Calm, caring and royal in her mannerisms. This is how those who knew Princess Saleha Sultan, the titular queen of Bhopal who passed away in Hyderabad and whose last rites were performed in the Madhya Pradesh city on Monday, described her.
Born in 1940, Sultan passed away on Sunday of a brain haemorrhage. Her mortal remains were taken to Bhopal on Monday where the funeral took place at the Saifia Masjid where her family members and ancestors are also buried.
She is survived by four sons Amer Bin Jung, Saad Bin Jung, Omer Bin Jung and Faiz Bin Jung. Her husband Paigah Nawab Bashir Yar Jung, whose father Nawab Sir Viqar-ul-Umra constructed the Falaknuma Palace, passed away in 2019.
Mohammed Safiullah, a historian said, “I had known her for at least 30 years. She was very calm, caring and carried herself really well. She made others feel comfortable around her and was full of grace.” Safiullah, who was informed of the tragic news by the Princess’ sons, said, “The last time I met her was on November 4, when her husband Bashir Yar Jung passed away. She was extremely heartbroken.”
Sultan and Jung were married in December 1957 at the Hyderabad House, New Delhi. The function was held under the patronage of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“As the eldest child of Nawab Ifteqar Ali Khan Pataudi and Begum Sajida Sultan of the princely State of Bhopal, she was the titular Begum of Bhopal. She was older to her brother Nawab Mansoor (Tiger) Ali Khan Pataudi, the cricket legend,” Safiullah said.
Although she was the eldest, she was never recognised as the head of the erstwhile Bhopal State, despite Bhopal being a matriarchal kingdom. After her mother Sajida Sultan’s death, the title of Nawab passed on to Tiger Patadui.
Sultan and her sons have been embroiled in a court case with Tiger’s son, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan to procure a share of the ancestral property in Bhopal. In contention is over 6,000 acre of property worth thousands of crores of rupees, including the Bhopal Jama Masjid that is estimated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore.
Another historian Vedakumar Manikonda expressing his condolences said, “For some time in early 90s, we were neighbours. We used to meet now and then.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Hyderabad / by The New Indian Express Online Archive / January 21st, 2020
Humayun’s Tomb introduced India to the Persian style of a domed mausoleum set in the centre of a landscaped char-bagh garden.
Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi | Photo: Commons
Humayun’s first wife was a Persian from Khorasan and a daughter of Humayun’s maternal uncle. She was also called Haji Begum, probably because she had gone on the Haj to Mecca. During Humayun’s reign, she appears in history at the Battle of Chausa, where the harem was captured by Sher Khan. In all the chaos of battle, a boat carrying women capsized and her young daughter, Aqiqa Begum, was drowned. Bega Begum did not have any more children. Today she is remembered for the tomb of Humayun that she built in Delhi. After the death of her husband, when she decided to build the mausoleum, she was encouraged in her endeavour by her stepson Akbar, who was very fond of her.
Among all Humayun’s wives, Bega Begum lived a life of surprising independence. She went off to the Haj and came back with Arab craftsmen who worked at the tomb. This was much before Gulbadan Begum and Hamida Banu Begum went to Mecca during the reign of Akbar, their trip getting much more coverage in contemporary writing. Bega Begum did not join the harem in Agra but remained in Delhi, supervising the building work. An episode described by Gulbadan shows that she was a spirited woman who even spoke sharply to her husband when he did not visit her.
Among all Humayun’s wives, Bega Begum lived a life of surprising independence. She went off to the Haj and came back with Arab craftsmen who worked at the tomb. This was much before Gulbadan Begum and Hamida Banu Begum went to Mecca during the reign of Akbar, their trip getting much more coverage in contemporary writing. Bega Begum did not join the harem in Agra but remained in Delhi, supervising the building work. An episode described by Gulbadan shows that she was a spirited woman who even spoke sharply to her husband when he did not visit her.
Then Humayun replied, ‘It is a necessity laid on me to make them happy. Nevertheless, I am ashamed before them because I see them so rarely… I am an opium-eater. If there should be any delay in my comings and goings, do not be angry with me.’ However, Bega Begum was not reassured and said, ‘Your Majesty has carried matters to this point! What remedy have we? You are emperor. The excuse looked worse than the fault.’ Gulbadan ends her tale saying, ‘He made it up with her also.’
The contemporary historian Badauni writes that Akbar and Bega Begum were very close and he describes her as a ‘second mother to Akbar’. Once when the boy Akbar had a toothache, Bega Begum brought some medicine but Hamida was reluctant to give it to him. This was understandable since, in a harem that was often full of politics and jealousy, the mothers feared that their children could be poisoned. Abul Fazl quotes Akbar as saying, ‘As she knew what the state of feeling was, she [Bega Begum] in her love to me swallowed some of it without there being any order to that effect, and then rubbed the medicine on my teeth.’
Bega Begum would often travel to Agra to meet Akbar and she spent her allowance doing charity. The Jesuit Antoine de Monserrate wrote, with reluctant approval, of her good works, ‘Throughout her widowhood she devoted herself to prayer and to alms-giving. Indeed, she maintained five hundred poor people by her alms. Had she only been a Christian, hers would have been the life of a heroine.’
Bega Begum was the first of the Mughal women to become a builder, and many would follow to build mausoleums, mosques, madrasas, seminaries, bazaars and gardens. Humayun’s Tomb introduced India to the Persian style of a domed mausoleum set in the centre of a landscaped char-bagh garden, which would reach its peak with the Taj Mahal. Built near the dargah (mausoleum) of the Sufi saint Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya, the mausoleum complex became the graveyard for many members of the dynasty. Bega Begum is buried in the mausoleum near her husband, and somewhere nearby is the grave of one of the most unfortunate princes of the dynasty – Dara Shukoh.
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This excerpt from Mahal: Power and Pageantry in the Mughal Harem by Subhadra Sen Gupta has been published with permission from Hachette India. Hardback Rs 599.
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source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> Page Turner> Book Excerpts / by Subhadra Sen Gupta / November 30th, 2019
A new biography looks into Akbar’s life to draw some inspiration on how to manage the boardroom. The third Mughal emperor was always thinking on his feet, one step ahead of friend and foe; but he also knew that force had to be tempered with tolerance, and confidence with caution.
Akbar’s Tomb in Sikandra, Agra | Photo Credit: cinoby
Even as elements in the right-wing have made attempts to nibble at the great Jalaluddin Akbar, historians and authors have taken it upon themselves to project the third Mughal emperor clothed in nothing but facts of history.
Around the time of COVID-19, Ira Mukhoty came out with her exhaustive biography, Akbar The Great Mughal: The Definitive Biography (Aleph). It came on the heels of Manimugdha S. Sharma’s Allahu Akbar: Understanding the Great Mughal in Today’s India (Bloomsbury) where the author, as the title suggests, made an attempt to see the Mughal monarch in the light of modern-day developments.
The books show why Akbar is considered an Indian icon and a king with compassion and empathy. Instead of spending his childhood as a royal prince, practising calligraphy and honing his skills with the sword, Akbar lived those years, as Mukhoty writes, “in the company of his beloved animals and their keepers…He raced pigeons, ran alongside camels and dogs, and hunted cheetahs, lions, tiger, and deer. And Akbar tested his physical strength and courage against wild elephants, learning to ride and to tame them.”
Akbar had grown up practically illiterate but would eventually be “known for his reverence for learning, penmanship, books…and would patronise some of the most extraordinary works of writing, translation and illustration ever undertaken in the country,” Mukhoty points out.
This quest for knowing the unknown led Akbar to build Ibadat Khana, an assembly of scholars of different religions. Akbar’s congregation of men of spiritual accomplishment was the work of a truly liberal mind. At a time when the Safavids were persecuting non-Shias in Iran and Europe had no space for non-Christians, Akbar invited them all. He abolished the religious tax, jiziya, for non-Muslims and did away with the pilgrimage tax on Hindus and was known to prevent Sati. As Sharma quotes Abul Fazl in Allahu Akbar, “The Shahenshah in his wisdom and tolerance remitted all these taxes, which amounted to crores. He looked upon such grasping of property as blameable and issued orders forbidding the levy thereof.”
In simpler words, it meant, as Sharma writes, “The state wouldn’t come in between an individual and his faith.”
Beyond religion
Yet Akbar’s relevance goes beyond the sphere of religion as noted journalist and author Shazi Zaman discusses in his latest, Akbar The Great CEO: The Emperor’s 30 Rules of Leadership. Published by Speaking Tiger, the book has a contemporary, and non-historic feel to it. In its innovative approach lies its appeal. Zaman presents Akbar as a practitioner of some dictates which would do a management guru proud. Interestingly, the book opens with the words of a Jesuit priest stationed at Akbar’s court. The priest wrote in awe, “He was a prince beloved of all, firm with the great, kind to those of low estate, and just to all men, high or low, neighbour or stranger, Christian, Saracen or Gentile; so that every man believed that the King was on his side.” The priest’s words were borne by the fact that Akbar, as Zaman writes, “perfected the art of ruling with a light touch even though he had the means to be brutal.”
The surprise factor
So what were the 30 rules of Akbar? Though he ruled in an age when the Emperor was often larger than life, Akbar believed in subtlety. Importantly, as his experience with the Afghan king Daud Khan Karrani proved, Akbar was not just fast in his thinking, he was unpredictable too. When he would be least expected to show up in a battle, he would take the enemy by surprise, vanquish his forces, and bring him to his knees. “When the Rubicon was to be crossed was a call that he [Akbar] took in a manner so unpredictable that his opponents could never gain an advantage by guessing it,” writes Zaman. “The Emperor’s audacity was well documented visually as well… In one painting, he is seen holding a cheetah by its ear, and in another painting, he is seen mounted on a mast elephant and chasing another across a shaky bridge built on boats.”
Zaman mentions another incident which underscores Akbar’s acuity. When a slave attacked him, Akbar knew who was behind it but chose to remain quiet.
As Zaman writes, “Even the truth has to await its moment.” Does it remind you of office boardroom meetings? Maybe. But remember this was the strategy of the Mughal emperor who was merely 21 at the time of the attack. He knew the truth, but also knew how to use it to his advantage later in life.
Little wonder then that one of Akbar’s favourite books which he also recommended to his officers was Akhlaq-i-Nasiri, a 13th century text on etiquette and way of life, which said, “The king should keep his secrets concealed, so that he can change his mind without sounding contradictory…The need to keep secrets has to be combined with the need to consult intelligent people.” Akbar did it all.
Be it his relationship with Maham Angaand Bairam Khan, or later the Rajputs, Akbar was always smart and wise.
Zaman’s book progresses like an equation in a science book as he goes on to reveal many facets of Akbar’s personality.
Cultivated image
One such aspect was the way he looked, and the way he presented himself. “Akbar’s image was cultivated, recorded and disseminated with a lot of thought. There was a message in how he dressed and looked and what he chose to be doing in the picture. Each portrait portrays a facet of his personality. It never was a picture for the sake of a picture,” writes Zaman.
Written with the brush of an artist, the book is a must-read for anyone looking for life lessons and critical values, particularly in the boardroom. The ‘illiterate’ emperor was indeed a wise man, who never “went to extremes” in any direction.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Zia Us Salam / December 25th, 2025
Nawab Shafath Ali Khan trains guns to save endangered species
Nawab Shafath Ali Khan Photo: K. Ramesh Babu
No arrogance, no laid back attitude or flaunting his privileged birth. This new age nawab is a quick draw. He can handle physical and mental strain; evidenced by the fact that he can sit motionless for hours at a stretch atop a 20 ft high machan in thick jungle with danger lurking close by.
Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, India’s celebrated hunter refuses to conform to the typical nawabi lifestyle. He doesn’t live in the lap of luxury, instead he loves to wallow in the lap of nature. He displays an unusual obsession for wildlife, conservation and guns.
At his villa in Hyderabad, stuffed trunks, elephant leg footstools and a bison leg pen-stand greet you. Then you are suddenly jolted when a trumpet rings from his mobile. His daily fare at Nilgiri Hills, Masinagudi village to be precise, where he usually stays, include a sighting of spotted deer, sambar, the piercing call of lapwings, chatter of macaques and the occasional roar of a tiger on the prowl. Sure, he is at ease with the sounds, sights and life in the jungles of south India where he has spent most of his 58 years.
Hunting runs into his genes. His grandfather, Nawab Sultan Ali Khan Bahadur, was an honorary elephant hunter for British India while his father, Nawab Arshad Ali Khan, was a target shooter, doyen of horse racing and secretary of Bangalore Turf Club. “I have inherited the love of wildlife and knowledge of flora and fauna from my ancestors,” says Shafath Ali.
At an age when most children love to play with toys, he played with weapons. Those days the nobility was exempted from the Arms Act, and there were 50 odd weapons at his house. No wonder he got a trophy for rifle shooting from the Governor of Madras in 1962 when he was just five years. At 10 he shot a spotted deer in Masinagudi. Since then he has been active in competitive rifle shooting. “Those days game licences were given and hunting blocks allotted. But there was strict code which hunters had to follow,” says Shafath Ali, fresh from the successful tranquillising of a man-eater tigress in Brahmapuri division of Maharashtra.
The only authorised tranquillising expert and culling officer in India, Shafath Ali is always at the beck and call of the forest departments of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. If he is not tackling man-eating leopards, rogue elephants, stray tigers and sloth bear, he is training the frontline staff of the forest departments in the use of tranquillising dart gun on stressed tigers and leopards.
The dangerous missions he undertakes are a test of endurance. To work in close proximity of a man eater is perhaps the most dangerous sport. But for the last four decades it has been a way of life for Shafath Ali. “Tears of gratitude that I see in the eyes of poor farmers and forest dwellers give me energy and courage,” he says.
But he couldn’t have handled these death-defying feats without the support of his family. His wife, Begum Shaheen, stands by him with patience and understanding while son, Asghar Ali Khan, is ready to step into his shoes. The duo keep the fire burning at Safari Land Resorts, the family’s chain of restaurants at Ooty even as Shafath Ali is busy answering the call of the wild.
The sharp shooter often finds wildlife activists training guns at him for his trigger-happy ways. “Culling is a tool of conservation,” he explains. The Wildlife Tranqui Force set up by Hitesh Malhotra, head of Forest Force, Andhra Pradesh, of which he is a secretary, is intended to improve wildlife management through tranquillising and safe rescue of endangered animals.
Scientific management of wildlife population, he says, calls for evolving a strategy to deal with excessive wildlife. This is the only way to check the escalating man-animal conflict. It’s not whether animals will survive, it’s whether man has the will to save them. Save it to cherish or leave it to perish.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad> Interview / by J S Ifthekhar / July 27th, 2017
Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, who built the Taj Mahal to commemorate his favourite wife. Photograph: The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
V&A, London Romance, bloodshed and religious curiosity is distilled in these lovely artefacts from the mighty military reign with a love of beauty and culture
This exhibition wafts you to the paradise that Shah Jahan, fifth of the Muslim emperors of much of modern India and Pakistan, wanted to create on Earth. A floor-covering decorated with red poppies sets the scene for this idyll of calmness. A rippled stone panel with myriad water spouts had me dreaming of fruit trees and pavilions while I was cooled by a stone jali screen that once filtered air through one of his buildings. These lovely objects help to fill in for his masterpiece, which for obvious reasons can’t be here: the Taj Mahal.
It is shown on a big screen above the portable delights, twinkling white in the hazy Agra sky. Shah Jahan famously built it as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631; his tomb is there beside hers. It may be familiar but this piece of architectural heaven captivatingly distils the extraordinary civilisation that a warlike dynasty from Central Asia bequeathed to the world.
The original founder of Mughal power led his armies from Kabul into northern India. When this first empire collapsed it was resurrected by Akbar, first of the exhibition’s “great” Mughal rulers, who combined military might with a love of culture and beauty that his successors would share.
The giant Zumurrud Shah flees with his army, from the Hamzanama, circa 1562-1577. Photograph: MAK/Georg Mayer
Akbar was illiterate but that didn’t stop him employing Hindu and Muslim artists to create a library of illuminated manuscripts. He had readers to tell him what the words said; anyway you can follow the epics he favoured from the ravishing illustrations. In a scene from one of his favourite story cycles, the Hamzanama, a giant with a long beard and bright red coat is chased away through the clouds by Hamza’s army.
The court painting style started by Akbar combines closely observed reality with transporting fantasy. A princess of Kabul lowers her hair for a lover to climb up against a brilliantly realistic garden where ducks swim in a rectangular pool, while above rises a dreamlike mountain landscape and a palace floating in the sky.
In the reign of Akbar’s successor, Jahangir, who came to the throne a couple of years after James I was crowned in England, a natural historical and scientific curiosity sharpens the paintings. In about 1612, a North American turkey cock reached the court and the renowned artist Mansur painted it. The bird – with its orange head, long drooping beak and fan tail – seems to pose as patiently for its portrait as Jahangir himself does in a painting of him studying a globe.
The Great Mughals were interested not just in globes but the globe. They embraced religious complexity and did not expect the Hindu population to convert to Islam. In fact, these curious rulers were attracted to Hindu mythology and mystics. In a painting entitled A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman, the pilgrim walks through a rolling north Indian landscape where he encounters a Hindu mystic lying in the road in true spiritual humility. The Mughals were also attracted to the mystic Islamic Sufi movement. That is represented here by a Sufi dervish’s drinking horn and Sufi-inscribed tiles from a now-vanished mosque in Lahore.
Their art absorbed influences from Persia to Renaissance Europe. Portuguese merchants are depicted visiting the Mughal court and, more mysteriously, speaking with angels as the court artists try to make sense of their strange Christian religion.
The exchange went both ways. A Mughal round shield, covered in lustrous mother of pearl patterns and pictures, has been lent by the Bargello Museum in Florence. This dazzling luxury object entered the collection of the Medici family in the 1590s.
This shield never saw battle, plainly, but the Mughals didn’t create their gorgeous world without bloodshed. Many weapons here are opulent and lethal: curved daggers with jewel-encrusted hilts and scabbards, “punch daggers” with floral decoration.
Art itself could be a fantasy of killing. There’s a portrait of Jahangir standing on a globe, shooting an arrow at close range at the severed head of his enemy Malik Ambar. This never happened, but the painting may have eased the emperor’s desire for revenge against this formerly enslaved Ethiopian who rose to be regent of a sultanate and a thorn in Jahangir’s flesh.
When the battles are won and the day’s hunting is over, you drink wine from a jade cup poured from a slender-necked ewer and walk in the gardens to be soothed by the pitter patter of fountains. Where is paradise? A Mughal court poet offered an answer you might agree with by the end of this show: “It is here, it is here, it is here.”
His fort at Kurnool was turned into an ordnance factory
Ghulam Rasool Khan, the Nawab of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, who created terror among the officials of the East India Company, came to power in 1823.
Since his childhood, Ghulam Rasool Khan never cared foreign rulers. After coming into power, he took every care to protect his state from the British. He was sure that he had to fight against the British, and was prepared for the same. He befriended Gohar Ali Khan alias Mubariz-ud-Doula, a prince of Nizam state. He turned his fort at Kurnool into an ordnance factory.
The jealous cousins of Nawab Ghulam Rasool, who wished to capture power, colluded with the English and hatched conspiracies against him. They informed General Fraser, who was the British Resident, about the preparedness of Ghulam Rasool for war on 23 August 1839.
Alarmed at this, the East India Company appointed Edward Armstrong to probe into the matter and report it immediately. Edward wrote a letter to General Fraser stating that ‘the armoury of the Nawab of Kurnool is enormous. His preparedness for war is hard to describe. He turned the gardens and the royal palaces into ordnance factories.’ This information sent shivers down the spine of General Fraser, who sent the East India Company forces immediately under the command of Colonel A .B. Dyce to capture the fort of Kurnool and arrest Nawab Ghulam Rasool Khan.
East India Company troops attacked and rounded the Kurnool fort on 12 October, 1839. After six days of fierce fighting, the enemy was able to detain Ghulam Rasool Khan, on 18 October, 1839 at Joharapuram, a village near Kurnool.
Later on, they took him to Tiruchinapalli and imprisoned Rasool Khan in Tiruchinapalli Jail. The British rulers wished to eliminate the Nawab of Kurnool. So they bribed his personal servant into serving poisoned food to Nawab, due to which Nawab Ghulam Rasool Khan died on 12 July, 1840.
The Company charged the servant of murder and sentenced him to death. The British rulers tried their level best to hide this conspiracy, but history revealed the fact in course of time.
Ghulam Rasool Khan is still remembered by the people of Rayalaseema region of Andhra pradesh, where they still eulogize him singing the ballad titled ‘Kandanavolu Nawabu Katha’ (Story of Kurnool Nawab).
Syed Naseer Ahamad is a Telugu writer and journalist who has written several books on the role of Muslims in the struggle for the freedom of India. Many of his books have been translated into other languages. He can be contacted at naseerahamedsyed@gmail.com and cellphone number 91-9440241727.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Opinion / by Sued Naseer Ahamed / September 04th, 2022
Nawabi Calcutta: An overlooked era, organised by Know Your Neighbour and INTACH, highlights how Thumri, Kathak and Urdu blossomed under King of Oudh’s patronage.
Speaker Sabir Ahamed during the bicentenary celebration of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah | Picture: Know Your Neighbour
Kolkata:
We all remember the story of Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Oudh, being exiled to Kolkata by the East India Company for being a poor administrator. But how many of us know that the ruler had travelled to the colonial Kolkata with around 6000 attendants in 1856, in hope of travelling to London to place his case before Queen Victoria concerning the unfair annexation of his kingdom? How many of us are aware of the fact that it was only in 1857, when the first revolt for independence broke out that the recuperating Shah was kept under house arrest?
But the most intriguing aspect about the Shah’s stay in Kolkata was his ability to not lose hope, despite being robbed of his throne and his journey of recreating mini-Lucknow (Metiabruz) along the bank of river Hooghly. And little by little bringing the Lucknowi style to Bengal.
How the Shah took on to his new life, patronised art and rebuilt a mini-empire of his miles away the banks of Gomti was what Nawabi Calcutta: An overlooked era attempted to recall.
“There is more to Wajid Ali Shah and his ‘Chota Lucknow’. We shouldn’t just remember him for bringing biryani to Kolkata and giving it a spin by introducing potato to it,” said Sabir Ahamed, of Know Your Neighbour (KYN), during his inaugural speech.
The remains of structures built by Wajid Ali Shah, have often been overlooked by Kolkatans. Rare images of old Metiabruz and structures built by the last king of Oudh were screened during the programme. Ninety-nine per cent of these structures built by the Wajid Ali Shah, no longer exist, said Shaikh Sohail, who conducts heritage tours in Metiabruz. He gave a call to all to come and visit the remains and know the history of the Shah’s ‘Chota Lucknow.”
The invitation card of the event
Remembering the last king of Oudh, Sudipta Mitra, author of Pearl by the River ( a book that documents the life of Wajid Ali Shah) chose to highlight his love for rare animals. A connoisseur of wild animals, the Shah even created a mini zoo, which home some rare animals including an open snake house much ahead of Kolkata having a zoo of its own.
“His love to collect unique or rare wild animals for his personal zoo was so famed that zoologist Edward Blyth once wrote to his friend Charles Darwin about the King of Oudh and his love for animals. He wrote that till the Shah is alive, animal trade would flourish in India,” said Mitra.
He then went on to add, “Once Oudh was annexed, about 18 tigers from the Shah’s personal collection were brought by Blyth for Rs 20 each. These tigers were put on display for the public at the present age Teratti Bazar. And later when the Shah made Metiabruz his home, he brought three tigers from his pre-owned collection for his new personal zoo at a much higher price.”
In a bid to feel at home, the pining Shah, even established the famed Sibtainabad Imbara, where he now rests, much like his father Amjad Ali Shah, who rests at Hazratganj’s Sibtainabad Imbara.
Debunking the poor administrator theory was Dr Soumik Bhattacharjee. While addressing the audience, Dr Bhattacharjee said, “The East India Company (EIC) created a narrative to justify their annexation of Oudh. The Shah was a lover of art, and that’s not a crime. He promoted thumri, kathak and a lot of artists during his reign. He also introduced a number of administrative reforms, which were good for Oudh. But the ECI brought in laws that made it difficult for the king to do his work in a judicious way. The king, failing to understand the implications of the new laws, fell prey to ECI’s trap.”
A portrait of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah at the event venue| Picture: Soumyadeep Roy
“While Prem Chand was almost reprimanding in his play Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Satyajit Ray was more understanding towards the king of Oudh. The king’s decision to not revolt against the British and approach Queen Victoria regarding the unfair annexation should be seen as his fondness for non-violence and not weakness,” he summed up.
Taking up from where Dr Bhattacharjee left, was foodpreneur and great great granddaughter of the Shah, Manzilat Fatima. “It’s sad that not many know about the history and reality of Wajid Ali Shah. My father, Dr Kaukab Quder Meerza, wrote a book on him in Urdu, which has been translated into English by sister Talat Fatima.” She added that they are also working on a project to highlight the revolutionary work of Begum Hazrat Mahal.
On being asked if the Indian historians have been a little harsh on the king of Oudh, she said, “It’s sad that the historians despite being Indians chose to highlight the narrative set by the British and East India Company. But it’s heartening to see so many remember Wajid Ali Shah with great fondness. I am humbled by the number of events that are being organised to mark his bicentenary. As his descendants, we will try doing our bit to keep his legacy alive.
While, Mohammad Reyaz, Assistant Professor, Aliah University, highlighted the central focus of the Nawab’s migration – rebuilding a new city, which was demolished after his death and the legacy that he created in the field of art. “The Nawab of Oudh was beyond bringing biryani to Kolkata,” he said.
The event organised by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and Know Your Neighbour, also hosted an art exhibition – Dastan-e-Akhtar by visual artist Soumyadeep Roy, who chose to pay tribute to the king through his paintings.
Also present at the event was Sarod maestro Irfan Md Khan, whose ancestor had travelled to Kolkata with Wajid Ali Shah. He summed up by saying, “The Shah was a patron of art. He patronised and promoted kathak, thumri and sarod to this city.”
source: http://www.enewsroom.in / eNewsRoom India / Home> Bengal> Inclusive India / by Shabina Akhtar / July 26th, 2023
That culinary addition is attributed to Chef Manzilat Fatima’s great-great grandfather Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh.
Chef Manzilat Fatima, April 22, 2024. (image courtesy: Umang Sharma)
Manzilat’s great-grandfather did
On most evenings, Manzilat Fatima’s rooftop restaurant in South Kolkata, aptly named Manzilat’s, is packed with food connoisseurs waiting to taste the incredible dishes she prepares for them. But there is another reason foodies climb four flights of stairs to her quaint little eatery.
An engraving of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Pic Courtesy/ Wikimedia Commmons
What Manzilat does, is nothing short of remarkable. Not only does she tantalize the tastebuds of food lovers with exceptional dishes such as Chicken Lazeez Shami Kebab, Lakhnavi Murgh Biryani, or the famed Lakhnawi Mutton Yakhni Pulav – but she also evocatively creates a bridge between the present and the royal past of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh.
Manzilat Fatima is the great-great granddaughter of the Nawab who made his home in Kolkata after the British East India Company annexed his kingdom. He gave the culinary world the famed aloo in Biryani.
A descendant of Awadh
“I am a direct descendent of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal ,” Manzilat reveals.
After the annexation, her great, great grandmother Begum Hazrat Mahal who took charge of Awadh, put her son Birjis Qadr on the throne in 1857. Birjis Qudr was the son of Jaan e Alam Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal.
Manzilat is the daughter of Dr. Kaukub Qudr Meerza, the grandson of Birjis Qudr, she explains.
Like her pantry, stocked with delectable food, Manzilat is a storehouse of stories and fascinating history.
A conspiracy at play
According to Manzilat, despite having no inheritance, Birjs was still the legal heir of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal.
“Birjs Qadr had a son Mehr Qadr who was my grandfather,” adds Manzilat. “He did not have any siblings growing up. He did have a family, but they were assassinated in cold blood on August 14, 1893.”
Manzilat says that the British invited Mehr Quadr from Kathmandu to Calcutta under a false pretext. “The other descendants of the Awadh royal family wanted to snuff out the last crown king, even though there was nothing to inherit by then.”
There was a deeper conspiracy at play.
A dish of Awadhi biryani (image courtesy: Manzilat Fatima restaurant)
A poisoned dinner
“In order to snuff out this branch they cooked up a conspiracy along with the British and invited him and his family over for dinner where they laced the food with poison. In that tragedy, he, along with a son and daughter as well as his guards and dogs were murdered.”
Only Mehr Quadr’s wife, Mehtab Ara Begum, survived. She was pregnant with Manzilat’s grandfather and did not attend the dinner. “Had she gone for the dinner, the entire course of history would perhaps have been different,” says Manzilat.
Her grandmother, Mehtab Ara Begum, survived along with an unborn child – Manzilat’s father- and a daughter who was four years old at that time. The little girl grew up and married, but died childless. But the lineage of Wajid Ali Shah continued through Mehr Qadr and Manzilat’s father Kaukub Qudr Meerza.
“My lineage shaped me into a very loyal Indian,” she says. “We grew up hearing stories of valor of Begum Hazrat Mahal and Birjs Qadr and how, after 1857, (she) chose to live free in Kathmandu, Nepal. Our history helped us be grounded and honest. We learned the art of sacrifice.”
From lawyer to chef
Growing up, Manzilat heard stories about the tragedy and the conspiracy that destroyed her family – from their time in Lucknow until Birjs Qadr’s assassination, and how her grandfather was protected and grew up very sheltered because of the constant threat to his life.
Being a chef was not always the game plan. Manzilat studied at Aligarh Public School and graduated with an English (Hons) degree from Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University. She enrolled at Calcutta University for her Master’s in English and a few years after her marriage, even completed a five-year LL.B course in 2002.
Chef Manzilat Fatima (image courtesy: (Umang Sharma)
Manzilat opened the doors to her kitchen to food lovers from all over the world. As the smoke rises from her tender Mutton Awadhi Galwtii Kebab, or tear-drop-shaped condensation rolls down her chilled Khus ka sherbet, or even as patrons savor the pillowy soft aloo in their biryani, Manzilat knows that she has not only served some delectable dishes but offered her guests a panoramic view into the world of her ancestors and what they stood for – the mighty Wajid Ali Shah, the indomitable Begum Hazrat Mahal.
In the fragrant aroma of her kitchen, Manzilat Fatima is the custodian of the legacy of the last Nawab of Awadh. Her guests experience more than just culinary delights; they immerse themselves in a narrative of courage, tradition, and the enduring spirit of Awadh.
source: http://www.indiacurrents.org / India Currents / Home> Food> India> Lifestyle / by Umang Sharma / April 26th, 2024
Ellen Barry of the New York Times walked into my study and, wasting no time, came straight to the point. What did I know about the last “Begum of Oudh”? She had a quizzical, amused look like she knew what the answer would be but would still like to see my expression. The abruptness of the query was her way to establish a point of departure on the theme.
After reading Ellen’s evocative masterpiece on the Oudh (Awadh) Royals in the NYT, I am chastising myself for poor judgment. I dismissed Ellen’s pursuit as a “foreigner’s” quest for the exotic. This was months ago. The story titled “The Jungle Prince of Delhi” appeared last week.
Only after reading the lengthy piece which, in parts, reads like a poem in prose, did I, Google Ellen, out. She had been the paper’s bureau chief in New Delhi, Moscow, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and so on.
The story of the “Begum”, Princess and the jungle Prince, is a classic case of “news” which, when neither confirmed nor denied, takes root in the popular imagination. Public opinion then drives the government into action to minimize criticism. That is why Indira Gandhi in the early 80s agreed to transfer the “Royals” to a medieval hunting lodge on the ridge. It is known as Malcha Mahal.
Ali Raza, Prince
In the early 70s, a woman with sharp aristocratic features took up residence on platform number one of New Delhi Railway station and proclaimed herself the last Begum of Oudh. For greater credibility, she had in her entourage, two children, a handsome dog, and a liveried servant.
The mainstream media took a perfunctory interest but the Urdu press amplified the fall of the House of Oudh and readers, in enclaves like Jama Masjid, saw it as part of a continuing story of victimhood. Here was tear-jerking melodrama: “our royals betrayed”.
It says something of our journalism that a story laden with so much possibility waited unexplored for 40 years until Ellen Barry appeared. She tied up all the loose ends – the railway station Lucknow, Bradford, Texas, Lahore: and what a story she has delivered, a story under our noses but which we failed to see. This is not surprising because even our archaeology was excavated by Europeans. Why, even the Last Moghul, is something of a masterpiece by William Dalrymple. While Dalrymple diligently scoured archives in the fashion of scholarly investigation, the Oudh story was there for all newspapers and channels to see.
True, the story was, on the face of it, “fake” from the beginning. But what shames us, this hack included, is the fact that it required an outsider to tell up why the “fake” was being played out – across the subcontinent and two generations?
Toba Tek Singh in Manto’s story cannot understand how a place, which was in India, can “go” to Pakistan. Like Toba Tek Singh, Begum Wilayat of Oudh also spent time in an asylum for her grand delusion. She had to live with women who were “tied in chains”, Ellen’s investigations reveal for the first time.
Trust Saiyyid Ammar Rizvi, Lucknow’s omnipresent Shia (and gourmet in the classical Awadh mould) to has become something of an intermediary between the Royals and the UP Chief Minister. He must surely know about the other Royal in that splendid city – Prince Moinuddin, who also addresses himself as Bahadur Shah III. The last Moghul Emperor was his great, great grandfather: that is his story. His great grandfather escaped to Kerala. But why did Bahadur Shah III materialize in Lucknow?
Malcha-Mahal-Wilayat-Mahal
The Bahadur Shah story has remained unnoticed because the claimant to the title never made a nuisance of himself. Begum Wilayat Mahal did. When the New Delhi station master requested her to vacate the platform, she threw a fit. She would commit suicide by drinking some exotic poison. In fact, when she did die in 1993, her progeny tutored by her for decades, put out the story that, for a decorative expiry, she had swallowed “crushed diamonds”. Her daughter, Sakina’s death was presumably caused by neglect because there were stories of her unwashed hair dropping in matted locks. It was with the “Prince”, variously named as Prince Ali Reza, or Cyrus, who spent his last years in Malcha Mahal, that Ellen struck an equation of tenderness mingled with curiosity. Google her NYT piece titled “The Jungle Prince of Delhi”.
The yarn begins in Lucknow where Wilayat was happily married to the registrar of Lucknow University, Inayatullah Butt. The name itself is a give-away: it is a Sunni name whereas anybody claiming lineage from the Nawabs of Oudh would have to be Shia. A similar story of dubious veracity explains why the Butt’s left for Pakistan. During the high tension of Partition in 1947, Hindus armed with hockey sticks beat Butt up. I can bet my last rupee that the story is false. Yes, there was small-scale stone-throwing between Shias and Sunnis on appointed days annually. But Hindu-Muslim violence? Never – until caste politics reared its head in the late 80s.
The last king of Oudh (Awadh), Wajid Ali Shah’s exile to Matia Burj near Kolkata or the more recent Partition of India are disorienting events for those in the thick of it, by historical memory or raw experience. In minds like Wilayat Butt’s historical memory and immediate experience are all jumbled up in knots.
Is Malcha Mahal Really Haunted ?
Ellen believes that disruptions caused by a change (Partition for instance) had a great deal to do with the Butt tragedy. A grievance “unaddressed, had metastasized” to become an epic tragedy.
Wilayat was a “mental” as one of her relatives in Lahore said. Ellen has explored the story backward after she got to know the recluse “Prince Cyrus” in his Malcha Marg hideout. In the end, he turned out to be no more than Micky Butt. She writes of their sad delusion:
“It is impossible to know, now that he and his sister are dead, whether they even knew it wasn’t all true.”
Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai
source: http://www.theindiaobserver.com / The India Observer / Home> Diaspora> Editorial> India> Interface> Lifestyle / by Saeed Naqvi / edited by Adam Rizvi / Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai / November 29th, 2019
The cemetery and those who lie buried in the soil of time and fate are the witness to the the lost romance, their epitaphs bear a testimony to a history of prose and poetry.
The forgotten poet cemetery of Kashmir / Photo: Shakir Mir / Internet
خاک میں کیا صورتیں ہوں گی کہ پنہاں ہو گئیں
(In the soil- what faces must be hidden)
Beauty finds its way at odd places; away from the flamboyant commotion of Boulevard, far from the amorous colours of Zabarwan and distant from the prospects, perspectives and spectre of present. Beauty finds its way at odd places: along the sombre shores of the lifelessness, in the weed, litter and rubbish of a graveyard, the withered tombstones of a cemetery,
The Cemetery of the Poets
The cemetery and those who lie buried in the soil of time and fate are the witness to the the lost romance, their epitaphs bear a testimony to a history of prose and poetry.
Laala tooram, na humchoon ghuncha gulboo zadaem
Shaula jae bakhya bar chaak-e-gereban meezenam
(I am the Tulip of Sinai and not the bud borne of a rose
To my torn collar, I apply the needle of my fire to stitch it)
Cries out poet Mazhari, having penned down 6000 Persian verses throughout his travels from Iran, Khorasan, Hindustan to Kashmir, but now lost in graves and indifference of another necropolis, Malkhah.
Founded in year 1587 C.E during by the Mughal emperor Akbar, the cemetery of poets, also called Mazar-e-Shoara is situated along the banks of Dal Lake. The burial ground for the once eminent poets seems to have been selected carefully to give the dead souls a serene eternal sleep. The historical records show that there were five poets and men of letters buried in the cemetery, all of them the eminent avant grade of Iran, associated with the literary upper class of Mughal court. However, as of today only three of the tombstones can be located in the mazar, rest covered in debris of time and apathy.
There seems to be some confusion regarding the first grave in the cemetery, largely appearing due to the mistakes in copying the previous historical accounts. In this regard the first reference comes from the great historian and author, Mohammad Azam Dedmari in his Waqiat-e-Kashmir. Dedmari was a scholar, researcher, and also a poet of his time and was born during Aurangzeb’s era when Abu Nasr was performing the duties of sobedar (Governor) of Kashmir. Therefore, due to his temporal proximity to the rule of Akbar and his other meticulous documentations, his record can be taken as more authentic.
According to him the great Iranian savant and scholar of his time, Shah Fatehullah had come from Iran to Deccan. According to M. A Alvi and Abdur Rahman’s seminal work, “Fathullah Shirazi: The great Indian scientist of 16th century” and Mohammad Akmal Makhdum’s, “A Great Man: Shah Fateh Ullah Shirazi”, Fatehullah was brought up in Shiraz and learnt under great teachers like Kamal-ud-din Masood Sherwani and Khwajah Jamaluddin Mahmud, a disciple of the logician Jalal-al-din-Davani. Shirazi furthered his knowledge in medicine, mathematics, and science under the instruction of Mir Ghayasuddin Mansur. After completing his education, Shirazi embarked on a career in education in Shiraz. Among his notable students was Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, who served as the close confidant of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. In 1583, Shirazi received an invitation from Mughal Emperor Akbar and subsequently joined the imperial court in Agra.He soon earned the title of Amir and a rank (mansab) of 3000. Two years later, in 1584, Akbar appointed him as the Amin-ul-Mulk, also known as the Trustee of the State.Shirazi’s first task was to reexamine and rectify the Mughal Empire’s vast transaction records, which he accomplished with diligence and success. Along with his administrative work, Shirazi also undertook the task of regulating the intrinsic and bullion values of coins. He identified and corrected discrepancies in the currency, ensuring its reliability and trustworthiness. Shirazi’s skills and talents also earned him various honors and titles. In 1585 and 1587, the emperor selected him to lead diplomatic missions to the Deccan, where he was recognized for his efforts with the title of Azud-ud-Dawlah, or the Arm of the Emperor. He also received a horse, 5000 rupees, a robe of honor, and the office of the Chief Sadr of Hindustan.
A great poet, he also made significant contributions to the fields of philosophy and logic, particularly in his work, Takmilah-i-Hashiyah. Additionally, he played a crucial role in compiling the Tarikh-i-Alfi, a thousand-year history of Islam, demonstrating his vast knowledge in the field of history.
Page of disasters, from Tarikh-i-Alf
One can try to estimate the scholarship of Shah Fatehullah by the brief introduction Abul Fazal (Grand Vizier of Emperor Akbar the Great) writes about him. Abul Fazal being a royal minister and himself a great scholar did not recognise anybody at par with his own scholarship, but about Shah Fatehullah he writes:
“if all the books of all the subjects and sciences and crafts are destroyed then Shah Fatehullah, with his scholarship and knowledge, and with his memory, will create a parallel new library of books.”
Emperor Akbar mourns his death in following words:
“Had he fallen in the hands of Franks and had they they demanded all my treasures for him, I would gladly have entered such profitable traffic and brought the jewel cheap”
Shirazi was a great inventor and is credited with numerous innovations like improved cannons and guns, wagon mllls, mirrors that would make far things appear closer, travelling baths etc.
Two references are made to the death of Shah Fatehullah by Kashmiri scholars, one by Dedmari who says that he developed Typhoid and self treated it by over-eating Harisa. Another reference is made by Hassan Kuehami in his Tareekh-e-Hassan in which he refers to him (probably mistakenly) as Shah Abu Fateh and cites tuberculosis as his cause of death. The mistake (viz a viz name) seems an error while copying from Waqiat-e-Kashmir, where a poet called Mir Abu Fateh is mentioned immediately after Fatehullah, whom Kuehami seems to have skipped and probably mixed with the former. The location of his burial is mentioned atop Takht-e-Sulaiman, in Mazar-e-Shoara.
M.A Alvi and Abdur Rahman refer to Abdul Qadir Badaoni’s, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, which narrates a story similar to that of Dedmari in which Fathullah Shirazi dies because of over-eating porridge made of meat while having an episode of febrile illness. But there is a very important historical fact that is referred to in this version. According to them Fathullah was buried on koh-e-sulaiman, in the monastery of Sayyid Ali Hamadani. However, today we do not know any such monastery that exists on koh-e-sulaiman (or takht-e–sulaiman). So could this be reference to the lost monastery of Sayyid Ali Hamadani’s student Mohammad Ismael Kubravi which is historically known to exist around the same place. It was a matter of reverence to teachers that the students would name their schools and shrines after them. The great scholars would be buried in graveyards adjacent to these monasteries. So, is the location of the Mazar-e-Shoara the place where the monastery of Mohammad Ismail Kubravi actually stood?
(The lost monastery has a history of its own, allegedly destroyed by Chak rulers, the location where it stood has been a centre of academic debate in archaeological and academic circles.)
Cemetery
Second grave in the cemetery is of Haji Jan Muhammad Qudsi Mashadi popularly called Qudsi Mashadi. He was a native of the Mashhad in Iran. He joined the court of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan where he rose to become Malik-al-Shura (poet laureate). It is said that Mughal empire had Qudsi weighed in gold, which was then presented to him as a reward for his poetic excellence. On the occasion of the installation of the famous Peacock Throne in 1635, for example, Qudsi composed a dedicatory chronogram that was cast in glazed tile and inserted inside the throne canopy. Qudsi wrote several topographical poems as well, the most famous of which is his description of the journey to Kashmir.
When his son Mohammed Baqir died in the prime of his youth in Mashhad, Qudsi was heartbroken and decided not to go back to his native land but remain in India. Later he settled permanently in Kashmir. His works includes the poetical composition Zafarnama-yi Shahjahani, devoted to the king’s conquests, containing some 7000 rhymed couplets, and covering the first fourteen years of Shah Jahan’s reign and is by far Qudsi’s longest work, though it remained incomplete at the time of his death it was later completed posthumously by Kalim Kashani; a mathnawi entitled Wasf-I Kashmir. The poet remains buried in the Mazar-e-Shoara.
The third poet lying at rest in the graveyard is Abu Talib Kaleem. A native of the Persian city of Hamadan when Abu Talib Kaleem heard about Qudsi’s reception at the court of Shah Jahan, he was perturbed and said, “The man who was to be held by neck, it is strange, was weighed in gold”. He travelled Deccan and other Indian cities and later became a courtier of the Emperor at Shahjehani Darbar. Kaleem soon attained fame as a poet. The great Urdu poets Sauda and Mir Taqi Mir have written Tazmeens (poems formed by inserting verses from another’s poem) of his ghazals. Kaleem was assigned the task of writing a history of the Mughals, Padshah Nama or Shahnama Shaham Chugtia, in poetic form and sent to Kashmir so that he could do his work undisturbed. Hw wrote qasidas and mathnawis about every important event of his time, be it the fight of young Aurangzeb with an infuriated elephant, the famine in Deccan or his visit to a paper mill in Kashmir. He also composed a poetic chronicle sahgihannama Like Qudsi, he was a great admirer and friend of Ghani Kashmiri who wrote an elegy on his death (in 1650 C.E) in which he also remembered Qudsi and Saleem as great and noble poets. In the elegy he compared his friend to Moses ‘Kalimullah”, the pen being his miraculous rod, and gives chronograph of his death in the line:
The Sinai of inner meaning became radiant by Kalim
The fourth poet, another native of Iran, Mohammed Quli Saleem went to India in the reign of Shah Jahan. He joined the court of the prime minister Nawab Islam Khan. He was a man of high poetic calibre and is famous for his works ‘mathnawi-qadha-wa-qadar’ and another mathnawi in praise of Kashmir. Saleem was accused by the Iranian poet Sa’ib of plagiarising his poetry. During his stay in Kashmir he fell ill and passed away to be buried in the cemetery of the poets.
The last poet buried in the graveyard is Tughra Mashadi. Nothing is known of Tughra’s childhood and youth, other than that he probably was born in Mashad. Tughra moved to Mughal India and the court of Jahangir towards the end of the latter’s reign. During the reign of Jahangir’s successor, Shah Jahan, Tughra joined the court of one of Shah Jahan’s sons, Murad Bakhsh, and accompanied him on the Mughal campaign in Balkh (1646). Although unsuccessful, this campaign is nonetheless commemorated by the poet as a victory in his panegyric to Murad Bakhsh, Mir’āt al-futūḥ (Mirror of victories), which appears near the end of the present collection. Tughra subsequently settled in Kashmir, where he lived in a shop at Rainawari on the banks of Nayidyar canal, where he died in solitude. Tughra composed verse in all the popular forms of Persian poetry, but he is most famous for his prose works known as risālahs (epistles) which include Risālah-ʼi Firdawsīya and Mir’āt al-futūḥ.
Every grave in the cemetery has thousands tales to tell. Every epitaph bears signs of a glorious past. However, today the cemetery, just like our past, lies in shambles, withered and perishing.
References:
Waqiat-e Kashmir by Muhammad Azad Dedmari
Tareekh-e-Hassan by GH Khuehami
Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh by AQ Badyuni
The Islamc literature of India by Annemarie Shimmel
Haji Jan Muhammad Qudsi by Prof. Zia-i-Ahmad
Fathullah Shirazi: A Sixteenth Century Indian Scientist by MA Alvi
A Great Man: Shah Fateh Ullah Shirazi by MA Makhdum
Encylcopedia Iranica
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Culture & Society / by Khawar Khan / October 06th, 2024
