New Book , First ever English translation of Nizami’s invaluable Urdu book Begumat ke Aansoo
pix: amazon.in
Apart from the fifteen years that Sher Shah Suri snatched upon defeating Humayun, the flag of the grand Mughal Empire flew over Delhi undefeated for over 300 years.
But then, 1857 arrived and the mighty sword fell helpless in the face of a mightier British force.
After the fall of Delhi and Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s tragic departure from the Red Fort in 1857, members of the royal Mughal court had to flee to safer places. Driven out from their palaces and palanquins onto the streets in search of food and shelter, the dethroned royals scrambled to survive. Some bore their fate with a bitter pride, others succumbed to the adversity.
Through twenty-nine accounts of the survivors of the Uprising of 1857, Khwaja Hasan Nizami documents the devastating tale of the erstwhile glorious royalty’s struggle with the hardships thrust upon them by a ruthless new enemy.
In vivid and tragic stories drawn from the recollection of true events, Nizami paints a picture of a crumbling historical era and another charging forward to take its place.
With the reminiscence of past glory contrasted against the drudgery of everyday survival, Tears of the Begums – the first ever English translation of Nizami’s invaluable Urdu book Begumat ke Aansoo – chronicles the turning of the wheel of fortune in the aftermath of India’s first war of independence.
source: http://www.amazon.in / Amazon / Home> Books> History> World / as on August 06th, 2022
‘Dastan-e-Ghadar: The Tale of the Mutiny’ by Zahir Dehlvi offers insights that are particularly relevant today.
NDIAPICTURES VIA GETTY IMAGES Miniature of Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Butkhano’n mein jab gaya main kenchkar qashqa Zafar
Bol utha woh but, ‘Brahmin yeh nahin to kaun hai?’
(When Zafar went to the temple with a tilak on my forehead
The idol exclaimed, ‘If not a Brahmin then who is he?’)
—Bahadur Shah Zafar
Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Mohammed Bahadur Shah, better known by his pen name Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the son of Akbar Shah II and his Rajput wife Lal Bai.
He inherited an empire that was his only in name as the British writ ran through it. He was their pensioner. The British Resident in Delhi was responsible for everything that happened in Delhi as well as in the Qila.
Bahadur Shah Zafar [foresaw] trouble and banned cow-slaughter in the areas he nominally controlled… Bakr-Eid passed peacefully in 1857 thanks to the wise decisions of the emperor.
However, along with his empire he also inherited the national outlook of his ancestor Akbar and father Akbar Shah II. He believed in the wisdom that all his subjects were his children, and in fact his last prayer when he left the Qila after the fall of Delhi on the night of 16th September 1857 was:
“Khuda, the Hindus and Muslims of India are my children. Please keep them safe and don’t let them suffer for my deeds at the hands of the British.”
(Related by his daughter Kulsum Zamani Begum who saw him praying on his musalla the night he left it. This has been included in the story “Shahzadi ki Bipta” in the book Begumat ke Aansu which comprises eyewitness accounts recorded by Khwaja Hasan Nizami.)
The Hindu men and women who came to bathe in the River Yamuna every dawn would participate eagerly in the jharokha darshan when the emperor appeared before his subjects in the balcony of the Musamman Burj in the Qila every morning. Only after that would they go home and eat.
Bahadur Shah Zafar condemned the actions of maulvis who tried to divide the populace on religious lines:
Kaho mullah se kiya hum se rindo’n ko padhega
Ki hum Lahaul padh ke teri taqreer sunte hain
(Ask the mullah what can he teach one, so drunk in love
I hear his speeches with a disclaimer on my lips)
Akbar Shah II, who started the Phoolwaalon ki Sair , would offer pankhas both at Qutub Sahib’s dargah and Yogmaya temple in Mehrauli. Bahadur Shah Zafar went to the extent that he would not go to the dargah if for some reason he couldn’t visit the temple the previous day.
The Indian society of the 19th century was living quite happily and in communal harmony, bar a few incidents here and there. When Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled there was a palpable sense of loss amongst the Hindus and Muslims alike; they felt as if they had lost their father.
Nowhere is this emotion more emphasized as in an anecdote described by Zahir Dehlvi in Dastan-e-Ghadar*.
“Once, some Hindus, along with officers of the British government, hatched a plot to throw all the butchers slaughtering cows out of the city. The British government gave orders stating that these butchers should take their shops out of the city. They had all the shops within the city closed.
When the butchers realized that they had no choice but to obey and lose their means of livelihood, they banded together, took their wives, children and possessions, and came and camped on the riverbank under the jharokha. From there, they appealed to the king, asking ‘How can we leave our city and go away?’
The cherisher of subjects, the emperor, heard their petition and gave the order that his tent be pitched alongside theirs on the riverbank.
‘Whatever is the state of my subjects is my state,’ he said.
As per the decree of their emperor, the servants immediately took the imperial paraphernalia and installed it on the bank of the river.
As soon as the British Resident heard the news, he came running to the emperor and respectfully asked, ‘Huzoor, what are you doing? All the people of the city will come and stand here with you.’
Badshah Salamat replied, ‘I am wherever my subjects are. My subjects are my children and I can’t be separated from them. Has flesh ever been separated from the fingernail? Today, the butchers have been given orders to leave the city; tomorrow, it will be some other community; the day after, it will be another one, and these orders will continue. Slowly, the entire city will be emptied. If the intention of the British government is to empty the city, then tell me so in plain words. I will take all my people and go and live in Khwaja Sahib. Since you have control over the city (Shahjahanabad), you can do whatever you will.’
The Resident was taken aback. ‘Huzoor, don’t even think of such an action. I will redress the complaints of these people immediately and settle them in the city. Huzoor, please have your camp removed from here.’
The Resident gave orders for the butchers to go back to their houses and ply their trade within the city as before. The tent of the emperor was removed.”
Bahadur Shah was equal in his treatment of his subjects and did the same for the ghosis or herdmen of Shahjahanabad when they were faced with a similar situation. Zahir Dehlvi in Dastan-e-Ghadar* writes:
“Once the British government gave orders to the herdsmen to take their family and cattle and leave the city and go and settle outside the city. There was a tumult in the entire city and once again the ghosi (herdsmen/milkmen) along with their families and cattle came and camped on the Reti.
Once again the Emperor, Raiyyat Panaah (shelter of the subjects) was so distraught by the cries of the children and the distress of the cattlemen the emperor gave orders for his tent to be pitched alongside theirs so he could share their sorrow. Once again the Resident came and pleaded with the Emperor and gave orders revoking the previous ones so that the herdsmen could go back to their original quarters in the city.
This time the Emperor told the Resident, ‘Look in my presence do not exile my subjects from their houses. After me you will be in control and can devastate the city (eeint se eeint baja dena).’
That is what was done (after the Emperor).”
On 12th May 1857 when the Indian soldiers who had risen up against the British crowned Bahadur Shah Zafar as the Emperor of India he issued the following decree:
“To all the Hindus and Muslims of India, taking my duty by the people into consideration at this hour, I have decided to stand by my people… It is the imperative duty of Hindus and Mussalmans to join the revolt against the Englishmen. They should work and be guided by their leaders in their towns and should take steps to restore order in the country. It is the bounden duty of all people that they should, as far as possible, copy out this Firman and display it at all important places in the towns. But before doing so, they should get themselves armed and declare war on the English.”
During the Uprising of 1857 the British tried their best to disrupt the Hindu-Muslim unity that was very apparent amongst those they called “baghi” or rebels.
Colonel Keith Young, Judge-Advocate General of the Indian Army who was present with the British forces on the ridge in Delhi regularly sent letters to his wife in the safety of Simla. This wife published them later as “Delhi—1857; the siege, assault, and capture as given in the diary and correspondence of the late Colonel Keith Young’.
On 29th July 1857 he wrote to her:
“Camp, Delhi Cantonments, Wednesday, 29th July:
Hodson just now came into our tent and interrupted my writing this. He tells me that a letter has just come in from the city confirming what we had before heard of the dissensions going on, and they seem likely to terminate in something serious at the Festival of the Eed, as some of the Mahomedan fanatics have declared their fixed intention of killing a cow as customary on that day at the Jumma Musjid. It is hoped that they will religiously adhere to their determination, and there is then sure to be a row between the Mahomedans and Hindoos.”
Colonel Keith Young to his wife. Camp, Delhi Cantonments, Thursday, 30th July:
“All is quiet in camp, and the mutineers must, I should hope— as we all believe—be quarrelling amongst themselves, and unable to agree to come out and attack us again. The Eed, we trust, will bring matters to a crisis with them, and be the day for a grand row between the Hindoos and Mahomedans.”
Camp, Delhi Cantonments, Sunday, 2nd August:
“Our hopes of a grand row in the city yesterday at the Eed Festival have not, apparently, been fulfilled—at least the only newsletter received from the city alludes to nothing of the kind. The King had issued strict orders against killing cows, or even goats, in the city, and this, if acted upon, must have satisfied the Hindoos; and instead of fighting amongst themselves they all joined together to make a vigorous attack to destroy us and utterly sweep us from the face of the earth, when it was arranged that the King should perform his evening prayers in our camp!”
Bahadur Shah Zafar had foreseen this trouble and banned cow-slaughter in the areas he nominally controlled. In The Great Uprising of 1857, Prof Z.H. Jafri cites that they found several documents in the Mutiny Papers in the National Archives, New Delhi by Bahadur Shah Zafar and Bakht Khan, the commander in chief of the Indian forces, asking the people to desist from cow-slaughter and to the kotwal to capture the cows from the houses of people who might go ahead with such sacrifices. There is evidence to support the fact that the police officers took these orders very seriously and thus prevented any sacrifice of cows by them, which could have led to the trouble that Young, and his colleagues were so eagerly anticipating.
Bakr-Eid passed peacefully in 1857 thanks to the wise decisions of the emperor.
The fallout of the First war of Indian Independence was the well-documented policy of divide and rule adopted by the British, which tried to create disharmony between Hindus and Muslims. The two communities fought together again in the freedom struggle leading up to Independence in 1947, but the partition of India and subsequent riots and murder show that the British did succeed to a great extent.
* Book excerpt from ‘Dastan-e-Ghadar : The Tale of the Mutiny ‘ by Zahir Dehlvi, translated from Urdu by Rana Safvi, Penguin Random House.
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.in / HuffPost / Home> The Blog / by Rana Safvi / May 18th, 2017
A translation of one of the many stories collected by Khwaja Hasan Nizami about the survivors of the Mughal emperor’s family.
Khwaja Hasan Nizami wrote numerous books on the events that unfolded in 1857, all based on eyewitness accounts of the survivors. Begamat ke Aansu: Tears of the Begums are stories collected by Khwaja Hasan Nizami from the survivors of the Mughal family after the fall of Delhi in September 1857, when they had to flee from the Red Fort. Begamat ke Aansu was originally published in 1922 and has been reprinted many times since. This story is one of the accounts from Begamat ke Aansu. It describes Kulsum Zamani Begum’s escape from the Red Fort.
This is the true story of a female dervish who suffered through the travails of life. Her name was Kulsum Zamani Begum, and she was the pampered daughter of Delhi’s last emperor, Abu Zafar Bahadur Shah. Although she died a few years ago, I have heard her story from her own mouth many times. She was a sincere devotee of Mehboob-e-Ilahi Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya and was so attached to his dargah that she would often come there. I would talk to her there and listen to her tragic tale. Whatever I have written down has been told to me either by her or her daughter, Zainab Zamani Begum, who is still alive and lives in Pandit ka Kucha.
Her story is narrated below in her own words:
“The night my Babajan lost his empire and the end was near, there was a tumult in Lal Qila. The very walls seemed to be weeping.
“The pearly white marble palaces had been blackened by soot from the gunfire and cannon shots in the past four months. No one had eaten for a day and a half. Zainab, my daughter, was a year-and-a-half old and crying for milk. Neither I nor any of the foster mothers were lactating because of the hunger and trouble all around us. We sat disconsolately when Hazrat Zill-e-Subhani’s special khwaja sara came to call us. It was midnight and the pin-drop silence was broken by intermittent cannon shots. We were terrified, but since Zill-e-Subhani had called us, we immediately left our palace and presented ourselves before him.
“Huzur sat on his prayer mat with a rosary in his hands. I stood before him and presented three salutations. Huzur called me close to him with great affection and said, ‘Kulsum, I entrust you to the care of Khuda. If fate permits, we will meet again. Go away immediately with your husband. I am also leaving. I don’t want to separate myself from my beloved children at this stage, but I don’t want to embroil you in my problems. If you are with me, destruction is certain. Maybe if you are alone, God will open a path of escape for you.’
“He raised his shaking hands in prayer and cried out to Allah, ‘Dear god, I entrust this orphan girl into your care. Brought up in magnificent palaces, they now venture into the wilderness and desolate jungles. They have no friends or protectors. Please protect the honour of these princesses of the Timurid dynasty. Preserve their honour. The entire Hindu and Muslim population of Hindustan are my children and trouble surrounds them all. Don’t let them suffer because of my actions. Give them relief from all troubles.’ With that, he patted my head, embraced Zainab, gave a few jewels to my husband Mirza Ziauddin, and sent us off along with Nur Mahal Saheba, who was Huzur’s begum.
“We left the Qila before dawn. My husband, Mirza Ziauddin, and the Badshah’s brother-in-law, Mirza Umar Sultan, accompanied the three women: myself and two other ladies, Nawab Nur Mahal and Hafiza Sultan, whose daughter was married to one of the emperor’s sons.
“When we climbed into our bullock cart, it was dawn. Only the morning star still twinkled in the sky, and all the other stars had vanished. We cast a last glance at the royal palace. We wept and yearned for what had once been our happy abode. Nawab Nur Mahal’s lashes were laden with tears and the morning star was reflected in them.
“We left the Lal Qila forever and reached Kurali village, where we rested for a while in the house of our cart driver. We were given bajra roti and some buttermilk. We were so hungry that the food tasted better than biryani and mutanjan.
“That night was spent peacefully, but the next day jats and gujjars from nearby areas came to loot Kurali. They were accompanied by hundreds of women who encircled us like witches. They took away all our jewellery and clothes. While these coarse women snatched the jewellery off our necks, we got a whiff of their breath which smelt so foul that we felt nauseous. After this, we didn’t even have enough money to buy ourselves our next meal. We didn’t know what was in store for us now.
“Zainab began to howl with hunger. A zamindar was passing by and I cried out, ‘Bhai, please give some water to this baby.’ The blessed man brought some water in an earthen cup and said, ‘From today, you are my sister and I’m your brother.’
“He was a well-to-do person from Kurali, and his name was Basti. He brought his cart and said he would take us wherever we wanted to go. We asked him to take us to Ijara, where Mir Faiz Ali, who was the shahi hakim and a long association with our family, lived. But when we reached Ijara, Mir Faiz Ali was extremely discourteous and refused to shelter us. ‘I am not going to destroy my house by giving you shelter,’ he told us.
“We were heartbroken and didn’t know what to do. Penniless and homeless, we were scared of the British forces chasing after us. Those who were eager to follow every glance of our eyes and obey even our slightest gestures had now turned away from us.
“And then there was Basti, who didn’t leave our side and fulfilled his covenant of calling me his sister. We left Ijara and set our destination as Hyderabad.”
Kulsum Zamani Begum eventually reached Hyderabad with her family and lived there for some time. For some time her husband made a living by making and selling calligraphic pieces and teaching the Quran but as the British influence spread to Hyderabad and they lived in fear of being arrested they were more or less housebound. Whatever jewellery had escaped loot on the way to Hyderabad had been sold off.
The son of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s spiritual master Kale Miyan Saheb Chisti Nizami Fakhri, heard of their plight and arranged finances for them. They left for Mecca to make the Hajj pilgrimage. Basti, who had stood by them like a rock, was sent home from Bombay with whatever reward they afford for his invaluable services.
“Aboard the ship, whoever heard that we were the Shah-e-Hind’s family was eager to meet us. We were all dressed in the clothes of dervishes. One Hindu, who owned a shop in Aden and had no idea who we were, asked us which sect of fakirs we belonged to. The question inflamed our wounded hearts. I replied, ‘We are the disciples of the Mazloom Shah Guru. He was our father and our guru. Sinners have snatched away his crown and separated us from him and exiled us into the wilderness. Now he longs for us, while we are restless and yearn for a glimpse of his face. That is the truth of our faqeeri.’
“The Hindu began to cry when he heard our story and said to us, ‘Bahadur Shah was our father and guru but what could we do? It was Lord Ram’s will, and an innocent man was destroyed.’”
They lived in Mecca for several years before returning to Delhi.
“When we came back, the British government took pity on us and fixed a sum of ten rupees per month for us. I laughed at this pension. They had taken away my father’s empire and offered us ten rupees as compensation.
“But then I remembered, this land belongs to god and he gives it to whoever he wants and takes it as he pleases. Man can do nothing about that.”
Excerpted with permission from City Of My Heart: Accounts Of Love, Loss And Betrayal In Nineteenth-Century Delhi, Selected and Translated by Rana Safvi, Hachette India.
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Book Excerpt / by Khwaja Hasan Nizami & Rana Safvi / November 01st, 2018
