Papers presented at two international conferences organized by Historical and Archaeological Research and Conservation Agency, Lucknow.

This book is for those readers who want to know the truth about Oudh and the past ofNawabi Lucknow. In the eyes of East India Company, the Nawab Wazirs, Kings andBegums of Lucknow were much maligned persons in the history of Oudh. Of all thepersons the last deposed King Wajid Ali Shah was charged with infamy. Not many Indiansare aware that interested parties to dethrone him, spread canards judiciously. Few of theyounger generation of India care to remember the heroic effort of Begum Hazrat Mahalwho led from the front and fought to liberate the country from the British. She refused toaccept not once but many times, offers of security and due privileges from the East IndiaCompany. She wanted to live with independence, dignity and honor and not on crumbsthrown by a foreign power. She died unsung in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her equally brave sonBirjis Qadr spent his precious childhood and youth in fighting against the British and thendied under mysterious circumstances when he returned to Calcutta. Some new found factsabout Birjis Qadr and his descendants are included. Some special photos feature in thebook.

Lucknow was once described as 'the last example of the old pomp and refinement of Hindustan'. Both culturally and architecturally it still remains one of the most interesting cities of North India. Besides touching on the political aspects of Nawabi rule in the province of Audh, the author discusses the ethos and architecture of Lucknow in its heyday: between the period of the first Nawab in the early eighteenth century, and the last Nawab who was deposed by the British in 1856.