Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Moghul Emperor, led the First War of Independence, which was recognized in history as the symbol of anger among the people of India against the British. He was born on 24 October 1775. His father Akbar Shah-II was the fourteenth Moghul Emperor. Lal Bai was his mother.
Bahadur Shah Zafar, besides gaining spiritual and worldly knowledge received training in martial arts. The Indian soldiers who revolted against the East India Company at Meerut in 1857 reached the Red Fort in Delhi on 1 May 1857.
He conducted his court on May 12 and made various appointments and declared war against the British. Later, he established the Greater Administrative Affairs Council and assigned different responsibilities to different people according to their abilities and loyalty, irrespective of religious affiliations.
He took revolutionary steps without hurting the religious feelings of Hindus and Muslims. He appealed to his soldiers and the ‘people of India’ to defeat the British. After the retreat of the British, Bahadur Shah Zafar invited the warriors, who were revolting against the East India company outside Delhi. The Indian warriors were determined not to lose Delhi. But the British were conspiring and repeatedly making attempts to capture Delhi. Under such a grave situation, fierce fighting took place 72 times between the Indian warriors and the East India Company troops till 14 September 1857.
Finally, the British troops entered the Red fort and completely captured it on 19 September 1857. Bahadur Shah Zafar with some of his family members had to retreat and take shelter at Humayun’s Tomb, where Zafar was captured by the British on 21 September 1857. Later, the British tried Zafar and declared him an offender, and deported him to Rangoon Jail on 8 December 1858. He was accompanied by his beloved Begum Jeenath Mahal and his two sons. He and his family members led a very miserable life in Rangoon Jail for a period of four years. Later on, the last Moghal King Bahadur Shah Zafar breathed his last in jail on 7 November 1862. He bemoaned poignantly:‘How unfortunate you are Zafar! You do not have the fortune of having at least two yards of land in your beloved motherland for your grave’.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
