Tag Archives: Nawab Wajid Ali Shah

Celebrating Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and His Contribution to Kolkata’s Culture

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Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

Nawabi Calcutta: An overlooked era, organised by Know Your Neighbour and INTACH, highlights how Thumri, Kathak and Urdu blossomed under King of Oudh’s patronage.

Speaker Sabir Ahamed during the bicentenary celebration of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah | Picture: Know Your Neighbour

Kolkata:

We all remember the story of Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Oudh, being exiled to Kolkata by the East India Company for being a poor administrator. But how many of us know that the ruler had travelled to the colonial Kolkata with around 6000 attendants in 1856, in hope of travelling to London to place his case before Queen Victoria concerning the unfair annexation of his kingdom? How many of us are aware of the fact that it was only in 1857, when the first revolt for independence broke out that the recuperating Shah was kept under house arrest?

But the most intriguing aspect about the Shah’s stay in Kolkata was his ability to not lose hope, despite being robbed of his throne and his journey of recreating mini-Lucknow (Metiabruz) along the bank of river Hooghly. And little by little bringing the Lucknowi style to Bengal.

How the Shah took on to his new life, patronised art and rebuilt a mini-empire of his miles away the banks of Gomti was what Nawabi Calcutta: An overlooked era attempted to recall.

“There is more to Wajid Ali Shah and his ‘Chota Lucknow’. We shouldn’t just remember him for bringing biryani to Kolkata and giving it a spin by introducing potato to it,” said Sabir Ahamed, of Know Your Neighbour (KYN), during his inaugural speech.

The remains of structures built by Wajid Ali Shah, have often been overlooked by Kolkatans. Rare images of old Metiabruz and structures built by the last king of Oudh were screened during the programme. Ninety-nine per cent of these structures built by the Wajid Ali Shah, no longer exist, said Shaikh Sohail, who conducts heritage tours in Metiabruz. He gave a call to all to come and visit the remains and know the history of the Shah’s ‘Chota Lucknow.”

The invitation card of the event

Remembering the last king of Oudh, Sudipta Mitra, author of Pearl by the River ( a book that documents the life of Wajid Ali Shah)  chose to highlight his love for rare animals. A connoisseur of wild animals, the Shah even created a mini zoo, which home some rare animals including an open snake house much ahead of Kolkata having a zoo of its own.

“His love to collect unique or rare wild animals for his personal zoo was so famed that zoologist  Edward Blyth once wrote to his friend Charles Darwin about the King of Oudh and his love for animals. He wrote that till the Shah is alive, animal trade would flourish in India,” said Mitra.

He then went on to add, “Once Oudh was annexed, about 18 tigers from the Shah’s personal collection were brought by Blyth for Rs 20 each. These tigers were put on display for the public at the present age Teratti Bazar. And later when the Shah made Metiabruz his home, he brought three tigers from his pre-owned collection for his new personal zoo at a much higher price.”

In a bid to feel at home, the pining Shah, even established the famed Sibtainabad Imbara, where he now rests, much like his father Amjad Ali Shah, who rests at Hazratganj’s Sibtainabad Imbara.

Debunking the poor administrator theory was Dr Soumik Bhattacharjee. While addressing the audience, Dr Bhattacharjee said, “The East India Company (EIC) created a narrative to justify their annexation of Oudh. The Shah was a lover of art, and that’s not a crime. He promoted thumri, kathak and a lot of artists during his reign. He also introduced a number of administrative reforms, which were good for Oudh. But the ECI brought in laws that made it difficult for the king to do his work in a judicious way. The king, failing to understand the implications of the new laws, fell prey to ECI’s trap.”

A portrait of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah at the event venue| Picture: Soumyadeep Roy

“While Prem Chand was almost reprimanding in his play Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Satyajit Ray was more understanding towards the king of Oudh. The king’s decision to not revolt against the British and approach Queen Victoria regarding the unfair annexation should be seen as his fondness for non-violence and not weakness,” he summed up.

Taking up from where Dr Bhattacharjee left, was foodpreneur and great great granddaughter of the Shah, Manzilat Fatima. “It’s sad that not many know about the history and reality of Wajid Ali Shah. My father, Dr Kaukab Quder Meerza, wrote a book on him in Urdu, which has been translated into English by sister Talat Fatima.” She added that they are also working on a project to highlight the revolutionary work of Begum Hazrat Mahal.

On being asked if the Indian historians have been a little harsh on the king of Oudh, she said, “It’s sad that the historians despite being Indians chose to highlight the narrative set by the British and East India Company. But it’s heartening to see so many remember Wajid Ali Shah with great fondness. I am humbled by the number of events that are being organised to mark his bicentenary. As his descendants, we will try doing our bit to keep his legacy alive.

While, Mohammad Reyaz, Assistant Professor, Aliah University, highlighted the central focus of the Nawab’s migration – rebuilding a new city, which was demolished after his death and the legacy that he created in the field of art. “The Nawab of Oudh was beyond bringing biryani to Kolkata,” he said.

The event organised by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and Know Your Neighbour, also hosted an art exhibition – Dastan-e-Akhtar by visual artist Soumyadeep Roy, who chose to pay tribute to the king through his paintings.

Also present at the event was Sarod maestro Irfan Md Khan, whose ancestor had travelled to Kolkata with Wajid Ali Shah. He summed up by saying, “The Shah was a patron of art. He patronised and promoted kathak, thumri and sarod to this city.”

source: http://www.enewsroom.in / eNewsRoom India / Home> Bengal> Inclusive India / by Shabina Akhtar / July 26th, 2023

Who First Put Aloo In Biryani?

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Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

That culinary addition is attributed to Chef Manzilat Fatima’s great-great grandfather Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh.

Chef Manzilat Fatima, April 22, 2024. (image courtesy: Umang Sharma)

Manzilat’s great-grandfather did

On most evenings, Manzilat Fatima’s rooftop restaurant in South Kolkata, aptly named Manzilat’s, is packed with food connoisseurs waiting to taste the incredible dishes she prepares for them. But there is another reason foodies climb four flights of stairs to her quaint little eatery.

An engraving of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Pic Courtesy/ Wikimedia Commmons

What Manzilat does, is nothing short of remarkable.  Not only does she tantalize the tastebuds of food lovers with exceptional dishes such as Chicken Lazeez Shami Kebab, Lakhnavi Murgh Biryani, or the famed Lakhnawi Mutton Yakhni Pulav – but she also evocatively creates a bridge between the present and the royal past of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh.

Manzilat Fatima is the great-great granddaughter of the Nawab who made his home in Kolkata after the British East India Company annexed his kingdom.  He gave the culinary world the famed aloo in Biryani.

A descendant of Awadh

“I am a direct descendent of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal ,” Manzilat reveals.

After the annexation, her great, great grandmother Begum Hazrat Mahal who took charge of Awadh, put her son Birjis Qadr on the throne in 1857. Birjis Qudr was the son of Jaan e Alam Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal.

Manzilat is the daughter of Dr. Kaukub Qudr Meerza, the grandson of Birjis Qudr, she explains.

Like her pantry, stocked with delectable food, Manzilat is a storehouse of stories and fascinating history.

A conspiracy at play

According to Manzilat, despite having no inheritance, Birjs was still the legal heir of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal.

“Birjs Qadr had a son Mehr Qadr who was my grandfather,” adds Manzilat. “He did not have any siblings growing up. He did have a family, but they were assassinated in cold blood on August 14, 1893.”

Manzilat says that the British invited Mehr Quadr from Kathmandu to Calcutta under a false pretext. “The other descendants of the Awadh royal family wanted to snuff out the last crown king, even though there was nothing to inherit by then.”

There was a deeper conspiracy at play.

A dish of Awadhi biryani (image courtesy: Manzilat Fatima restaurant)

A poisoned dinner

“In order to snuff out this branch they cooked up a conspiracy along with the British and invited him and his family over for dinner where they laced the food with poison. In that tragedy, he, along with a son and daughter as well as his guards and dogs were murdered.”

Only Mehr Quadr’s wife, Mehtab Ara Begum, survived. She was pregnant with Manzilat’s grandfather and did not attend the dinner. “Had she gone for the dinner, the entire course of history would perhaps have been different,” says Manzilat.

Her grandmother, Mehtab Ara Begum, survived along with an unborn child – Manzilat’s father- and a daughter who was four years old at that time. The little girl grew up and married, but died childless. But the lineage of Wajid Ali Shah continued through Mehr Qadr and Manzilat’s father Kaukub Qudr Meerza.

“My lineage shaped me into a very loyal Indian,” she says. “We grew up hearing stories of valor of Begum Hazrat Mahal and Birjs Qadr and how, after 1857, (she) chose to live free in Kathmandu, Nepal. Our history helped us be grounded and honest. We learned the art of sacrifice.”

From lawyer to chef

Growing up, Manzilat heard stories about the tragedy and the conspiracy that destroyed her family – from their time in Lucknow until Birjs Qadr’s assassination, and how her grandfather was protected and grew up very sheltered because of the constant threat to his life.

Being a chef was not always the game plan. Manzilat studied at Aligarh Public School and graduated with an English (Hons) degree from Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University. She enrolled at Calcutta University for her Master’s in English and a few years after her marriage, even completed a five-year LL.B course in 2002.

Chef Manzilat Fatima (image courtesy: (Umang Sharma)

Manzilat opened the doors to her kitchen to food lovers from all over the world. As the smoke rises from her tender Mutton Awadhi Galwtii Kebab, or tear-drop-shaped condensation rolls down her chilled Khus ka sherbet, or even as patrons savor the pillowy soft aloo in their biryani, Manzilat knows that she has not only served some delectable dishes but offered her guests a panoramic view into the world of her ancestors and what they stood for – the mighty Wajid Ali Shah, the indomitable Begum Hazrat Mahal. 

In the fragrant aroma of her kitchen, Manzilat Fatima is the custodian of the legacy of the last Nawab of Awadh. Her guests experience more than just culinary delights; they immerse themselves in a narrative of courage, tradition, and the enduring spirit of Awadh.

source: http://www.indiacurrents.org / India Currents / Home> Food> India> Lifestyle / by Umang Sharma / April 26th, 2024

Wajid Ali Wah!

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Awadh, U.P. / WEST BENGAL:

Calcutta may not have a birthday, but there can be no disagreement that the city is an alchemy of multiple events and influences. One such is the arrival of the ruler of Awadh. Wajid Ali Shah arrived in Calcutta in 1856, remained here till his death in 1887 and continues to tick on in the city’s DNA.

Illustration: Visual artist Soumyadeep Roy’s portrait of Wajid Ali Shah, a detail from his exhibition Dastaan e Akhtar celebrating the King’s bicentenary year at his resting place, the first ever exhibition held at the 159-year-old Sibtainabad Imambada in Metiabruz / Sourced by the Telegraph

Metiabruz

Before 1856, Metiabruz was a nondescript place on the outskirts of Calcutta taking its name from a matiya burz or earthen tower. The shipbuilding yard of Garden Reach had just started developing. It was the advent of Wajid Ali that transformed the very nature of the place. He purchased land from the King of Burdwan and built around 22 palatial
residences in Metiabruz. With these at the core, an entire mini-Lucknow came up. “He made this city his home and left a legacy, some tangible and mostly intangible,” says Talat Fatima, one of the king’s progeny and currently working on the English translation of the book Wajid Ali Shah Ki Adabi Aur Saqafati Khidmat by Kaukab Quder Meerza. Meerza Sr’s son, Kamran, points to the remnants of the king’s mimic kingdom — Sibtainabad Imambara, Begum Masjid, Shahi Masjid, Baitun Nijat and Quasrul Buka.

Thumri

Until the early 19th century, Calcutta’s aristocracy had some exposure to Nidhu Babu or Ramnidhi Gupta’s semi-classical tappa. As for dance, there was the form practised by the khemtawalis of the red-light areas of Chitpore and Bowbazar in central Calcutta. Enter Wajid Ali Shah. He was, historians note, an “enthusiastic” patron of the arts. The “light classical” vocal form of thumri flourished in his court. He himself composed thumris under the pen name of Akhtar or Akhtar Piya. The thumri was traditionally performed by tawaifs or courtesans. And though there are arguments to the contrary, their dance style had “undeniable links” with Kathak. To make a long story very short, the king arrived in Calcutta with his musical entourage, thus stirring into its environs and culture a new rhythm. Courtesans like Malka Jaan were appointed by his court. Other ustads and musicians arrived too and many Bengali-speaking singers such as Bamacharan Bandyopadhyay were also groomed. A new style of thumri evolved with folk influences and it came to be known as the bol banao thumri. The babus of Calcutta loved it. Many of the musicians and courtesans settled down in the Chitpore area of north Calcutta, turning it into a production hub of musical instruments. This legacy, somewhat contagious, influenced commercial theatres and produced musical exponents such as Gauhar Jaan, Angoorbala and Indubala who went on to cut gramophone records and became the first artistes to do so. If Wajid Ali had not left Lucknow nagari, Ray’s Jalsaghar would be missing the jalsa; the sound of Begum Akhtar singing, “Bhar bhar aayi mori akhiyan piya bin…”

Haute Couture

It was not just Wajid Ali who arrived in Metiabruz; he was accompanied by his family, his many wives, dancers, a retinue of specialised servants and tailors. By some estimates, within a decade of his arrival, the palace had 2,000-plus employees and 1,000 soldiers. All of these people needed clothes, as did the king, who loved to dress. In his early 20th century work Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture, Abdul Halim Sharar suggests that the achkan was Wajid Ali’s gift to Indian haute couture. And so the fitted tunic with its stylish necks debuted in Bengal, as did the angrakhas. The king also wore an elaborate cap called the alam pasand. The royal tailors, their pupils and their descendants popularised Awadhi fashion — the chapkan, the churidar, the shararas, the ghararas… Their progeny has now turned Metiabruz into one of the largest tailoring hubs of unbranded garments. None of this would exist if it had not been for the good old trendy king. But for him, homegrown celebrity designers who are synonymous with wedding wear, sherwanis and fancy achkans would have been making patterns on their bottom line today.

Kabutarbazi

The king was famous for his menagerie and also for the thousands of kabutars or pigeons he reared and kept. He employed hundreds of people to look after the birds. Among the varieties were peshawari, gulvey, choya, chandan, shirazi — many fetched from Lucknow. Some of them were trained to perform manoeuvres during flight. “You’ll still find breeders invoking the royal pigeons while making a sell in the bird market,” says Kamran Meerza, the great-great-grandson of Wajed Ali Shah. Many babus of north Calcutta eventually embraced the hobby and pigeon roosts were a common architectural feature in old mansions of the city. The king also brought one of the best kite fliers of Lucknow, Ilahi Baksh Vilayat Ali, with him. He himself could design kites and encouraged others to compete with his team of kite fliers. The tradition of flying kites from those days still survives in Calcutta. Beginning August 15, right through to winter, the city skies are dotted with kites, most of them made in Metiabruz. Kabutarbazi and kite flying are not just random sports, they are synecdoches of a culture of great panache even in great leisure.

The Calcutta Biryani

The king’s khansamas gave Calcutta a taste of the Awadhi style of dum pukht or slow oven-cooking. Their descendants spread across the city and continued to popularise and adapt this style of cooking to fit the plebian kitchen. The Calcutta Biryani would be nowhere on the culinary map had it not been for the banished king. Manzilat Fatima, who is Wajid Ali’s great-great-granddaughter, wields her secret family recipes to create the Calcutta Shahi Biryani and Awadhi Galauti Kebab among other Lucknavi delicacies in her boutique restaurant in south Calcutta. Manzilat clarifies that the potato, an exotic tuber in the 19th century, was used as an experiment by the king to enhance the taste of the biryani and not to incorporate a cheaper substitute as has been suggested. Jab tak rahega biryani mein alu…

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Culture / by Prasun Chaudhuri / August 27th, 2023

Remembering 4 Muslim women who fought for Indian independence

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UTTAR PRADESH / PUNJAB :

Hyderabad: 

On the occasion of 74th Independence Day, let us remember these Muslim women who proved their strength, enthusiasm and determinism in the fight for freedom.

These women broke the stereotype of Muslim women in the society, who are merely perceived to be clad in Burqha and were never let out of the house. They participated in the India’s struggle for independence and emerged victorious.

Begum Hazrat Mahal (1830–1879)

Begum Hazrat Mahal, a prominent woman of 1857 rebellion, was born in 1830 Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh. Her actual name was Muhammadi Khanum. Her father is Gulam Hussain of Faizabad. At her tender age itself, she showed good talent in literature.

She was married to Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh. They were blessed with a son Mirza Birjis Khadir Bahadur. On 13 February, 1856, the British troops imprisoned Wajid Ali Shah. They sent him to Calcutta on 13 March and occupied Awadh illegitimately. This irked the people and native rulers.

They revolted against the British under the leadership of Begum Hazrat Mahal. The native rulers and people met at Chavani area of Lucknow, the capital of Awadh on 31May, 1857 and declared independence. They taught a lesson to the British troops and wiped out their power in Lucknow. Later, Begum Hazrat Mahal declared her son Birjis Khadir as the Nawab of Awadh on 7 July, 1857.

As the King’s mother, she gathered 1,80,000 troops and renovated the Lucknow fort spending huge amount of money. She established a high level committee for the good governance of the state. Hazarat Mahal ruled the state on behalf of her son for about ten months and challenged the British force by inspiring patriotism among the people and the fellow native rulers. She issued a historic statement on 31 December, 1858 challenging the proclamation issued by the Queen Victoria on November 1, 1858.

But, when Delhi, the prime center for the First War of Independence was captured, the British troops surrounded and attacked Lucknow in March 1859. There was a fierce battle between the Company troops and the Begum troops. When defeat became inevitable, Begum Hazrat Mahal retreated to the Nepal forests along with the co-revolutionary leaders like Nana Sahib Peshwa and others.

The British rulers offered her huge amount of money and luxurious facilities in order to bring her back to Lucknow. But, the Begum denied them and made it clear that nothing else was acceptable to her except Independent Awadh state. Begum Hazarath Mahal was struggling for the independence of her state till her last breath. She passed away at Khathmound of Nepal on 7 April, 1879. In 1984 Government of India released a postal stamp in her honour.

Abadi Bano Begum (1852-1924)

Abadi Bano Begum, who took active part at par with men in the Indian National Movement, was born in 1852 in Amroha village, Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. She was married to Abdul Ali Khan of the Princely State Rampur.

Though she lost her husband at a young age, she did not remarry. She had two sons Moulana Mohammed Ali and Moulana Showkath Ali, who were famous as ‘Ali Brothers’. She nurtured her children, into becoming memorable leaders of the Indian Independence Movement. Her involvement in the freedom movement began with the Home Rule Movement, to which she rendered moral and most importantly, financial support.

When the British government detained the Ali Brothers in Chindanwad village, under the Indian Defence Regulations, she went along with them. When a police official proposed for the surrender of her sons, she bluntly refused saying, ‘If my sons agree to the proposal of the government, I will kill them by strangulation. I hope God will bestow enough energy into this old woman’s hands’. Abadi Bano met Mahatma Gandhi in 1917 for the first time.

There after Mahatma Gandhi always addressed her ‘Ammijan’, and all other freedom fighters followed Gandhi’s address. She helped Mahatma Gandhi and other Khilafath leaders financially for undertaking all India tours.

She attended the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League sessions in 1917, held at Calcutta. She spoke in those meetings emphasising that complete freedom could be achieved through unity between Hindus and Muslims.

She also played a constructive role in the Khilafat and Non[1]Cooperation Movement in 1919. She declared in several meetings that ‘it was her ambition that even the dogs and cats of her country should not be under the slavery of the British’.

The fact that the British government official records treated her as a ‘dangerous person’, which established the kind of challenge she hurled at the colonial rule.

 Apart from participating in politics she also guided several women’s organisations all over India. So intensely patriotic and nationalist that Abadi Bano Begum who played an active role in national movement without caring old age, ill health and cruel atrocities of police, breathed her last on 13 November, 1924.‹

BIBI AMATUS SALAM (1907-1985)

Bibi Amatus Salam, who strongly believed that freedom from the slavery of British could be achieved, through the Gandhian methods only, was born in 1907 in Patiala of Punjab in Rajputhana family.

Her father was Colonel Abdul Hamid and her mother Amatur Rehaman. Amatus Salam was the younger sister of six elder brothers. Her health was very delicate since her childhood. She was inspired by her eldest brother, freedom fighter Mohammad Abdur Rashid Khan.

Following the footsteps of her brother, she decided to serve the people of the country.

Amatus Salam participated in the Khadi Movement and attended the meetings of the Indian National Movement along with her brother. She was attracted towards the Non[1]Violence theory of Mahathma Gandhi and Sevagram Ashram.

She decided to join Sevagram Ashram, and went there in 1931. She joined Ashram and followed the strict principles of the Ashram. With her selfless service she became very close to Gandhi couple.

They considered Amatus Salam as their beloved daughter. During the Indian National Movement, she went to jail along with other women in 1932 despite her illness with the permission of Gandhi.

After being released from Jail, she reached Sevagram and took over the responsibilities as Personal Assistant of Gandhi. She said that besides achieving independence, harmony between the Hindus and Muslims, Welfare of the Harijans and Women were her life ambitions. When communal riots erupted, she toured North-West Frontier, Sindh and Noukhali areas as an ambassador of Gandhi.

She held Satyagraha for 20 days to normalize the situation in those areas. After Independence, she rededicated herself to the Public Service. She published an Urdu Magazine called ‘Hindustan’ to promote national integration and communal harmony. When Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan toured in India in 1961, she travelled with him as his personal assistant. When India was at war with

China in 1962 and with Pakistan in 1965, she took all the pains in reaching the mountains or war area along with her adopted son Sunil Kumar to encourage our soldiers and to serve them. Bibi Amatus Salam, who spent all her life following the Gandhian ideology, breathed her last on 29 October, 1985.‹

HAJARA BEGUM (1910-2003)

Hajara Begum, who fought against the British to liberate the Nation and worked for the welfare of the toiling masses of the country, was born on 22 December, 1910 at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. She came to know about the sacrifices of the freedom fighters who were fighting against the British from her father, who was a police officer.

After the failure of her marriage, she went to London to pursue her higher education, where she got acquainted with the anti-British forces. This led her to decide to fight against the British Imperialist forces to liberate the nation. She had to face the anger of the British Government as she was criticizing their acts in several International fora.

She returned to India and joined as a lecturer in the Karamat Hussain women’s College at Lucknow in 1935.

She also worked along with famous poet Sajjad Zahir in the formation of All India Progressive Writers’ Association.

She got married to a nationalist leader Dr. Zainul Abedeen Ahmed in 1935 and in the same year both of them took membership in the Indian National Congress. Since the police were after them for their anti-British activities, they resigned their jobs and dedicated themselves totally to the Indian National Movement.

While participating in the activities of the Indian National Congress, Hajara Begum also campaigned for the Communist Party without the knowledge of the Police. She actively took part in the election campaign in those days, and as a result of this a number of Congress leaders could get elected. She attended a secret political workshop at Kotthapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in 1937.

 She spoke on different subjects in the workshop as a lecturer. Hajara Begum was against the gender bias since her younger age. She fought against all types of inequalities successfully. She left the Indian National Congress in 1940 along with her husband. Since then, she played a vital role in organizing the unorganized labour sector.

She became very popular as ‘Hajara Aapa’ in the circles of toiling people and women. The Soviet Union honoured her with ‘Supreme Soviet Jubilee Award’ in 1960 in recognition of her work for the downtrodden people on the eve of the birth centenary of Lenin. Hajara Begum, who spent her entire life in the service of the country, breathed her last on 20 January, 2003.

Syed Naseer Ahamed can be contacted at Phone: +91 94402 41727

source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by Nihad Ahmed / Input by Syed Naseer Ahmed / August 15th, 2020

‘Piya ka des’: 165 years on, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s legacy lives on in Kolkata

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Awadh, UTTAR PRADESH / Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

The nawab, who was deposed by the British, came to plead his case with Governor General Lord Charles Canning, only to be imprisoned at Fort William.

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Photo| Wikimedia Commons)

Kolkata :

Some 165 years ago, in the month of May, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah — the last ruler of Awadh — is believed to have written the now-famous lament “Babul Mora Naihar Chooto Jai…Mein Chali Piya ke Des” (O father, my home I leave behind…I go to my beloved’s land), as he made his way to Kolkata to live the next 31 years of his life in exile.

The nawab, who was deposed by the British, came to plead his case with Governor General Lord Charles Canning, only to be imprisoned at Fort William as the East India Company feared that he may turn into a rallying point for sepoy mutineers during the first war of Indian Independence, which broke out the very next year.

After he was freed two year later, Wajid Ali and many from his court who chose to join him in exile decided to live in his ‘Piya ke Des, gifting a legacy of music, dance, Urdu poetry, fashion and fusion cuisine to the syncretic culture of the metropolis.

“My great, great, grandfather Wajid Ali Shah, who landed here by steamer on May 13, could have chosen to live anywhere after he was freed…but he chose this city. We believe he fell in love with its culture and found remnants of his beloved Lucknow in Metiabruz or Matiaburj where he chose to settle,” said Shahenshah Mirza, 54, a civil servant and a history buff.

The nawab, over the years, built some 18 palaces and the landmark Sibtainabad Imambara in Calcutta, but his descendants live scattered as the British demolished the palazzos on one pretext or the other.

Mirza and his father, 86-year-old Sahebzada Wasif Mirza – the president of the Awadh Royal Family Association — now live in a modest though stately old house at Talbagan Lane, off Dargah Road, in the heart of the eastern metropolis.

“Just 500 of his followers came with him in 1856, but as news spread that he was building a Lucknow-like city within a city, at Metiabruz in Calcutta, many of his nobles, artisans and musicians followed and flourished here,” said Mirza.

Though much of the original mini-city which Wajid Ali built was taken over for Garden Reach shipyards, Metiabruz still exists and is now famous as a garment tailoring hub — reportedly accounting for Rs 15,000 crore worth of textile trade a year — mainly on account of the skilled tailors who came here as part of the Nawab’s entourage.

Wajid Ali, who used the pen name “Akhtarpiya” for his poetry, prose and thumris, was a known patron of arts, and with the destruction of Mughal cities in the aftermath of the 1857 revolt, Kolkata subsequently became the new cultural capital, attracting talent from all over north India.

As time progressed, Bengal’s zamindars and rich ‘bhadraloks’ (gentlemen) enthusiastically developed a taste for the Nawab’s leisure activities ‘mujra’ (music and dance soirees), kite-flying and pigeon games (kabootar baazi). “Even today some 3,000 people are engaged in the business of making kites in this city,” explained Mirza.

The nawab introduced the citys elite to Thumri, Dhrupad and Kathak. “Singers and dancers of the calibre of Bindadin Maharaj, Piyari Sahab, Gauhar Jaan, Malka Jaan, Jauhar Jaan came to settle here…Kolkata opened up to Kathak and thumris,” said well-known Shantiniketan-based musicologist Rantideb Maitra.

This, in later years, influenced the film industry and the dance and music forms became part of the pan-Indian culture.

The song ‘Babul Mora’ itself was popularised by Kolkata-based music director Rai Chand Boral when he got Kundan Lal Saigal to sing it for the movie ‘Street Singer’ in 1938, nearly 80 years after it was written.

“Kathak, though it started as a temple dance, had taken a stylised form under the Mughal patronage. When brought to Kolkata by Wajid Ali, who himself often danced as Krishna, it blossomed into a popular classical dance form,” said Shyam Banerjee, another musicologist and Urdu translator.

However, if the average Kolkatan remembers the Awadh ruler with fondness, it is because of the gastronomic legacy he left behind.

Said Manzilat Fatima, another of Wajid Ali’s descendants from his junior begum, Hazrat Mahal — who led mutineers in Lucknow and eventually escaped to Nepal — “He (Wajid Ali) tried to recreate Lucknow but with a difference…(among other things) his kitchen became an experimental centre for new dishes.”

Fatima (53), who runs the up-market restaurant Manzilat’s explained that experiments led to the inclusion of potato — then a rich man’s exotic vegetable favoured by Europeans — and eggs to Awadh’s Biryani. “New spices, coconut milk, mustard oil, all went into the making of Awadhi dishes and the result was the unique dum-pukht Kokata Biryani, now so popular all over,” she said.

The Nawab also set up a printing press in Metiabruz and came out with a weekly gazette in Urdu, adding to the literary and journalistic tradition of the city, which boasts of being the cradle to some of India’s oldest newspapers.

“We feel he was more popular in the city he chose to make his own than in Lucknow…When the legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, asked my father how he saw Wajid Ali’s legacy, he had explained that it lives on, as is evident from the fact that ‘you chose to make your first Hindi movie – Shatranj ke Khilari – on a novel based on the the Awadh ruler’s life’,” added Mirza.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Kolkata / by PTI / May 23rd, 2021

Fatima and Fatima

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Business & Economy, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

Two remarkable women from the family of Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh, are reviving his culinary tradition in Calcutta, the city where he famously introduced potatoes into the biryani!

Last king of Awadh,Wajed Ali Shah,Manzilat Fatima

Manzilat Fatima is a descendent of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh who spent 29 years in exile in Metiayaburj, a Calcutta suburb. She launched a pop-up restaurant of Awadhi cuisine in 2014 and a home dining service, Manzilat’s, in 2018 in Calcutta. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

What do you do you do if a goose is plump beyond reason, won’t lay eggs and needs too much feed? Cook it, I guess. And that’s what the British Crown did to Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh, who ascended the throne as a 25-year-old in 1847 and was dethroned nine years later in 1856, a year before the first war of Indian Independence broke out.

The British said this was done because he lived and ate like a king and did little else, thus overlooking his military reforms, his attempts at administration which the East India Company did its best to thwart, and his immense popularity with his subjects.

Packed off to Metiyaburj, about four miles south of Calcutta, the ousted king was joined by his prime minister, some of his wives, musicians and officials. His chefs attended to this displaced court as best as they could. They prepared their master’s banquets with the lavishness of his days as monarch, so that when he sat for his meals, he would remember Lucknow as his great romance and not the painful reality of its passing.

If five kilogrammes of lamb mince was used to make a single kofta when he had been the king, they were not going to scale down, when he was no longer one.

Wajid Ali shah during his days in exile in Metiyaburj, a Calcutta suburb, wearing his trademark kurta with part of his chest exposed. His descendants say it was an expression of his heart being open to his subjects. ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

But how do you claim, centuries later, that one of India’s most famous ex-royal is your old man and that you are the sole inheritor of the royal cuisine he helped found? Wajid Ali Shah’s descendants Manzilat Fatima, 51, and Fatima Mirza, 45, of Calcutta are doing that, courtesy the documents of political pensions of their families on the one hand, and by cooking his food, on the other. Team Manzilat and Team Fatima, both say they are the real thing.

***

Family recipes are a cook’s real estate. Wajid Ali Shah’s descendants face the problem of plenty. At the time of his death, the king had 250 wives and 42 children so no ‘family recipe’ matches the other. The British also made sure that after the king’s death in 1887, his days in exile would go undocumented.

On Fatima Mirza’s table: Kachhe Tikia ke Kebab, Mutton biryani, Nargisi Kofta. Mirza is a great-great grandchild of the last king of Awadh. ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

“His successors and his subjects were left with nothing,” says Wasif Hussain, the manager of the king’s mausoleum in Metiyaburj. “I’ve heard that in Chartwell House [the country home of a former British premier, Winston Churchill], his kitchen with its tea-kettle, his flour bin, the utensil rack and the weighing machine have been left intact…. It’s a museum….”

A law graduate, Manzilat Fatima, is from the ‘ruling line’. Her father, Kaukub Meerza, a former Reader of the Aligarh Muslim University, is the grandson of Birjis Qadr, the son of Begum Hazrat Mahal and Wajid Ali Shah. Birjis was crowned king by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar during 1857 as Wajid Ali Shah was by then in Calcutta. Birjis met his death in 1893 after dinner at a relative’s home in Metiyaburj.

This was not the first time that poisoning had killed an Awadhi royal, Sudipta Mitra, author of Pearl by the River, a book on Wajid Ali Shah’s exile, points out. Royal biographies mention a consort sending the king paan as a token of her love during their better days and the king not putting it past her to lace its leaves with poison when those days were over.

The murder of Birjis and its memory have stayed with the family for over 120 years. It has seeped into Manzilat’s remembrances of her childhood home (“My paternal grandmother would always check the food before it was served to family members”), and explains her impatience with ‘proof’-seekers. Ever since she launched a pop-up restaurant of Awadhi cuisine in 2014 and a home dining service, Manzilat’s, in 2018 in Calcutta, there are some set questions she has had to answer.

“ ‘Do I have monogrammed table-mats from Wajid Ali’s time?’ ‘Did I inherit a recipe book?’ No, I didn’t! Birjis’ murder snapped our links with the other branches of the family. His wife escaped from Metiyaburj to Calcutta…. And besides, my great-great-grandmother, Hazrat Mahal, was a queen who was fighting the British, not writing cookbooks. For a while, I made this my FB status,” says Manzilat cheekily while adding finishing touches to an order of Ghutwaan Kebab (made of mashed meat marinated with papaya) that a delivery man from Swiggy is waiting for her to complete, besides the mandatory biryani.

Manzilat makes a good mutton biryani, but with mustard oil to keep it non-greasy and light; Fatima Mirza, a school principal (she is of the line of Wajid Ali Shah’s principal consort, Khas Mahal) and her husband Shahanshah Mirza (his father Wasif Mirza is another great grandson of Wajid Ali Shah) consider the leaving out of ghee an overturning of the “basic biryani rule-book”. Both families, however, have more in common than they think.

While Manzilat’s cooking displays her control in colour, sense of proportion and spicing so integral to Awadhi cooking, Fatima, too, has considerable domain knowledge. Since 2018, she has been working on a cookbook penning family recipes such as the Kachhe Tikia ke Kebab.

“This is the only Awadhi kebab in which sattu is added and it was a Wajid Ali Shah favourite,” she says. “To neutralise the heat of meat and to make it easily digestible, hakeems advised chefs to add sattu (ground Bengal gram) as the king aged. The trend seems to have been to keep things light and fragrant.”

 

Shahanshah Mirza, another descendant of Wajid Ali Shah, with a family heirloom – a ceramic bowl. Such bowls were common in royal households. Their contents were checked by food inspectors before they were placed before the nawab. They had a special coating which would ‘crack’ if the food had poison, says Mirza. ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

Shahanshah Mirza, a government official and heritage enthusiast, elaborates on the difference between Awadhi and Mughlai cuisine. “Unlike Mughlai, ours has no overdose of mace or cardamom or dry fruits. We say about Urdu, Urdu aap ke zubaan pe hamla nahin karta hai, speaking it, does no assault to your tongue… Likewise, Awadhi food plays on understatement. It is big on presentation though.” Any aspiration to cheffy-ness of the standard of the former royal house of Awadh has to get the food styling right.

Wajid Ali’s descendants also make great allowances for a master chef’s ego. It was not uncommon in the heyday of the king to have his chefs refuse to cook for any other branch of the family. Some of the chefs even announced during the time of seeking employment that they were not going to expand their expertise! That is, the maker of dal would remain a dal specialist throughout his life. A biryani cook would touch nothing else.

***

The Sibtainabad Imambara, the mausoleum of Wajid Ali Shah and his son Birjis Qadr at Metiayaburj. Birjid was declared king in the absence of his father by the sepoys during 1857 and his kingship was acknowledged by the Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

In Metiyaburj, Guddu, a grandson of Puttan, a descendant of one of Wajid Ali Shah’s great chefs, drops by at the Shahi Imambara, for a chat. He talks of a dish that has the sound of one made in Awadh’s hoary past. There are few “with the stomach and liver of Wajid Ali Shah” to digest dishes like a meat mutanjan (a rice dish) now, Guddu says. But Nawabi biryani, and yes, with the potato, is everywhere.

Do kings thus prepare the future food of the people? The rich trying out the pleasures that the masses will eventually grasp is something historian Fernand Braudel has elaborated upon in his works. Rows of biryani shops of various prices line the road on either side of the king’s mausoleum. “Jameson Inn, a branch of Shiraz [an old Calcutta eatery], began to make a Murgh Hazrat Mahal in 2011,” informs Hussain, the Imambara manager. But there is a piece of information doing the rounds he would like to correct.

“The potato was added to the biryani because of its exotic value. It was a new vegetable in the market introduced by the Portuguese,” says Hussain. Both Fatimas back this view. According to Abdul Halim Sharar’s Guzishta Lucknow, considered to be the go-to book for any information on Wajid Ali Shah’s exile, the king spent Rs 24,000 on a pair of silk-winged pigeons, Rs 11,000 on a pair of white peacocks and approximately Rs 9,000 a month on food for some animals in his zoo in Metiyaburj.

“If a man could afford so much, he could certainly add more meat to his biryani and not bulk it up with potatoes,” suggests Fatima Mirza. The king would presumably also not risk his social prestige. At the evening concerts in the then resplendent Sultan Khana that had all the splendour of his palaces in Lucknow, when the Calcutta elite would visit, with thumri, there was biryani and it had potatoes. Surely Wajid Ali Shah would not have a dish served that had hard times written all over it.

(L-R) Mohammad Sulaiman Qadr Meerza with his grandfather, Kaukab Meerza, the great grandson of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal, and his father, Kamran Meerza. ( Arijit Sen/HT Photo )

******

Mohammad Sulaiman Qadr Meerza, 9, in a yellow tee and jeans is following the discussion on food and music, and the Awadh royal family closely. When he was six, his father Kamran (Manzilat’s brother), a businessman, disclosed his antecedents. He told his friends in between classes at school that he belonged to a royal family.

His friends asked: “Which one?” Sulaiman said he was the fifth generation of Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal. They did not believe him.

Next year, when he is 10, Sulaiman has plans to grow bigger. And then he will try to convince them. He says he must give it one last try.

Kitchen confidential- Nawabi recipes passed down the family
MANZILAT FATIMA’S PINEAPPLE MUTANJAN
INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup Gobindo Bhog rice soaked for an hour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups chopped pineapples
  • 2 1/4 cups boiling hot water (boiled with saffron strands and a pinch of kesariya colour)
  • 1 tbspoon pure ghee
  • 1 cup grated mawa
  • 1 clove; 1 cardamom; almond slivers
METHOD:

Take a heavy-bottom handi, add ghee. When hot, add cloves and the cardamom, then add the whole of the drained rice and saute quickly on medium flame.

Pour the hot water in the handi. Keep the flame high for 2-3 minutes, lower the flame and keep on sim till the rice is 3/4 cooked.

In another handi, scoop out the cooked rice and make a layer; sprinkle 1/2 of the sugar and 1/2 of the chopped pineapples and 1/2 the grated mawa.

Similarly, repeat a second layer, cover the lid and keep the handi on a tawa on sim. Leave for 5-10 minutes till the sugar melts and all ingredients blend well. Switch off the gas.

Before serving lightly mix the layers, serve hot after garnishing with silver leaf and almond slivers.

FATIMA MIRZA’S KACHHE TIKIA KE KEBAB
INGREDIENTS
  • Mince meat 500 gms; salt to taste
  • Bengal gram flour (roasted, powdered) 2 tsp
  • Garam Masala powder -1 teaspoon
  • Paste of nutmeg and mace -1 tsp
  • Onions -2 big ones; ginger-garlic paste -3 tsp; raw papaya paste -2 tsp
  • Green chillies -2; coriander leaves
  • Ghee for frying
METHOD:

Wash the minced meat. Fry the onions till they are golden brown. Mix garam masala, a paste of nutmeg, mace, fried onion and ginger-garlic paste. Sprinkle salt as desired. Add the raw papaya paste. Keep it aside for 10 minutes.

When the mutton turns tender, then mix the chopped coriander leaves and green chillies.

Using the mince mixture make flat round patties (tikia) of even size. Pour ghee into a pan. Heat it on a low flame. When the ghee crackles, start frying the patties till golden brown.

Drain out the excess ghee and serve it hot.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> India / by Paramita Ghosh / Hindustan Times / February 24th, 2019

 

The last song of Awadh

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Awadh, UTTAR PRADESH / BENGAL :

Wajid Ali Shah. / Courtesy Lakshmi G Joshi
Wajid Ali Shah. / Courtesy Lakshmi G Joshi

Of Wajid Ali Shah, and how a popular ‘thumri’ from another century reached us.

The Lucknow gharana of Kathak is famous for its repository of thumris. In fact, the very genre of thumri found immense patronage in the nawabs of Awadh. The last ruler, nawab Wajid Ali Shah, was a great lover of the arts. He wrote his first play, Radha Kanhaiya Ka Qissa, in 1843, when he was barely 21 years old. The British saw him as a debauched ruler wasting his wealth on entertainment.

Nineteenth-century India remembers the nawab as a romantic poet, a benefactor of the arts and a great lover of classical music and dance. By the time he ascended the throne in 1847, he had written two long romantic narrative poems (or masnavis) titled Bahr-E-Ishq (The Ocean Of Affection) and Darya-Yi-Ta’Ashshuq (The River Of Love). He adopted the pen name Akhtarpiya. An admirer of the Hindu god Krishna, he wanted to adapt these poems into a play in raas/rahas format.

Shah’s idea of staging these plays was beyond grandiose. According to the account of one Iqtidar-ud-daula who witnessed the play in February and March 1851: “The play was staged in 14 sessions (with intervals of one-two days between each session. The whole play took a month and 10 days to finish). Not every scene was staged in Qaisarbagh (a large complex housing gardens, manicured lawns and palatial buildings). Consecutive scenes were played out in different parts of the garden. In fact, some scenes were played out in different parts of the city.” It goes on to vividly describe the setting where canvas tents on bamboo frames were erected across the city along with “larger-than-life frames of scenery”. The elaborate preparations for each play took a whole year and cost £12,000 (around Rs10 lakh now) to produce.

Thus, Shah entertained himself with grand sessions of rahas. Here was a Shia Muslim king who consulted priests and celebrated Hindu festivals like Saawan, Holi and Basant Panchami with great pomp. He learnt Kathak from his court dancer-musician, Pandit Thakur Prasad. He appointed to his court the dancing duo of brothers Kalka and Bindadin Maharaj. The Kathak legend, Pandit Birju Maharaj, is a descendant of this family.

The nawab invested state wealth on arts and culture for the benefit and entertainment of his people. If the mounting expenses didn’t bother the British, Shah’s secular love for the arts and excessive indulgence did. They annexed his throne in 1854 and sent him into exile.

The book Asrar-I-Wajidi (1856) by Zahiruddin Bilgrami describes scenes of sorrowful locals who lined up on streets and wailed as the nawab left Lucknow. A caravan of a thousand people started from Lucknow on 13 March 1854 towards Calcutta (now Kolkata). For Wajid Ali Shah, there was nothing more painful than being separated from a place he loved so much and its people. His sorrow took the form of a song that spoke of displacement and loss. The song reflected an allegory to a human being’s last journey on this earth, when the body is carried on the shoulders of four pall-bearers.

Babul mora naihar chhooto jaaye

chaar kahaar mil, mori doliya sajaave

mora apna begaana chhooto jaaye

angnaa toh parbat bhayo, dehri bhayi bides

le ghar babul apno, main chali piya ki des

A large part of Shah’s writings have, unfortunately, been lost. Those that have remained, have luckily been preserved through music and dance by the descendants of his court musicians and dancers. This particular thumri reached us in its pristine condition from Kathak doyen Pandit Shambhu Maharaj. According to his first student, the late Maya Rao (in her autobiography Maya Rao—A Lifetime in Choreography, 2013), K.L. Saigal, who learnt the song from Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, spending months with him, seeing him perform it countless times and finally learning it, decided that he would sing it in the film Street Singer (1938).

In 1947, when Saigal died, All India Radio broadcast the song as a tribute. Thumri got a new lease of life on the classical music concert stage. The late Akhtaribai Faizabadi aka Begum Akhtar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar, among others, immortalized the song. In the 1974 film Aavishkar, starring Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore, this song, sung by the late ghazal singer Jagjit Singh and wife Chitra Singh, weaves many scenes together. While Wajid Ali Shah might have been a political eccentric, he is credited with being a revivalist in the world of Hindustani classical music, dance and Urdu drama.

source: http://www.livemint.com / LiveMint / Home / by Veejay Sai / December 01st, 2017

Second Lucknow ‘fixed’ in sepia

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WEST BENGAL :

Liveried servants of the Nawab of Oudh wait with a palanquin in one of the rare photographs of Metiabruz, during Wajid Ali Shah’s time. The royal insignia is embroidered on the back of one of them. Copied from the original by Rashbehari Das
Liveried servants of the Nawab of Oudh wait with a palanquin in one of the rare photographs of Metiabruz, during Wajid Ali Shah’s time. The royal insignia is embroidered on the back of one of them. Copied from the original by Rashbehari Das

A portfolio of fast-fading photographs that provides possibly the only pictorial document of the second Lucknow that Wajid Ali Shah had created in Metiabruz, after he was exiled there, is urgently in need of preservation. The photographs are, moreover, some of the earliest examples of the art as practised the world over.

Amjad Ali Mirza of Garden Reach Road, in his 60s, who is a great-great-grandson of the ruler of Oudh, possesses the photographs. But he doesn’t know how to preserve these friable prints whose sepia has, in some cases, turned a ghostly shadow of its former self. Says Mirza: “I have no doubt about the authenticity of the photographs. The portfolio is ancestral property. It was handed down to me by my uncle, Yaqub Ali Mirza, who died in 1973.” Some of the photographs are captioned in Urdu. But the identity of the photographer shall always remain a mystery. Oscar Mallitte, a French commercial photographer, we know, had captured a view of the village at Garden Reach, circa 1864, but there is no evidence he did this assignment.

Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1926) tells the story of Oudh in his book Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture. In it, he has also documented the last days of Wajid Ali Shah in Metiabruz, where he set up a city whose splendour surpassed Lucknow’s glory in the pre-Mutiny days. The palaces, pleasure gardens and zoo that the Nawab had created on the banks of the Hooghly come alive in these photographs, not much larger than postcards. It is as if chemicals and light had “fixed” the scenes that Sharar’s readers conjure up in their mind’s eye.

Soon after the Mutiny had fizzled out, the Nawab was released from confinement in Fort William and he returned to Metiabruz. There, while turning abstemious, he developed a passion for animals and for building beautiful houses. Before the Zoological Gardens was established in Alipore in 1876, the Nawab had already acquired a large menagerie that included rare birds, deer, horses and an open-air snake-pit that left visitors awestruck. But after Wajid Ali Shah’s death in 1887, Metiabruz became a hell-hole almost overnight.

The photographs prove that Sharar, when he described Metiabruz, never deviated from reality. Unlike the Lucknow architecture, with its embarrassment of stucco ornaments, the buildings of Metiabruz are constructed on the lines of European bungalows. The lines are simple but no less grand than the palaces of Lucknow.

Overlooking the river or surrounded by expanses of water, they are connected by bridges. Flags flutter on their tiled roofs. There is hardly any Islamic influence in their architecture, save a low-rise with triple minarets. Ostriches, deer, sheep and horses were the showpieces of the Metiabruz parkland. The snake-pit resembles a giant termite hill. One can almost hear the harsh calls of the clumsy pelicans and cranes strutting around the aviary. The liveried servants wait outside the palace gate with a palanquin. The piscine insignia of the royal family of Oudh is stitched on to the back of one man’s coat. There are two significant photographs. In one, the gang of smiling labourers carry construction material on their heads as they create the new Metiabruz. Another shows the buildings of Metiabruz being demolished. An exquisite way of life being wiped away forever.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph / Home> West Bengal / by Soumitra Das in Mirza / July 14th, 2003

The abiding fame of Faizabad

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Faizabad, UTTTAR  PRADESH :

EPITOMISING SYNCRETIC CULTURE Begum Akhtar
EPITOMISING SYNCRETIC CULTURE Begum Akhtar

“Shaharnama Faizabad” offers detailed information about the social and cultural life of the historic town

Although Faizabad had acquired prominence during the reign of the early Nawabs of Awadh, it lost some of its lustre when, soon after taking over the reins of the kingdom in 1775, Nawab Asif-ud-Daula shifted the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow.

Yet, it continued to enjoy a lot of influence until the last Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was deposed and banished to Matia Burz near Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was so because of its famed Begums who wielded considerable political and financial clout. However, in the last century, a Begum of a different kind brought the town national recognition when, at the end of every gramophone recording, she would proudly announce: “Mera naam Akhtari Bai Faizabad”. For most of her performing career, Begum Akhtar was known as Akhtari Bai Faizabadi and she truly represented the refined composite culture of Faizabad that abuts the Hindu holy town of Ayodhya.

Last year, Vani Prakashan had brought out an excellent book on Lucknow that offered scholarly research along with useful touristic information. Titled ‘The Other Lucknow: An Ethnographic Portrait of a City of Undying Memories and Nostalgia’, it was edited by Nadeem Hasnain and was based on a research project sponsored and funded by the Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan (Ayodhya Research Institute), an autonomous organisation of the Uttar Pradesh government’s Department of Culture.

FaizabadBookMPOs13jan2018

It’s a matter of rejoicing that this year, Vani Prakashan has published a companion volume on Faizabad with the help of the same Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan. The fact that this volume is in Hindi and it offers very detailed information about the historic town, its social and cultural life, and places of religious and cultural significance would warm the cockles of everybody’s heart. Hindi writer Yatindra Mishra, who recently won the President’s Golden Lotus award for his biography of Lata Mangeshkar, has edited this 640-page tome titled “Shaharnama Faizabad” (A Chronicle of Faizabad). A scion of the erstwhile ruling family of Ayodhya, Mishra’s love for Faizabad is evident in the care and fastidiousness with which he has performed this daunting task with the help of many experts including historians Salim Kidwai, Madhu Trivedi and Yogesh Pravin, Islamic culture scholar Mirza Shahab Shah and Kosala Museum’s Deshraj Upadhyaya, to name only a few. Mishra has not only edited the book but has also contributed a large number of detailed comments on the Faizabad region’s history and culture, making use of painstakingly done research into archival material and other sources.

The book is divided into five sections and opens with the history of Faizabad and the way its architecture and culture took shape under the Nawabs. After Nawab Saadat Khan ‘Burhan-ul-Mulk’ was awarded the Suba of Awadh by the Mughal Emperor, he built a temporary fort called Qila Mubarak near Lakshman Ghat in Ayodhya. After some time, he built a cantonment at a distance of five kms from Qila Mubarak and it was known as Bangla. During the reign of Nawab Mansur Ali Khan ‘Safdarjung’, Bangla acquired the name of Faizabad. This section also tells us a very interesting fact about the royal emblem of the Nawabs as it depicted fish (considered to be auspicious) along with the bow and arrow of Ram, the presiding deity of the adjoining Ayodhya. Detailed information about the arts, architecture, music, jewellery and ornaments, and prominent Nawabs and Begums and their Hindu and Muslim courtiers has been provided in this opening section.

The second section is one of the most interesting and valuable parts of this book as it deals with the events and heroes of the great revolt of 1857, often described as the First War of Indian independence.

Ripple effect

As is well known, the deposition of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had also played an important role in spreading anger and anguish among the sepoys who hailed from the Awadh region in considerably large numbers. Mangal Pandey belonged to village Dugvan-Rahimpur of Tehsil Sadar in Faizabad district. We also come to know about Maulavi Ahmad Ullah Shah alias Danka Shah who, as early as in February 1857, had started condemning foreign rule in his public speeches. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Faizabad remained independent till January 6, 1858 and was defeated by the Nepalese army that attacked its forces and subdued them.

While the third section gives detailed descriptions of important religious places belonging to all the religions present in the region, the fourth section offers invaluable historical information about the writers, poets, courtesans, high-brow as well as folk musicians, folk art, village fairs as well as local festivals, bazaars and traditional haats, instruments and their makers, journalists, newspapers, magazines and printing presses of the region. It’s a fairly long list and offers a glimpse into the cultural richness of Faizabad.

The fifth and final section deals with prominent social workers, sportspersons, educational institutions and public libraries, thus completing a full circle. It’s not possible to discuss such a voluminous book in any detail here. Suffice it to say that those who are interested in knowing the history and culture of Awadh cannot afford to ignore this work.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Kuldeep Kumar / June 16th, 2017

Lucknow, recovered

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Lucknow, UTTAR PRADESH :

Lessons in conservation at the Sibtainabad Imambara

As a young girl, when I was studying in Lucknow, I would often go to Hazratganj to buy storybooks. Browsing through the collection in the market and buying a book would be the highlight of every week. I only had my eyes on the bookshops and never on the name of the market or the dilapidated gateway, which had once been impressive but now looked the worse for wear.

Even on subsequent trips as an adult, I never bothered to think about it till the day a Lucknow-based heritage activist and lawyer, Syed Mohammad Haider Rizvi, invited me to speak at an inter-faith assembly in Sibtainabad Imambara.

As a devout follower of Imam Hussain, I had visited almost every Imambara in Lucknow for the majlis, or assemblies, to commemorate his sacrifice, but never this one. I wondered why I hadn’t even know it existed. I soon found out.

Origin of the Imambara

Amjad Ali Shah was the fourth Nawab of Awadh and ruled from 1842 to 1847. Since he had a religious bent of mind, as a child he learnt Islamic values of faith and piety. His piety as a ruler earned him the sobriquet of Hazrat. The famous Hazratganj of Lucknow is named after him and that’s the area where he chose to build an Imambara which would also house his mausoleum.

It was started in 1847 and completed after his death by his son Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. It was named Sibtainabad as the two Shia imams Hasan and Hussain (grandsons of the Prophet) are known collectively as Sibtain.

When I entered, I found myself inside a huge open area from where I could see a compound with a beautiful Imambara, a congregation hall for assemblies where Imam Hussain is mourned.

The Imambara architecture comprises a main hall (with additional halls depending on the size) where the mourners gather, a raised shahnasheen (platform) where the taziyas and alams (replicas of the shrine of Imam Hussain and his standard) are kept. A pulpit would be kept on one side for the speakers who would speak of the tragedy of Karbala.

The reason I had never been to this Imambara when I was living in Lucknow soon became clear. Once a beautiful Imambara covered with fine carpets, silk curtains, priceless art treasures and exquisite chandeliers, it was vandalised in 1857 during the First War of Independence. Nawab Amjad Ali Khan lay buried here in a vault under the central hall, forgotten by all.

It was even used as a church by the British officers till 1860, while the Christ Church was being built, and Lord Canning attended a service in the building.

In 1919, it was declared a protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Despite this, it was sold by one Sultan Bahadur in 1921, who claimed to be a descendant of Nawab Amjad Ali Khan, to the Lucknow Improvement Trust (LIT). The LIT, in turn, allotted the surrounding land for residential purposes. The Imambara fell into disuse and disrepair.

The main Imambara post-1947 was used as a workshop and storehouse for furniture as well as by the government census office. A motor workshop had sprung up outside.

In 2008, Rizvi was appointed the joint mutawalli by the Shia Waqf Board and he started the long fight to free it from encroachment and illegal occupation. He took recourse to judicial avenues and slowly, with the help of Right to Information applications and public interest litigations, he succeeded. Then came the task of restoration, which was undertaken by the ASI.

The splendour inside

The approach to the Imambara is through the gateway and into an open space which gives way to an enclosed court. The Imambara stands on a high platform and its arched façade looks very impressive, with its delicate floral stucco and stained glass doors. The inner walls, which had got blackened with neglect and abuse, have been lovingly restored, and its green and white paintings and stucco work are exquisite. The roof and “its beams, which formed a vault over the grave of the late king, had collapsed in a heap of rubble,” according to a 1945 report. It once again supports beautiful glass chandeliers.

A recurring motif on the archways inside the halls is a painting of the Prophet’s celestial steed, the ‘buraq’, that carried him to heaven on the night of ascension. The master mason, Ansaruddin, traced out the designs and restored the paintings and stucco work very carefully.

Preservation of our heritage is our fundamental duty as it is an important source of history of the era in which these buildings were built. If other ‘lost monuments’ received such dedicated and methodical renovation, they could also be rehabilitated and restored to us.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion> Columns / by Rana Safvi / November 26th, 2017