Bahadur Shah II, better known as Bahadur Shah 'Zafar', the
nineteenth in the line of Babur and the last to hold on his
head the Mughal imperial crown, was a weak ruler but a
strong patriot. He was also a great poet and a cultured
emotional being. He was put to the Mughal throne as a
tutelary ruler in 1837, and was obliged to live on British
pension, since the reins of real power lay in the hands of
the East India Company. Zafar's wife was often the
instrument the British used for realizing their ends on the
Indian soil. Bahadur Shah himself passed most of his time in
the company of poets and writers reciting to them his poetry
and listening to theirs. The two great
Urdu poets Mirza
Ghalib and Zauk, were to a great extent, products of his
court.
Bahadur Shah, during India's first war of independence in
1857 was nominated by the freedom-fighters as their
Commander-in-Chief. In the initial stages victory favored
the Indians, and for the time being Bahadur Shah had the
satisfaction of being the Emperor of Hindustan. But within
months the reinforced British army crushed the resistance.
Bahadur Shah was overthrown. He was arrested from Humayun's
tomb (now in New Delhi), where he was hiding with his three
sons and only grandson. He was tried for treachery. His sons
and grandson were put to death and he himself was exiled to
Rangoon, where he died in jail. Thus with his death was
extinguished the Mughal dynastic rule and with that of his
only grandson, the family of the Great Mughals.
This oval portrait of Bahadur Shah Zafar portrays his
grandeur overbrimming with gloom, an apt definition of his
personality. He has been painted with the fabulous Mughal
crown on his head and enormous jewels on his person but
instead of the Mughal's usual jama, he is seen holding on
his shoulders a gown in the English manner. This is not
without significance. It is as if he had Hindustan in his
head and heart, in his thoughts and emotions, but on his
shoulders carried the yoke of British power in India.
Peintures
