City wants rare papers back

LUCKNOW: How did the British in India manage to use and reuse their infamous Divide and Rule policy for hundreds of years? Or what was the internal administrative policies employed against the Nawabs of Awadh and the rulers of India as a whole? Questions like these might see an open window if the 210-year-old Parliamentary Papers (PP) from London’s House of Common containing the communication between the Governor General and the secret committee, up for online auction, are procured.Historians, cultural and history enthusiasts, students and people in Lucknow feel that the onus is on the state government to make efforts to bring the documents back to Awadhi soil.
The first edition copy of the PP that relates to correspondence and documents, before and after the Treaty of 1801 between Nawab Saadat Ali Khan and the British East India Company, reached the internet on Thursday. Historian Roshan Taqui said, “it might give answers to several unanswered questions”.
“The British policy of creating public opinion and propaganda around the heir apparent declared by a ruler in any part of India, and Awadh, was the highlight of their rule. For example, King Naseer-ud-Din Haider had declared his heir apparent but he later changed it probably under pressure from the British. This happened with several other Nawabs as well, be it Nawab Asif-ud-Daulah or Wazeer Ali or Munna Jaan,” said Taqui.
Stressing on the intervention of the state government in the matter, historian Ravi Bhatt said, “The documents might hold facts about Awadh and in that case, them being part of our intangible heritage, the government should try to procure them.” The sentiment was echoed by student Shruti Godhikar, “I was amazed to know that papers about secret meetings before and after 1801 are available. We should make efforts to get them.”
Worried about the state of research on Awadh's subject in the city itself, historian Syed Anwar Abbas opined, “These documents should wake up the university that has not been able to institute a chair on Awadh yet. If the claim to the documents being original is true, we have no related documents available as base here for verification. It is both for the government and the university to consider getting these documents to facilitate better research work on Awadh.”