They were feisty, talented & resilient. the over-a-century-long rule of awadh is incomplete without their untold storyBranching out from the Mughals, the Nawabs ruled over the heartland of India nestled in Awadh for over 125 years (1732-1857). The dynastic history begins with the appointment of Mir Muhammad Amin Saadat Khan Bahadur Buhran-ul-Mulk as the governor…
After being deposed and exiled by the British in 1856, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah spent three decades of his life in Metiabruz where he created a miniature Lucknow and transported the city’s culture thereOver the years, the meandering street named after Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Kolkata’s Metiabruz, a distortion of the original Matiya Burj…
Stone, steel and struggle; iconic bridges on Gomti By Venkatesh DuttaA city of grace and grandeur, Lucknow lives on as a symbol of India’s layered history and timeless charm. Bridges on the Gomti river are not just engineering feats but reflections of the Awadh capital’s changing times — its wealth, fears, rebellions, and resilience.Lucknow’s historic…
‘Paan kahta hai ki main sookh ke mar jaoonga. Ai lab-e-yaar agar tu ne na chooma mujhko’. (The betel leaf says it would wither away, unfulfilled, if not kissed by its lover’s lips.) This evocative verse of historian Nadeem Hasnain captures the essence of Lucknow’s iconic paan, an integral part of the city’s renowned mehman…
Lucknow’s architecture showcases a rich tapestry of global influences, from Mughal grandeur and Nawabi elegance to French Gothic and British colonial styles From the Far East to Europe and Australia, there is a stamp of world’s finest architecture in the proud monuments of Lucknow. On a whistle stop tour of the buildings, Vivek Singh Chauhan…
Rebellion was not a trait of Awadh, but when a popular king was unceremoniously dethroned, his brigade of loyalists raised a formidable coalition that battered and bled the British and scripted a glorious chapter in the 1857 Uprising.It’s March of 1856. A small group is accompanying a mild-mannered man who is bidding the final adieu…
Apart from being the city of rich heritage and mouth-watering delicacies, Lucknow is also the capital of India’s most politically charged state that spins legions of stories from the corridors of power. Rajiv Srivastava narrates a few of them…Civil War!It was 1974. Congress’s Swaroop Kumari Bakshi was facing a piquant situation in the state elections….
By- Ravi BhattLucknow was historically and culturally an important & prosperous place much before Asaf-ud-Daula made it his capital city in 1775.One thing is common between Lucknow’s admirers and critics – both wonder what Lucknow was like before nawabs arrived here and evolved not only as a highly sophisticated and refined culture of its kind…
Mariaon Cantonment: A colonial enclave in the heart of Awadh In 1807, a significant shift occurred in the colonial landscape of Lucknow when the British East India Company relocated its cantonment from the banks of the Gomti River to Madiaon (then Marion), a village nearly four miles north of the city (Residency). This move marked…
Lucknow has long been more than a city of nawabs, poetry, and etiquette — it has also been the cradle of administration and governance in northern India. In 1921, when the British shifted the capital of the United Provinces from Allahabad to Lucknow, the city became the nerve centre of colonial power and order. Wide…
