Empowering Women Through History: The Begam's Bhopal

Figure 1: The project group at MSK’s workshed 

Lessons in basic sewing skills mean MSK’s women usually spend afternoons – after children are at school and housework is complete – at the organisation’s workshed preparing items for sale.  Recent commissions include shopping bags made from old banners for the municipal corporation and stylish gifts for a local eco-friendly wedding.  During our visit, plant pots made from cowdung (gobar gamlas) were also drying in the cool winter sun.  Work is sometimes halted for visitors – with recent talks on single-use plastics and basic nutrition.  In the last month, MSK has also opened a computer centre in response to a local needs survey undertaken by students from Columbia University. 60 girls and women will receive training in computers, English and ‘soft skills’ over a three-month period.

Our visit promised something a little different.  Over the course of a week, we undertook a series of historical activities and discussions with MSK’s women.  These activities included a tour of local historical sites associated with the ruling Begams led by local heritage enthusiast and inveterate storyteller, Sikander Malik.  Among the locations visited were several nineteenth century palaces and the city’s largest mosque, the Taj ul Masajid.  On another day, Lambert-Hurley gave a talk at the workshed, highlighting the Begams’ contributions to architecture, education, health and literary culture. As highlighted by Figure 2, simple text and historical images featured alongside contemporary photographs taken on the group’s own tour to link past and present.  Informal group conversations – recorded as audio for our academic research and as video for a forthcoming documentary – proved rich in historical reflection on contemporary women’s issues.

Figure 2: Presentation slide on Shah Jahan featuring a historical image of the ruler alongside a photograph from MSK’s own tour at the Taj ul-Masajid.  Image accessed through Wikipedia Commons 

Figure 4: The project group enjoying the view to Shah Jahan’s palace, the Taj Mahal – now in a state of advanced decay – from the Taj ul-Masajid 

When we first met MSK’s women, they admitted to knowing little or nothing of Bhopal’s dynasty of female rulers.  Why had no one taught them in school, they asked, that Bhopal had been ruled by women?  To learn this history changed their interaction with the city.  There was a pride in knowing that Sultania Hospital – in which many of them had given birth to their children or stayed for an operation – was named for a nawab begam who had put a qualified female doctor at the helm, introduced training for local midwives and furnished it with the most modern equipment. They were eager to visit more of the city’s historical sites, and expressed an ambition to share their newfound historical knowledge – especially precious because it had come to them before their husbands or relatives – with their own children. Give us simple books about our city’s begams, they instructed, and we will take them to our local schools to pass on this legacy.  Our new computer skills, they agreed, may be used to gather more knowledge and prepare this history for a website or app – to be used by locals and visitors alike. 

Figure 5: European visitors to the Lady Lansdowne Hospital (now the Sultania Zenana Hospital) during the reign of Sultan Jahan (second from left). Image accessed through Wikipedia Commons.