The ruling Emperor since 1837 was Bahadur Shah II, who was a poet, best known by the pen name of Zafar Bahadur Shah II. The Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli was the last palace built by Mughals, and Bahadur Shah Zafar would often visit the Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli during the monsoon.
The argument made is that the Mughal Empire had fallen well short of 1857, prior to the confinement and humiliation of the last Mughal Emperor, but that what his exile and later death really signified was the death of hope, symbolised by the Mughal Empire. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal,came to the throne in 1832, 200 years had passed since the days of Emperor Akbar, and the Mughal domain had shrunk drastically, down from Akbar's vast empire down to just the walls of Delhi. By the time that the last Mughal Emperor came to the throne, the territory that was under the dominion of the Mughals had shrunk drastically, and so too had the emperor's authority, symbolically and otherwise.
By the time India's last Mughal ruler was crowned, in 1837, the Mughal Empire had shrunk down to its capitals borders, following the conquest of India by the British Merchants Commercial Enterprise known as the East India Company. The British East India Company, over time, turned the role of Mughal kings into a hollow figurehead. Even when the Marathas captured Delhi, they never ruled it, but instead restored a Mughal emperor as its ruler, with their own hands holding real power.
Bahadur Shah II was the nominal Emperor, since the Mughal empire existed in name only, and its power was restricted to only the walled city of Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad). The Mughal Emperor, influenced by his wife, wanted Mirza Jahangir as his successor, however, Zafar had to take upon his fathers throne following the East India Company's exile of Mirza Jahangir. In his book The Last Mughal, William Dalrymple states that according to the Lahore-based scholar Imran Khan, the opening verse, Umr-e-daraz mang ke (I demand long life) was not written by Bahadur Shah II, nor does it appear in any of the works published in the time of Zafar's lifetime.
He was 83 years old when came to Rangoon and had developed many health issues. He had paralysis of the throat and finally succumbed to his condition on 7th November 1862.
His grave is anonymous.
WRITER- SHRUTI NAIR
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