New Royal Book Company

The Flickers of an Independent Nawabi

About Book - This book is a complete biography of Nawab Wazir Ali Khan (1780-1817) of Avadh based on the critical examination of all the available primary and secondary sources in English, Persian, Urdu, Marathi, Hindi, French, German, Nepali, Turkish and Arabic. Besides the Anglo-Avadh relations, it focuses on the policies and activities of Napoleon, the French, the Armenians, the Porte, the Sherif of Mecca, the Imam of Muscat, the Shah of Persia, Zamaun Shah, Tipu Sultan, the Nizam, the Marathas; the Zamindars of Avadh, Bihar and the Maratha territories; the Rohillas, the Bangash Afghans, the Rajputs and the Nawabs of Dacca and Murshidabad. It contains authentic biographical sketches of the personalities and descriptions of the buildings referred to in the text, for which itself all the facts available in bits and pieces and based on the best possible authorities have carefully been sifted and woven together for each and every event. It also encompasses an in-depth exposure of the inaccuracies, exaggerations, concoctions and shortcomings of all the consulted sources. It has copious references to enable the future researchers to develop the themes dealt with in the book further.
The book traces the early life and training of Wazir Ali, his accession after the universal consensus of all shades of people present on the occasion, brief Nawabi of 4 months along with parties and politics of the Resident, nobles, the Naib and Bahu Begam, deposition due to the intrigues of the nobles and the English, controversy regarding his birth, his anti-British plots and armed struggle at Benares, last bid to regain power at Bhutwal and in the Gorakhpur region, betrayal at Jaipur due to the political pressure of the Marathas and the English, confinement and death at the Fort William, rounding and mopping up of the persons involved in his conspiracies and a description of his family. It convincingly shows that his armed struggle at Benares established certain marked precedents, which were subsequently and freely imitated in 1857, of which he was surely a forerunner.
Details of various monetary transactions, rates and wages, working of the banking houses, and upkeep, functioning and interaction of various constituents of the seraglio of Wazir Ali will engage the attention of those who are interested in them.
Wazir Ali's assertive manoeuvres failed to give him autonomy in his internal affairs due to the aggressive political and military penetration of the Britishers in Avadh, weakening of its own direct army, interference of the British Resident, existence of a pro-English Naib, passing of half of Avadh under a powerful Ijaradar (Almas) having most efficient army under him and emergence of a power hungry lobby of selfish nobles bent upon swaying the Nawab by hook or by crook, all of whom got deeply entrenched during the Nawabi of Asaf-ud-daulah.

About Author - Hamid Afaq Qureshi was born on 2.7.1945. He acquired his postgraduate Degrees in History (1974) & in Political Science (1976) from the University of Jaipur. He was awarded the Degree of Ph.D. by the University of Lucknow in 1982 for his thesis on Wazir A!i. Besides circulating two mimeographs on the "Harem of the first four Nawabs" and "Early life of Saadat AN" (1981), he also wrote a booklet on the army of Shuja-ud-daulah and Asaf-ud-daulah (1982) and a typed-script of sources on the Nawabs and Kings of Awadh (1984-jointly with Dr. N. A. Siddiqi). Between 1982-1990, he remained occupied in writing 92 research papers on different aspects of the Indian History, out of which 44 were on the History of Avadh. Most of these research papers were read at all the well-known Annual Conferences on History held in India. All these papers have been published mostly in English, rarely in Urdu and one in Hindi in the Proceedings' Volumes of the Indian History Congress, U.P. History Congress, South Indian History Congress and Indian History and Culture Society, Journal of Indian History, Bengal Past and Present, The Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, U.P. Historical Review, Maarif, Naya Daur, Ajkal, Nai Duniya, Saaz-e-Sarmadi, Qaumi Awaz and Hamari Tauheed. He helped 5 research scholars in their understanding of the salient features and intricacies of their topics of research and removed the complexities cropping up subsequently to enable them to complete their Ph.Ds. He was Joint-Secretary of U.P. History Congress during 1985-1988 & a Member of the Executive Committees of the South Indian History Congress (1988) and U.P. History Congress (1989). Thereafter, due to a crippling ailment, he could not carry on with his usual activities for over a decade. However, on getting well, he is making a come back to his favourite and most frequented avenues through this book with the promise of more such critical researches in future.

 

ISBN : 81-85936-23-4
Price : INR 2500/-