In a photograph taken in 1872, a woman in boots and royal regalia stares straight into the camera. Her name was Nawab Shah Jahan Begum, the ruler of Bhopal. Many years ago, Nawab Nazar Mohammad Khan was shot dead by his young cousin. In the moment of dubiety, his wife, Qudsia, stepped in as regent for the next ruler, their infant daughter, Sikander. Thus began the matrilineal reign of the begums of Bhopal.
A little more than two weeks after her mother passed away, Sikander’s daughter, Shah Jahan, was crowned the ruler of Bhopal. Shah Jahan was a strong administrator and a prolific poet. She encouraged the development of the arts and patronised poetesses, even employing a male poet to form an anthology comprising their works.
Her literary legacy is enshrined in the reformist manual Tahzib un-Niswan wa Tarbiyat ul-Insan, which translates to “The Reform of Women and the Cultivation of Humanity.” It is considered to be the first women’s encyclopaedia in India and discusses women’s work and their status in Islam.
The begum also sanctioned many architectural and public works projects during her time, including the Sadar Manzil, the Qasr-e-Sultani Palace, the Taj-ul-Masjid, and the railway line that ran between Hoshangabad and Bhopal.
A strong proponent of literacy among women, the begum founded two girls’ schools and seventy-six primary schools during her reign. She even made it mandatory to hold a certificate from an educational institute to serve in the State Office. In 1862, she started the postal system in Bhopal, and in 1871, she established a government newspaper called the Umdatul.
Despite her immense contributions, Nawab Shah Jahan Begum’s personal life was wrought with grief. In 1867, her first husband, Waki Mohammad Khan, passed away after twelve years of marriage, and one of her daughters, Suleman Jahan too, was taken from her at an early age. The begum remarried in 1871, but her second husband died two decades later.
Shah Jahan Begum’s rule lasted until 1901, when her crown was passed on to her daughter, Sultan Jahan. Shah Jahan passed away on June 16 in the Taj Mahal.
Sultan Jahan ascended the throne at the age of forty-three. Her small stature often drew comparisons to Queen Victoria, the then-ruler of the British Empire. This comparison was not out of place, as the legacy of her 25-year rule precedes her.
Like her mother before her, she founded schools for girls and funded many educational institutes. She also established maternal and child-care hospitals and promoted the professionalisation of women’s health practitioners, even starting the Lady Minto Nursing School. She reformed the police, army, judiciary, and taxation systems and even implemented widespread vaccination drives.
In 1914, she became the president of the All-India Muslim Ladies’ Association and later the first Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University. But the road was hardly smooth. When Sultan Jahan became the ruler, the royal treasury had dried up, leaving only forty thousand rupees. That amount would not even cover the salaries of her employees. She left the royal palace and made her way to the villages. After speaking to the men and women, she decided to set up a municipality system for better governance.
An astute ruler with excellent foresight, Sultan Jahan is often credited with restoring Bhopal to its former glory. She authored over forty books in her lifetime, including the influential Dars-e-Hayat, that discussed the education and parenting of young women.
In Lambert-Hurley’s Muslim Women, Reform and Princely Patronage: Nawab Sultan Jahan Begam of Bhopal, the scholar discusses an interesting take on the Begum’s stand on women’s education and the purdah. In the Begum’s mind, she said, the purdah was not an element of subjugation but an autonomous sphere—an area of strength that gave women the space needed for education, communication, and ministerial healing in a world of men.
However, the greatest embodiment of Sultan Jahan’s legacy is the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, now known as the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). While returning from Mussoorie, the begum came across the University and donated a sum of fifty thousand rupees. She also pledged a monthly grant of a hundred rupees to construct a girls’ school, now known as the Women’s College of AMU. She was named the first chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, and as Chancellor, she addressed its first convocation ceremony in 1922. During the stone-laying ceremony of Sultania Boarding House, she said:
Today is the beginning of a new era in the history of Muslims. And, whenever, in the coming time, the history of this era is recorded, today’s programme will be remembered as one of its brightest chapters.
In an India torn asunder by colonial forces and internal conflict, a mother and her daughter held power under the overarching and oppressive British hegemony. Their respective rules prove that rulers of princely states were not mere puppets of the Empire but could effectively wield the power of negotiation for the benefit of their citizens.
-30-
Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.Please send in your feed back and comments to [email protected]
