[nukkad] Poverty defeats Tipu's heirs

[zaverirm <>]

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This the story of royal descendants living a paltry existence in India
today. Their  fate is commensurate with their deeds. The article was posted
by someone on other list, which I am reproducing below.
-------------------------                       Shahzada Dilawar Shah's
riches to rags story is bound to have the Tiger of Mysore stirring in his
grave. The man, whose illustrious ancestor once rode elephants and commanded
armies, is today a nondescript auto-rickshawallah in Kolkata.
Shah, on a recent visit to Lucknow, found a sympathetic audience among
members of the Awadh Royal Association who also share his royal sorrows.
Shikoh Azad, president of the Association, in fact claims to have been moved
to tears by Shah's plight.
12th in the line of direct descendence from Tipu Sultan, Shah would have
been a strong contender for the throne of Mysore if there still had been a
throne left to contend for. Instead he has been forced to lead a rather
chequered life - first selling cinema tickets in the black and later as a
rickshaw-puller.
"We can only sympathise with him", says Azad. "Many of the descendents of
Lucknow's Nawabs too are living in abject poverty and are in petty trades or
services. In fact one of the great grandsons of Bahadur Shah Zafar was
living as a dhobi (washerman) in Delhi till recently. So there's nothing
much we can do for Shah except weep", laments Azad.
According to the Awadh Royal Association that keeps tabs upon living
descendents of the erstwhile ruling families of India, Shah's mother works
as a domestic help in Kolkata. The other son, Shahzada Sanwar Shah, is a
rickshaw-puller.
The fall in the family's fortunes began when after his defeat in 1799, the
British East India Company deported Tipu's sons Prince Fateh Hyder,
Moniruddin, Yaseen Sultan and Gholam Mohammad to Kolkata. They were later
released from captivity and left in peace to make their own way in life.
While the British did later award a full-fledged Nawabi along with vast
estates to Tipu's heirs and also established the Mysore Family Fateha Fund
in Kolkata, profligacy and a taste for the good life ensured that assets
worth almost Rs 20 crores were squandered away to nothing.
With no respite in sight, a painful legacy of royal blood is all that
remains to haunt Tipu's heirs in their penury.




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