Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh lost his throne on this day, when the British, by the orders of Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, annexed his kingdom. Ousted from his beloved Lucknow city, he came to Calcutta to spend his remaining years here.
He arrived in Calcutta to meet the Governor General, says his descendant Shahanshah Mirza. Wajid Ali Shah’s tomb lies in Metiaburj, where he lived and tried to build a small Lucknow around him, but of which barely any sign remains.
Hazrat Mahal, one of his queens, stayed back in Lucknow and joined the 1857 Uprising against the British.
Wajid Ali Shah arrived in Calcutta in a steamer, with his close relatives, a large group of musicians, dancers and cooks, and also animals from his menagerie, descending at Bichali Ghat near Metiaburj, on May 13, 1856. During the Uprising, he was kept under nazarbandh at Amherst House in Fort William.