Exiles in Calcutta: The Descendants of Tipu Sultan

Author(s): BUNNY GUPTA and JAYA CHALIHA

Source: India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1 (SPRING 1991), pp. 181-188
Published by: India International Centre
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 BUNNYGUPTA AND JAYACHALIHA

Exiles in Calcutta: The Descendants of Tipu Sultan

shows Lord Cornwallis receiving two of Tipu Sultan's

minor sons as hostages in accordance with the terms

An oilwhite
painting
muslin gowns and in thewithVictoria
red turbans 'sprigs of Mem
of the treaty of 1792. The children are dressed in long

rich pearls', and several rows of large pearls round their little necks
from which ruby pendants surrounded by 'large brilliants' dangled.
Tipu's Memoirs chronicle that he 'shed not a tear' when Gullum Ali,
his vakeel took the two boys and presented them—"These children
were this morning the sons of my master, Tipu Sultan; their situation
is now changed and they must look to your leadership as their
father". They were returned to their family after two years. On their
father's death, General Harris sent these two boys to persuade their
brothers to surrender.

Soon after this, the imperial policy of divide and rule came into
operation. After the 'mutiny' in Fort Vellore in 1806 attributed to
Tipu's sons, the entire clan including the members of Karim Shah's
family, Tipu's only brother were exiled to the southern marshy,
malarial suburbs of Calcutta.

Life was made tolerable by soporific supports—stipends, wine

and women instead of horses and arms. These 'kindnesses' eventually
eroded the self-respect and ambition of successive generations of the
Tiger of Mysore. His entire family and their entourage of over 300
people and what they retained of their movable possessions were
loaded into 12 ships which set sail for Calcutta. The Sultanas,
concubines and khawasses (ladies-in-waiting) travelled overland.
The conquered and dispossessed families were settled in mud
huts in Russapugla, as the area around the Tolly gunge Club was
called. By 1880 this place became known as Barah Bagh, a Royal
Park, later a Burra Sahib's country club—the Tollygunge Club. The
first hole of its golf course still bears Tipu's name. Originally the

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182 / India International Centre Quarterly

estate of Richard Johnson, an indigo planter, the title deeds of the

premises were given to seven of the Princes by H. Stane, sub
treasurer through Lt. Col. T. Hawkins, superintendent of affairs of
the Mysore Princes and G.D. Guthrie in 1809. Today, their descendants
are penurious lessors and disputes abound. They were allowed to
build mansions and the cluster of houses, as Despran Sasmal Road
bends round the T oily gunge Tram Depot and becomes Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose Road, still stand as Aldeen, Oasis, Thana House,
China Koti and Chota Koti. South Lodge is, ironically, the residence
of the present British deputy high commissioner.
The Mysore family continues to be a living legend in a few of
the crumbling mansions, narrow lanes and slums of Tollygunge.
Descendants and claimants outnumber the ghosts in the Nautch Ghar
and other palatial edifices; one an office of the Calcutta Corporation,
another a college and a few residences of directors of mercantile
companies in the city. At a dinner party in Thana House in the 1960s,
a lady in the powder room fainted. She had seen not her own face but
that of a Muslim servant reflected in the mirror. Was it a faithful
retainer of the Mysore Princes? Many a bricked-up doorway is
pointed out as an entrance to the maze of underground passages
connecting the houses.
The lifestyle of the princely political pensioner prisoners was
one of enforced idleness, intermarriage and indefinite multiplication
which created a class of strangely privileged persons. Lord Minto's
Minutes (1807) laid down the "tender and liberal" commandments:
"They shall not quit their habitation in order to make visits without
permission. They shall not attend processions or public ceremonies
of religious festivals or domestic events." Security remained short of
imprisonment though the exiled Princes enjoyed free management
of their respective pensions which varied among the brothers and
regular accounts had to be kept under "general heads" and savings
invested in public securities.
In a short span of 30 years, eleven of the twelve sons succumbed
to the unhealthy climate and a surfeit of good living. Prince Fateh
Hyder, Tipu's eldest son and natural heir, was declared illegitimate
by the British captors and a special police force stationed at his
house. Prince Abdul Khalek, the appointed heir died conveniently
at Sandheads before reaching Calcutta. Prince Moizuddin was
imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the Vellore Mutiny and
his family deprived of financial support. William Hickey, the diarist

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 BUNNY GUPTA AND J AY A CHALIHA / 183

and superintendent of prisons in Calcutta records the "filthy"

condition of the sad and depressed Prince who died in prison in
1809. The family book of accounts however records his burial
expenses in 1818. Prince Mobiuddin, the third son committed suicide.

in an appendix to his autobiography, "There remains now but

Prince Gholam Mohamed K. C.S.I., Tipu's eleven
one surviving son of the late Tippoo Sultaun, His Highness
Prince Gholam Mohamed, who with his deceased brothers' sons, the
junior princes and daughters lives at Calcutta, submissively, quietly
and thankfully, under the protection of the British Government." He
was 11 years old when he came to Calcutta. In 1814 he was given
permission to marry his first cousin, the daughter of his uncle, Karim
Shah. He showed great foresight and social mindedness. With the
reduction in the amount of pension with each successive generation
he developed a despondent view of the future destinies of his
father's "unfortunate overgrown" families. Through savings and
judicious investments from his pension, he created a vast estate in
Calcutta. In 1872, he set up the second wealthiest Muslim Trust in
undivided Bengal as a symbol of his heritage and social work. The
long list of properties include the Tolly gunge Club, part of the
grounds of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, the land upon which Shaw
Wallace & Co. built their imposing office, Mysore House in Chetla
now in ruins, an Imambara and Shahi mosque in Tolly gunge and the
Tipu Sultan mosque beside the Statesman House on Dharamtala
Street on which the plaque reads: "This mosque was erected during
the Government of the Rt. Hon'ble G. Earl Auckland, Governor
General of Bengal by Prince Gholam Mahomed son of the late Tippo
Sultan, as a token of gratitude, for the appears of stipend received by
him from the Hon'ble the Court of Directors and in commemoration
of their laudable favour." He was asked to omit the epithet describing
the favour.

In 1990, Mohamed Mobiuddin, a lawyer and trustee who has

been associated with the Trust since 1969, says that the major portion
of the income pays the trustees' salaries and twenty-eight employees
work for the Trust including two Imams. A sum of Rs. 6,000 is given
annually for religious ceremonies at the two mosques and the
remainder distributed as charity among the members of the
community. As spokesman for the tribe, Gholam Mohamed went to

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184 / India International Centre Quarterly

London to see Queen Victoria in 1859 armed with petitions and

memorials for an increase in stipend and removal of social restrictions.
From the Oriental Hotel, Vere Street, he spoke for "a family living in
great privacy and comparative seclusion from the world and many
of the family being females". He asked for exemption from
'Chowkeedarie' tax. He justified his petition for "a decent
maintenance" due to the rise in the expense of living generally—
"Fowls, which form an important part of the consumption of
Masulman families, and were usually had for 6 to 8 for the rupee are
now a rupee a couple; and the inferior kinds of rice, which used to
be sold at a rupee a maund, cannot now be had under 3 rupees 8
annas for the same quantity."
The reception accorded was polite and sympathetic. His pension
was increased from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000 a month and an addendum

had a sting asking the family members "to qualify themselves for
employment in public services and other honourable occupations."
However, favours went thus far and no further. The bond that held
the exiled clan together snapped when he died in 1874. In compliance
with his wish, a hospital was built in an area of 1.5 hectares opposite
the Tollygunge Club and supported by the Trust. It was the only
medical centre in that area for a long time. The Mungeeram Bangur
Government Hospital now occupies the site and the munificence of
the pioneer spirit of the Prince has been obliterated.
Family quarrels and disputes increased. Finally in 1944, Justice
Tariq Amir Ali of the Calcutta High Court appointed a 5-man
committee headed by Mutwali, a qualified trustee who was also a
direct descendant, to administer the estates of His Highness the Late
Prince Gholam Mohamed Wakfnamah.

The first to hold office as Mutwali was Prince Hyder Ali, son of
Prince Gholam Mahamed and sixth in line of descent from Tipu
Sultan. With a monthly allowance of Rs. 1200 from the Trust, he lived
a carefree life. His son, Asif Ali remembers his kind and generous
nature and recalls his loyalty to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and his great
love of horses, a passion carried down the royal Mysore line. Hyder
Ali personally presented a gold trophy for the annual Tipu Sultan
Cup at the Bangalore Turf Club.
Today, Zabida Banoo and Hamida Banoo, who claim to be the
common law wives of Hyder Ali, and their children live at the
derelict Chetla residence which has not been repaired since the time
it was built but is still identified in the area as Naivab Sahib Ki Chhoti

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 BUNNY GUPTA AND JAY A CHALIHA / 185

Haveli. In this dilapidated building on an incongrous turquoise blue

wall hang two small black frames which hold yellowed newspaper
clippings of the obituaries of a grandson and great grandson of
Golam Mohamed—Gholam Mohamed and Golam Hossain Shah—
the only reminders of a family connection. Golam Hossain was
elected member of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1926. Both held
many official, religious and social positions. The two women lived
in poverty and deprivation until a few years ago when a High Court
ruling ordered the Trust to pay them a monthly ex gratia amount of
Rs. 600 each.

Political aspirations were prohibited. Tipu's descendants

enjoyed innocuous public positions such as sheriffs, municipal
councillors and justices of the peace. Most of them followed the
dictum:

Parogey likhogey hogey kharab

Khelogey kudogey banogey nawab,

and died and were buried in the 3.2 hectare Mysore family burial
ground at 51/1, Satish Mukherjee Road.
In this graveyard, the imposing Indo-Saracenic monuments
appear incongrous. On the left, a mosque flanked by dual minarets
is reminiscent of Mysorean Muslim architecture. Triple domes
crown the shacks and lines of washing and deserve to be restored. At
the far end, the domed mausoleum on an octagonal raised plinth, the
tomb of Nizamuddin, Tipu's son-in-law, shelters several squatter
families. This heritage of the city has been forgotten in the tercentenary
year of repair and restoration and will hopefully be remembered by
one of the many preservation bodies that have retrieved some of the
historic sites of Calcutta. When plastered and painted, these tombs
could well become a place of interest like the Qutb Shahi tombs near
the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.

InFateha
1857, the Government of India made an ab
1.5 hectares in the adjoining Kalighat area to the Mysore family
Fund and an allowance of Rs. 500 per month for a speci
fied period for burial expenses. Another 1.5 hectares were purchased
by the Fund. In 1938 the local Muslim population claimed burial
rights in the Mysore cemetery. The Commissioner of Wakf, Bengal,
stepped in and declared the property as a Wakf-al-Aulad or private

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186 / India International Centre Quarterly

Wakf.
Some of the monuments have been vandalised, some razed to
the ground and some land sold illegally. Squatters and cattle have
made it into a quagmire—illicit distilleries, a brisk turn-over of
rubber soles and "Allah knows what" says Hussain Shah, the great
grandson of Prince Anwar Shah and a member of the Fateha Fund.
The senior members of the Fund have now agreed to hand over
the tombs to a competent authority which will look after them for
posterity. The winds of change have uncovered several attitudes. A
few surviving descendants in 1990 feel that independent India owes
them support as Tipu's heirs. The Mutwali's mantle fell on the
young shoulders of Asif Ali who sometimes remembers he is a
Prince. The recognized direct descendant of Tipu's eleventh son,
Asif Ali is a graduate in psychology from Aligarh University. Prior
to his position as Mutwali, he worked as a medical representative.
Asif Ali, 33 years old, is married to Begum Shabeebera of the
Wajid Ali Shah family of Oudh and has two children. He lives in
Lucknow and visits Calcutta and his grandfather's mosques and
Imambara during important religious festivals, both Sunni and Shia.
Tipu's brother, Karim Shah was also sent into exile in Calcutta
and his sixth generation descendant, Sahebzada Maqbool Alam and
his family live on the first floor of a red brick colonial style mansion
on Prince Anwar Shah Road. The building is known as Nawab Koti
and not by its plot number. His father Shahebzada Mohamed Munir
Alam was popularly called 'Banduk' Shah and the tales about the
origin of the nickname are many and glorious whereas the true story
is an anti-climax. Munir Alam was one of twins—Banduk and Potka.
Potka, the girl died in childhood and Munir Shah married Zubeida
Sultan Begum from the Shah Alam II family of Delhi. Their son
Maqbool is also better known by his other name, Kochee.
Maqbool Alam's life reads like a page from a novel on decadent
aristocracy. A wooden stairway opens on to a large room used as a
living-cum-bedroom for the whole family. Rows of beds line the
windows on the east which overlook the Shahi mosque burial
ground where Tipu's two Sultanas, Prince Gholam Mohamed and
other members of the Mysore family are buried. The furniture is
utilitarian. The boat-shaped chandeliers and an antique 'What-Not'
are the only souvenirs of past splendour. Subeida Begum's one
hundred meat recipes live on in her daughter-in-law's kitchen for
she is also a great cook.

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 BUNNY GUPTA AND JAY A CHAUHA / 187

The direct lineage comes through Maqbool's grandmother,

Anjumanara Begum, the great grand daughter of Mohamed Subhan
Sultan, Tipu's sixth son. Older inhabitants of the neighbourhood
speak of the grand old lady who used to travel in a curtained
Chevrolet. Her outings were heralded and the road closed to menfolk.
Maqbool's daughter, Razia is a college student and spends
Saturday afternoons learning Arabic from a Moulvi who comes to
the house. Seema, her older sister has married into the Siddique
family of Darjeeling and her brother, Shahid Alam is married to a
lawyer wife related to the Siddiques. Maqbool Alam, a gentleman of
slight build is quiet, unassuming and approachable. He now realizes
the value of the illuminated Persian chronicles in his possession.
Karimuddin Khan is a descendant of Tipu's daughter, Omdah
Begum who married Prince Hyder Hossain. He works in the Shipping
Corporation of India and is secretary of the Fateha Fund.
Tipu and Tollygunge are still synonymous. His prolific progeny
are concentrated here but can also be traced to other parts of the city.
The older better known members have been honoured by the
Calcutta Corporation and roads and lanes named after them. A
landmark in Tollygunge is Ghari Ghar. Now only the archway built
by Tipu's grand nephew, Prince Rahimuddin remains.
Aktar Ali, 78-year-old direct descendant of the brave Fateh
Hyder lives in a hovel off Prince Anwar Shah Road. He has seen
better days as the production manager of a film studio in Tollywood,
the pseudonym for Tollygunge in the 1930s. One of his sons works
in a letter printing press near his home and the other three earn their
living as cycle rickshaw drivers.
The elusive Wazi Ahmed descended from Tipu's fifth son,
Prince Yaseen lives in Metiabruz on the other bank of the river

Hooghly and is said to be the black sheep of the family.

Among Tipu's sons who survived in exile, the progeny of
Prince Muniruddin and Prince Gholam Mohamed have, in
succeeding generations, contributed to the city's social life and civic
care. Prince Muniruddin's son, Prince Anwar Shah visited Mecca
and died of erysipalis at the age of 32 years. His widow Bashir
Begum with her son and daughter found herself relegated to the
servants' quarters of her palatial house—now the Jogesh Chandra
College on the broad road named after her husband. A woman of
determination and foresight she broke with the Tollygunge ties and
brought up her son Baktiyar Shah to stand on his own two princely

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188 / India International Centre Quarterly

feet. Often criticised for his pro-British leanings, he used to say that
it was prudent to hoist them with their own petard.
Prinee Baktiyar Shah C.I. E. was Sheriff of Calcutta and the first
chairman of the Tolly gunge Municipality. He accumulated vast
properties in the city and mining rights in Ghatsila, Bihar in 1902
which were placed under a Receiver in 1942 and nationalized in
1964. The family are fighting for adequate compensation.
In addition, he set a new tradition by sending his son, Mohamed
Kamgar Shah to St. Xavier's school. The Statesman, the leading
English Calcutta daily reported the marriage of his son on February
17,1939.
The dinner was 'Muslim style' and about 500 dishes were
served. He died in 1966 leaving his mother, widow, five sons and a
daughter. The entire responsibility of the large family and involved
estate fell on Hussein Shah, the eldest son. Like his father he is a keen
sportsman and shikari and broke many St. Xavier's school records.
His trophies share a cabinet with his father's rare volumes of Hume's
Game Birds of India, Burma and Ceylon at his Lower Circular Road
Bungalow. A gentleman to his finger tips, family history in Russain
Shah's hobby and he feels that a man is at a disadvantage if he is
ignorant of his past.
However, his interest in his ancestors is academic. He has no
pretensions and takes the connections with almost all the Nawab
families in India for granted. Quoting from Urdu history by Mahmud
Banglori and Kirmani's Hamlat Hyderi, he unfolds a 46-page
genealogical table on the marble topped table in his sitting room. His
relatives follow varied pursuits. His youngest brother Munavar has
an Indian Oil agency for kerosene and a repair shop for cars at his
residence. Fateh Ali Shah, the second brother is married to Reshma,
daughter of the accomplished poetess, Jahanara Begum. The third
brother is in Ghatsila. Their only sister, Dr. Aftab Sood is a
paediatrician at the Assembly of God Hospital. Her evening clinic
brings her home to Lower Circular Road.
Sabera Begum is indulged by her handsome brood of children
and grandchildren while she fries her special parathas or waddles
off to save the washing from Muneveer Ali's pet goats. Hussain
Shah's two young sons play cricket in the backyard. It may be
inferred from all this that the sparks from the flame of Tipu live on
in his descendants, albeit with a flickering light.

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