Saquib Salim

“Whereas to avoid disorder in the sections of administration of the military and civil departments it is absolutely necessary to form a constitution, and whereas to work out the constitution it is necessary first to appoint a Court”, this was said in a circular issued by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal King, in May 1857.

In May 1857, the sepoys of the English East India Company mutinied and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader. Moreover, independent rulers like Tantia Tope, Rani Lakshmibai, Begum Hazratmahal, Nawab of Jhajjar, and Sufis like Ahmadullah Shah elected Bahadur Shah Zafar as the king of Hindustan. It was historic. Babar established the Mughal empire with a sword and subsequent Mughals maintained it with the army's power. But, Bahadur Shah Zafar was the first Indian king who had been chosen by the people.

Zafar respected this mandate and did not want to rule with brute power. He asked a team of scholars led by Allama Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi (who happens to be great grandfather of lyricist Javed Akhtar) to draft a constitution so the country could be ruled, like England, as a democratic monarchy.

Prof. Jamal Malik of the University of Erfurt, Germany writes, “It is, however, astonishing to note that in both major narratives (nationalist & colonial) of the history of 1857, the life and works of Fazl-e Haq Khairabadi (1797 - 1861) gains no attention. He was one of the first political prisoners of colonial times, who not only resigned from the post of kutchery chief and is said to have issued a fatwa-e jihad against the British, but also drafted the first constitution of Independent India based on the principles of democracy.”

What was the constitution? Mahdi Husain in his book Bahadur Shah II and the War of 1857 in Dehli With its Unforgettable Scenes has recorded the English translation of the original Persian order by Zafar.

Key points of the order were:

(i) A court should be established and named Administration Court, which is a Court to administer military and civil affairs. 

(ii) This Court should consist of ten members 6 military and 4 civil. Of the military members two should be selected from the infantry platoons, two from the cavalry, and two from the artillery. 

(iii) Out of these ten men, one should be appointed President (Sadr-i falsa) and another Vice-President (Naib Sadr-i falsa by a unanimous majority of votes. In every department, there should be appointed secretaries according to need. The quorum for the Court meeting should be five whereby work should be done satisfactorily.

iv) At the time of the appointment of these ten men they should take an oath that they would do court work with honesty, sincerity, great industry, and with deep thought and care….

(v) Election of the Court members should be in this manner: by the majority of votes two men should be elected from the infantry platoon, two from the cavalry troops, and two from the artillery; such men must possess a long record of service and must be clever and well-versed, able and intelligent. …. And in the same way, will be appointed four civil members. 

(vi) After ten members have been appointed, if any member gave his vote before the full Court regarding any matter in such a manner as to be against honesty and sincerity or calculated as partial to anyone, then that member will be removed from the Court by the definite majority of votes; and another person will be elected in his place according to regulation five. 

vii) At any time according to the demand of the occasion right should be vested in the Court to make amendments by majority of votes in this constitution. 

An interesting element of this constitution was that it banned cow slaughter. While the other portions of the constitution could not be implemented as Delhi was recaptured by the English, cow slaughter was completely banned and declared a penal offense.

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The Indian revolutionaries led by Bahadur Shah Zafar laid down that the India of the future would not be a monarchy but a democracy. Allama Fazl-e-Haq with the help of other scholars drafted a constitution that was secular in spirit and laid down equality before the law and social justice as the governing principles.