Bahadur Shah Zafar

He had four wives, Begum Ashraf Mahal, Begum Akhtar Mahal, Begum Zeenat Mahal, and Begum Taj Mahal. Of all his wives, Zeenat Mahal was the closest to him. He had several sons and daughters from his wives and concubines.

After his surrender to the British forces, he was sentenced to exile in Rangoon, Burma. He was accompanied by his wife Zeenat Mahal into exile. He died on November 7, 1862 at the age of 87.

He was born on October 24, 1775, as one of the 14 sons of Mughal emperor Akbar II. His mother was a Hindu Rajput, Lal Bai. His full name was Mirza Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar.

As a young boy he received education in Urdu, Persian and Arabic. Being a prince, he was also trained in the military arts of horsemanship, swordsmanship, shooting with bow and arrow and with fire-arms.

He developed a love for poetry from two of his teachers, Ibrahim Zauq and Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib. He was not much ambitious from childhood and had more interest in Sufism, music and literature than in the political matters of the country.

He became the 17th Mughal emperor on 28 September 1837 after the death of his father. In fact, he had not been his father’s preferred choice to succeed him. Akbar II was planning to name Mirza Jahangir, son of his wife Mumtaz Begum as the successor but could not do so after Mirza Jahangir got into serious conflict with the British.

Zafar was not an ambitious person and did not exercise much power even after becoming the emperor. The British, who were by now gaining much political control over India, did not consider him to be a threat.

His empire barely extended beyond Delhi’s Red Fort; he had power only over a limited area of land though he had the authority to collect some taxes and to maintain a small military force in Delhi.

As an emperor he saw to his best that all his subjects belonging to different religions were treated fairly. He believed in the equality of religions and felt it was his duty to protect the religious rights of the Hindus along with the Muslims.

During his reign, he ensured that the major Hindu festivals like Holi and Diwali were celebrated in the court. He was very sensitive towards the religious sentiments of Hindus and did not support the extremist views of some Orthodox Muslim sheikhs.