Chronicles of India: Where are Mughals now?
Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal Emperor. Accompanied by his wife Zinat Mahal and 2 sons Mirza Jawan Bhakt and Mirza Shah Abbas and daughter-in-law Shah Zamani Begum (wife of Jawan Bhakt), he was sent to Rangoon after the revolt of 1857 had been crushed and that his where he died.
Bahadur Shah died on Nov. 7, 1862, at the ripe old age of 87. 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. A few years later Mirza Jawan Bakht died of stroke. He was 42.
Here in India, Sultana Begum lives in a slum area of Kolkata off a pension of around INR 6,000 per month. She is the wife of Prince Mirza Bedar Bukht, the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar who was secretly brought back to India in 1925, hidden in a basket of flowers. Here’s a photo of Sultana Begum.
| Sultana Begum living on the outskirts of Kolkata |
I am reminded of this verse written by Bahadur Shah Zafar himself;
कितना है बदनसीब “ज़फ़र″ दफ़्न के लिए
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में |
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में |
(Translation: How unfortunate is Zafar! For his burial
Not even two yards of land were to be had, in the land of his beloved.)
Not even two yards of land were to be had, in the land of his beloved.)
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