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| Akbar II | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King of Delhi Badshah | |||||||||||||
 Portrait of Akbar Shah II,c. 1827 | |||||||||||||
| Mughal emperor | |||||||||||||
| Reign | 19 November 1806 – 28 September 1837 | ||||||||||||
| Coronation | 19 November 1806 | ||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Shah Alam II | ||||||||||||
| Successor | Bahadur Shah II | ||||||||||||
| Born | Mirza Akbar (1760-04-22)22 April 1760 Mukundpur,Rewa State,Maratha Confederacy | ||||||||||||
| Died | 28 September 1837(1837-09-28) (aged 77) Delhi,Subah of Delhi,Mughal Empire | ||||||||||||
| Burial | Moti Masjid, Delhi, India | ||||||||||||
| Spouse | Mumtaz Mahal[1] Anwar Mahal[2] Lal Bai[3] | ||||||||||||
| Issue | 14 sons, including:
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| House | House of Babur | ||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Timurid dynasty | ||||||||||||
| Father | Shah Alam II | ||||||||||||
| Mother | Qudsia Begum | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam(Hanafi) | ||||||||||||
| Seal |  | ||||||||||||
Akbar II (Persian:اکبر دوم,Persian pronunciation:[ak.baɾ]; 22 April 1760 – 28 September 1837), also known asAkbar Shah II (Persian:اکبر شاه دوم), was the nineteenthMughal emperor from 1806 to 1837. He was the second son ofShah Alam II and the father ofBahadur Shah II, who would eventually succeed him and become the last Mughal emperor.
Akbar had little de facto power due to the increasing British influence in India through theEast India Company. He sentRam Mohan Roy as an ambassador to Britain and gave him the title of Raja. During his regime, in 1835, the East India Company discontinued calling itself subject of the Mughal Emperor andissuing coins in his name. The Persian lines in the company's coins to this effect were deleted.
Akbar II was credited with starting theHindu–Muslim unity festivalPhool Walon Ki Sair.[5][6] His grave lies next to thedargah of 13th-century Sufi saintQutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki atMehrauli.
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Prince Mirza Akbar was born on 22 April 1760 to EmperorShah Alam II atMukundpur,Satna, while his father was in exile. On 2 May 1781, at theRed Fort, the prince was madeCrown prince with the title ofWali Ahd Bahadur, after the death of his elder brother. In 1782, he was appointed the viceroy of Delhi until 1799. When theRohilla leaderGhulam Qadir captured Delhi in 1788, the young Prince Mirza Akbar was forced tonautch dance along with other Mughal princes. He witnessed how the members of the imperial Mughal family were humiliated, as well as starved. WhenShah Jahan IV fled, Mirza Akbar was titular Emperor with the title ofAkbar Shah II, and was to remain acting emperor even after the reinstatement of his fatherShah Alam II, till January 1789.
Emperor Akbar II presided over an empire titularly large but in effect limited to theRed Fort in Delhi alone. The cultural life of Delhi as a whole flourished during his reign. However, his attitude towards East India Company officials, especiallyLord Hastings, to whom he refused to grant an audience on terms other than those of subject and sovereign, although honourable to him, increasingly frustrated the British, who regarded him as merely their pensioner. The British therefore reduced his titular authority to 'King of Delhi' in 1835 and the East India Company ceased to act as the mere lieutenants of the Mughal Empire as they did from 1803 to 1835. Simultaneously they replaced Persian text with English text on the company's coins, which no longer carried the emperor's name.
The British encouraged the Nawab ofOudh and theNizam of Hyderabad to take royal titles to further diminish the Emperor's status and influence. Out of deference, the Nizam did not, but theNawab of Awadh did so.
He is also known to have bestowed the titleNawab upon theNawab of Tonk andNawab of Jaora.
Akbar II appointed the Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy, to appeal against his treatment by the East India Company, conferring on him the title of Raja. Ram Mohan Roy then visited England, as the Mughal envoy to theCourt of St James’s. Ram Mohan Roy submitted a well-argued memorial on behalf of the Mughal ruler, but to no avail.
The grave of Akbar II lies within a marble enclosure adjoined to theMoti Masjid near thedargah of the 13th century Sufi saint,Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki atMehrauli, Delhi. The Mughal emperorsBahadur Shah I, (Shah Alam I) andShah Alam II are also buried here.[7]
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After the mutiny, cousins ofMirza Mughal, son ofBahadur Shah Zafar, son of Akbar II, escaped to neighbouring areas in fear of capture by the British. PrinceMirza Mughal, the heir apparent was himself captured and executed by the British nearDelhi gate. Many surviving princes settled in various provinces of India, but some settled inBurma,Bengal andDeccan since a large number of imperial family members, along with EmperorBahadur Shah II were exiled to Rangoon inBurma.
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