A
hyderabad man has emerged as the "owner" of the famous
taj mahal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, which was constructed by the 17th-century Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his devoted wife,
mumtaz Mahal, amid the heated controversy surrounding Mughal reign in India.
Owner of the Taj Mahal
The man is a native of
hyderabad named
prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy, who says he is the sixth-generation heir of
bahadur shah zafar, the final Mughal emperor. As the only surviving Mughal in
india with direct family relations to
bahadur shah zafar and descended from Shah Jahan, the man who constructed the famous monument,
prince Tucy, the Mutawalli, or curator of Mughal
ruler Aurangzeb's grave, asserts that he is the "rightful owner" of the Taj Mahal.
In order to demonstrate his Mughal
heritage and purported ownership of the
taj mahal,
prince Tucy has even provided the courts with his
dna tests.
Prince Tucy and Controversies
Notably, the purported royal successor has already made headlines for the wrong reasons. Tucy previously asserted that he was the rightful owner of the site where
ram mandir and
babri masjid were constructed, citing a property dispute and his purported lineage from Mughal monarch
babur as proof.
"We have issued an order to Waqf board, that it is not their property. It is a property issue and if turns out to be Babur's property, then we are the owners of it. And, as the owner of the property, we don't have any issue with the
ram temple being built there. Not only will I present a golden brick, I will also hand over the entire land for construction of the
temple," he had said in an interview.
Prince Tucy also asked Princess
diya Kumari, the
bjp leader and
deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, who had claimed to hold
taj mahal documents in 2019, to produce them to him if she was a "true Rajput."
Show the paperwork if you do have them in your pothikhana. "Show those documents if you have any Rajput blood at all," he had demanded.
In light of the recent controversy surrounding Mughal
ruler aurangzeb and the subsequent vandalism of his tomb in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Tucy petitioned the President of
india to issue directives to the State
government or the
government of
india to safeguard
aurangzeb Alamgir's monument and grave.
Royal 'fakers'
It's important to remember that this is not the first time that someone has legitimately claimed the property of long-dead kings and queens by claiming royal ancestry. The notorious Malcha Mahal case, in which a woman claimed to be Begum Wilayat Mahal, the descendent of the Nawab of Awadh, is a recent example. Her assertions were ultimately shown to be untrue.
The main distinction between
prince Tucy's case and previous ones, though, is that he has provided his
dna profile to support his legal claim.
By the way, there is a real-life descendent of
bahadur shah zafar in India. She is an impoverished woman named Sultana Begum, and she lives in the slums of Kolkata, West Bengal, despite having royal ancestry.