r/Ancient_Pak

17 days until the 500th birthday of the Mughal Empire

I missed yesterday, so today will be a double, mostly about the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II. It will be in two parts: first about the empire during his time and about him personally, and the second part about the fall of the empire.

This is part 2.

British cartridges. Apparently made with cow fat and pig fat. You had to bite them to use them. Hindus and Muslims were very angry. A soldier attacked his officer over it and was hanged. Hindustan went up in flames.

The Sepoy mutiny was of course much more complicated than that, but for the sake of simplicity, you just need to understand that everyone was angry at the British and a massive soldier uprising had begun. Both Muslims and Hindus went to Delhi and declared Bahadur Shah Zafar the only rightful King of Hindustan. The poor man didn’t even have the power to say no.

I’m not going to cover the war. The British won.

Delhi became a battleground. The British killed many civilians in Delhi.

As the story goes, the British broke in, found all the princes, cut off their heads, and presented them on a tray to the emperor. Imagine an emperor who had lived his entire life in luxury, who only knew servants and the beauty of the world, suddenly seeing his own sons’ heads on a tray. It must have been soul-crushing and unimaginable.

The last emperor of a once-glorious empire was exiled to Rangoon (in present-day Myanmar), where he lived out the rest of his days. With his exile, the empire officially died, not without a bang, tragedy, and pride.

A few years later, the next emperor, or should I say empress, was crowned. It was Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Long live the Queen.

Credit for the last two maps: Simeon Netchev from worldhistory.org

Source: Portrait of two unknown men from Sindhi and Baluch origin in Sindh, Pakistan

17 days until the 500th birthday of the Mughal Empire

I missed yesterday, so today will be a double, mostly about the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II. It will be in two parts: first about the empire during his time and about him personally, and the second part about the fall of the empire.

This is part one.

The empire was far from a proper empire between 1837–1857. The emperor was practically just kind of like a count over Delhi. Symbolically, however, he was still the emperor of the entire subcontinent.

In practice, almost everything that remained was the legendary Mughal court. There was no longer really any military to manage. Very little administration to deal with, so it was almost purely focused on art, music, poetry, and philosophy.

There were also some very well-known figures. Mirza Ghalib, who is often considered the greatest Urdu poet, was part of the court. Bahadur Shah, also known by his poetic name Zafar, is actually still very well known today for his poetry. Zauq and Momin Khan Momin were also there, but not gonna lie, I’ve never heard of them before lol.

Zafar wrote poetry about love, or rather the lack of it, separation, and the loss of home, country, and honor. He was at the center of a real tragedy, and he expressed it through his poetry. His very name was ironic, since “Zafar” means “The Victorious,” yet he was a man who had lost everything.

Delhi was also a very active city at the time. Even though it didn’t control a massive empire anymore, there were still bazaars selling spices, jewels, fabrics and textiles, and there was plenty of culture; music, poetry, art, and diverse traditions.

Bahadur Shah Zafar didn’t really have much power, but he was still a symbol for the people. A symbol of a golden age, in contrast to British oppression.