India's poet emperor July 8,2012 The story of Abu Muzaffar Sirajuddin Mohammad Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), India's poet emperor, is not simply his story. It is intimately connected with the end of an era of Indian history, and the beginning of another. Bahadur Shah Zafar's is a story without any glory or heroism. While the rebels suspected him of siding with the British, the British accused him of leading the rebellion against them. However, he was a tremendously gifted person. He was a reputed Persian scholar, a marvelous calligrapher, and a renowned and recognised Urdu poet of his times. Salil Misra throws light on the life and times of the last Mughal emperor of India. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/262547/indias-poet-emperor.html ---- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Dear Group, The article about Bahadur Shah Zafar is a good summary of the Delhi history of the Mutiny presented by William Dalrymple in his eminently readable book 'The Last Mughal - The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857. The website www.kapadia.com is also worth a visit by anyone who may be interested in Bahadur Shah Zafar. He is associated in the common person's mind with two gazals, supposedly written by him, lamenting his captive life in Rangoon. These are 'lagtaa nahii hai dil meraa ujRe dayaar meiN' and 'naa kisii kii aaNkh kaa nuur huuN' and have become very popular since Mohmad Rafi sang them in the 1960 movie 'Lal Qila'. There is, however, some scholarly doubt as to whether Bahadur Shah indeed composed them. (See the discussion at http://sundeepdougal.tripod.com/Zafar.html) The two gazals are available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecgqELkF6yg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoAOCPUk89Q&feature=related Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 10, 2012.