The Begum’s War

Like any epic struggle, South Asia’s 200-year-long anti-colonial struggle produced many remarkable figures. The embodiment of immense personal courage, they stood against the foreign rulers at the peril of losing their wealth, comfort and even life.

The long list of notable anti-colonial figures includes some extraordinary women. Perhaps most compelling would be the story of Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh, who rose up against the British during the great anti-colonial Revolt of 1857. She commanded her troops in battles, refused to surrender to colonial authorities and – spurning offers of clemency – eluded capture by the pursuing British forces to escape to Nepal. There she lived a life of hardship in exile at Kathmandu. She now lies buried there in a nondescript grave.

As a major leader of the 1857 revolt, she maintained her opposition through twenty years of exile in Nepal until her death in 1879.

Hazrat Mahal's origins are unclear. She was born into a poor family in the city of Faizabad

Before narrating the story of Hazrat Mahal, some brief background on the story of Awadh itself would be in order. Awadh, with its capital at Faizabad, was a large and populous state in the northern part of India. It is currently included in Utter Pradesh, the most populous province of India. The independent state was established by the Mughal governor of the province Nawab Saadat Ali Khan in 1732. The state included rich agricultural lands that were watered by many snow-fed rivers including the Ganges, the Yamuna, the Ghaghara, the Gomati, the Rapti and several other smaller streams.

The affluence of the state caught the greedy eyes of the British East India Company. Historian Peter Reeves has noted that Awadh was important to the British, not for what it could do but for what it had to offer. Small wonder, then, that British administrators often saw Awadh as something that could be ‘eaten’. Around 1800, Lord Wellesley had promised London, ‘a supper of Oudh’. In fact, before annexing it, Lord Dalhousie also described Awadh as ‘a cherry which will drop into our mouths some day. It has long been ripening.’

The East India Company forced the Awadh rulers to accept a permanent resident in 1773. A large Residency building was constructed in Lucknow at the expense of the State. It was to become a building that will forever live in the annals of the British and Indian histories for experiencing two sieges during the 1857 uprising: one 87 days long and the other lasting 61 days.

The Awadh State consisted of a number of minor and major feudal landholders called Taluqdars. In February 1856, the East India Company formerly abolished and annexed the State, pensioning and exiling her last King Syed Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta. The Taluqdars, however, remained loyal to the ruling family and supported Begum Hazrat Mahal when she raised the flag of rebellion. The populace, in fact, rallied to the call to revolt against the British and despite continuous reversals did not betray the cause until the cessation of hostilities and announcement of a general clemency by Queen Victoria in November 1858.

Hazrat Mahal’s origins are unclear. She was born into a poor family in the city of Faizabad, located in the state of Awadh. The names of her parents are now obscure but her original name has been quoted as Iftikar-un-nisa by some traditions and as Muhammadi Begum by others. She may have been of Iranian descent and was educated as a dancing-girl. She was sold by her parents to the royal agents and inducted into the royal harem as a ‘khawasin’, which roughly translates as a “lady’s maid”.

During one of her dance performances, she attracted the attention of the King of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah, who gave her the title of Mahak Pari – ‘Fairy of Fragrance’. She was subsequently taken into the harem by the King as one of his scores of concubines and given the title of ‘Begum’. In August 1845, on the birth of a son named Birjis Qadr, she was elevated to the rank of a wife and styled ‘Hazrat Mahal’. She was divorced by the King at an unknown time later when he married again to stay within the limit of four wives as prescribed under Islamic law. On the exile of Wajid Ali Shah in February 1856, Hazrat Mahal and her son were left behind in Lucknow.

The command of her troops was in the hands of the valiant duo of Raja Jai Lal and Maulvi Ahmadullah

In May 1857 the British East India Company’s native troops, known as sepoys, rose up in a mutiny. This signalled the beginning of a massive revolt which was later described by some as a First War of Independence. Simultaneously, the Taluqdars declared Awadh free of the Company’s rule. Its officials were hunted and the surviving British retreated to the Residency building. Begum Hazrat Mahal had been living a quiet life until then. She rose to the occasion, declaring her twelve-year-old son King and assuming power of administration on his behalf as regent. Her pleasure-seeking ex-husband was taken aback but Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi provided Mughal imperial support for her move – an important symbolic development for her legitimacy. She then contacted the Taluqdars, who swore allegiance to his son. She had the cooperation of a zealous band of supporters, like Sharaf-ad-Daulah, Maharaj Bal Krishna, Raja Jai Lal, Maulvi Ahmadullah and Mammon Khan, who worked incessantly to rebuild local power in Awadh.

Her military abilities have been remarked upon: she is said to have had an inborn genius for organisation and command. Her presence and determined loathing of the East India Company provided a rallying point for the freedom fighters. Thousands of self armed peasants flocked to her call. Awadh was cleared of the British colonialists and the remainder – about 1,800 troops besides some women and children – were trapped inside the residency building.

Sir W.H. Russel, the correspondent for The Times of London writes in his eyewitness account My diary in India in the year 1858-59: “She was a woman of great energy and ability. She has excited all Oude to take up the interests of her son, and the chiefs have sworn to be faithful to him...The Begum declares undying war against us; …” Writing about the events, even far away Karl Marx couldn’t help saying that, “Hazrat Mahal, Begum of Awadh, during the national liberation uprising of 1857-59 in India headed the rebels.”

The 1857 revolt was an affair that transcended religious lines. The command of her troops was in the hands of the valiant duo of Raja Jai Lal and Maulvi Ahmadullah. Hazrat Mahal organised the siege and encouraged her troops to break through but they lacked the necessary tactics and were not used to fighting in a disciplined manner. Hazrat Mahal, however, was a tough leader and hanged traitors when they were exposed. The Chief Commissioner Sir Henry Lawrence was killed by a bullet in the Residency, as were over two-and-a-half thousand Company troops.

The Queen Regent herself appeared on the battle field to encourage her troops. She never lost heart and moved amongst her men with a spirit that deserved better success. The siege was however broken, first by the relief force of Major Generals Havelock and Outram, and then finally by the Commander-in-Chief General Campbell himself. By the 21st of March 1858 all the strong points in the city were in British hands. The fighting was so severe that the British awarded 24 Victoria Crosses in a single day on the 16th of November, during the second siege.

According to the Encyclopaedia of World Biography, Hazrat Mahal was very unhappy with her commanders’ performance. Part of the reason that the Indian troops were unable to capture the Residency during the siege was because of the arguments between her generals, who were not used to fighting under one unified command. In addition, the British were offering pardons and favourable terms for Indians who could prove they were not responsible for the deaths of British citizens. Some of the taluqdars, the important landowners of Awadh, were beginning to take advantage of the British terms. When Campbell finally relieved the siege, her patience snapped. She summoned a durbar, or high council, and addressed her army in terms of reproach. “The whole army is in Lucknow, but it is without courage!”

P.J.O. Taylor in his A Companion to Indian Mutiny of 1857 quotes her as saying: “Why does it [the rebel army] not attack the Alambagh? Is it waiting for the English to be reinforced and Lucknow to be surrounded?  How much longer am I to pay the sepoys for doing nothing? Answer now, and if fight you won’t, I shall negotiate with the English to spare my life.”

Hazrat Mahal’s commanders made six separate assaults on Outram’s forces between Christmas day 1857, and late February 1858 but failed to dislodge the British. On March 16, 1858, the British recaptured Lucknow and forced the Begum out of the city. She kept an army in the field throughout the year but was not able to re-establish herself in Lucknow.

Despite her desperate situation, she remained defiant. Being pursued by them, she along with her son and supporters kept moving from one place to another, finding refuge with loyalists in the restive countryside. As per Russel, she crossed River Rapti above Gorakhpur into the jungles of Terai in the Nepali territory. She sought refuge and was granted asylum in Kathmandu. Unable to quell the uprising completely, Queen Victoria offered amnesty to the people of Awadh in her proclamation of 1st November 1858. When the Begum learnt about it, she issued a counter proclamation in which she exposed the designs of the colonial power. This proclamation (available at http://Awadh.tripod.com/bhm/bhmproc.htm) is a document that continues to make the people of the region proud.

In the meantime, her loyalist Raja Jai Lal was taken prisoner in Lucknow, sentenced to death and hanged in the mock trials that were held after the termination of the War. His majestic statue now stands in the city that he struggled to wrest from the colonial troops. Maulvi Ahmadullah was betrayed and beheaded by a turncoat raja to win the Rs. 50,000 bounty on his head.

Begam Hazrat Mahal of Awadh preferred to stay with her son and a small retinue in Nepal, where Maratha freedom fighter Nana Sahib had also taken refuge. The British offered her a suitable pension and assured her of all honours befitting her rank but she could not be induced to come back to India. Having lost the war, the Begum declined to tacitly renounce the rights of her son by accepting a British pension. She died in Khatmandu in 1879 and was buried in the Imambargah that she had helped build. She also built a Mosque named Hindustani Mosque and a palace for her use.

The Imambargah was subsequently encroached upon and a market constructed there. The grave was unmarked and nearly lost to the vagaries of time. However, it has now been preserved and on her death anniversary, a simple ceremony is held there by the Indian High Commission. Her palace has been occupied by a Nepalese government office. The mosque has, however, been renovated and enlarged, and serves as the central Jami’a Mosque for the city.

She has been honoured in post-Independence India. On 15 August 1962, she was honoured at a simple but solemn ceremony in the old Victoria Park that is now renamed as Hazrat Mahal Park. A marble plaque has been placed there in her honour. The Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in 1984 adorned with her image. 1.5 million of these stamps were printed and sold. Another stamp includes her name as a freedom fighter. A 26-minute documentary film titled ‘Begum Hazrat Mahal: The Last Queen of Avadh’ celebrates her life and struggle. Several books have been published in her honour. ‘Begum Hazrat Mahal’ is a 2015 Hindi book by Prof. Ashok Kumar Sharma. Her 2014 French biography by Kenize Murad titled “In The City of Gold and Silver: The Story of Begum Hazrat Mahal” sold 70,000 copies in hard cover and more in the abridged version. It has now been translated in to English. “Shan-i Avadh, Begam Hazrat Mahal” is 2006 biography in Urdu by Vasim Ahmad Said. These are some of the many published works on this noble soul. Play today at the best friv games website.

Unfortunately, all these remembrances have been in India and her memory has mostly been neglected in Pakistan. I think we need, at the very least, to create a memorial hall or a museum to celebrate the sacrifices of those who stood up to the British colonialism, starting from Siraj ud-Daulah to the victims of the Partition. This commemoration should be inclusive of people of all faiths to reflect the combined struggle of the people of the Indian Subcontinent for freedom. An additional hall at the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad might be an appropriate site for such an effort.

Parvez Mahmood retired as a Group Captain from PAF and is now a software engineer. He lives in Islamabad and can be reached at parvezmahmood53@gmail.com.