Correct option is C
The correct answer is (C) Bahadur Shah II
Explanation:
• Bahadur Shah II, popularly remembered by his poetic pen name Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the twentieth and final Mughal Emperor to sit on the throne of India.
• He served as a nominal figurehead during the First War of Indian Independence in 1857, where diverse rebel sepoys and rulers proclaimed him the Emperor of Hindustan to symbolize unity against British rule.
• Following the brutal suppression of the 1857 uprising by the British East India Company forces, he was tried for treason, systematically dethroned, and legally exiled to Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar).
• His forced exile and subsequent death in Rangoon in 1862 marked the formal and absolute termination of the historic Mughal Dynasty that had ruled India since 1526.
• This historical sequence is extensively detailed in NCERT Class 8 and Class 12 History textbooks focusing on modern Indian history and the freedom struggle.
Information Booster:
• Bahadur Shah Zafar was an accomplished Urdu poet who wrote numerous ghazals, and his court in Delhi was home to legendary literary figures like Mirza Ghalib.
• The Government of India Act 1858 officially transferred the governance of India from the East India Company directly to the British Crown, dissolving the remnants of the Mughal administrative framework.
• His sons and grandson were shot dead by British officer William Hodson near Delhi Gate, ensuring that no direct royal successors could easily revive the imperial lineage.
Additional Knowledge:
• Alamgir II (Option A): He was a later Mughal emperor who ruled from 1754 to 1759, whose reign saw the pivotal Battle of Plassey take place.
• Ahmad Shah Bahadur (Option B): Son of Muhammad Shah 'Rangeela', he ruled from 1748 to 1754 during a period of severe internal decline and external invasions by Ahmad Shah Abdali.
• Aurangzeb (Option D): He was the last of the 'Great Mughals' who ruled from 1658 to 1707, under whom the empire reached its maximum territorial extent before beginning its long decline.
