Loading ...
Bahadur Shah Zafar found guilty of treason
March 10Guilty of treason against what? British weren’t the sovereign during the uprising!
The prosecutor Harriott accused the King of complicity in the murders and of participation in a conspiracy to revolt.
After 21 days of fanciful mockery of a trial, the court found him guilty. In a terse finding, the court said:
The Court, on the evidence before them, are of opinion that the Prisoner Muhammad Bahadur Shah, Ex-King of Delhi, is guilty of all and every charges preferred against him.
We hear that the John Lawrence, chief comissioner for Punjab, might recommend transportation ovrseas of the ex-king.
At least the king and Zeenat Mahal’s life has been spared.
If I didn’t have Zhansi on my mind, I would talk about why this trial made absolute no sense; but we will leave that for another time.
There is a lot to be done and the king wouldn’t want us to waste a minute thinking about his wellbeing and not focus on defeating the firangis.
This is the latest picture we have of the king.
See you at Zhansi - I know the king is with us in spirit.
As I have said before,it is a shame that “independant” India refuses to give Zafar the
honour he deserves by bringing his body back to Delhi and giving him an appropriate
memorial.It’s a shame that the Duke of Wellington has a town in India named after him,but Tipu
who stood up to him does not.
You can see the Letter to the Editor that Subedar Gupta wrote a few months ago.
This letter was published in The Asian Age, Delhi, in response to Amreesh Mishra’s suggestion that the Indian Government do more to bring the remains of Bahadur Shah Zafar to Delhi.
”
As regards Bahadur Shah, though a great poet and a Sufi that he was, did not exactly cover himself with glory by meekly surrendering to Hodson at the Humayun’s tomb where he had gone into hiding.. This was in complete contrast to the Rani of Jhansi who died fighting ,Tatia Tope whom the British could arrest only by a stratagem. and the Maulavi of Faizabad who was shot in the head by a treacherous Raja. When Delhi was almost lost to the enemy , Bakht Khan the Bareilly leader, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief by the King himself, urged the old monarch to continue to fight. But Bakht Khan’s impassioned pleas fell on deaf ears. The King’s deposition in his trial, was even more deflating.
He denied all the charges and said that he was not the master of events and that he was daily insulted by the rebels. . It is difficult to appreciate the stand taken by the King. .He was an old man almost nearing the end of his life and a bolder stand was expected of him. .Obviously the courage of conviction had deserted him. One needs to really to stretch one’s imagination to even visualize the memorial of such a man as Bahadur Shah could become a “pilgrimage site” for “millions of Hindus and Muslims”. We should not allow our emotions to get better of incontrovertible historical facts. ”
Letter is available in full at
http://www.1857mutiny.com/press/
May I ask to whom the memorial at India Gate in New Delhi is dedicated to ? And is Wellington
in the Nilgiris still the official name of that town ?
And does La Martiniere at Lucknow still have a house named after the infamous Hodson ?
Peter, you just don’t get the point of this blog do you?
It is supposed to be a vehicle to transport us back 150 years to the Great Uprising.
It is a historical blog, not a stage for your anachronistic, post-colonial rantings, which do not and will not change historical facts relating to 1857.
Try and keep it to the point!!
If you can.
Feringhi
I merely asked the blog owners a couple of relevant questions.If they ruffle your feathers,so be
it.Your attitude is a reminder of the arrogance and stupidity and brutality of your ancestors.And
you are using history to further your own aims.
You are such an insightful creature.
You know my ancestry.
It is you who is using history as a vehicle to further your hate filled agenda, not I.
Furthermore, I notice you are using the language of the colonial oppressor. why don’t you post in Hindi or Urdu?
Feringhi
I’m sorry I over reacted to your somewhat aggressive posts.I’ll let them pass in future since I
don’t want to be banned.
I salute the sepoy for their contribution to freedom.
This blog has run out of steam.A pity.
This blog is reflection of the sepoy uprising and whatever happened there, is mirrored here. At this time, the movement essentially died down.
But don’t worry, we will restart it all at sepoy.org on May 10th, 2009
For the first time you & I agree Peter!
I think this blog is excellent.
There must be enough people to be able to pick up where this blog left off & post for ourselves, keeping our postings to verifiable facts.
Guatam & Sunny are the experts.
Their decision as Umpires should be final.
What do you think??
Add A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.