Saluting BahadurShah Zafar's Great Grand Daughter – Sultana Begum

This news item about Sultana Begum – great grand daughter of Bahadur Shah Zafar – had appeared in TOI in April 2004. I was trying to search for it .. because in my view, this old lady has it RIGHT!

She has the right ideas on how to tackle the issue of communal divide – just accept the atrocities of the past, ask for a general forgiveness for whoever still feels hurt, and move on with life in a much more peaceful manner. This is the route that Germany used to tackle Nazi atrocities and live peacefully since.. and this is what India can use.

You have to salute this lady for, she lives in absolute penury and still when she gets a help of Rs 50,000 -she uses that to spread message of peace and love!! Quite a contrast to other oh-so-holy pseudo-secular-activists whose heart somehow beats for their brand of secularism!!

Meanwhile, a Hindu trust has provided job and free education to her family, now, which is more than what the Indian Government could come up with!

A Hindu temple trust in Bihar has offered a job and free education to the impoverished family members of India’s last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s great granddaughter-in-law Sultana Begum.

This humane gesture of communal harmony comes in a year that India celebrates the 150th year of the first war of independence in 1857 – a war fought under the leadership of Zafar.

The Patna-based Mahavir Mandir Trust has offered a job to a member of Kolkata-based Sultana Begum’s family and free education to her grandson to mark their respect for Zafar, whose contribution to sectarian harmony and national integration is legendary.

But this earlier news item (on her Amritsar visit) was not even given much coverage. In any case, in my view it was very significant!

Sultana Begum, great granddaughter in law of Bahadur Shah Zafar, sought divine forgiveness for atrocities committed by Mughals on Hindus and Sikhs, at the Golden Temple here on Tuesday.

Moved by the tales, and pictures, of Sikh gurus being brutally chastised by Muhgals, Sultana Begum, who runs a tea stall on a footpath of Howrah and receives a paltry pension of Rs 400, undertook a pilgrimage to Amritsar after she received a financial assistance of Rs 50,000 from Swami Chinmayanand, union minister of state for home affairs.

"I have come to Amritsar to seek atonement for the sins of my husband’s forefathers," Sultana told TNN.

"This morning I went to the Golden Temple and sought pardon from the Almighty for my ancestors’ sins and atrocities," she said. She also visited Durgiana Temple here and the dargah of Hazrat Ali Shah at Najibabad in UP for the same purpose.

"Mughal emperors Aurangzeb and Jahangir unleashed terror not only on Sikhs and Hindus but also on Muslims. That’s why I went to temples and mosques," Sultana said. She wept on seeing pictures of Sikh gurus undergoing punishment inflicted by Mughals at the Central Sikh Museum. "How can anyone forget that Guru Arjan Dev was burnt on a frying pan during Jahangir’s time and the two sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh, last Sikh guru, were killed by Aurangzeb? Islam does not permit cruelty against anyone," she said.

"The the sins of my husband’s forefathers have brought misery upon me. I belong to a royal family, but see the pathetic condition I am in, barely able to manage two meals a day," she said.

Mother of five daughters and a son Muzaffar Kamal, who is a cook in Saudi Arabia, Sultana said political leaders like Chinmaynand, Mamata Banerji, Tapan Sikdar, Tathagata Roy had visited her dingy hut at Foreshore Road, Howrah, "but only Chinmayanandji gave me financial assistance".

"The government must recognise me as a descendent of the Moghul kings and give two bighas of land and a pension of Rs 50,000 a month," The Begum said. She said Mamata Banerji had promised to take her to Delhi after the elections and arrange a job for her daughter Madhu.

Asked how claims that she is the only descendent of Tipu Sultan,Wajid Ali Shah and Bahadur Shah Zafar, she said the ministers had visited her only after verifying her antecedents. She said she would be paying obeisance and seeking forgiveness at Gurdwara Sis Ganj, Delhi and at the dargah of Hazrat Nizammudin Aulia on April 15. Sultana Begum will be visiting the Akal Takht on Wednesday.