How a poet's empire fell !

Umr-e- daraaz se maang ke laye the char din,Do aarzu mein guzar
gaye, do intezaar mein
Hai kitna badnaseeb Zafar dafn ke liye Do gaz zameen bhi na mili
koo-e-yaar mein

(I had requested for a long life, a life of four days-Two passed by in pining, and two in waiting.
How unlucky is Zafar! For burial, even two yards of land were not to be had, inthe land (of the) beloved.)

The above lines were written by Bahadur Shah Zafar when he was in exile. His exile started after he and his family members took refuge in Humayun tomb after British's attack. Many of his family members were executed by enemies and some were exiled.

Now picturise the narration below of from William Darlymple's book- The Last Mughal

On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was
escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison
enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will
remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.” Bahadur ShahZafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher.

Its so picturistic that i can feel how Zafar's family, friends and his supporters on 1857's battle would.

The book is more than just invade-rule-lose kind of narration. It goes into details of everyday life, the stages in which the empire slowly started to fade away and more importantly how common people adapted to changes, assimilated against the British forces. It is a must read for anyone who wants to know about history turning event in south asia.


You could share the grief of the Bahadur Shah Zafar as the helpless soul who saw his sons and empire going down in front of his eyes. The once a peaceful and poetic city was turned into a mass graveyard with bodies rotting in the open, and destruction all around. Many great poets of the era lost their lives and rare poetic work lost. Worse was the treatment of the emperor Zafar. He was exiled to Rangoon, confined to a small house with a handful of loyal followers, his death a hush-hush affair, and his place of burial kept a secret for 129 years till it was accidentally discovered.