The exile of the last Emperor

Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is sentenced to exile in Burma over charges of treason during the 1857 mutiny, today in 1858. His deportation would mark the end of the Mughal Empire

Bahadur Shah before his exile to Burma, 1858; Source: Public Domain

41 days, 19 hearings, 21 witnesses, 100 documents - that is what it took to condemn the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. As he watched from the aisle, these Englishmen were deciding the fate of a dynasty which had long faded, but still retained its emotional and popular appeal - as had been witnessed recently in the Mutiny of 1857, when all the sepoys had claimed the uprising in his name.

That effort had failed however, and now Delhi had fallen, and the mutiny had collapsed as well. The English were in Delhi, and were chasing out whichever sepoy they could find. They also were very keen on deposing this last remnant of a symbolic, even if powerful as a symbol, dynasty.

Bahadur Shah’s sons had already been shot - thus ensuring that dynastic succession will not take place - but what to do of the Emperor himself? Issuing the charges of aiding the mutineers, encouraging their war against the British, assuming sovereignty over Hindustan and being an accessory to Christian murder, he would not be facing an easy life.

He stood as the primary accused in a trial of treason, and the 82 year old emperor was even betrayed by his ministers - who produced evidence against him in the court, to pardon themselves.

The court did not sentence the Last Emperor to death - it believed itself to be far too clean for it to now go back on the promises made on surrender by Hodson. Zafar would instead be condemned and exiled to Rangoon, Burma, far away from any political power of India, on the 9th of March, 1858.

Zeenat Mahal, his wife, and some others, would also be ordered to leave with him. Bullock carts began to be readied for Bahadur Shah, and the Mughal throne was finally extinguished across India for the last time.