Bahadur Shah Zafar, Emperor of Delhi, 1857

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, Emperor of Delhi (1775-1862)

Photographer: Charles Shepherd (fl. 1858–1878)

c.1859

National Army Museum, London

Accession no. NAM.1971-12-40-4

According to William Dalrymple, this was taken after Zafar's "show-trail" in Delhi, and was credited to Shepherd by Zafar's jailor (caption, facing p. 423). However, in the National Army Museum's records, it is credited to Robert Christopher Tytler (1818-1872). The colour has been slightly desaturated here to lessen the foxing. [Commentary continues below.]

Text by Jacqueline Banerjee

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the National Army Museum and (2) mention this site.]

Here then, at some point after his dethronement, is the frail elderly man who was the last Mughal Emperor. His head rests on a ppillow, and next to him is his hookah. A poet rather than insurgent, let alone the instigator of the 1857 uprising, he had nevertheless been used as figurehead by the mutinous sepoys and those who joined them against the British. Three of the Emperor's heirs were killed in cold blood; many others were taken and killed "sooner or later" (Dalrymple 423); and, after a long-drawn-out trial, he himself was exiled to Burma, with relatives including his favourite wife Zinat and his youngest son Mirza Jawan Bahkt. They would never return.

Related Material

Bibliography

"Bahadur Shah Zafar, Emperor of Delhi, 1859 (c)." National Army Museum. Web. 30 May 2020

Dalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007. [Review]

Created 30 May 2020