Contents – Lucknow’s Many Muslims (Issue 7)
Index – Lucknow’s Many Muslims (Issue 7)
Posts from the ‘Issue 7/Lucknow’s Many Muslims’ Category
Apr 15
28 Comments
Guest Editorial
By Prof. Nadeem Hasnain & Aseem Hasnain
Scholars have placed Lucknow as a space primarily constituted by the coming together of Awadhi and
Persian ways of meaning making, but open to influences from many other quarters. Lucknow’s past and
present show influence from the Kayastha communities from the Indo-Gangetic Plains, who formed the
backbone of the Nawabi and, later, colonial bureaucracy, Kashmiri Brahmins, who served the court, and
various Shia and Sunni cleric-scholar-poet refugees from Delhi and the Deccan, who came in search of
patronage
Lucknawiyat
By Mehru Jaffer
I imagine Lucknowiyat to be the art of receiving the other without prejudice and to cultivate a genuine
interest in the way of life of other human beings without being judgmental. When I find myself
celebrating virtues of charity, tolerance, generosity, good neighbourly conduct and taking solace in
spirituality inspired by concepts like insaane-e-kamil, or perfect human being, it is not my Muslimness
that is foremost in my heart but the more wholesome view of the world of Lucknowiyat.
Tughra Calligraphy in Lucknow and Calligrapher Syed Azeem Haider Jafri
By Saiyed Anver Abbas
Like other places, in Lucknow, too, calligraphers were required to demonstrate their calligraphic
excellence in the Tahsili form to present verses from the Quran in larger size as inscriptions on
religious buildings. Lucknow saw a Tughra inscribed on a religious building for the first time when an
imambara was built by Mir Zain-ul- Abidin Khan during Nawab Asaf-ud -Daulah’s rule. The Imambara was
decorated with Tughra in the Ghair Tahsili form with attributes of Allah, the titles of the Prophet and
the name of his daughter, Fatima, along with the names of twelve Imams.
The Tawa’ifs of Lucknow
By Nishat Haider
When the court and capital of Awadh was shifted from Faizabad to Lucknow by Asaf al-Daulah in 1775,
Lucknow became the locus of tawaif-bazi (courtesan culture). In his book Tarrikh-e-Farahbaksh, Mohammad
Faiz Baksh observed that the decline of Mughal Empire in the last quarter of the eighteenth century led
to the mass exodus of female performers, tawaifs, nautch girls, the poets and artists from Delhi to
Lucknow. Ensconced in the lavish houses in the bazaars of Chowk and Qaiserbagh, the tawa’ifs established
themselves as a notable group of women in the eighty-odd years that the Awadh dynasty had Lucknow as its
capital city, under the extravagant patronage of the Nawab, the connoisseurs of art, noblemen,
merchants, and the elite. The tawa’ifs are not simply prostitutes or entertainers.
Underneath the Census
By Joel Lee
I was intrigued, then, to find the old Lal Begi conundrum still agitating Lucknow census enumerators
sixty years after all that was supposed to have been settled. I was even more intrigued when the friends
I began to make in the Balmiki community led me to their Lal Beg shrines. These were small but active
shrines: shrines at which Muslims from neighboring bastis discreetly officiated, reading the fatihah and
rendering sacrificial animals halal. The old caste prophet was not dead, after all.
An Islamic Seminary of Lucknow: Cloister or College?
By Christopher Taylor
In modern India, critics of madrasa education have termed it a ‘medieval’ and disorganized form of
learning with little emphasis on job skills or modern subjects. Yet, existing urban madrasas such as
Nadwa in Lucknow are accepting more students every year and new ones are opening in even more remote
villages. This growth suggests that a sizable number of Muslims do not view madrasas as part of a
burdensome past to be cast away in order to join India’s modern future. For many people I spoke with in
Lucknow during my two years living there, Nadwa is still a valid route for educational advancement.
Conversations with Two Muslim Friends in Lucknow
By Akhilesh Dixit
A strong supporter of education, Salim bhai keeps on asking vegetablesellers and other small shopkeepers
to send their children to school rather than let them loiter at their shops. He believes that once
educated, these kids will have the ability to question the misdeeds of our political and religious
leaders who have turned the community into a mere vote bank. He sums up, “Ab main maulviyon ke ilm ki to
izzat karta hoon magar unki nahi” (Now I don’t respect the clerics. I just respect knowledge).
Holi among Lucknow’s Muslims
By Himanshu Bajpai
The joy, the enthusiasm, and the energy with which Muslims in Lucknow have been known to celebrate Holi
is one of the reasons why Lucknow has long been famous for its communal harmony. In the heart of the old
city, Chowk’s famous Holi-baaraat (marriage procession) has been supervised and arranged for by Hindus
and Muslims together since 1947. This procession, a symbol of Lucknow’s shared festivals, passes through
predominantly Muslim areas like Chowk, Victoria Street, Akbari Gate, and Raja Bazaar.
The Attitudes of Lucknow’s Muslims towards Jews, Israel, and Zionism
By Navras Jaat Aafreedi
While a Holocaust film retrospective, the first ever in South Asia, was in progress at two universities
in Lucknow – the Bābāsāhéb Bhīmrāo Ambédkar University and the University of Lucknow – in September –
October 2009, the two most popular Urdu daily newspapers there, Rāshtriya Sahāra and Aag, published
stories denying the Holocaust. The articles were largely based on the arguments made by the well-known
Holocaust deniers, viz., David Irving, Harry Elmer Barnes, David Hoggan, Paul Ressinier, and Arthur R.
Butz.
“Lost in Transition”? Muslim Middle Class in Lucknow
By Stefanie Strulik
Muslim middle class started to flourish again with the oil boom in the Middle East and labour migration
and returning remittances. The ‘new’ Muslim middle class at times expressed its pursuit for upward
social mobility in the form of a new religiosity and conservative understanding of Islam, as acquired
during labour migration in the Gulf or Saudi Arabia.
Why so few Muslims in Lucknow live across the Gomti
By Raphael Susewind
The map by and large confirms that most Muslims live in old Lucknow, apart from select pockets across
the river, some of which – like Ujariyaon, the isolated dark area in the East – are old Muslim villages
now surrounded by modern townships (see a more in-depth analysis here). That the old city has many
Muslim inhabitants can be expected and explained through the city’s history; residential patterns tend
not to change too quickly, one inherits one’s family home.
The vanishing culture and traditions of Lucknow
By Uzair Hasan Rizvi
Once very famous and rich for its tehzeeb, (etiquette and traditions), Lucknow is fast losing traditions
and practices, which showcased its cultural significance. Chowk, the bazaar of yester- years, and the
pivot around which many traders and artisans grew, has transformed.
Photo-Essay: A Day in ‘Purana’ Lucknow
By Maulshree Gangwar
A Photo-Essay on different shades of Lucknow, the eternal city of the Nawabs.
Café Dissensus 