Read the notes from an 1857 memorial project: "Rebels entered Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar their emperor. Soldiers, townspeople and displaced rul...
Question 1 Report
Read the notes from an 1857 memorial project: "Rebels entered Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar their emperor. Soldiers, townspeople and displaced rulers could use his name as a shared symbol, although he was elderly and had no effective independent army. After the British recaptured the city, Zafar was sent to Rangoon." The project asks pupils to judge the importance of this final episode for the end of Mughal rule.
(a) Identify the last Mughal emperor. [1]
(b) Explain why rebels used Bahadur Shah Zafar's name in 1857. [2]
(c) Analyse why 1857 marked the final end of the Mughal Empire. [2]
Answer Details
(a) Bahadur Shah Zafar / Bahadur Shah II [1] (b) He represented the historic Mughal Muslim state [1]; his name could give rebels legitimacy and help unite groups with different reasons for opposing British rule [1]. (c) British victory removed the remaining Mughal ruler [1]; Zafar's exile ended the dynasty's symbolic and political role in India [1].
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