there isn’t much that can be said with regards to things done under his reign. His father under the influence of his wife wanted Mirza Jahangir to be his successor, however, after East India Company exiled Mirza Jahangir, Zafar had to sit on his father’s throne.īahadur Shah Zafar | BBC/ THE BRITISH LIBRARY A ceremonial darbarĪfter his father’s death, Zafar was crowned in September 1837 at Red Fort and took the title Bahadur Shah II. It was due to English interference that Zafar came to the throne of Delhi.
He even was not his father’s first choice as a successor. Bahadur Shah’s real name was Abu Zafar Siraj ud Din Muhammad.īrought up as a prince, Zafar was very least interested in the matters of the crown and more interested in poetry. They no longer issued the coins in the name of the emperor and in the same year reduced the Emperor's nominal authority to “King of Delhi”. It was during the reign of his father in 1835 that East India Company had ceased to act and describe itself as the deputy of the Mughal Emperor as was the case since 1803. It was in such a set-up that Bahadur Shah Zafar was born on 24 October 1775 to Mughal Emperor Akbar II. Even small matters needed English consent. So when the English in 1803 took over Delhi from Marathas, they kept the Mughal Emperor on the throne.ĭespite the respect commanded by the Mughal Emperor, he held almost no power. Even when Marathas conquered Delhi, they never ruled it, rather reinstated a Mughal emperor as its ruler while the real power was held by them. It was the case not just with the English, rather throughout India, even though many independent kingdoms had emerged, most of them accepted the nominal suzerainty of Mughal Emperor. Rather they ruled and collected taxes in the name of Mughals. Even though East India Company were the de facto rulers of the region, they did not declared themselves as one.
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