A review of the book 'Tears of the Begums: Stories of Survivors of the Uprising of 1857' (originally in Urdu as 'Begumat ke Aansoo') written by Khwaja Hasan Nizami and translated by Rana Safvi.
After the fall of Delhi and Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's tragic departure from the Red Fort in 1857, members of the royal Mughal court had to flee to safer places. Driven out from their palaces and palanquins onto the streets in search of food and shelter, the dethroned royals scrambled to survive. Some bore their fate with a bitter pride, others succumbed to the adversity.
Through twenty-nine accounts of the survivors of the Uprising of 1857, Khwaja Hasan Nizami documents the devastating tale of the erstwhile glorious royalty's struggle with the hardships thrust upon them by a ruthless new enemy.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'Tears of the Begums: Stories of Survivors of the Uprising of 1857' (originally in Urdu as Begumat ke Aansoo) written by Khwaja Hasan Nizami and translated by Rana Safvi.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Khwaja Hasan Nizami was born into a Sufi family who were descendants of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and belonged to the Sufi order Chishti-Nizamiya. He was born in 1878 or 1879, twenty years after the 1857 Uprising then known as the ghadar. A curious mind steeped in spiritual knowledge, he became interested in the stories of the survivors of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s family, and recorded their experiences in his book titled Begumat ke Aansoo.
Rana Safvi is a renowned writer, scholar and translator. She is a passionate believer in India’s unique civilizational legacy and pluralistic culture. She has published eight books so far on the culture, history and monuments of India. These are Tales from the Quran and Hadith, The Delhi Trilogy which includes Where Stones Speak, The Forgotten Cities of Delhi and Shahjahanabad: The Living City of Old Delhi. She has translated both the editions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s seminal work on Delhi, Asar-us-Sanadid and Dastan-e-Ghadar, and four accounts of nineteenth and twentieth-century Delhi from Urdu to English as City of my Heart and A Saint, A Folk Tale and Other Stories: Lesser-Known Monuments of India.
Let me read what is written on the back cover of the book:
Apart from the fifteen years that Sher Shah Suri snatched upon defeating Humayun, the flag of the grand Mughal Empire flew over Delhi undefeated for over 300 years. But then, 1857 arrived and the mighty sword fell helpless in the face of a mightier British force. After the fall of Delhi and Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's tragic departure from the Red Fort in 1857, members of the royal Mughal court had to flee to safer places. Driven out from their palaces and palanquins onto the streets in search of food and shelter, the dethroned royals scrambled to survive. Some bore their fate with a bitter pride, others succumbed to the adversity. Through twenty-nine accounts of the survivors of the Uprising of 1857, Khwaja Hasan Nizami documents the devastating tale of the erstwhile glorious royalty's struggle with the hardships thrust upon them by a ruthless new enemy.
In vivid and tragic stories drawn from the recollection of true events, Nizami paints a picture of a crumbling historical era and another charging forward to take its place.
With the reminiscence of past glory contrasted against the drudgery of everyday survival, Tears of the Begums – the first ever English translation of Nizami's invaluable Urdu book Begumat ke Aansoo – chronicles the turning of the wheel of fortune in the aftermath of India's first war of independence.
There were around 3,000 royals living inside the Red Fort at the time of the Uprising. These included the Emperor and his immediate family, and the descendants of the previous emperors known as salatin. The Red Fort and the Salimgarh Fort that adjoined it were densely populated. Immediately after the fall of Delhi, the British secured the walled city of Shahjahanabad and the Red Fort. Harsh and punitive punishments were meted out to the Mughal ‘loyalists’ and the royal family. In fact, knowing the importance of the Mughal Emperor and the royal family among the citizens of the empire, it was only after dealing with them that the British ensured they took action against other ‘rebel’ centres.
The houses and mansions of the princes and salatins were demolished once the two forts were captured by British forces on 20th September, 1857.
The author, Khwaja Hasan Nizami, tracked down the survivors living in impoverished conditions near the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Jama Masjid and Red Fort, and penned their stories for posterity in all their tragedy, pathos and wistfulness.
Begumat ke Aansoo is an important document of the events and its catastrophic after-effects on the survivors, the rough and the ready and often cruel punishments meted out to the Mughal family often based on false evidence.
The Uprising of 1857 resulted in the wiping out of not only the Mughal Empire but a way of life. The cultural catastrophe has not been fully documented till date.
Some might (rightly) say that what the Mughal royals and loyalists got was nothing but divine retribution for the injustices and barbaric treatment meted out to Hindu’s during the rule of the Mughals. Karma does catch up with everyone, royal or not.
This book will definitely teach everyone a lesson in humbleness.
Conclusion:
The book is just over 200 pages and very easy to read and the translation by Rana Safvi is absolutely brilliant. Though I still think, if you can read Urdu, you should read the original work by Nizami. I give this book 4.5/5 and highly recommend it.
The book is available for around Rs. 350/- on Amazon India and Flipkart and for just over $4.00 USD on Amazon USA but only in Kindle edition. I will provide all the respective buy links in the show notes.
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