The unsung hero

the news that lucknow residency would be getting a befitting museum with a gallery dedicated to the heroes of the indian freedom struggle, was quite heartening. but i found it very surprising that though asaf-ud-daulah and saadat ali khan, who have not done much in this regard, will find a place in it, nawab wazir ali khan has not even been mentioned.nawab wazir ali khan, whose armed struggle against the britishers in 1799, established certain precedents which were freely imitated in the first war of independence and were thus a fore-runner to it. i would also like to mention that the cultural and architectural contributions of asaf and saadat ali in the annals of lucknow are undeniable, yet both were responsible for trunkation of awadh under them and always played a slavish second to the britishers. on the contrary, wazir ali established a fully centralised all-powerful 'nawabi' in the internal administration. but, due to the machinations of the britishers and the nobles of awadh, he was deposed on the concocted charges of not being the son asaf and pensioned off to benaras. this is where he unsuccessfully hatched a number of anti-british plots to regain his lost glory. then, in conjunction with the zamindars and the people of benaras and awadh, he launched an armed struggle against the britishers on january 14, 1799 at benaras. during the course of this struggle 4 englishmen ad their indian supporters were killed while houses and property was looted. wazir ali continued his armed struggle in bhutwal and the gorakhpur region till he was again defeated in a hotly contested battle and sought refuge at jaipur. but here he was betrayed by the raja and handed over to the britishers (december, 1799), who confined him in a cage-like apartment in the fort william till he died in 1817. we see nothing but a magnified display of all that wazir ali did on the memorable day in the armed flare-ups of 1857.