Lucknow is celebrating the bicentenary anniversary of the last king of Awadh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah who ruled his kingdom briefly from 1847 to 1856 before he was removed from the throne at 34, chased out of Lucknow and spent 31 years in exile in Kolkata.
History has many iterations of Wajid Ali Shah. He was a poet, playwright, dancer and patron of the arts. He was the obese king with 300 wives who—like Nero, his fiddle and a burning Rome—danced and sang while the East India Company ravaged his kingdom. But unlike most rajas and kings and minor Mughal emperors, his legacy thrives in India.
His rotten teeth—from chewing tobacco paan—gave Lucknow and India one of its softest, tastiest kebabs. The nawab wanted to enjoy the delicacy without compromising either the taste or his teeth. It sparked contests among kebab makers, and the result was the Galouti kebab with 160 different kinds of spices.
As part of the anniversary, filmmakers and historians will speak at an event organised by Lucknow Connection Worldwide, to celebrate the life and times of the last great architect of Nawabi splendour. Visual artist Soumyadeep Roy collaborated with his descendants to host the two-day event, which included a heritage walk and an exhibition of archival ink drawings.
“It is on record that the astrologer had made very sensational predictions at the time of the prince’s birth. It is also stated that the effect of certain stars was going to be very inauspicious for him,” GD Bhatnagar wrote in Awadh Under Wajid Ali Shah. To nullify these adverse effects, his mother is said to have dressed the prince in saffron clothes, a tradition that Wajid Ali continued throughout his life. Unfortunately, saffron could not save him from the misfortunes that life had in store for him.
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The British and the accidental Nawab
Born on 30 July 1822 in Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah was not meant to rule Awadh. As the second son of then Prince Amjad Ali Shah and his first wife, Malikah Kishwar (also known as Janab-i ’Aliyyah), he was not in the direct line of succession. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle, Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah, was the ruler of Awadh.
Rosie Llewellyn-Jones in her book The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah (1822-87) writes that as per hearsay, during his private lessons in the palace, he continuously tapped his feet to an imaginary orchestra, which greatly irritated his tutor. Consequently, the tutor responded by delivering a forceful slap across his head, resulting in permanent hearing loss in one ear.
The plump young prince came in direct line to the throne at the age of 15 when his grandfather was enthroned by the East India Company.
In May 1842, at the age of 21, the prince, a father of three sons, was appointed heir apparent (wali ‘ahd). “A fragile painting, passed down to descendants, records the scene of the chubby young man holding a slip of paper, his passport to the throne, and standing next to his father, King Amjad ‘Ali Shah,” writes Llewellyn-Jones.
The British thought of him as an unsuitable heir due to his excessive indulgences. Llewellyn-Jones describes him as “a gifted, but difficult, character—a man who married more women than there are days in the year”.
He wrote an autobiography titled Ishqnama (Book of Love) which centres around his two big loves—music and women.
He was crowned the Nawab of Awadh in February 1847.
With the East India Company waging wars in all directions, it also set its sights on Awadh. Throughout his nine-year reign, the annexation of Awadh remained a goal for the British, who gave the Nawab regular threats to improve administration.
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Sparking a revolution
Apart from his cultural feats, one of which was the composition of the famous Babul Mora Nahar Chhooto Jaae in the Bhairavi thumri style, a notable aspect of the Lucknowi ruler’s reign was his attempted reform of the Awadh Army.
Llewellyn-Jones writes how the king regularly visited the Lucknow parade grounds to inspect his troops. He raised a number of new regiments to support those already established and gave fanciful names to the new platoons, like Palton Akhtari, Palton Wajidi and Palton Gulabi.
Unable to properly understand the popular support Wajid Ali Shah enjoyed, the EIC decided to annex the kingdom in February 1856 under the pretext of maladministration. This acted as a spark for the 1857 mutiny in Lucknow.
The despaired Nawab was exiled to far-off Matiaburj near erstwhile Calcutta, where he spent the rest of his life, while some of his family went to London. The touching description of the bewailing citizens of Lucknow is given in the Urdu text Asrar-i-Wajid.
“The condition of this town, without exaggeration, was such that on the departure of Jan-i-Alam, the life became extinct and the body of the town was left soulless. Grief rained down from every door and wall. There was no lane, bazaar, or dwelling which did not wail out in full agony of separation from Jan-i-Alam. All sorts of agonies were produced in the Hindi musical tunes and notes,” translated Bhatnagar.
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A mini Awadh in Calcutta
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah introduced Awadhi culture—art, literature, athletics, dress, and cuisine—when he relocated to Calcutta. It was like Lucknow had come to Bengal. The exiled monarch was given a series of opulent homes that extended along the Hooghly River’s banks three or four km south of Calcutta.
Because of an earthen dome, people called the area Matiya Burj, now Metiabruz. In a bid to recreate the world of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah indulged in extravagant expenses that led to huge mounds of debt. Regular Kathak performances were popularly held in his parikhana.
Wajid Ali Shah died on 1 September 1887. “When Wajid Ali Shah died…a link which stretched back to medieval times was severed. The thousands of mourners who lined his funeral route at dusk on 21 September 1887, with their loud wailing and shouted prayers, were not only marking the passing of the last king but also the passing of an intangible connection to old India,” wrote Llewellyn-Jones.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)