The Grand Old Begum of Meerut

Farzana – the daughter of a dancing girl, in Chawri Bazaar in Delhi,a girl of slight stature, fair skin, strong determination,exceptional leadership and great daring.  Flashback to the 1763 AD. A little girl is born to the concubine of Asad Khan in Kotana of Meerut District. Subjected to untold miseries in her early years, a young shining knight in armour, Asad Khan, a nobleman of Persian origin, rode into her life, whisked her away to the Doab region, and made her his second wife. The young wife, driven out of her house by her stepson, after the death of her husband,  lived for some time near Kashmiri Gate and later to the Jama Masjid area.

Here began the sometimes dazzling, sometimes adventurous, always determined – life of the famous ruler of Sardhana, a principality near Meerut. She was none other, than the courageous, politically and diplomatically astute young Begum of Meerut – Zebunissa, Farzana, Joanna, or more popularly- Begum Samroo.

Left alone and abandoned in her early-teens, Farzana met and married a mercenary soldier, Wazlter Reinhardt Sombre (alias Samroo) of Luxembourg, who was then operating in this part of India. It is said that the 45-year old officer of fortune, met her at the red light area, fell for her charms and intelligent mind, and whisked her away with him in his travels from Lucknow to Rohilkhand (near Bareilly), and then to Agra, Deeg and Bharatpur and back to the Doab. Farzana helped him build and lead his army of mercenaries in those times of intrigue and counter-intrigue very capably. Walter Samroo was Governor of Agra at one time too. He died in 1776 and his tomb is still in Agra.

Begum Samroo was courted by many of the European officers, famous among whom was a Frenchman called Le Vassoult and an Irishman named George Thomas. The Begum favoured the Frenchman, and sought to elope with him. The troops mutinied due to the rumour of their “marriage”. The Frenchman on horseback rode ahead of his Begum who was in a palanquin, and as the turbulence cascaded all around them, Farzana heard that her lover had been shot. She stabbed herself, but survived. Her lover, who had in true Romeo and Juliet style, shot himself in the head, did not.

The 4-and-a-half foot tall Begum went back to wearing a turban and leading her troops on horseback in assorted victorious battles, and became so invincible, that she earned the reputation of being a witch that could defeat and capture her enemies just by throwing her cloak on them. The Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam was very impressed with the Begum, and regarded her as his daughter. She had saved Delhi by her negotiation skills, from an invasion by a force of 30,000 Sikhs, under Baghel Singh, in 1783 at Tis Hazari (a name given to their encampment place in Delhi). The Sikhs accepted some monetary gifts and did not enter the city of Delhi, but returned to Punjab. Later, when a blind and feeble Shah Alam was in pursuit of Nafaj Quli Khan, and trying to quell the rebellion begun by him, he found that his own army was reluctant to attack the rebel leader. Seeing this, Begum Samroo attacked the Nafaj with her force of 100 men and some big guns and forced him to surrender. The emperor bestowed special honours upon her in the royal court, declared her his “most beloved daughter”, and confirmed her in her estate at Sardhana.

 During the reign of his son, Akbar Shah, the Begum was gifted the Khas Mahal, the Chudi-walli's haweli (so known because of her nautch girls roots) in Sardhana and the Bhagirath Palace in Chandni Chawk, Delhi, which was connected from Chandni Chowk to the area of the Delhi Railway Station by an avenue of cypress trees. It was here that Beresford, the manager of Delhi Bank,and his family, were killed in the mutiny of 1857. It now houses the State Bank of India. After the palace was completed, Gokul Chand, the Begum's chief munshi, wrote a panegryic after Emperor Akhbar's visit and description of the  mahal with “sweet flowers, whose spring was eternal.” The palace was sold in 1847 to Lala Chunna Mal by David Dyce Sombre.

The Sardhana estate was the subject of dispute with Louis Balthazar alias Nawab Zafasrtyab Khan, the son of her late husband, General Samroo, by his first wife, Badi Bibi. He died of cholera in 1803. His wife, Juliana left their only child, Julie Anna in the Begum's care. Julie Anna married George Alexander Dyce, an illegitimate half-caste son of a Major General. After her death in 1820, Begum Samroo looked after all the children, and adopted one of their sons, called David Ochterlony Dyce as her legal heir and successor. She transferred to him, all her wealthland and the administration of her principality in Sardhana, but all her attempts to have the British accept him as a ruler after her death were of no avail. She built an imposing church in Sardhana, called the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces and is still a place two annual pilgrimages,  in March and November, when thousands of devotees come and offer prayers to th Virgin Mary.

When Begum Samroo died at age 90, in 1836, the British took possession of Sardhana as well as all her other estates, arms and weapons and jewellery.

She was buried very befittingly,  in the premises of the church she built. Her son, David Dyce Sombre (Samroo), died in London in 1851, and his body was brought to Sardhana and buried beside the Begum.

The Begum's palace survives, but the beautiful gardens surrounding it have vanished. One of her palaces is now a college in Sardhana. She died immensely rich. Both in her inheritance (estimated at approximately 55.5 Million Gold Mark in 1923 and 18 Billion Deutsch Mark in 1953), as well as  in her  legacy of beauty, adventure, charm, astuteness and colour. The bloodline of the first Catholic woman ruler of India has perished. But like the description of her mahal in Chandni Chowk, by Emperor Akbar, the spring of her life and the memory of her freshness will live forever. Safely enshrined in the walls of the Basilica she built, and in our minds.

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[This article was published in the Meerut Plus edition of the Times of India.]