Bahadur Shah Zafar - Definition and Overview

Bahadur Shah II (1775-1862) aka Bahadur Shah Zafar (Zafar was his nom de plume, or takhallus, as an Urdu poet) was the last of the Mughal emperors in India. He was the son of Akbar Shah II. After the "Mutiny" of 1857 he was deposed and exiled to Rangoon in Burma. His two sons were killed in front of him by the British thus effectively ending The Mughal Dynasty. It is recalled that Bahadur Shah Zafar II was seen begging in the streets of Rangoon in Burma.

Bahadur Shah's removal from the throne of Delhi ended the formal independence of that Empire/State/etc. and the title of "Emperor of India" was taken over the British monarch, in the person of Queen Victoria, and held till 1947/48. (Given up in 1948, with retroactive effect to August 15, 1947.)

Bahadur Shah Zafar is also an Urdu poet of some repute. The court he maintained, arguably pretentious and decadent for a ruler whose writ famously extended only to the Red Fort in Delhi, was home to others with a standing in Urdu and South Asian literature, including Ghalib, Daag, Momin, Zauq, and others.

Related articles

• List of Indian Monarchs
• Mughal Emperor
• Urdu poetry
• Ghazal
• List of Urdu poets
• Delhi
• India

External links

• BBC Report on Bahadur Shah's possible descendants today (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2185082.stm)

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