William Dalrymple, sepoys and cavalrymen from Meerut numbering 300 rode into Delhi in the morning and massacred Christian men, women and children they could find in the city, and proclaimed Bahadur Shah as their leader and emperor. Bahadur Shah gave his blessings to the sepoys.

A.G. Noorani writes in his book Indian Political Trails 1775-1947, “Bahadur Shah was the one around whom both the communities rallied as a symbol of revolt and unity…In him have still been cantered the hopes and aspirations of millions. They have looked upon him as the source of honour, and, more than this, he has proved the rallying point not only to Muhammadans, but to thousands of others with whom it was supposed no bond of fanatical union could possibly be established.”

The outbreak started in Meerut and Barrackpur from January to May 1857, and then spread to Lucknow, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Jhansi, Gwalior, Bareilly, Madras, Bombay, and several places in Punjab. Leaders like Nana Sahib, Tantia Tope, Bhakt Khan, Azimullah Khan, Rani Laxmi Bai, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Kunwar Singh, Maulvi Ahmadullah, Bahadur Khan, Rao Tula Ram and Raja Nahar Singh of Punjab led the local uprisings.

Within four months the uprising was crushed by the British with a strong hand. Poets and princes, Ulema and merchants, Sufis and scholars were hunted down and hanged. Palaces, mosques, shrines, gardens and houses of Mughal Delhi were destroyed. The properties of the Muslims were confiscated. All the leaders of the uprising were either killed or drove out of India.

Bahadur Shah surrendered on 21 Sept. 1857. The next day, Major William Hodson set out to Humayun Tomb to arrest his sons, Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and his grandson, Mirza Abu Bakr. Hodson took the princes to Sher Shah Suri’s outpost, then known as Kabuli Darwaza/Lal Darwaza. They were stripped naked and shot. Since the incident the outpost came to be known as Khooni Darwaza. Hodson paid the price for his misdeeds. A few months after the shoot-out, he was killed at Begum Kothi in Lucknow on 11 Mar. 1858.

With the arrest of Bahadur Shah the four centuries of Mughal rule in India came to an end and the Mughal emperor was made a prisoner. He was brought to the walled city and kept under house arrest. Sadly, the poet was not given even a pen to write while in captivity. He scribbled some of his last verses on the wall with a burnt stick.

HIS LAST DAYS IN BURMA

Bahadur Shah’s trail began on 27 Jan. 1858 and ended on 9 Mar. 1958. The trail recommended the transportation of Bahadur Shah to Burma. In Oct 1858, Bahadur Shah accompanied by his wife Zinat Mahal and 2 sons Mirza Jiwan Bhakt and Mirza Shah Abbas and daughter-in-law Shah Zamani Begum (wife of Jawan Bhakt), who all chose to follow the emperor departed from Delhi for Calcutta (now Kolkata), where they were placed on board a warship called Magara and taken to Rangoon.

In Burma, British Commissioner Captain H. Nelson Davies received Bahadur Shah and his family. The family was then lodged in a quarter near the Shwe Dagon Pagoda under the supervision of Nelson Davies. The family was provided four rooms each of 16 ft. sq., one allotted for Bahadur Shah, another for Jawan Bhakt and his wife Zamani Begum, the rest for Zinat Mahal and Shah Abbas. Pen, ink, paper were completely forbidden. The family was provided four Indian attendants (a chaprasi, water carrier, washer-man and a sweeper).

Bahadur Shah died on Nov. 7, 1862 at the ripe old age of 87.  Fearing another revolt, the last rites of the emperor was performed without informing anyone. The funeral prayer was performed by an old Maulana along with the two princes. After a week Nelson Davies informed the higher officials in London about the death of the Emperor.

He wrote in his letter, “Have since visited the remaining State Prisoners – the scum of the reduced Asiatic harem; found all correct…The death of the ex-king may be said to have no effect on the Mohamedan part of the populace of Rangoon, except perhaps for a few final triumph of Islam. A bamboo fence surrounds the grave, and by the time the fence is worn out, the grass will again have properly covered the spot, and no vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Mughals rests.” The news of the death of Bahadur Shah reached Delhi a fortnight later. Bahadur Shah lamented on the irony of his fate in one of his couplet thus:

Umr-e-daraaz se maang ke laye the char din / Do aarzu mein guzar gaye, do intezar mein / Hai kitna badnasseb Zafar dafn ke liye / Do gaz zameen bhi na mili koo-e-yaar mein. / Na kisii kii ankh ka nur na kisii ke dil ka qarar hun / Jo kisii ke kam na a sake main vo ek musht-e-Gubar hun / Na to main kisii ka habiib hun na to main kisii ka raqiib hun / Jo bigar gaya vo nasiib hun jo ujar gaya vo dayar hun / hamne duniyaa mein aake kyaa dekha / dekhaa jo kucch so Khvaab-saa dekhaa / hai to insaan Khaak kaa putlaa / lekin paanii ka bulbulaa dekhaa.

(I had requested the long life for 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. / My life gives no ray of light, I bring no solace to heart or eye / Out of dust to dust again, of no use to anyone am I / Barred is the door of the fate for me, bereft of my dear ones am I / The spring of a flower garden ruined /Alas, my autumn wind am I / I came into the world and what did I see? / Whatever I saw was just like a dream / Man is moulded out of clay but / I saw him as a bubble of water.)

It is said that Bahadur Shah marked the site for his own burial inside Zafar Mahal, which was close to the dargah of his much-loved Pir Khwaja Bhaktiyar Kaki.

In 1867 the family of Bahadur Shah was allowed to leave the prison enclosure and to settle elsewhere in the Rangoon cantonment. The long confinement made Shah Zamani Begum, who was just around 10 years old, became seriously ill suffering from extreme depression. She started getting blind. To improve her condition she along with her husband was given another house not far from the Rangoon jail. By 1872 Shah Zamani Begum became completely blind. Mirza Shah Abbas married a girl from Rangoon, a daughter of a local Muslim merchant. His descendants still live in Rangoon today. Zinat Mahal lived on alone, comforting her loneliness with opium. She died in 1886. Her body was buried near her husband’s grave. Few years later Mirza Jawan Bakht died of stroke. He was 42.

A delegation of visitors from India visited Burma in 1903 to pay their respects at the burial place of Bahadur Shah. By then, due to long years of neglect, the exact location of the graves of Bahadur Shah and his wife was uncertain. In 1905 the Muslims of Rangoon protested the neglect and demanded that the grave of Bahadur Shah be marked. The British authorities agreed in 1907 and a railing was erected around a supposed site of the grave, and the engraved stone slab marked, “Bahadur Shah, the ex-king of Delhi died at Rangoon Nov. 7^th 1862 and was buried near this spot” and “Zinath Mahal wife of Bahadur Shah who died on the 17^th June 1886 is also buried near this stone” was placed.

In Feb. 1991 labourers, while digging a drain at the back of the shrine, uncovered the original brick-lined grave of Bahadur Shah. It was found 3 feet under the ground, and about 25 feet away from the supposed shrine. The original shrine, located at 6 Ziwaka Road, Dagon, Rangoon, has over the years become a popular place of pilgrimage for the Burmese Muslims.

Local Muslims regard Bahadur Shah as a powerful sufi saint, and come to seek his blessings and ask for favours. A prayer hall was also constructed in front of the shrine with Indian assistance, which was inaugurated on 15 Dec. 1994. Today the shrine is managed by a trust named Bahadur Shah Zafar Mausoleum Committee. Before the military takeover in Burma, the shrine was managed by a trust set up by the descendants of Bahadur Shah.

The grave has also been a must for Indians visiting Burma. Many politicians and dignitaries not only from India but Pakistan and Bangladesh visited the grave and paid their respect to the Emperor. It is said that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose started his “Delhi Chalo” campaign in 1942 after paying his respect to the Emperor. Rajiv Gandhi during his official visit to Burma in December 1987 paid his tribute to the grave. He wrote in the visitor’s book placed at the grave: “Although you (Bahadur Shah) do not have land in India, you have it here, your name is alive… I pay homage to the memory of the symbol and rallying point of India’s first war of independence…that has been won.”