Children of midnight Zeenat Mahal: The last queen but was an active participant as far as Indian Independence went!

MAJOR KULBIR SINGH. Dated: 6/23/2017 11:09:24 AM


She greatly influenced the
Emperor, and after the death of the Crown Prince Mirza Dara Bakht, she began promoting her son Mirza Jawan Bakht as heir to the throne over the Emperor’s remaining eldest son Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur. But due to the primogeniture policy of the British, this was not accepted. She was suspected of poisoning the British Resident in Delhi, Thomas Metcalfe
in 1853 for meddling too much in palace affairs. She resided at her own haveli in Lal
Kuan, old Delhi.
Major kulbir Singh
Begum Sahiba Zeenat Mahal (1823 – 17 July 1886), also spelled Zinat Mahal, was the de facto Empress who ruled the Mughal Empire on behalf of the Emperor Bahadur Shah II Zafar. She was his favorite wife. Zinat Mahal married Bahadur Shah II at Delhi on 19 November 1840 and bore him a son, Mirza Jawan Bakht. She greatly influenced the Emperor, and after the death of the Crown Prince Mirza Dara Bakht, she began promoting her son Mirza Jawan Bakht as heir to the throne over the Emperor’s remaining eldest son Mirza Fath-ul-Mulk Bahadur. But due to the primogeniture policy of the British, this was not accepted. She was suspected of poisoning the British Resident in Delhi, Thomas Metcalfe in 1853 for meddling too much in palace affairs. She resided at her own haveli in Lal Kuan, old Delhi. During the Indian rebellion of 1857, she kept her son out of contact with the rebels in an attempt to secure the throne for him. With the British victory, the emperor’s two other sons were shot for supporting the rebels; however, her son did not become heir. In 1858, her husband was deposed by the British, bringing the Mughal empire to an end, and she was exiled to Rangoon with her husband. After her husband’s death in 1862, the British banned anyone from claiming the title of Emperor, in an attempt to dissolve the monarchy. She died on 17 July 1886. She was buried in her husband’s tomb in Yangon’s Dagon Township near the Shwedagon Pagoda. The site later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah. The grandchild of her and Bahadur Sh ah II is also buried alongside the couple. After remaining lost for many decades, the tomb was discovered during a restoration exercise in 1991. Few would believe that amidst the squalor and maddening traffic of Bazar Lal Kuan in the walled city of Shahjahanabad or Old Delhi, there stands the haveli (mansion) of Begum Zeenat Mahal, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s queen. This mansion is fighting a losing battle against the ever-increasing demands of the commercial instincts of the people surrounding it. Zeenat Mahal was one of the most formidable women of her times. She could be categorized among Noorjahan (Jahangir’s wife) Lakshmibai, Razia Sultana, Ahiliabai of Holkar, and Chand Bibi. Though she lived in the Red Fort, she had her own mansion in Delhi’s Lal Kuan. Begum Zeenat Mahal was a pretty doe-eyed maiden, half the age of the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar who had lost power and authority in a time of great turmoil. She was freedom fighter who opened the doors of the Red Fort to the rebel sepoys from Meerut on the morning of May 11, 1857. It was this bewitching beauty that implored the ageing and graying Zafar to delve into romantic poetry when he composed the ghazal beginning with “Le gaya loot ke kaun mera sabro-o-qarar/ Beqarari tujhe ai dil kabhi aisi to na thhi” (Who is it who has robbed my heart of its peace? Never did restlessness like this had been your fate). It is pertinent to remember that Zeenat Mahal chose to accompany Zafar into exile in Rangoon. There was a time when Begum Zeenat Mahal used to come to her haveli sitting in her palanquin through the entrance whose height was reduced in 1900 to a couple of feet. She was led in by her traditional naqqarkhana (drummers). A danka (announcement) was made when she used to come so that the residents would come to greet and salute her. Most picturesque of the remnants of the beauty of yore of this haveli, are the two jharokas (parlours) which too are made of red sand stone. A glance at the haveli makes one nostalgic with its gate made of red Kota sand-stone having the traditional Mughal arch and huge original iron-studded wooden doors. Not much history of this unprotected monument remains but still it retains its architectural charm. Till recently there was a plaque atop the haveli mentioning that the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar started building this most elegant edifice for his queen. The plaque is in Persian that cannot be clearly deciphered. Some of the Sepoy Mutiny rebels, who had switched over their loyalty towards the British, attacked the haveli but the solid wooden gates held fort and after normalcy prevailed in the first week of October 1857, the English recaptured Delhi and harmed it because of their dislike of the Begum. At the entrance of this once regal mansion, there is a sweets shop because of which the surroundings not only stink but have completely been ruined due to the perennial smoke. The roof is built in the shape of a dome with circular lining of bricks. Fire from the furnace of the sweets shop has burnt some part of the imperial gates. Inside is the Zeenat Mahal Girls’ Senior Secondary School which was established 111 years ago. After the locals had almost destroyed the haveli and occupied almost half of it’s 3000 sq yards area, the government was able to build a school bearing the queen’s name. Today it is known as “Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Lal Kuan”. Mr. Abdul Rauf, a teacher occupying the main portion of the haveli on the Lal Kuan side, has no proper documents to claim his right. Likely there are some washermen and other anti-social elements that have illegally occupied the haveli area though it is the school’s property.

 

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