The last Mughal by Scottish Historian is a classic detail of the last years of the last Mughal Emperor of India Bahadur Shah Zafar II (1775-1862).
Its quite difficult to show people of one own race as the murderers, looters and rapists but William has enough courage to depict the true character of British forces when they reconquered Delhi after brutal fighting in Sept 1857. According to British Army commission not even a single British Woman was raped by the Indian rebels while when Britishers recaptured Delhi they raped almost every woman of the Court along withe numerous others. The Mughal Princes Abu Baqr, Mirza Mughal etc were shot dead in cold blood by British official at Khooni Darwaza from a point blank range. Overall this book is a real classic and it talks about in length about the sense of Secular sir in Delhi. Cow Slaughter and even Beef was banned in the Mughal city. Such was the aura of Zafar. The last true Secular King of India.
After the fall of Delhi, Zafar died in Rangoon a simple and slow death. Britishers erected a small stone slab at the site of his burial in 1907 (because of the pressure of local Muslims). In Zafar's own words:
"Kitana Badnaseeb hai Zafar dafn ke liye, Do gaz jameen bhi na mil saki Quye yar main"
Its really painful to know the downfall of once almighty Mughal empire. Overall this book is worth reading.
Highly Recommended (8/10)
1 comment:
yes the book is quite descriptive...
You can catch more of him in a few documentaries on "conflicts of faiths"...
Again, The White Mughal gives some more description of the families which resulted from coming together of muslim and english family elites..
This is partially covered in the last mughal's first few chapters...
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