Title: The Last King in India – Wajid Ali Shah
Author: Rosie
Llewellyn-Jones
Publisher: Random
House India, 2014(First)
ISBN: 9788184005493
Pages: 314
An excellent
snapshot of a transitory era taken with the right set of focus, depth and
exposure.
The 19th century was a crucial period of transition in Indian
history when the country rather suddenly in the space of a half-century shed
its medieval coat and embarked on its road to modernity. The sultans and kings,
who symbolized extravagance in the western media were either deposed or made vassals
of the English East India Company, which then began a century of colonial
exploitation. This shift in the ruling pattern of the land naturally caused
unrest. Even though the people were worse off under the kings and sultans, they
were their compatriots and the bond of tribal affiliation prevailed over
rational considerations. The First War of Independence or the Sepoy Mutiny in
1857 was the direct outcome of tension brewing over a few decades. The
annexation of Awadh (Oudh) in 1856 was a major source of discontent for the
company’s Indian soldiers in the Bengal Army, who belonged to this province.
This book tells the story of the king Wajid Ali Shah, who was the last king
that ruled in Lucknow and was deposed but in spite of that, was spinelessly
obedient to the British. He moved with his entourage to Calcutta where the
company’s headquarters was situated. He entrusted his sick and aged mother to
plead his case before Queen Victoria and the imperial government in London that
proved to be a futile exercise in the wake of the Mutiny. Shah spent two years
in the company’s detention for no obvious reason. After his release, he lived
three decades in the Garden Reach area till his death. His sole source of
income was the pension granted to him by the British which was handsome but not
sufficient for the spendthrift ex-king. The book describes the political
conditions prevailed in India during that period and how the British kept the
native rulers on the leash. It provides a glimpse of court life in Lucknow
under the Oudh dynasty where life was in perpetual glory for the few lucky
courtiers and courtesans. Art and cultural forms developed enormously during
this period. It also mentions the miserable failure of the court to transplant
the Lucknow culture in Calcutta’s soil where everyone lived under that illusion
till the death of the king in 1887. The British disposed of his estates and
property through auction and divided the money among his descendants, thereby
wiping the slate clean off the dynasty’s legacy in India’s history. The story
is told by the able Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, who is an expert on Lucknow and its
praised culture. She has authored several books on the subject.
The book paints the picture of
absolute despotism being practiced in Awadh. The kingdom was deemed and treated
like the king’s personal property. The king’s whims and fancies constituted the
first call on the kingdom’s resources. Land revenue was the primary source of
royal income. The sovereign spent the money like water, but only for his
personal gratification. Wajid Ali Shah lavished his resources on women,
musicians, construction of palaces, collection of wild animals, lending money
on easy terms to the East India Company and being a Shia, for charity work in
Iraq. The king and his predecessors were liberal in bestowing provisions on
Shia holy places in Iraq. The fourth nawab of Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daulah built a
canal at great cost in Karbala and it is still called the Asafi Canal. One of
the very first acts of Wajid was to distribute money in plenty for Shia
pilgrims in Baghdad. Najaf and Karbala witnessed grand construction projects
with the Awadh tax-payer’s money. Not only that, he commissioned Iraqi workmen
to build a shrine in Lucknow, which was the exact replica of the ‘Shrine of the
Two Imams’ at Kazmain near Baghdad. Similarly, the royal party that visited
Britain to plead against the annexation of the state that included
Janab-i-Aliyah the queen mother, lived in style and pomp on the hard earned
money paid by the humble farmers who could not manage even one square meal a
day. The East India Company expanded its dominions using money borrowed from
native princes, who were more than willing to oblige the company’s every need.
It fought the war against Nepal, using the money supplied by Wajid Ali Shah.
India was racked by the agitation
for building a temple dedicated to Lord Ram at Ayodhya where an earlier temple
stood at the site was destroyed by Mughal emperor Babur’s military commander
and had built a mosque. The movement was spearheaded by Hindu nationalist
parties like the BJP. In 1992, the volunteers of the movement dismantled the
disputed structure and built a temporary temple there. Main line media and
secularist political parties had accused the agitators for fomenting trouble
and raking up an issue which was non-existent as far as the residents of
Ayodhya were concerned. This book negates this argument and proves that the
place had seen many communal riots on the same issue during the 19th
century too. Coming from an impartial author, it is sufficient evidence that
the temple issue was a burning topic in Ayodhya, that was in the Awadh province
last ruled by Wajid Ali Shah (p.110-112). Shah Gulam Husain, a Sunni leader,
assembled a large force of Muslims at Ayodhya (Faizabad) in 1855 and was
determined to destroy and ruin the Hanuman temple. To defend their temple and
themselves, large groups of armed Hindus had gathered. Around 140 people of
both faiths were killed in the ensuing riot. The Hanuman garhi was built on the
conjectured site of the birth of Ram. The mosque came to be known as Babri
Masjid only at the beginning of the 20th century. As a Shia, Wajid
could afford to stand aside from theological disputes, but as a ruler, he had
to intervene to prevent strife. A new and more dangerous leader then emerged in
the person of a Sunni maulawi called Amir Ali, who collected around him a large
number of people. The king invited him for discussions and proposed that one
more mosque could be attached to the temple, which was vehemently opposed by
the Hindus. Amir Ali marched his troops to Faizabad where the king’s army
intercepted them and an estimated 300 – 400 men were killed. Isn’t this proof
that the place was a flashpoint even in the 19th century?
Wajid Ali Shah was a renowned
playwright, poet and a worthy connoisseur and patron of music and dance. The
traditional dance form of Kathak witnessed a grand revival in the Lucknow court
under him. He is said to have created several ragas (rhythmic meters) in the
Hindustani system of classical Indian music. Coincidentally, another great
royal composer and patron of Carnatic music, Swathi Tirunal, was ruling at
around the same time in the southern princely state of Travancore. Shah has
authored many poems and plays including Radha Kanhaiyya ka Qissa,
Darya-i-Tashshuq and Ishqnamah. But in personal life, he was the epitome of
debauchery and extravagance. He married 375 women, exploiting every loophole in
the Shia law where mut’a system
allowed the male to marry women for a limited time and in payment of a limited
sum (p.155). He had 52 recognized children and even long after he was declared
impotent, his numerous wives and concubines continued to bear children! After
settling in Calcutta, Shah found his means constrained on a British pension and
he could no longer lavish the poor taxpayer’s money. He became utterly selfish,
even going to the extent of separating his wives after their attraction faded
due to old age. He refused to allot them money out of his generous pension. In
order to free himself from claims on his income, he divorced many wives – as
many as 27 on a single day! Being inept in financial management, he was easy
prey to greedy courtiers. They bought merchandise themselves and resold it at
double the rates to the king. Shah maintained a large menagerie at his
residential complex that became a headache to the municipal authorities on account
of escape of tigers from the ill-kept cages. He spared no effort and money in
getting his animal collection expanded. In this regard, he declared that he
didn’t care any more about his wives and children than about the animals in his
custody.
The British extended an outwardly
respectable attitude to Wajid Ali Shah, partly in fear of antagonizing public
opinion at the cavalier treatment to an ex-king whose kingdom was snatched from
his hands without a single shot being fired. But they didn’t treat him on par
with the honourable courtesy extended to the family of Tipu Sultan who were
also accommodated in Calcutta. The author attempts to bring this dichotomy for
inspection. The huge contrast between the circumstances that forced these two
royal families to seek asylum is unmistakeable. Tipu Sultan died a hero’s
death, defending his palace and kept fighting till the moment he was shot down
on the battle front. Jones hints that the British respected such heroism and
had no regard for the cowardly Wajid Ali Shah who seemed a wretch when compared
to the antics of Tipu. Shah surrendered his kingdom meekly and his
correspondence with the British authorities reeked of excessive use of flowery
expressions indicating servitude to the foreigners. When the then Governor
General, Lord Hardinge, visited Lucknow, he insisted that the king shall not
wear country-made shoes and must be attired in a pair of British patent leather
shoes if he wanted to meet him in person! Jones uses sympathetic expressions
regarding Indian sentiments whenever it is challenged by a British act against
a native ruler. Sometimes, this has reached extreme levels, like the king’s
preference for women without considerations of the class to which they belong
to. Her comment that it ‘helped to widen
the gene pool’ (p.143) is somewhat atrocious even to explain this manifestation
of Cophetua syndrome!
The book is a delight to read and
the author has narrated the historical events in a hearty way with lot of
anecdotes. It opens a window to what was India before the sweeping changes of modernization
catapulted her to where she is today.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
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