I
The history of Bhopal starts with Raja Bhoj who is said to have developed the huge lake which is the glory of Bhopal even now. Locally called the ‘Bada Talab’ it has an area of 31 sq km and is one of the biggest lakes in the country. But the Bhopal city as we know now was first built by a Pashtun military commander in Aurangzeb’s army called Dost Mohammad Khan in the first decade of the 18th century. When the Mughal power, after Aurangzeb’s death, was on a decline Khan began to give mercenary services to others in their battles. He first got an independent territory in Berasia, about 40 km north of present day Bhopal. He made his capital at a village called Jagdishpur, 30 km from Berasia which he renamed as Islamnagar. In a battle where he had extended services to a tribal ruler Kamaladevi he got rewarded with the area where the villages in the area of the present day Bhopal were located. He built the fort of Fatehgarh in Bhopal facing the huge lake. Khan passed away in 1728.
In 1737 a fierce battle took place near Bhopal between the Mughal-backed Nizam of Hyderabad and Bajirao I. The latter was returning from north and was intercepted by the Nizam army. This is referred to as ‘Battle of Bhopal.’ This led to a peace treaty signed by the Bajirao at a place called Doraha (now in Sehore district) near Bhopal leading to the Maratha control over Malwa region.
II
After Dost Mohammad his subsequent generations ruled Bhopal. At its peak the Bhopal Nawabi state became quite big covering about 18,000 sq km and encompassing the present day districts of Bhopal, Sehore, and Raisen. But a very special period in its history started from 1819 when it was ruled by women rulers (Begums) for more than a century. The Begums brought great glory to Bhopal and developed it much further. In 1819 when the ruling Nawab passed away the British recognised his widow Qudsia as the ruler. Qudsia Begum ruled for next two decades. She was very spartan in her ways and was keenly interested in education of her subjects. She learnt many skills associated with men like horse-riding, handling swords and spears.
Sikandar Begum who followed her mother Qudsia was recognised as a Regent for her daughter who was young. She lived through a tumultuous period in Indian history – the mutiny of 1857. She sided with the British and some commentators say that the central location in Bhopal played an important role in suppression of the mutiny. At the height of the mutiny the British garrisons located in the Bhopal state were attacked by the mutineers with Begum’s own palace being surrounded. But the Begum deftly negotiated the difficult situations. When many locals as well as soldiers in her own army wanted to join the mutineers she suppressed them by way of arrests. She acted against any anti-British propaganda and also tried to win over mutineers through monetary rewards. In 1861 she was conferred the Knight Grand Commander honour. Like her mother she was also interested in spreading education and started several schools in Urdu and Hindi. She also started a mint and court of law. She constructed a number of buildings the most notable of which was the Moti Masjid built with redstone. Between 1860 till her death British recognised her as a Nawab in her own right (and not merely a Regent.) In 1863 she went to Hajj with a huge delegation of one thousand persons and wrote interesting memoirs in Urdu on this visit. She considered the Hindustani culture to be far more advanced than that of the Middle East.
Sikandar Begum was succeeded by her daughter Shah Jahan Begum. She was a very able administrator and undertook many initiatives like reforms in taxation, military, postal services, and irrigation. She also authored a number of books in Urdu including her autobiography. She was a major benefactor to the Aligarh Muslim University. It was her vision to construct the world’s largest mosque in Bhopal. The mosque could not be completed in her time and the work halted due to shortage of funds. It was only after several decades that it was resumed and completed. The mosque called Taj ul Masajid (translated as crown among the mosques) is India’s largest mosque and the third largest in the whole world. She also constructed a huge palace initially called Raj Mahal but later on advice of the British resident it was named ‘Taj Mahal.’ The palace had more than a hundred rooms and took thirteen years in making. On completion of the palace the Begum had a huge public festival called ‘Jashne Tajmahal.’ Interesting, after the independence it was also used as a temporary place of stay of hundreds of Sindhi refugees who had migrated to India until they were rehabiliated in the village of Bairagarh, now a prominent suburb of Bhopal.
The fourth and the last Begum to rule Bhopal was Shah Jahan Begum’s daughter Sultan Jahan. She too, like her predecessors, was very progressive and continued with building of educational institutions, public healthcare facilities, and reforms in judiciary. Mahatma Gandhi on a visit to Bhopal met her and was impressed by her austere way of life which he was first thought was a show until convinced of its authenticity by Sarojini Naidu who had accompanied him. Sultan Jahan abdicated the throne in favour of her youngest son Hamidulla as Nawab in 1926 and thus the Begum’s era in Bhopal came to an end.
III
Hamidulla Khan was a very influential ruler in his times. He was a delegate to the Second Round Table Conference and at the time of independence he was Chancellor in the Chamber of Princes. He did want to accede to the Union of India but wanted Bhopal to remain a separate sovereign state. He was close to Mohammad Ali Jinnah and it was thought that he had been acting under the latter’s pressure. It was only in 1949 that Bhopal was merged in the Union of India. Hamidulla had two daughters Abida and Sajida through his first marriage. Abida, the elder one, was married to the Nawab of Kurwai, a small town in Vidisha district.
Sajida was married to the celebrated cricketer Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, who had the distinction of representing both England and India in Test cricket. He was coached in England by the legendary cricketer Frank Wooly and represented Worcestershire in English county circuit. An Oxford Blue, he scored a hundred on his Test debut in the famous bodyline series of 1932-33 but was dropped after another match partly due to poor performance in that match and also, it is believed, for opposing his captain Douglas Jardine’s unsporting policy in that infamous series. He later captained India in 1946-47 in a tour to England. Sajida and Pataudi had even a more famous son in Mansur Ali Khan (Tiger), who too had been, as is well known, an Indian Test captain and a Nawab of the cricket field. Like his father, he too attended the Balliol College in Oxford.
Abida, the elder daughter of Hamidulla Khan, had migrated to Pakistan and hence lost the right to the title of Nawab Begum after her father’s demise and it was Sajida who received that. From her the title of Nawab of Bhopal passed to Mansur Ali Khan (Tiger.) Currently, Saba Ali Khan, daughter of Tiger and Sharmila Tagore holds the title, getting the same after her father’s demise. Abida’s son Shahryar Khan is a famous career diplomat in Pakistan and also headed the Pakistan Cricket Board.
IV
At the time of independence, there were massive protests in India against the Nawab Hamidulla’s stand of maintaining Bhopal as a sovereign state. This protest was led by a young Cambridge-educated lawyer called Shankar Dayal Sharma. There was repressive action by the Nawab’s administration and Sharma and his associates were arrested. After Bhopal’s merger with the Indian Union it continued as the ‘Bhopal state’ and Sharma became its Chief Minister before its merger in newly carved state of Madhya Pradesh following the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. Bhopal became capital of the new state. Sharma went on to hold several pretigious offices like the President of Indian National Congress, Union Minister holding portfolios like Commerce and Industry, Law, Education and Communications, Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab, the Vice President of India and finally the President of India. He also represented Bhopal seat in Lok Sabha for two terms. After Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination it is said that his name was also discussed within the Congress Party as a choice for the post of Prime Minister but he, then holding the office of the Vice-President, declined the offer citing ill-health.
Somewhere down the line Bhopal also took the world’s worst industrial disaster in its stride. But time, as they say is a great healer. Bhopal is a now much bigger and modern city. Its denizens still refer to the old Nawabi Bhopal as the ‘city’. There is a marked difference in the culture of the old Bhopal city and the new. It is like two cities rolled into one. While on one hand the old city has congested areas bustling with activity like Itwara, Mangalwara, Budhwara, Jumrati – all named after different days of the week – expensively constructed structures like malls and flyovers are now in plenty in the new Bhopal area. While new Bhopal boasts of its cleanliness and planned design, it is still the crowded lanes and bylanes of the ‘city’ that have stories embedded in them of an era which is gone and lost forever.