Begum Hazrat Mahal

Begum Hazrat Mahal (c. 1820 – 7 April 1879), born Muhammadi Khanum, was the second wife of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, and regent of Awadh in 1857–1858 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. She placed her young son Birjis Qadr on the throne as ruler of Awadh and herself led the rebel state at Lucknow against the British East India Company; after the city was retaken she refused British terms, retreated to Nepal, and died in exile at Kathmandu. Her role in the rebellion has given her the status of a heroine in the post-colonial history of India. ^{1 2}

The Urdu article reports, from some English writers, that her birth name was Iftikhar-un-Nisa; the English and Arabic articles give Muhammadi Khanum. ^{1 3}

She was born about 1820 at Faizabad, the former capital of Awadh. Sold by her parents, she became a tawaif (courtesan) by profession, entered the royal harem as a khawasin after being sold to royal agents, and was promoted to a pari. She was accepted as a royal concubine of Wajid Ali Shah and became his junior wife; the title "Hazrat Mahal" was bestowed on her after the birth of their son, Birjis Qadr. In 1856 the British annexed Awadh and exiled Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta; she remained in Lucknow with her son. ¹

When the rebellion broke out, her supporters — among them Raja Hanumant Singh, with the forces under Raja Jailal Singh — seized Lucknow, and she declared her son Birjis Qadr the wali (ruler) of Awadh, taking power as his regent and guardian, which gave her a leadership role in the rebellion as a whole. She worked in association with Nana Sahib and later joined the Maulavi of Faizabad in the attack on Shahjahanpur. Among her principal complaints against the East India Company was its demolition of Hindu temples and mosques to make way for roads; in a proclamation issued in the revolt's final days she mocked the British claim to allow freedom of worship, listing the grievances of both Hindus and Muslims. When the British retook Lucknow and most of Awadh, she was forced to retreat. ^{1 4}

Her faith is recorded in this museum as unknown, and the reason is stated plainly. The English article's infobox gives her religion as Shia Islam, on the authority of a single popular biography page; the Arabic article, which substantially follows the English one, gives "Muslim, Shia" in its infobox without a reference; the Urdu article files her in a category of Indian Shia personalities. No article's text discusses her own religion, and Wikidata gives only Islam. The Awadh royal house she married into was Twelver Shia, but she was born outside that house and sold into its court, so the dynasty's affiliation is marriage and community context, not a personal attestation of hers. On a single infobox tradition and a category filing, the museum does not record a branch; the readings are preserved in her data note. ^{1 4 3 2}

She retreated into Nepal, where the Rana prime minister Jung Bahadur initially refused her asylum but later allowed her to stay. She died there on 7 April 1879 and was buried in a nameless grave in the grounds of Kathmandu's Jama Masjid; her tomb, near the Ghantaghar in central Kathmandu, is looked after by the Jama Masjid Central Committee. After her death, on the occasion of Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887, the British government pardoned Birjis Qadr and allowed him to return home. ¹

On 15 August 1962 she was honoured at the Old Victoria Park in Hazratganj, Lucknow, renamed for her, where a marble memorial bearing the Awadh royal family's coat of arms was constructed. The Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in her honour on 10 May 1984, and the Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship for meritorious girls of minority communities now bears her name. ¹