Sultana Begum lives in a two-room shack in a dilapidated slum of Kolkata with no basic amenities
Muhammad Abrar Daily Dawn + Dawn TV
Kolkata: Sometimes the crown and throne, sometimes the worst decline, history is full of such heart-touching stories, this story is of Sultana Begum, the heiress of the Mughal Empire, who yearns for the basic amenities of life.
Bahadur Shah Zafar’s great-granddaughter Sultana Begum is forced to live a life of anonymity and poverty in the narrow and dark streets of Kolkata instead of the grand palace.
She was married to Bahadur Shah Zafar’s great-grandson Mirza Bedar Bakht in 1965. At that time, Sultana Begum was just a 14-year-old girl, her husband was a middle-aged man of 46 years. After her husband died in 1980, this heiress of the royal family became dependent on two meals a day.
Sultana Begum lives in a two-room shack in a dilapidated slum in Kolkata, where there are no basic amenities. She receives a monthly pension of Rs 6,000 from the government, which is not enough to survive.
The story is not about Sultana Begum, but about a tragedy in history. Bahadur Shah Zafar became the leader of the rebels in the 1857 War of Independence, which was crushed by the British Empire, and Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon, where he passed away in poverty in 1862.
Her great-granddaughter is living in the same poverty. The question is, will the Indian government give her rights to the last heir of the former royal family?
This is not an individual, but the painful story of the most powerful empire of its time. Today, the heir of this empire is sitting on a street corner waiting for justice. Will anyone listen to her or will this story be lost in the mists of time?
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