In a shanty town in the western suburbs of Kolkata, there is a poor old man who lives with her unmarried daughter. The semi-outdoor kitchen needs to be shared with neighbors. You can wash clothes and go to the public faucet on the street. The toilet is an impossible concept.
However, the name of this old man is very special, called Sultana Begum, and the Indian media also honor her as Mrs. Sultana.
Lady Sultana and grandson
You should know that those who can generally be called "Sultana" belong to the female ethnicity of the Turkic royal family who believe in Islam, such as the Ottoman Empire and India The Mughal Empire and so on.
This Madame Sultana is a genuine member of the Indian Mughal royal family. She is of Mughal royal blood, and her husband is the last male heir to the Mughal Empire, Prince Bedal, the great grandson of the last emperor of the Mughal Empire!
Mughal dynasty (1526-1857), a direct descendant of Genghis Khan , Babur, descended from Uzbekistan and invaded India via Afghanistan . After unifying most of the South Asian subcontinent, Babur proclaimed himself "Emperor of Hindustan".
Babur is a typical Turkic appearance.
The rulers of the Mughal dynasty believed in Islam, but the princes of the Tubangs in South Asia were mostly determined Hindus. In addition, the religious and ethnic composition of this place is very complicated, and the Hindu population has an absolute advantage over Islam. By the end of the 17th century, the local states began to rule their own affairs, and the power of the Mughal emperor was gradually emptied, and it was basically a display. exist. Obviously, this gave the British a chance to get in.
In the 19th century, the control of "British India" reached the "peak" of India's territory, and even parts of were included.
What the British did not expect is,The patriotism of the Indians was inspired by their religious complex.
This is the Indian National Uprising of 1857-1859.
The fuse of the uprising was that the bullets sent by the British to the Indian mercenaries were wrapped in lard and butter, which caused both Hindus and Muslims to feel a great insult-the cow is a god in Hinduism. ; And Islam is very taboo about everything related to "pigs".
In the first three months of the uprising, the Indians had the upper hand. After the British commander Barnard was killed, the soldiers of the 3rd Indian Cavalry Regiment near Delhi took the lead in declaring their allegiance to the Mughal Empire and the only leader of the Indians-Bahadur Tsar.
Later, a large number of local princes also responded, and they all declared that Emperor Bahadur Tsar was "orthodox" and raised the anti-British banner.
The most famous of these uprising princes is undoubtedly the widow of Zhangxi Prince-the young Zhangxi Queen Lakshmi Payi.
After the queen was sacrificed, the British army, as the enemy, used the highest military salute to bury her ashes.
the movie "Queen of Chapter West"
At this time, under the supervision of the British, he was at ease as a poet and opium-smuggling Mughal emperor, Bahadur Sha II-Muhammad Baha Dursha also "awakened" and actively cooperated with the rebel army. Not only did he send the prince as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, he also wrote a lot of inspiring notices and poems by himself.
Bahadur Shah II (October 24, 1775-November 7, 1862)
However, after July, the British recalled a large number of troops stationed in China and Ceylon. The situation began to take a turn for the worse.
To make matters worse, the internal division of the rebel army was also caused by the struggle for power, which further exacerbated the deterioration of the situation.
At dawn on September 21, 1957, British troops invaded Delhi.
When the rebels retreated, the old Bahadur Sha refused to accompany him, and instead took the royal family and hid in the tomb.
Before long, under the guidance of the traitor, the father-in-law of the crown prince, the British cavalry surrounded them.
Although Major Hodson, the commander of the British army, who called to the tomb, promised to ensure the safety of Bahadur Shah and his family.
However, after they were captured, Hodson brutally shot and killed many princes and grandchildren, and contemptuously sent their heads to Bahadur Shah, which greatly stimulated the latter. All of a sudden went crazy.
This period of history is more euphemistic in Hindu textbooks. For the colonial experience, today's Indians do not have a particularly strong feeling of "bitterness and enmity". Typically, like Prime Minister of Modi, he has expressed his gratitude to India for the modern education system, the railway network (more than 20,000 kilometers of railway, still in use), and the industrial foundation laid for India. , As well as the precious cultural wealth of English, etc...
may be a different perspective.
Until 1859, the uprisings in various places were completely suppressed. Immediately afterwards, the East India Company presided over the big trial, listed Bahadur Shah as the "first evil", deprived him of the title of "Emperor of India", and the Mughal dynasty ended.
At the same time, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom took the opportunity to become the "Emperor of India" and finally had an "emperor addiction" that cannot be enjoyed in Europe-because according to the tradition of the Christian cultural circle, it can only be traced back to and the Roman Empire lineage Only the royal family can be called emperor, otherwise, no matter how arrogant, you must honestly call the king. In history, the only exception is the former "Emperor of France" Napoleon his old man.
Bahadur Shah and the remaining members of the royal family, who had lost the title of emperor, were escorted by the British army to Yangon, Myanmar and placed under house arrest.
During his stay in Myanmar, Bahadur Shah was the only one who accompanied Bahadur Shah, his queen and his youngest son, Prince Jawan Bakt.
On November 7, 1862, Bahadur Shah died at , Yangon.
Bahadur Shah II after the collapse
After the death of Bahadur Shah, the British feared that the emperor’s remains would inspire anti-British sentiment among Indians, and they would believe in Islam on the spot Bahadur Shah was buried secretly in a Buddhist temple near Yangon.
It was not until 1991 that people found the cemetery of Bahadur Shah and erected a monument to commemorate the sad Indian poet emperor.
Following the exile of Prince Jawan, the last emperor of India, he gave birth to his only son, Prince Jamsheed Bakkert, in Myanmar.
After becoming an adult, Prince Bhakter was allowed to return to India and received a British education in New Delhi . Prince Buckett has only one son, Prince Bedal.
Mrs. Sultana’s husband is Prince Bedal. The couple are more than 20 years old and have five daughters.
Bedar princes and couples
India at this time has just experienced the "anti-feudal reform" after independence, and a large number of local princes' ancestral properties were forcibly collected by the Indian government in the form of "redemption" State-owned-first give a one-off compensation, and then in the form of " annuity", 10-15 years of subsidies will be successively distributed.
Those who did not want to be "redeemed", such as the prosperous Junnagarde and Hyderabad, were violently suppressed by the Indian army and were directly nationalized. The princes and their families were subsequently classified as "reactionaries" and "reactionaries' families," without even compensation and annuities.
At this time, Prince Bedar wrote to the top of the Indian government many times, and also contacted Pakistan , trying to ask for the "compensation" and pension of the local princes.
After all, let’s not talk about the huge wealth accumulated by the Mughal royal family over the centuries, just look at the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Agra Fort and Pakistan’s Shalimar Gardens. Ticket revenue,How much does it cost?
The Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi is considered to be his family’s ancestral grave.
Unfortunately, all kinds of letters and complaints have all fallen into the sea. Until 1980, when Sultana's husband, the last male heir to the Mughal, Prince Bedal, died, he failed to get half of the rupee given by the Indian government.
Prince Bedal, a descendant of Mughal, is a Muslim. He will not go to the Ganges for cremation, but will be buried.
After the death of Prince Bedar, Sultana lost her financial resources and moved out of the original I lived in a slum and suffered a lot in order to make a living.
With the support of the tribe, Sultana opened a tea stall for several years in order to support herself and her five daughters, but because she was often harassed by the gangsters, she failed to hold on.
Later, Sultana found a way to make clothes. The income was not as good as running a tea stall, but it was relatively stable.
According to Indian tradition, if you want your daughter to marry well, you must not be angry and life-threatening in your husband's house, and a high dowry is essential. A middle-class Indian family who marries a daughter is often prone to debts and bankruptcy.
Sultana, who is a widow, has five daughters, and her financial burden can be imagined.
In the end, her generation also brought some "royal legacy", pay attention to the family, depending on the lineage, the origin is different, except for the 40-year-old daughter who is still single, the daughters of Sultana who lack a dowry can only Marrying hastily to the poor around her, life is tight, and she has no spare time to help her.
The family has also lived a decent life
Following her husband, Sultana has also been petitioning the Indian government to try to obtain corresponding subsidies. But hardly received any meaningful response.
Until the beginning of this century, her letter to Sonia Gandhi, chairman of the Congress Party (at this time, the Congress Party was still India’s ruling party) was reprinted by the media,The experience of Mrs. Sultana, the last royal family of the Mughal Empire, attracted people's attention.
The media have been fighting against the injustice-relying on the magnificent palaces, mausoleums and gardens left by the Mughal family, the government has to charge tens of millions of rupees for tickets to the attractions every year, but their past owners are enduring hunger Starving.
The local princes of the localities after the "land reform" can still keep a private house and get compensation from the government; and the Mughal Empire, which once brought glory and pride to the Indians, has fallen into this situation. However, the government even surrounds people's "ancestral graves" to collect tickets. It seems that it is indeed a bit unreasonable.
The mausoleum of Mughal emperor Babur
Under the pressure of public opinion, the Indian government responded by arranging an “iron rice bowl” job for Sultana’s granddaughter Roshan Allah. Because Roshan Ala is the only descendant of the immediate Mughal royal family with a university degree.
Others, it's really nothing.
In addition to the sultanas, the Mughal family also has a collateral ethnic group. They live quite well in Pakistan. They often enter and leave the upper class in the West as princes and princesses. But in terms of blood, they are really not as good as those living in slum This home is near.
Princess Mughal Aga Khan Sarah’s wedding in France
Actually, let alone the Mughal dynasty, which was ended by the British as early as 1857, even a hundred years later, Many of the local princes of the Tubang who were "revolutionized" in India's "anti-feudal reform" were also very miserable.
In 1971, after India's constitutional amendment, the titles related to the royal family of the Tubang were completely abolished and the annual payment was terminated.
The titles of Indian “Maharajah” (Prince), “Prince”, and “Princess” that we see now are really uploaded by the ancestors, but they are not officially recognized by India, and they have no legal effect. The family is just entertaining themselves.
Among them, some of the descendants of princes who have their own businesses and are good at managing can successfully join the local tyrants of contemporary India and live more like kings than their ancestors.
The family of Maharaja Ghat Singh of the Jiaodaipur royal family owns the largest private residence in the world (note that it is not one of them)
And the descendants of other princes who are not good at financial management and planning, after the government stopped issuing annuities , And lack of survival skills, will inevitably end up living in a slum.
Of course, there is no lack of self-improvement, like the descendants of Tipu Sultan (Muslim Prince), they also have no property to inherit. Unlike the descendants of other Tubang royal families that “cannot carry a single shoulder or carry a basket”, the descendants of Tipu Sultan put down the royal figure and learned to make a living with both hands: some chose to pull a rickshaw, some opened a kerosene dealership. In small businesses, there are people who learn crafts and become tailors, so they can live without worrying about food and clothing.
In fact, the princes and nobles of the previous dynasties turned into ordinary people and gradually disappeared in the rivers and lakes. This is the general trend of historical development, and it is better to look forward. Let’s say that in China, there are a few random surnames, such as Liu, Sima, Yuan, Li, Zhao, Zhu (the descendants of the kings of the Ming Dynasty are very large), Jin (Aisin Jueluo) and so on. Who has applied for "ancestor subsidy"?
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