Sultana Begum: The Last Mughal Heiress Battling Poverty In Kolkata

 In a dust-choked, crumbling slum on the outskirts of Kolkata, Sultana Begum, the great-granddaughter-in-law of India's last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, is trying to survive at the age of sixty. Living in dire poverty and facing daily hardships, Sultana's had a life far removed from the luxury and opulence that her royal ancestors once knew.

(Photo Credit: Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP) The Last Mughal Heiress Battling Poverty In Kolkata

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For the woman who is facing the challenges of barely making ends meet, her royal heritage is hardly a consolation. Like any direct descendant of the once-mighty Mughal dynasty, Sultana lives in a tiny two-room tenement at Howrah in an infamous slum area of Kolkata. Sharing a kitchen with the neighbour and taking a bath out of street taps, her life is just a shade of the opulent life her ancestors lived in.

Bahadur Shah Zafar- The Last Mughal Ruler

Sultana Begum's great-grandfather, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the last ruler of the Mughal Empire, which once stretched across the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries. He became emperor in 1837 at the age of 62 and received an imperial baton that was to be held against the backdrop of roaring internal conflicts and external threats. His "reign," if one can call it that, barely obstreperously extended beyond the red fort of Delhi, and indeed, the British East India Company had increasingly risen to power and exercised tight political and military control over India.

At the time of the great Indian mutiny in 1857, Bahadur Shah Zafar was forced to occupy the role assigned to him as the de facto symbolic leader of the rebellion. Although the rebellion was finally squelched by the British, it had great consequences for the Mughal emperor. He was apprehended by the British, tried for treason, and exiled to Rangoon (modern-day Yangon), where he lived in captivity until his death in 1862.

Sultana Begum living In Extreme Poverty 

Fast-forwarding into the 1980s, Sultana's life took a fateful turn. It was in 1980 that her husband, Prince Mirza Bedar Bukht, died, after which this flamboyant lady descended into a life of excruciating poverty. Sultana did have some dignity in her living earlier, but now feeds upon her own blood and her sorrows. The income she earns is but a meager pension of 6000 rupees per month, which does not last long for herself and her six children-five daughters and one son-born out of another true royal cub. 

"I do not know how we survive," Sultana says. "My other daughters and their families are poor too, so they cannot help us." To make matters worse, Sultana shares her cramped, inadequate home with her unmarried daughter, Madhu Begum. Although Sultana's lineage is well established, she is left with little assistance from the Indian government. Despite the long years of petition and appeal to receive some basic living assistance, such as pensions and housing, Sultana's situation has not improved.

Support From Human Rights Activists

In recent years, human rights activists and sympathetic others have pressed for action to be taken on behalf of India's royal descendants, many of whom fell into near poverty after the end of British rule and the dissolution of the great Mughal kingdom. Sultana's struggle highlights other heirs of royal families across India who still continue to live in great hardship and poverty.

The situation becomes even more tragic for Sultana with the history of her family — Bahadur Shah Zafar, the most significant link of her family, was once a name famed in history. A ruler once looked up to by everyone in the world's greatest empire, Zafar saw the crushing of the 1857 Rebellion and the sacking of the Mughal Empire. Since then, all his descendants, inclusive of Sultana, have been left positioned in time, dealing with the consequences of British colonialism and the decline of their once-glorious dynasty. 

Sultana Begum Proud Of Family Heritage 

Despite all trials and tribulations, Sultana has maintained her pride in the heritage. She remembers how her late husband, Muhammad Bedar Bakht, always told her that their royal lineage was 'respectable blood," which worked hard and didn't beg. "I have always asked the government to give me what my family deserves," she states, full of pride and frustration.

Some fortunate members of Sultana's family have been employed over time; her granddaughter was granted a government job that paid her £150 a month. Many others have never found work or have not passed entry-level government jobs, and Sultana supported many of them for some time working in a small tea hut until it was put out of operations. Later, she took to sewing ladies' garments, but the little money she earned from that could do little to sustain her; her life continued to remain a struggle. 

The story of Sultana Begum is a stark reminder of the tragic fall of once-mighty royal families after the end of British colonialism in India. The legacy of the Mughal Empire has remained largely unacknowledged by the state, and its descendants have been consigned to lives of misery. Despite traces of royal blood, Sultana's existence in a Kolkata slum paints the dismal picture of the plight faced by many erstwhile aristocrats in India. A tale of survival, Sultana's account is also of heartbreaking loss and the complete absence of justice for anyone who once ruled a great empire.

In the transition that India continues to make toward modernity and development, the past must not be forgotten, and the hardships faced by those whom history has neglected – like Sultana Begum, the last living descendant of the great Mughal dynasty –must be addressed.