Bahadur Shah Zafar

Bahadur Shah II was born on 24 October 1775, the second son of Akbar II, who had been imprisoned by the British. He wasn't his father's first choice; a queen had pressed for her son, Mirza Jahangir, but after Jahangir attacked the Company's resident at the Red Fort and was exiled, the path cleared. When Akbar II died in 1837, Bahadur Shah — known by his pen name Zafar, meaning "Victory" — inherited a title stripped of power, his rule confined to the Walled City. Twenty years later, rebel forces across the subcontinent named him Emperor of India in their uprising against the East India Company.…