
The Sequel To White Mughals, By The Finest Writer On India At Work Today.at 4 P.m. On A Wet November Evening In 1862, A Cheap Plywood Coffin Was Escorted By A Small Group Of British Soldiers To An Anonymous Grave Outside A Prison Enclosure On The Outskirts Of Rangoon. After A Brief Ceremony The Turf Was Carefully Replaced, So That No Trace Of The Burial Would Remain.the Deceased Was Bahadur Shah Zafar Ii, Last Mughal Emperor, Direct Descendent Of Genghis Khan And Tamburlaine. During His Brief Reign He Had Created Around Him A Court Of Unparalleled Brilliance, And Brought About The Greatest Literary Renaissance In Indian History. He Himself Was A Mystic, Poet And Calligrapher Of Great Charm And Accomplishment. But While His Court Was Devoting Itself To Pleasure Gardens, Poetic Symposia And Music, The British Were Taking Over More And More Of The Emperor's Power.reluctantly Forced To Lead The Rebellion Of 1857, The Emperor Was Besieged By The British In The Mughal Capital, Delhi. It Was The Raj's Stalingrad, A Fight To The Death Between Two Powers Neither Of Which Could Retreat. If The British Failed To Take Delhi, They Would Lose Their Indian Empire Forever. If The Rebels Lost Delhi, They Lost Everything. There Were Unimaginable Casualties, With The Deaths Of Thousands Of Civilians, And Both British And Indians Dying Of Starvation And Thirst. Finally The British Took And Looted The City, Executing Over Three Thousand Of Its Inhabitants And Driving The Remainder Out Into The Country To Fend For Themselves.the Emperor's Ten Sons Were Shot, And Their Heads Hung From A Gate Of His Palace. He Was Sentenced To Exile In Burma, And Left His Beloved Delhi On A Peasant's Bullock Cart, Never To Return. It Was The End Of Mughal India.
Page Count:
400
Publication Date:
2006-01-01
ISBN-10:
0007177518
ISBN-13:
9780007177516
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