Bahadur Shah II
- Also called:
- Bahadur Shah Zafar
- House / Dynasty:
- Mughal dynasty
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Bahadur Shah II (born October 24, 1775, Delhi, India—died November 7, 1862, Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar]) was the last Mughal emperor of India (reigned 1837–57). By the time of his ascension, India was politically and commercially controlled by the British East India Company, essentially reducing Bahadur Shah to a titular ruler. He was a poet, musician, and calligrapher, more an aesthete than a political leader.
The nominal head of the Mughal empire
Bahadur Shah was the second son of Akbar Shah II and Lal Bai. He ascended the Mughal throne at the age of 62. At the time of his enthronement, the once-thriving Mughal empire was a remnant of what it had been in its heyday, restricted to a small territory surrounding Delhi. For most of his reign Bahadur Shah was dependent on pensions from the East India Company and was without real authority.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 and exile
Bahadur Shah figured briefly, and reluctantly, in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The mutiny was led by Indian sepoys (soldiers) retaliating against the introduction of Enfield rifles, which required them to bite into cartridges rumored to be coated with fats derived from pigs and cows (proscribed food items according to Islam and Hinduism, respectively). On May 10 rebel troops from the city of Meerut demolished properties of the British government, killed British officers, and seized Delhi. On the following day the troops entered the Red Fort, Bahadur Shah’s residence, and compelled the emperor to accept nominal leadership of the revolt. Entirely reliant on the monetary support extended by the East India Company but effectively helpless in front of the rebelling soldiers, Bahadur Shah resignedly associated himself with the uprising.
The British army regained control of Delhi in September 1857. While the rebellion was being put down, Bahadur Shah fled from the Red Fort and took shelter at Humayun’s Tomb with some of his family members. Toward the end of September the emperor and his family were arrested by William Hodson, the leader of an irregular cavalry known as the Hodson’s Horse, which partook in quelling the uprising. Two of Bahadur Shah’s sons and one grandson were killed by Hodson in front of one of the gateways of the Purana Qila (“Old Fort”) in Delhi; the gateway thereafter came to be known as the Khooni Darwaza (“Bloody Gate”). Bahadur Shah was tried, and although he was spared the death penalty, he and his family were exiled to Rangoon (now Yangon), Burma (now Myanmar). Bahadur Shah died in exile in 1862 and was buried in Rangoon.