Ghous Mohammad Khan, Fifth Nawab, 1807-27

Between 1801 and 1807, Wazir engaged in a vigorous campaign to recover the territories and forts that the weak rulers of Bhopal had ceded to its neighbors. Meanwhile Ghous Mohammad Khan the heir apparent, engaged in treacherous deals with Marhattas of Gwalior and Nagpur. This left the British unsure of Bhopal’s commitment to resisting Marhatta power, while Wazir was negotiating with the Britishers for a treaty that would give Bhopal protection against its neighbors. Ghous’s actions is described by Major William Hough in “A Brief History Of The Bhopal Principality Of Central India” as follows:

So eager was this prince to ruin Vizier Mahomed, that he engaged to surrender
the fort of Islamnuguur, pay four lakhs of rupees in cash, and present an annual
tribute of 50,000 to Sindiah, with 11,000 rupees to his public officers.
Having consented to these terms, he proceeded to Bhopal, after being invested
with an honorary dress by Dowlut Rao Sindiah, whose ostensible support he seems
to have thought sufficient to maintain him in power; nor does he appear to have
met with any opposition on the part of Vizier Mahomed. But what could Vizier
Mahomed do while the Nawab was alive, and the son was permitted to exercise the
powers of Nawab; and the minister had not always possessed the full executive
authority.

However, Hayat died on 17 November 1807, aged 73, after a fairly inglorious reign of 29 years. Ghous Mohammad Khan succeeded him 18 days later. Soon Raghuji Bhonsle sent a force of 40,000 under his able general, Sadiq Ali. Sadiq Ali took over Bhopal and demanded that Ghous hand over Wazir and his wife as hostage. Sadiq later decided to take Ghous’s son Moiz as hostage. No sooner had Sadiq Ali left Bhopal than Wazir swooped down from Ginnor and, in a lightning assault, routed the Nagpur forces and resumed governance of Bhopal. Ghous was accused of supreme treachery, his advisers Munshi Suraj Mal, Bani Lal, Lalji Mustafa and Lala Roop Chand were executed in full public view. Ghous was banished to Raisen, never to exercise executive authority again, but still remaining Nawab Of Bhopal.

Hayat Mohammad Khan

Immediately after Manji Mamola Bai’s death, a vacuum developed because Hayat was weak, reclusive, decadent and a known failure. The real contenders of power, his cousins, had either been killed or banished into exile. On Chottey Khan’s death, his son Amir was appointed Dewan. He and his brothers conspired with the Scindia Marhattas, raided the treasury, made off with 1½ lakh cash and took refuge with Daulat Rao Scindia. Amir eventually persuaded Daulat Rao Scindia to invade Bhopal with force of 49000. Hayat was in no position to oppose and conceded the forts of Hoshangabad and Raisen. The Marhattas appointed Himmat Rai as Dewan who became the effective administrator of the state. Hayat Mohammad Khan’s eldest son, Ghous Mohammad Khan, was the heir apparent. In 1794, Ghous was married off to Zeenat Begum, who had been brought up by Hayat and his favorite wife Asmat, in the palace. Zeenat’s mother had died soon after childbirth and father, a Barru-kat pathan, died soon afterward while leading a Bhopal force against a Marhatta invasion in Sehore. Zeenat had three children from Ghous – Moiz, Gohar Ara (later known as Qudsia Begum) and Faujdar. Ghous is believed to have fathered 16 legitimate children and about 40 outside wedlock.

During this period, Wazir Mohammad Khan (check out battle of Phanda) came back from Hyderabad. He was banished from Bhopal by Chotte Khan and served under Rajput chieftain, Hati Singh. Later he served the Nizam of Hyderabad and was recognized as a leader and military tactician. Hayat sent for Murid Mohammad Khan, son of Sultan Mohammad Khan as a replacement of Himmat Rai. Murid arrived accompanied with 1000 followers and was sworn in as Chief minister on 20th May 1796. He raised the pay of armed forces and promised to do the same for civil servant and also a program of public works was implemented. He began to put pressure on jagirdars to contribute to state finances. Murid secretly made a deal with Pindaras and gave away large tracts of Bhopal territory. Meanwhile, the army, not having been paid, mutinied. On the other hand, the Marhatta threat started looming even larger.

Murid sought a private meeting with Asmat in order to raise finances to defend Bhopal. Asmat was the daughter of a musician and soon after Mamola Bai’s death had become the effective ruler of Bhopal. She took all decisions in the name of her husband with the advice of her favorite eunuch and constant companion, Gulab Khwajah. On 30 December 1797, Asmat sat behind a curtain in the private quarters of her palace, while Murid pleaded with her to provide jewellery and cash so that the Marhattas could be opposed. Asmat declined and asked Murid to raise funds through taxes. Murid pulled out his dagger, tore down the curtain and attacked the defenseless Asmat. She ran upstairs screaming for help, but Murid grabbed her and killed her with vicious dagger thrusts while his accomplishes murdered her protecting eunuch, Gulab Khwajah. Murid then plundered the cash and jewels from Asmat’s house. Zeenat raised the alarm calling the guards. Murid declared open rebellion and took over the Fatehgarh fort. From there, Murid sent message to Marhatta leaders, offering his support to them and inviting them to take over Bhopal. Meanwhile, Hayat summoned Wazir Mohammad Khan. Wazir responded by gathering a force of about 1000 tribesmen, and entered Bhopal by the bridge Chotey Khan had built. He took effective control of the state, and set off to recover Hoshangabad Fort occupied by Marhattas. After a fierce battle, he led his forces to victory.

Meanwhile Bala Rao Anglia of Gwalior, governor of Sironj, sent a force to Murid with a condition that one of the two major forts is handed over to him. Murid agreed to hand-over Islamnagar to Bala Rao, and set out for Islamnagar to hand over the fort personally to Bala Rao. On reaching Islamnagar, Murid was refused entry into the fort by Moti Bgum, Hayat’s sister. Murid returned to Raisen, and handed it over to Balaji Rao to make good his promise. With the help of Marhattas he raised a force of 40000 and set out to besiege Fatehgarh fort. Wazir bravely resisted the siege and Bala Rao withdrew. Soon Balaji Rao discovered that Murid had lied and cheated on him also Bala Rao imprisoned Murid in Sironj, where Murid committed suicide. So deep was Bala Rao’s suspicion of Murid’s capacity for treachery that, fearing Murid was faking death, he did not allow his corpse to be buried until it actually began to decompose. Murid is buried in Sironj and detested is his memory by Bhopalis that legend makes it incumbent on a Bhopali to strike his grave with a shoe five times

Violence and Valentine

Finally it has happened at Bhopal. The ultimate dream of the secular Indian, the Muslim groups and the Hindu groups are together to protest against the “foreign culture” of Valentine’s Day. The main protesting party is the Hindu religious organization Bajrang Dal, being supported in certain areas of Bhopal by the Shiv Sena. A voluntary group of Muslims headed by Maulana Anis S Ahmad has also appealed to people not to celebrate western festivals, but to follow Indian culture. In the previous years also, there has been similar incidents involving young pairs and the Bajrang Dal activists. The punishment being meted out to the youngsters were blackening of their faces. However, this time the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) spokesman Ram Madhav announced yesterday at Bhopal that the activists would get the boys and girls married! Going a step further Bajrang Dal leader Rajendra Gupta added, "We will catch hold of couples meeting in public places, parks and restaurants and get them married. If they will not marry, the girl will have to tie a rakhi (a thread on the wrist establishing brother-sister relation). The couples will be more afraid of marriage than a scolding, beating or blackened faces," he said, adding that after the marriage the boys and girls would be handed over to their family members. Hopefully this is not a strategic move. At the street however, it can be heard that these activists are those who could not have any “setting” (Bhopali speak for a suitable female partner), and can be often seen loitering around the city famous girl’s college named Nutan College.

The opposition party of the state Congress' student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has decided to oppose "any act of the Bajrangis". They have resorted to gandhigiri offering roses to Bajrang Dal activities to start with. However the next step is deputing girls trained in Judo and Karate at the parks and other lonely areas of the city, so that they can come to the rescue of any lover couples being harassed by the Bajrang Dal. Two women's groups, belonging to the Sawarna

Samaaj Party (SSP) and the Rashtriya Secular Manch (RSM), have decided to take on those threatening to oppose Valentine's Day celebrations in the state, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The SSP is threatening Bajrang Dal members with a mace (lord Hanuman's weapon), the RSM has decided to form baton-wielding groups of women to dissuade Bajrang Dal activists from disrupting lovers on Wednesday. The RSM ladies wing even performed ceremonious worship of batons.

Notwithstanding all this confusion, youngsters are thronging gift stores for cards and other gifts for their valentine. Most of them have decided on their strategy for the day too. Many have decided to go to movie, out of reach for both the stick and the mace, while some have decided to go out of Bhopal, to adjoining picnic spots. Some have even proponed and postponed the celebrations by a day. On these occasions the hijab of Bhopali girls do come very handy

The Battle Of Phanda, 1787

Continuing with history of Bhopal, on 24 February 1787, both sides squared up for battle at a village called Phanda, eight miles west of Bhopal. Shareef led his army with his seven brothers, while his son Wazir was given responsibility of protecting the women and children of the family at nearby village of Ashta. While the two armies prepared for battle at Phanda, Nawab Hayat remained ensconced in his palace in Bhopal, comforted by his regular attendants of mullahs, soothsayers, eunuchs and courtesans. At Phanda, Shareef’s rebel forces were defeated. Brave and courageous to the last, Shareef and his brothers stood their ground and all except one, Kamil, were slaughtered. Chottey Khan’s victorious army severed the heads of the six brothers and carried them home on swords to Hayat’s palace.


For the next seven years after the Battle of Phanda, Chottey Khan assumed increasing power. Hayat and his mother, now into her 70s, recognized, as so often in history, that their humble, unctuous, adopted ‘slave’ had assumed the role of a Frankenstein who paid scant respect to the wishes of the Nawab or his mother. An assumption of complete control over the state, especially as Mamola Bai was now ageing and losing her grip on power, was also a source of alarm for Hayat and the loyalists who had supported Chottey Khan against Shareef. Chottey Khan had taken wrath of all Barru-kat Pathans that of all of Dost’s family.


Then suddenly in 1794 Chottey Khan died. Soon afterwards, in 1795, the 80-year-old Manji Mamola Bai also died so that within the space of two years, the rule of the two Hindu converts to Islam who had effectively governed the state in the name of reclusive, titular nawabs was at an end. The steadying influence of Mamola Bai that had preserved Bhopal’s sovereignty and independence was gone, so was the firm grip on the administration by Chottey Khan.

Chottey Khan Of Bhopal

Mamola Bai adopted, converted and groomed four Hindu boys shortly after she became consort of Yar Mohammad Khan. The first was a Gond and the other two were Aheers. The fourth, a Brahmin, was given the name of Chottey Khan. By 1780, he was an adult and beholden to Manji Sahiba, as Mamola Bai was also known in Bhopal. After the violent deaths of three ministers in quick succession, Manji Sahiba appointed Chottey Khan as her Chief Minister on 17 November 1780. Chottey Khan proved to be an able administrator, an astute, crafty and unscrupulous political tactician. He reorganized the army and recruited an effective police force, which included an intelligence department that kept the Chief Minister fully informed of threats and intrigues. He built roads, extended Bhopal’s suburbs and built a dam on Banganga River, which resulted in what is today known as the Chota Talab, the smaller lake. The lower lake is also known as 'Chhota Talaab'. Chhota in Hindi means Small. Many people confuse that the name Chhota Talaab is because the lake smaller in comparison to the upper lake. But it is not so. The name 'Chhota' in actuality is the name of Chhote Khan, who built this lake in late 16th century.

Chotey Khan’s ruthless but effective administration was seen as a major challenge by Bahu Begum who taunted Shareef Mohammad Khan, grandson by stating “If I was a man, I would never allow this Brahmin slave to rule over the family of Dost Mohammad Khan.” She then promised him funds to raise an army against the Mamola-Hayat-Chottey axis. Sharif set to work in earnest, galvanizing his cousins and urging the Barru-Kat pathans to demonstrate their loyalty to Dost and rallying Pathan recalcitrant to overthrow the Hindu Raj being supported by Mamola Bai and her protégé, Chottey. Having raised an army of 5000, Shareef asked Bahu Begum for the promised financing. She failed to deliver. Shareef withdrew in disgust and with this non-event; Bahu Begum’s alternative government began to falter until it no longer posed a threat to Hayat.

Shareef had seven brothers and a brave, handsome adolescent son, Wazir Mohammad Khan. Shareef was duly banished from Bhopal. He withdrew to adjacent Rajput territory where he was welcomed and given supported. Shareef came back after raising an army and captured the Ginnor fort. The showdown was eminent in 1787.

Bahu Begum Of Bhopal

At the age of 46, the revered, saintly Faiz Mohammad Khan, developed the illness of dropsy. He died on 12 December 1777. His reign had lasted 35 years during which he took scant interest in the affairs of state, leaving Mamola Bai in charge of navigating the ship of state through turbulent waters. The capital had been moved from Islamnagar to Bhopal and Faiz is recorded as having stepped out of his palace only once during his entire reign of 35 years. He was buried near Kamlapati’s palace beside his real mother. Faiz died childless, leaving behind widow, Saleha Begum, better name as Bahu Begum, a spirited, defiant, outgoing woman who was not prepared to play second fiddle after her husband’s death.

Sensing another crisis of succession, the 62-year old Mamola Bai moved quickly. Even before the traditional 40-day mourning (chehlum) was completed, she declared her second stepson, Faiz’s younger brother, Hayat Mohammad Khan, as the fourth Nawab of Bhopal on 3 January 1778. Hayat was 43 years old when he ascended the throne, a weak, indolent, corpulent, pleasure-loving character who could not aspire to the reverence in which his brother had been held.

Hayat’s accession to the gaddi sparked another crisis for Mamola Bai. Faiz’s widow, Bahu Begum, refused to accept Hayat’s accession and began a revolt in which members of Dost Mohammad Khan’s descendants supported her. Bahu Begum, who detested Mamola Bai, perceived that by placing her weak, indolent son on the gaddi, Mamola Bai was seeking to perpetuate her Hindu-oriented reign in Bhopal. Bahu Begum began holding court at her husband’s mazar (tomb) and set up a parallel government in Islamnagar. For three years, she regularly held durbars (royal courts) as an act of defiance against the rule of Mamola Bai. Typically of Bhopal’s history, two women headed rival cabals vying for power in the state. Mamola Bai temporized and requested Bahu Begum, as a compromise, to nominate any of Yar’s brothers as the Nawab while Bahu Begum acted as regent. In fact, Hayat Mohammad Khan offered to step down to pacify the Bahu Begum

Shan-E-Bhopal - The Bhopal Express

The Bhopal Express is a train plying between New Delhi and Bhopal. This train – also known as Shan-E-Bhopal, is the first ISO 9001 certified train of India. It has a Pizza Hut outlet in one of the bogies. The coupes are usually spic and span. The higher class compartments have indicating light to display the status of toilet - whether occupied or not, like in all aircraft. There are sockets for cell-phone charging. Drinking water vending machines, charging Rs. 1/- litre, has also been installed. All these facilities are provided and withdrawn from time to time, may be the train is being used by “powers that be” as test case. The berth numbers on the train are in Braille and the toilets have been designed to suit the physically challenged. Sometime back, there was news that the train would provide WiFi connectivity!

The starting station of this train, Habibganj, is also ISO 9000 certified. Habibganj, serves as the railway station for new Bhopal. The forms of city gates inspire this long, narrow, three-storey building. Designed by Uttam C. Jain, the station is a series of open vaulted concrete structures built at each of the three levels through which platforms and ramps pass. The building contains ticket offices, a waiting hall, a restaurant, and arrival and departure platforms.

Another feature of this station are the ramps that connect the platforms with the overbridge and there is special parking for the physically challenged. In fact, the station does not have a single staircase. Even the water taps have been redesigned to suit the differently enabled people. There is a railway timetable at main entrance in Braille.

The train Bhopal Express has been so popular that even the State tourism corporation wants a share in it's fame. In a bid to pro

mote tourism in the State, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC) is constructing a unique restaurant. They have acquired an unused rake of a railway train into a special food joint. To be located at Hotel Ashoka Lakeview in the state capital Bhopal, the officials claim, “a complete atmosphere of a railway compartment as well as railway platform will be created to woo the food lovers.” The authorities claim that it will be the world's first-ever stationary restaurant of a broad gauge rake, and is being named, what else – Bhopal Express.

The timings of this train is such that a person can work the entire day at Bhopal and then leave for Delhi at night and vice-versa. Timings also have a share in making Bhopal Express such a huge success, which are as follows:

From Habibganj (Bhopal) to Delhi (Nizamuddin)

SNo Stn Name Arrival Time Dep. Time Distance

1 HABIBGANJ Source 21:05 0

2 BHOPAL JN 21:17 21:22 7

3 VIDISHA 22:03 22:05 60

4 GANJ BASODA 22:33 22:35 99

5 BINA JN 23:30 23:35 145

6 JHANSI JN 01:35 01:45 297

7 GWALIOR 03:03 03:05 395

8 MORENA 03:32 03:34 433

9 AGRA CANTT 04:38 04:40 513

10 H NIZAMUDDIN 08:05 00:00 700

From Nizamuddin (Delhi) to Habibganj (Bhopal)

SNo Stn Name Arrival Time Dep. Time Distance

1 H NIZAMUDDIN Source 21:00 0

2 AGRA CANTT 23:37 23:40 188

3 MORENA 00:35 00:37 266

4 GWALIOR 01:06 01:11 306

5 JHANSI JN 02:30 02:40 403

6 BINA JN 04:35 04:37 556

7 GANJ BASODA 05:08 05:10 601

8 VIDISHA 05:38 05:40 641

9 BHOPAL JN 06:42 06:45 694

10 HABIBGANJ 07:05 00:00 700