Why can’t we bring Zafar’s remains back?

October 24 will mark the 242nd birth anniversary of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal, described by none other than Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as the leader of 1857, India’s first Independence war. Just two weeks later, on November 7th, 2017, Zafar’s 155th death anniversary will arrive. On his recent visit to Myanmar, PM Modi paid homage to Zafar’s grave in Rangoon.

In 1862, as an exiled, British prisoner-of-war, Zafar died at Rangoon. His last lament was the he won’t get a decent burial in his native land: Kitna Badnaseeb Hai Zafar Dafna Ke Liye, Do Gaj Zameen Bhi Na Mili Kuye Yaar Men.

In 1943, just before starting the INA march to Delhi, Subhash Chandra Bose went to Rangoon to salute Zafar’s grave. Bose vowed to free India or perish in the attempt. It has been a long standing demand of Indian nationalists to bring Zafar’s remains back to India-and construct a full scale monument to 1857.

Especially after partition, it was felt that India needed a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. 1857 saw a Hindu peasant army establish a Muslim king on Delhi’s throne; a Muslim cavalry placing Nana Sahab, a Brahmin, as a federal power in Kanpur; and a predominantly OBC-Dalit force, led by Ahmad Ullah Shah, a Sunni, enthroning Begum Hazrat Mahal (wife of Wajid Ali Shah, the deposed Shia Nawab of Awadh) and Birjees Qadar, her son, in Lucknow.

Revolutionary proclamations issued in Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow reflected the multi-religious, multi-caste, progressive-plural nature of 1857. 93 years before India became a constitutional Rep ublic with equal rights for all, the Lucknow proclamation spoke of equality between upper and lower castes.

Political streams of India, also of Pakistan and Bangladesh, accept 1857 as their great anti-colonial liberation outreach. But, in all the three countries, 1857’s legacy remains neglected.

Presently, India needs a 1857 bond of unity like never before. However, beyond political grandstanding, how can we bring back the remains of Bahadur Shah Zafar, or construct lasting memorials in different parts of India, when graves of several British officers, who committed numereous atrocities against Indians, stand ‘proud’ in places like Lucknow, Kanpur and Delhi?

In this regard, Lucknow is special. Four major British officers are buried in this city. Graves of ‘Sir’ Henry Lawrence, the first commissioner of Awadh in 1856 after British annexation of the State, and the infamous Brigadier-General Neill, are located inside the Lucknow Residency compound.

TO BE CONTINUED (Writer is a historian and writer of films like Bullet Raja) (Views expressed by the writer are personal)