Begum of Bhopal, Sultan Jahan (1858 – 1930) led a reforming and progressive policy, developing education, promoting agriculture and improving public health.
Descendant of Begum
Sarkar Amman was born on July 9, 1858 in Bhopal, India, which since 1818 has become a princely state overlord of the British East India Company. Since 1819, Bhopal has been ruled by sovereigns, Begums:first Qudsia Begum, then her daughter Sikandar and her granddaughter Shah Jahân.
Sarkar Amman herself is the eldest and only surviving child of Shah Jahan and her husband Nasir ud-Daula; she is daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Begum. In 1868, his grandmother Sikandar died and his mother, a young widow since the death of her husband the previous year, acceded to the throne under the name of Sultan Shah Jahan Begum Sahiba; Ten-year-old Sarka Amman is then proclaimed heir to the throne.
A skilful and popular ruler, Shah Jahan reigned for thirty-three years during which she reformed the administration and the army, built dams and artificial lakes to fight against droughts and promote agriculture, modified the tax system, launches censuses to adapt its policy to the demography of the principality.
In February 1874, when she was not yet sixteen, Sarkar Amman married Ali Jah, Ihtisham ul-Mulk, Nasir ud-Daula, Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan Bahadur. The couple had their first child the following year; they will have three sons and two daughters, three of whom will reach adulthood.
A reforming queen
Shah Jahan Begum died of cancer in 1901. Aged 43, his daughter succeeded him under the name of Sultan Jahan Begum. Very quickly, Sultan Jahan followed in his mother's footsteps by leading a reforming and progressive policy. Attaching great importance to education, especially that of girls, she created several educational institutions, schools, technical institutes, and established free and compulsory primary education in 1918. To support these creations, she developed the number of qualified teachers. .
Beyond the field of education, Sultan Jahan Begum democratized state institutions and reformed the tax system, the army and the judicial institutions. She continued her mother's work by developing vast irrigation systems to support agriculture and had public works carried out. It also plays a crucial role in public health, launching large vaccination campaigns for the first time and improving hygiene standards. Like her mother before her, Sultan Jahan, a cultured intellectual, wrote several books on her favorite subjects, including education and health.
In 1926, aged 68 and after twenty-five years of reign, Sultan Jahan abdicated in favor of her youngest son, the only survivor of her five children, Hamidullah Khan. He will be the last ruler of Bhopal. Sultan Jahan died four years later.