Zafar was leader of emergent secular India: Khurshid
Aksheev Thakur
New Delhi, February 17
The life of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar took centre stage on the third day of the Urdu literary festival, ‘Meer ki Dilli, Shahjahanabad: The Evolving City’ at India International Centre.
Mughals were both liberal & cruel
Mughals were liberal in many ways and cruel in many ways. However, the human rights standards of current times cannot be applied to that era. — Salman Khurshid, Cong leader and author
Senior Congress leader and author Salman Khurshid said last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar had emerged as a popular leader of an emergent secular India.
Throwing light on his trial for treason after the British recaptured Delhi in September 1857, Khurshid said that the trial was not free and fair.
“When Shah suffered before British soldier William Hodson at Humayun’s tomb, he took a commitment from him that he should not be executed. It is ironical that Bahadur Shah was sent to Rangoon (Burma) where he died while the last king of Burma was buried in Maharashtra,” Khurshid added.
He highlighted that while 1857 is limited to the mutiny of Indian soldiers or First War of Independence, it should also be noted that peasants in central India also revolted.
He said, “There was so much happening in the Hindi heartland. While there was a revolutionary contribution in the Indian Independence movement, it also had an ideological base.”
Khurshid said Meerut was a major cantonment. The rebel Indian soldiers in May 1857 captured the cantonment and marched to Delhi. They put an end to the East India Company’s administration in Delhi and assumed control of Shahjahanabad (old Delhi). The soldiers then persuaded Zafar to support their cause and in turn affirmed their loyalty to the emperor, he added.
Prof Amar Farooqui, a historian at University of Delhi, said that the trial of Zafar was a propaganda to delegitimise the Mughal emperor. While the British recaptured Delhi in September 1857, the trial of Zafar began in January 1858.
“Since there was a gap of several months between the recapture of Delhi and his trial, it seems to be an afterthought. When Zafar was banished to Rangoon, on the way a doctor in Allahabad checked him and said that the 82-year-old’s vital organs were perfectly fine. It is sad that four years after reaching Rangoon he died,” Farooqui said.
During the discussion, it was also pointed out that the trial was in English and Zafar used to sleep during its course as he was unable to understand the proceedings. “During her last days in Rangoon, Zafar’s wife Zeenat Mahal got addicted to opium. Bakht Khan, commander in chief of the rebel forces in 1857, was addicted to alcohol. The ends were tragic,” rued Farooqui.
Sons of Babar: A Play in Search of India
The author also talked about his play, Sons of Babar: A Play in Search of India on the occasion. The Congress leader said that through his play, he wanted to portray that Mughal emperors were ‘Hindustani’. “The term Babar ki Aulad (sons of Babar) is usually used in a pejorative sense. When this play was written, we were not as divided as we are today. Babur wanted to be buried in Kabul but his descendants were buried here in India,” Khurshid said.
In the play, a history student, Rudranath Mitra, meets Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was in exile in Burma. Zafar then takes Mitra on a guided tour of the achievements of the Mughals.
He recalled someone raising an objection when the play was to be performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. “I suggested to the Rashtrapati Bhavan that this play be performed when Pranab Mukherjee was the President. The play was to be performed before the Governors. Somebody objected to the play but it was loved by everybody,” he stated.
Khurshid highlighted that his play brought out both positive and negative sides of the Mughal emperors. He said that in the play, queens asked Zafar why they were not allowed to marry somebody outside their lineage, to which he had no answer.
The author further said while great literature was produced in Bangladesh on the country’s movement, it wasn’t replicated in India. “There are great works on the issue of naxalites in Andhra Pradesh, but in a vernacular language. On partition, we have produced great works like Tamas and Train to Pakistan, but beyond this, there is nothing that was produced,” he said.
