Bahadur Shah Zafar was a weak ruler. During his reign the British firmly established their power in India. Bahadur Shah Zafar lived on a British pension while the actual powers lay with the British. In his reign, Urdu poetry flourished and reached its peak of glory. He was also one of the great Urdu poets of India. He wrote some of the finest Urdu poetry and was a patron of many famous Urdu poets.

Bahadur Shah Zafar was chosen as the Commander-in-Chief of the freedom fighters of the First War of Independence in 1857. The defeat of the freedom fighters led to the dethroning of Bahadur Shah. He was exiled to Rangoon (now Yangon), Burma (now Myanmar), in 1858. Bahadur Shah Zafar died, during his exile, in 1862.