Mughal descendant seeks possession of Red Fort, Know about great- grand daughter of Bahadur Shah Zafar II

Bahadur Shah Zafar, Last Mughal Emperor

After the Supreme Court dismissed the plea to hand her over the iconic Red Fort, Sultana Begum, a poor woman from Kolkata’s suburban town of Howrah, hit the headlines once again. The gutsy septuagenarian woman, who earns her bread by sewing clothes, has been fighting a war of her own for decades. She is down, but not out. After all, she is the last Mughal, at least she claims so. The then-British government captured the 17th-century Mughal red sandstone fortress after they arrested Bahadur Shah Zafar II, whom they had defeated in India’s First War of Independence in 1857.

The woman from Howrah claims to be the great-granddaughter of the last Mughal Emperor, whose grave Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited when he had gone to Yangon in Myanmar. Bahadur Shah Zafar paid the price for leading the revolt; he was exiled to Burma, where he died and was buried, and his lands and properties were confiscated.

Rejecting Sultana Begum’s petition, Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna retorted, “Why only Red Fort? Why not Fatehpur Sikri (the capital of the Mughal empire during Akbar’s reign in the late 16th century), Taj Mahal (famously commissioned by Shah Jahan in the 17th)?”

It was in 2021 when Sultana Begum approached the Delhi High Court with high hopes. She argued that the Union government had confirmed the claim of her (now deceased) husband, Bedar Bakht as the descendant and heir of Bahadur Shah Zafar II in 1960. She further claimed that the government began paying Bakht’s pension, that was transferred to her after his death in 1980. However, the pension is not sufficient. 

The government subsequently began paying him a pension that was transferred to her in 1980, upon his death. This pension, she had argued, was insufficient for her needs. The Mughal descendants accused the government of taking ‘illegal’ possession of the Red Fort. She alleged that the government is now not willing to pay her adequate compensation, commensurate with its property and historical value. She argued that it was a direct violation of her fundamental rights and rights under Article 300A of the Constitution. This article says no person shall be deprived of their lawful property, except by the authority of law.

The great-granddaughter of the last Mughal emperor and her six children survive on a meager pension of 6,000 rupees a month.  Sultana lives with her unmarried daughter, Madhu Begum. Though her royal ancestry is well-documented, she has received little recognition or support.