Wajid Ali Shah

Wajid Ali Shah was deposed for misgovernment by a company that wanted his kingdom, and spent thirty years in Calcutta rebuilding his court in miniature. He was the tenth and last king of Awadh, one of the richest states in north India, and by any account more interested in poetry, music and dance than in administration - he composed under the name Akhtarpiya, is credited with a share in the development of kathak, and staged rahas dance-dramas at enormous cost. Whether that made him a bad ruler or merely a convenient one to remove is the whole argument: Awadh had been bound by treaty to keep no army of its own and to accept British advice, so the misgovernment the Company documented was partly a condition it had imposed. James Outram, the Resident, compiled the case; Dalhousie annexed the kingdom in February 1856. Wajid Ali Shah refused to sign the treaty of abdication, went to Calcutta to petition, and was interned there through the rising of 1857 while his wife led the resistance in Lucknow. He built a second Lucknow at Matiyaburj with its own bazaar and menagerie. The Matiyaburj establishment kept musicians, dancers, cooks and a large zoo, and the Awadhi kitchen that grew up around it is the origin of Calcutta biryani with a potato in it. He continued composing and staging performances there until his death. Satyajit Ray s The Chess Players is about the annexation and about him. He received a pension of twelve lakh rupees a year, which was large and was also the price of a kingdom. His son Birjis Qadr was proclaimed ruler in his absence during the rising, without his authority, and eventually returned to Calcutta.

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