Bahadur Shah II.
Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar, Bahadur Shah Zafar also II ( born October 24, 1775 in Delhi, † November 7, 1862 in Yangon ) was the last, only nominally reigning Mughal emperor, Emperor of India shortly. Bahadur Shah II is also regarded as a famous poet in the Urdu language.
Zafars role as Mughal
Bahadur Shah was the son of Akbar Shah II and his wife Lalbai. After his father's death on 28 September 1838 he was Mughal emperor.
The Mughal Empire, which was once associated with a conglomerate of provinces of the empire, subordinate princely states and semi-autonomous towns and villages, had lost its dominant influence on the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. As before, however, who lived in Delhi Red Fort Mughal emperor was both the Indian people and the Indian provinces and states as the nominal sovereign. Accordingly, the British East India Company had referred at the beginning of the 19th century on official papers and coins as a vassal of the Great Mogul and given to the resident representative of the company in Delhi under strict instructions to deal with the mogul with the respect of the supreme ruler state of Hindustan. However, as early as the 1830s, the British policy began to change in this regard. By 1857 demonstrated a series of actions and events of the Mughal emperor and his court, which insignificance ascribed to them, the British now. Thus, the British East India Company from 1832 no longer presented the ceremonial gift ( as " nazr ") that would have the obligations of the Company against the Mughal emperor emphasized publicly. High-level representatives of the company dispensed with the inaugural visit to the Great Mogul, when they stayed in Delhi.
On the rupees, which was edited by the British East India Company, the name of the Great Mogul was removed and after 1850 it was prohibited all British subjects to accept titles and honors by the Great Mogul. The area of influence of Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Great Mughals, was confined to his palace, the Red Fort No Indian nobleman was allowed to visit him on the spot here without the permission of Thomas Metcalfe, the highest ranking representative of the company. Metcalfe also tried to influence the succession. It is usual that the Mughal emperor among his sons those certain who was the most suitable successor from his sight. Metcalfe first tried the primogeniture enforce and refused any recognition of the son, Bahadur Shah Zafar the had chosen. Shortly before the outbreak of the rebellion of 1857, however, Metcalfe pursued increasingly the policy to let expire with the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the rule line. This policy meant that a number of dignitaries at the court of the Great Mogul was prepared to support the insurgents.
Role in the Indian rebellion of 1857
Bahadur Shah Zafar II was nominally the leader of the anti-British uprising of 1857. 's Support of the rebels was also not shared by all members of the court of the Great Mogul. The British side was also supported by Zafars favorite wife Zinat Mahal, which may have associated with it the hope that the British would secure the succession of her son Jawan Bakht. Jawan Bakht took over in contrast to his older half- brother Mirza Mughal during the uprising never an active role.
In the course of the uprising Bahadur Shah II was proclaimed Emperor of India in the short term. After the suppression of the rebellion, the British East India Company was dissolved in 1858 and British India to a formal crown colony. Bahadur Shah II was deposed in March of the same year at the age of 82 years and exiled to Rangoon in British-occupied part of Burma, where he died in 1862.