The Lost Mughal.. or (The Last Mughal)
I was about 8 years old, one fine evening my nephew (who is older than me and more like an elder brother) took me with him for a cricket match. I did got a chance to play as they were short by a couple of players. The ground was the backyard of some haweli and a proud Banyan tree standing in the center have almost its root touching the other corner of the ground. It looked like it's guarding the place since ages. The cricketing gear belongs to the guy named Sanjar Ali and all his friends were calling him Sanjeri. Well, he was tall (at that time it looked like) aged 17-18 I guess and was a close friend of my nephew. The ground was nothing but the backyard of his old haweli. I use to wonder that if the Haweli belongs to them then why didn't he live there. He was modest, use to speak very little and I don't think that I will recognize him in a crowd because it was long long back when I saw him. His sister was considered to be incredibly beautiful and guyz use to discuss her behind his back. Well, I was too young to understand all that.
My cousin brother is a lawyer and he has a decent practice in Gaya Bar Council (if the town sounds new to you then it's the old city and more popular as Bodh Gaya which is like 6 kilometers from the original city of Gaya) and I have spent a few days of my childhood at his house with his kids (2 of them are almost of my age). One uncle always use to come to him and they will sit and talk for like hours on many things. Most of them will be related to law but then my family members had deep respect for that person. It was only after his death (sometime in early 1990s, I guess) that I realized that his name was Mohd. Taz Ali (that's all I know about his name) and had something to do with the colony which was also named as Taz Colony. He was father of Sanjer Ali.
Four or five years after his death, I read a story about him in Hindustan Times and later confirmed it from my Brother that he claimed to be a descendant of the last Mughal Ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar. His fore fathers lent some money to East India Company and he had the documents to support that. That was before independence. Later his land holdings in Gaya (fruit orchards) and Nagpur were also seized by government. During the long period of litigation, he sold almost all his land holdings to cover the expenses and thats why Taz colony came up. The irony was that he sold all his land cheap and as he had better relations with the hindus he became unpopular with the local muslims. So almost nobody supported him through entire his life. Sanjay Gandhi instilled some hope in him by telling that he will get his land back but then he had no resources to fight the case in the supreme court and had almost lost the will to fight it out. Had two wives to support. After his death, one of his wives took up some teaching post and till the last time I heard about his family, she married her daughter and Sanjer was preparing for some clerical exams.
They have lost the hope from government, they have lost the hope of getting anything back and I still remember Sanjer's magical words - "Amiri Ki Kabra pe panpi Garibi badi Zaalim hoti hai". It really hurts to be poor after being rich for a while. Well, I don't know where they are or how they are or whether Sanjer has taken up the fight to himself or not. But the recent article in IBN about descendants of Mughals is making me think that how many of them are there in the open waiting for the justice to be done? Or was this the justice planned for that empire which was built on masaacre, brutalities, forced religious conversions and other inhuman practices? Well, I don't know much but I have seen Sanjer Ali, I have seen the pain and sufferings of his family. God bless them.
My cousin brother is a lawyer and he has a decent practice in Gaya Bar Council (if the town sounds new to you then it's the old city and more popular as Bodh Gaya which is like 6 kilometers from the original city of Gaya) and I have spent a few days of my childhood at his house with his kids (2 of them are almost of my age). One uncle always use to come to him and they will sit and talk for like hours on many things. Most of them will be related to law but then my family members had deep respect for that person. It was only after his death (sometime in early 1990s, I guess) that I realized that his name was Mohd. Taz Ali (that's all I know about his name) and had something to do with the colony which was also named as Taz Colony. He was father of Sanjer Ali.
Four or five years after his death, I read a story about him in Hindustan Times and later confirmed it from my Brother that he claimed to be a descendant of the last Mughal Ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar. His fore fathers lent some money to East India Company and he had the documents to support that. That was before independence. Later his land holdings in Gaya (fruit orchards) and Nagpur were also seized by government. During the long period of litigation, he sold almost all his land holdings to cover the expenses and thats why Taz colony came up. The irony was that he sold all his land cheap and as he had better relations with the hindus he became unpopular with the local muslims. So almost nobody supported him through entire his life. Sanjay Gandhi instilled some hope in him by telling that he will get his land back but then he had no resources to fight the case in the supreme court and had almost lost the will to fight it out. Had two wives to support. After his death, one of his wives took up some teaching post and till the last time I heard about his family, she married her daughter and Sanjer was preparing for some clerical exams.
They have lost the hope from government, they have lost the hope of getting anything back and I still remember Sanjer's magical words - "Amiri Ki Kabra pe panpi Garibi badi Zaalim hoti hai". It really hurts to be poor after being rich for a while. Well, I don't know where they are or how they are or whether Sanjer has taken up the fight to himself or not. But the recent article in IBN about descendants of Mughals is making me think that how many of them are there in the open waiting for the justice to be done? Or was this the justice planned for that empire which was built on masaacre, brutalities, forced religious conversions and other inhuman practices? Well, I don't know much but I have seen Sanjer Ali, I have seen the pain and sufferings of his family. God bless them.
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