The Last of the Bengal Princes: The Autobiography of Humayun Mirza

By Humayun Mirza

Sahibzada Syed Humayun Ali Mirza, last remaining direct heir to the Mughal throne of East India and a hereditary prince, is the son of Iskander Mirza, first president of Pakistan. In his remarkable life, he has met or been involved with world figures ranging from Gandhi to Vivien Leigh and from Winston Churchill to Thomas E. Dewey. He knew and worked with (and sometimes against) Pakistani's leaders from the very beginning to the death of General Zia — each Pakistani leader's life and career covered in detail only an insider could provide. A career executive with the World Bank, Humayun Mirza was involved in major economic development initiatives throughout Central and South America and Nigeria. From pleading for the life of a close friend to recovering a kidnapped daughter, his remarkable life and adventures make for gripping reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Humayun Mirza
• Release date: Oct 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005866020

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The Last of the Bengal Princes

by Humayun Mirza

Copyright © 2020 Humayun Mirza. All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, including illustrations and photographs, except as permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the US Copyright Law and except for reviewers for the public press, without written permission from the publisher or author. Published at Smashwords by Timespinner Press, Bethesda, Maryland (www.timespinnerpress.com).

Smashwords Edition License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Also by Humayun Mirza: From Plassey to Pakistan: The Family History of Iskander Mirza, First President of Pakistan (Third Edition), Timespinner Press, 2013

Table of Contents

Foreword — His Excellency Ardeshir Zahedi

Introduction — Humayun Mirza

SECTION 1 — MY FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

I — My Ancestors Come to India

II — My Family

III — The Doon School

IV — Citizen?

SECTION 2 — ENGLAND, PAKISTAN, AND AMERICA

V — England

VI — Returning Home

VII — Harvard Business School

VIII — The Coup d’Etat and Aftermath

SECTION 3 — THE WORLD BANK YEARS

IX — The World Bank

X — Joining the World Bank

XI — Nigeria

XII — Brazil and Retirement

SECTION 4 — PAKISTAN, MY POOR COUNTRY

XIII — What Happened to Pakistan?

XIV — Pakistan’s Presidents

SECTION 5 — MY LATER YEARS

XV — Work and Family

XVI — Health

XVII — Citizen!

Dedication

A man’s greatest treasure is his family. I dedicate this book to all those members of my family who have given me a purpose in life.

Foreword — His Excellency Ardeshir Zahedi

His Excellency Ardeshir Zahedi, son of former Iranian prime minister General Fazlollah Zahedi, served as Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1966 to 1971, and subsequently as Iranian Ambassador to the United States from 1973 to 1979. While serving in the latter role, he was integral in resolving the 1977 Hanafi Siege of a Washington government building and freeing 149 hostages. Following the overthrow of the Shah, he resigned as ambassador and currently lives in Switzerland. Ardeshir uses the Iranian spelling of the author’s name.

I have known Homayun ever since I met him in London in the early nineteen sixties when I was Iran’s ambassador to the Court of St. James. I had the pleasure of organizing his marriage to Marilia at my home in Washington in 1977 when I was Iran’s ambassador to the United States.

I have spent many enjoyable moments with Homayun, having invited him to the parties I gave at the Iranian Embassy in Washington. We have had a very close relationship and I am indeed delighted to write this foreword for his autobiography.

I have known Homayun’s father President Iskander Mirza and Begum Nahid Iskander Mirza ever since I met them in Karachi when he became President of Pakistan. As Chamberlain to His Imperial Majesty the Shah of Iran, I had accompanied His Majesty to Karachi to meet the new president.

Later when ex-President Iskander Mirza was in exile in London I had the pleasure of entertaining him frequently at the Iranian Embassy. I have the highest respect for him as a great, noble and respected gentleman.

When he passed away in November 1969 and I was Iran’s Foreign Minister. His Imperial Majesty the Shah entrusted me to organize a State Funeral for the former president.

I asked our ambassador in Washington to break the news of his father’s passing to Homayun and arranged for him to go to London to accompany his father’s body on a plane that I sent to London.

I met Homayun and his father’s body at Meherabad Airport in Teheran as head of a delegation comprising of Iran’s Cabinet, Court Ministers and the diplomatic core. I followed the body in my car along with Homayun to the Sepah-Selar Mosque where he lay in state before leading a funeral procession to its final resting place. I buried President Iskander Mirza next to my father General Fazlollah Zahedi, at a mausoleum I constructed at Sahar e Rey.

H.E. Ardeshir Zahedi

Foreign Minister of Iran

Ambassador to the Court of St. James

Ambassador to the United States of America

Introduction — Humayun Mirza

My name is Humayun Mirza. I grew up in British Colonial India and lived in England and Pakistan before coming to the United States in 1956. I graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1958 and spent my professional life with the World Bank primarily in Central and South America. Today, I am a retired suburbanite living quietly just outside Washington, DC. But there’s a bit more to my story.

My father Iskander Mirza was the first president of Pakistan. He was deposed in a coup in 1958 and died in exile in London. My great-great grandfather, Mansur Ali Khan, was the last Mughal ruler (nawab nazim) of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, a realm as large as the states of California and Florida combined. In 1880 he was forced to abdicate by the British, who changed the rank of his legitimate heirs from khan to mirza, a Persian title given to royal princes. And I, as the sole remaining male of his direct line, am the last of the Bengal princes.

My full name, including titles, is rather a mouthful: Sahibzada Syed Humayun Ali Mirza. Sahibzada (young prince) is a form of address, the rough equivalent of your highness. Syed is a religious title; in Shi’a Islam it refers to someone who is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Humayun and Ali are just names. A mirza, as noted, is the Persian word for prince. (In Persian, as in French or Greek, the title goes at the end of the name rather than in front.)

Long and impressive names and titles are customary in Europe and in the East, but I prefer to be called simply Humayun Mirza.

The story of my ancestors is long and convoluted. I devoted many years to researching my family and in 1999 published my first book, From Plassey to Pakistan (referred to in text as Plassey). The first half of the book covered the reigns of the nawab nazims from Aliverdi Khan through Mansur Ali Khan, and the second half was largely devoted to my father, from his days as the first Indian to graduate from Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy to his final years in exile in London. In brief, it’s the story of the British Raj in India from the perspective of a single family. In Plassey I told pieces of my own story, but as I was neither a president nor a king, I focused my attention on others.

While my own story may not be as dramatic as some of my ancestors, it has had its moments. I unsuccessfully pleaded with a dictator to spare the life of a good friend. I was smuggled out of Calcutta in a cargo plane. I was thrown out of Peru. I have been a big game hunter and a stunt pilot. I danced with Vivian Leigh and had lunch with Aly Khan. I met Gandhi, Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, and many other historic figures. I buried my mother in Karachi and buried my son next to my brother’s grave in the Air Force cemetery in Peshawar. I attended my father’s state funeral in Iran organized by my dear friend Ardeshir Zahedi, son-in-law of the Shah of Iran and foreign minister of that country. I have been fortunate to have many friends. Some have been presidents, some owned service stations, but all have enriched me.

My life has been full. I have a loving wife Marilia, who takes good care of me and two wonderful daughters, Zareen and Samia. I have three brilliant grandchildren: Chase, a member of the Screen Actors Guild; Morgan, a midshipman at the US Naval Academy; and Hunter, still in high school at the time of writing but already a championship football player.

For several years my doctors have been telling me that I only had a few months left to live. So far, they have been wrong. It’s partly their own fault because their medical care has been so good. I have in fact lived longer than any male in my direct line which stretches back to the year 632, so I feel to some extent as if I’ve been living on borrowed time.

I am the last of the Bengal Princes, and this is my story.

***

Every book is a product of more hands than just the author. In particular, I would like to thank my editor and publisher, Michael Dobson. Ever since he published the third edition of From Plassey to Pakistan, Michael has been urging me to write a book about my life.

The encouragement of my former wife Dodie also played a great part in the writing of this book. In spite of my attempts to procrastinate, she continued to urge me to write it each time I visited my daughter and her in Maine.

In writing the book, I focused more on topics ? my family, my career, and my country ? rather than chronology, with the result that there were inevitable repetitions as the same story would crop up in more than one context. My wife Marilia did yeoman’s work in identifying the repetitions and smoothing them out.

My sincere thanks to all.

Humayun Mirza

SECTION 1 — MY FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

I — My Ancestors Come to India

Syed Husayn Najaf, Governor of Najaf, then in Turkish Araba and now part of Iraq, came to India in the 1700s to become Lord High Chamberlain at the Imperial Court of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. His grandson Syed Mohammed Mir Jafar Ali Khan (Mir Jafar), a trained soldier, followed him and went east to Bengal to become commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nawab Nazim Aliverdi Khan, the ruler of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

The provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa lie along the lower reaches of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. With an area of about 217,000 square miles, they are about the size of present-day California and Florida combined, and about two and a half times larger than Britain. The flood plain and its higher reaches lie along the Burmese border and are hemmed in by the Himalayan foothills in the North and hilly tracts in the East. The Bay of Bengal marks its southern boundary and provides access to the Indian Ocean. The provinces are well watered by constant rainfall and rivers that deposit rich mud silt, making the area extremely fertile.

Mir Jafar and the Battle of Plassey

Mir Jafar distinguished himself as a successful general and was especially popular with his troops. Trusting his loyalty and fearing the inevitable struggle from various claimants for succession after his death, Aliverdi Khan asked Mir Jafar to ensure that his grandson Siraj-ud-doula succeeded him.

After Aliverdi Khan died, Mir Jafar helped Siraj-ud-doula, who was then barely out of his teens, take the throne. Once his accession was secured, Siraj-ud-doula turned on Mir Jafar, as well as his other benefactors, and publicly humiliated the proud man, dismissing him from his post. Disgraced, Mir Jafar retired to his home in Murshidabad. He remained in constant fear of his life from the new nawab nazim’s repeated, albeit unsuccessful, onslaughts. Siraj-ud-doula even sent a force to arrest Mir Jafar, but it was beaten back by the latter’s retainers.

A struggle for dominance in India had ensued between the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese, partly through proxy with Indian rulers and partly through direct military intervention. The Dutch and Portuguese faded early, leaving the British and French to battle it out in Bengal.

The fate of the French in Bengal was sealed when their fort at Chandernagore fell to the British. But French intervention was by no means over, as they were to prove in the forthcoming battle to be fought near the village of Plassey on 23 June 1757.

Aware of the popular discontent against the nawab nazim in his own court, Robert Clive, commander of the East India Company’s army, reached an agreement with the embattled though still powerful Mir Jafar to join him in the forthcoming confrontation.

On his part, Siraj-ud-doula had difficulty assembling an army to confront the British and was compelled to bribe his soldiers to move to the field of battle. Abandoned by his military commanders and facing massive desertions, Siraj-ud-doula secured the help of 40 to 50 French artillerymen under the command of M. St. Frais. He then turned for help to the most powerful of his commanders Mir Jafar, who had already committed himself to the British.

Unable to resist the nawab nazim’s entreaties, Mir Jafar agreed to remain neutral. He extracted a promise from Siraj-ud-doula and his other commanders that once they conquered the British, they would ensure his and his family’s safety. He sent word to Clive that, despite his earlier agreement to side with them, he had decided to remain neutral in the forthcoming battle.

On that fateful day in 1757, the forces of Siraj-ud-doula and Robert Clive met at the small village of Plassey, about two hundred miles north of Calcutta, in what became a major turning point in Indian history.

Initially, the French artillery gained superiority over the British. By late morning, Clive, recognizing that the battle was all but lost, withdrew his troops to the shelter of a mango grove with the view of escaping under cover of darkness to ships waiting to carry him and his army back to Calcutta.

Then the course of battle took an unexpected turn brought about not through any superior military move on either side, but by an act of God.

Bengal is known for its heavy monsoon rains, which come without warning and deposit enormous amounts of water in a very short time. The British accustomed to the Bengal weather, covered their artillery and ammunition with tarpaulins. The French unaccustomed to such conditions, did not.

When the sun appeared again the French artillery fell silent. The British artillery was able to mow down the attacking forces of Siraj-ud-doula with impunity killing their main commander Mir Madan.

Throughout this phase of battle Mir Jafar did nothing, remaining neutral as he had promised. But when he saw the French gaining superiority over the British, he made a move to encircle Clive’s army to prevent it from fleeing. He hurriedly pulled back his forces when he found that the British artillery was still active. With the rout of his army Siraj-ud-Doula took flight and the battle was lost.

British and Indian historians have blamed Mir Jafar for Siraj-ud-Doula’s demise. The British blame him because he did not come to Clive’s aid when they were losing the battle and the Indians because the loss of the Battle of Plassey was the forerunner to the eventual colonization of India by the British.

Given the complexity of the situation and the lack of good options I think that my ancestor may fairly be labeled an opportunist. Though I believe it is unfair to label him a traitor or as the sole reason for the defeat at Plassey. He was a family man concerned about the well-being of his family.

Mir Jafar felt that Clive, now victorious, would punish him not only for not coming to his aid but for threatening to prevent his army from escaping when it appeared that Siraj-ud-Doula with the aid of the French was about to win. When he appeared before Clive after the battle, he expected to be severely chastised if not killed. The British were ill prepared to govern Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and knew that Mir Jafar was the only nobleman who could, so Clive acknowledged him as the new Nawab Nazim. This has probably influenced Indian historians to assert that Mir Jafar was responsible for the loss of the Battle of Plassey.

Encroachment of the British

Clive and his compatriots in the East India Company proceeded to loot the Nawab’s treasury. Mir Jafar now Nawab Nazim, had no choice but to accede to their demands. He wanted them to be out of Murshidabad as soon as possible so he could assume direct control and start governing the three provinces.

Over the next half century or more the British kept encroaching on the independence of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa and on the powers of the nawab nazims that followed. By the time the eighth and last adult nawab nazim Humayun Jah died, British encroachments had reached their peak.

When his son and my great, great grandfather Nawab Nazim Syed Mansur Ali Khan, ascended the throne in 1838, he was only eight years old. The British Agent stationed in Murshidabad was able to manipulate him and his affairs at will. By the time the young nawab was old enough to handle them, he found utter confusion and protested to the British authorities to no avail.

The grip of the British had begun to tighten in India, and the new generation of administrators saw the Nawab Nazim as a political threat to British supremacy. Though aimed at Mansur Ali himself, their actions had the effect of publicly downgrading the office of the nawab nazim. The reduction of his nineteen-gun salute to thirteen was particularly humiliating. This placed him below not only the Governor-General but also lesser Indian princes.

During this troubled period the Nawab Nazim found solace in his ever-growing harem. Whenever a new nawab nazim ascended the throne he brought with him his own harem to replace that of his predecessor. During the lifetime of the reigning nawab nazim, therefore, intrigue was rampant in the harem to ensure its survival.

One of the Nawab Nazim’s concubines an Abyssinian slave girl named Hasina, was particularly cunning. She was to employ every means at her disposal to ensure her own future and that of her son Ali Kadr Hassan.

Since marriage to well-born women was essential to continue the line of succession of the Nawab Nazims, Mansur Ali married Firdaus Mahal Nawab Shams-i-Jahan Begum (Firdaus Mahal), a descendent of Mir Jafar’s brother. She bore him eighteen children, of which thirteen were boys.

In an effort to clear the way for her son Ali Kadr, Hasina she and her supporters are reported to have been complicit in the deaths of twelve of Firdaus Mahal’s sons. The last of the thirteen Khurshid Kudar Iskander Ali (Khurshid Kudar), my great-great grandfather, survived only because he was removed from the danger of the court by the British Agent before he could be harmed.

After the Indian Mutiny of 1858, the British Government assumed direct rule of India with Queen Victoria becoming the Empress of India. Mansur Ali decided to appeal directly to the British Government in London and to Queen Victoria to redress the wrongs done to him by the East India Company. He sailed for England in February 1869, planning to stay for only a short time. He remained there for twelve years.

Mansur Ali continued to present his grievances to the British Government without much success largely due to his promiscuous behavior. His life of debauchery was such that he disgraced his rank and position and was excluded from all respectable society. Mansur Ali married twenty wives during his lifetime, who bore him a total of 101 children. Nineteen sons and 22 daughters survived him.

Unable to sustain his lavish lifestyle amid mounting debts Mansur Ali moved to a London suburb to live with an English woman of low birth in a manner entirely unfitting to a ruler.

The British took advantage of his excesses and stripped him of his throne and titles. They offered him a life pension of £10,000 a year in addition to a lump sum of about £83,000 which consisted of the balance of his personal stipend held on account in India, as well as £25,000 to cover his expenses. In return, the Nawab Nazim agreed to abdicate his throne and turn Bengal, Bihar and Orissa over to the British.

Accordingly, on November 1, 1880, Sayyid Mansur Ali Khan renounced his styles and titles of Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and signed the deed of abdication. Thus ended his long and bitter struggle with the British authorities. He gave up his throne and compromised his family leaving the British to dictate to the family any terms that they saw fit to serve their own interests.

Khurshid Kudar Iskander Ali Mirza

Knowing that the developments in Bengal were being keenly watched by other princes in India, Mansur Ali’s legitimate heir Khurshid Kudar, was offered the now diminished position of Nawab Bahadur [Earl] of Murshidabad. He refused claiming that by right he should succeed his father as rightful occupant of the throne of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The British exiled him and his mother Firdaus Mahal to Calcutta.

They agreed to recognize him as a royal prince with the hereditary title of Mirza. The Nawab Nazim’s sons were thus put on an equal footing with Persian princes and with those of Oudh and the Mughal royal house. Khurshid Kudar thus became known as Khurshid Kudar Iskander Ali Mirza.

The Nawab Bahadurs of Murshidabad

Having failed to get Khurshid Kudar to accept the lesser title of Nawab Bahadur, the British offered it to Mansur Ali’s illegitimate son of the concubine slave girl Hasina, who eagerly accepted it. Recognizing that this would be viewed with suspicion by other Indian princes, Ali Kadr Hassan was denied the title of His Highness, nor was he entitled to the traditional gun salute normally accorded to ruling princes.

Since then the Nawab Bahadurs have lived in fear of the legitimate family returning to challenge them, a living male heir poses a threat so over the ensuing years, the Nawab Bahadurs have tried to neutralize them, initially by offering them incentives like all the pleasures of the Murshidabad court or failing which, murder. They tried to kill me in my infancy.

Though Khurshid Kudar Iskander Ali Mirza had been neutralized by the British his mother the Nawab Begum4, continued to press his case as rightful heir of the last Nawab Nazim. After his death she pressed the rights of her grandson my grandfather Syed Fateh Ali Mirza, in the vain hope of restoring him to the throne. Upon Firdaus Mahal’s death, the Nawab Bahadur persuaded Fateh Ali Mirza to return to Murshidabad. Having inherited some of the weaknesses of his grandfather, he indulged himself in all the pleasures of life of a nawab in Murshidabad. In return he promised not to pursue his claim.

His wife Dilshad Begum a strong-willed woman, did not relish the intrigue nor the debauched lifestyle that permeated Murshidabad under the Nawab Bahadurs. When her son my father Iskander Mirza, was