[BITList] Fwd: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Last Mughal emperor's descendants to be traced

[John Feltham]

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Last Mughal emperor's descendants to be traced

A trust has been launched to bring back the remains
of India's last Mughal emperor and to trace his
descendants, many of whom are believed to be
living in poverty.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi
06 Apr 2009

Calls for Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's body to be
returned to India and to be buried along with those
of his royal ancestors have steadily grown since
2007's 150th anniversary of the Indian mutiny -
when "sepoys" in British army regiments massacred
their officers.

The rebellion was eventually put down with great
brutality in a series of bloody battles and Bahadur
Shah Zafar was sent into exile in Rangoon, Burma,
where he died.

Although he has been described as the "Last Mughal",
there have been numerous claims from alleged
descendants that Zafar's lineage continues to this
day. Now a powerful trust, including influential Muslim
academics, businessmen and one of India's leading
Urdu poets have joined forces to establish how many
Mughals remain, and seek the return of the last emperor.

Professor Aslam Pervez, an historian of Zafar's
reign and a founding member of the Mughal Trust,
last night told The Daily Telegraph its main aim
was not simply to reunite the remaining Mughal
royals, but to bring back the last Mughal to Delhi.

"There is a move that we should bring back his last
remains from Rangoon and make a grave for him
here in Delhi, at Mehrauli, where his father and
grandfather are buried.

"There are so many people who claim to be descended.
The Mughals were scattered, many ran away
from Delhi, to Hyderabad, after the mutiny and
no-one knows who went where," he said.

Many are believed to have fled to Calcutta, where
70 descendants have been traced by the trust,
and Aurangabad where a further 200 are believed
to live. Others are believed to be living in Pakistan
and Burma.

Some of them are living in considerable poverty.
One woman, Sultana Begum, who claims to be
the widow of Mirza Mohammed Bedad Baqht,
Zafar's great-grandson, offers a 400 Rupee
(£5.40) a month state pension as evidence.

She had run a street tea stand until her husband's
death, and now occasionally makes stone
bangles for 25 Rupees a day (33 pence). It's
a far cry from the riches of an empire which
once stretched from Afghanistan to what is
today Bangladesh.

The trust's founder, Mohammed Shahid Khan, has
raised £40,000 to trace Zafar's descendants and
complete the modern Mughal family tree. When it's
completed, the trust will lobby the government to
"rehabilitate" them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/5114995/The-Last-Mughals-descendants-to-be-traced.html

--- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar
    Nagpur, India


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