E-Paper
‘Lucknow deserves place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List’
Well-known British scholar Rosie Llewellyn-Jones says Lucknow, that boasts of structures like the Bada Imambada, the Rumi Gate and the Chhota Imambada, qualifies for the list but the issue has to be pushed.
LUCKNOW Well-known British scholar Rosie Llewellyn-Jones feels Lucknow, that boasts of structures like the Bada Imambada, the Rumi Gate and the Chhota Imambada definitely has the potential to feature on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
“But it needs to be pushed earnestly for that,” said Jones in response to a query by a scholar during an interactive session on “Colonial Lucknow” held at Avadh Girls’ Degree College on Wednesday. She was in conversation with former bureaucrat Zohra Chatterji, talking about her latest book “Empire 1857”.
The historian has been coming to Lucknow since 1972 but she has not tired of the city. The city is also always eager to welcome the Lucknowphile.
She said, “The exciting thing about history is that one never really gets to the end of it. There’s always something new to find out. It never really ends, it always goes on.”
The author, who has a string of books on Lucknow, said, “Nawab Wajid Ali Shah is known to have commented that he preferred the animals in his menagerie to most of his wives, so he wasn’t really a very polite or good husband. He preferred spending a heavy part of his dole from the British to embellishing portions of the Matiaburj abode in silver rather than on the wives who accompanied him there.”
Asked if Nawab Wajid Ali shah was a “good” husband to his 365 wives, Rosie said, “He was an artiste and an evolved intellectual. But I wouldn’t say he was a very nice husband… and seeing the tally of 365, one cannot really blame him for not giving equal attention to all of them. It wasn’t humanly possible, was it?”
Talking about whether or not one would say that Begum Hazrat Mahal was a favourite wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, Rosie quipped, “ She was his 13th wife and not one of the four nikkah wives--- in fact he had a temporary ‘mutah’ marriage with her, so I wouldn’t call her that.”
Alliance Francaise is organizing the lecture series and was represented by its president, Nishi Pandey, as also the moderator, Zohra Chatterjee. The event was attended by Nur Khan, Amina Faridi, Jayant Krishna, AGDC principal Bina Rai, faculty and staff, past and present students.
