Wajid Ali Shah: A Cultural and Literary Legacy

Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza

Talat Fatima

Wajid Ali Shah, the erstwhile ruler of Awadh, is embedded in popular imagination as the ill-fated king who lost his throne to the British and sought solace in music and dance. This obtuse narrative barely scratches the surface of a figure whose extraordinary creative legacy has been overshadowed by colonial caricatures and historical neglect.

In this remarkable and deeply researched work, scholar Dr Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza brings to light the vast and often misunderstood cultural and literary contributions of Wajid Ali Shah. Drawing from rare manuscripts, forgotten letters and overlooked compositions, the book reconstructs the multifaceted life of a ruler who was not only a patron of the arts but a prolific poet, dramatist, musicologist and innovator in architecture, fashion and performance. Dr Meerza's work is not only a biography, but a cultural history of nineteenth-century Lucknow and a reclamation of a voice nearly lost to time. From the lyrical grandeur of Sabatul Quloob to the theatrical innovations of the 'Shahi Rahas’, Wajid Ali Shah's oeuvre is examined with deep intellectual labour and a marked sensitivity.

A definitive portrait of an artist–king whose genius was dismissed as eccentricity, this book challenges the myths of incompetence and decadence, and restores Wajid Ali Shah to his rightful place in the pantheon of India's cultural visionaries.