Lagta Nahi Hai Dil Mera

This is a poignant ghazal by an exiled Emperor, traumatised with utmost tragedy by his subjugators; whose plea to be  buried in his native country too was turned down.
 

Know your Last Emperor

Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862) was the last of the Mughal emperors of India. He was the son of Akbar Shah II from his Hindu wife Lalbai. He became the Mughal Emperor upon his father's death on September 28, 1838.

(Perhaps the only pic of a Mughal Emperor: Bahadur Shah Zafar in exile)

By that time, the Mughal Empire was reduced to a size that stretched barely beyond the modern city of Delhi.  The emperor was paid some respect and allowed a pension and authority to collect some taxes, and maintain a token force in Delhi by the British, but he posed no threat to any power in India. Bahadur Shah II himself did not excel in statecraft or possess any imperial ambitions.

As the Indian rebellion of 1857 spread, most rebelling Indian kings and the Indian regiments accepted Zafar as their Emperor of India, under whom the smaller Indian kingdoms would unite until the British were defeated. Zafar was the least threatening and least ambitious of monarchs, and the legacy of the Mughal Empire was more acceptable a uniting force than the domination of any other Indian kingdom.

When the rebellion was crushed, he fled to Humayun's Tomb and hid there. However, he was captured and his 2 sons and his grandson were executed in his presence by Major Hodson and, famously, their severed heads presented to him.

He was exiled to Rangoon, Burma in 1858 along with his wife, and the remaining members of the family. A formal end was declared to the Mughal Dynasty that began with Babar in 1526. The title of Emperor of India was eventually (in 1877) taken over by the British monarch, in the person of Queen Victoria, and held until August 15, 1947.

Bahadur Shah died in exile on November 7, 1862 and is buried near Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, and the place of his burial is currently known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah.