Bahadur Shah Zafar: The last Mughal emperor to dream of independence

Before the death of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, the 19th successor of Emperor Zahiruddin Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire, he wrote in agony while in exile in distant Rangoon.

"Kitna badansib hain jafar ... dagan bake liye dogj zamin v milana chuki koi yaar mein."

That is,

"Unfortunately for Jafar, two yards of soil for his burial in the land of his relatives did not match."

One hundred years later, the late Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi visited his mausoleum in Myanmar and wrote in the visitor's book,

"You may not have got two yards of land in Hindustan. But the voice of our freedom was raised from your sacrifice. Unfortunately, it is not you, Jafar. With the message of freedom, your name has been remembered forever with the fame and glory of India."

There was not a single point of exaggeration in Rajiv Gandhi's remarks. No matter where the Mughals came from, at a turning point in history, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Jafar, became a symbol of people's awakening, hope, aspiration and liberation. The fall of the Mughal Empire is associated with the history of Bahadur Shah Jafar's personal cries and sorrows.