Massacre of Benares

The Massacre of Benares is the name given to the minor and unsuccessful insurrection of Wazir Ali Khan, deposed Nawab of Awadh, at Benares in northern India in 1799, in which five British East India Company officials and civilians were murdered. Wazir Ali's uprising was unsuccessful and resulted in his imprisonment for the remainder of his life.

Oudh State, the Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh, was a princely state in the Awadh region of noth-central India during the British Raj, occupying the plain of the Ganges and immediately south and west of Nepal. Its capital was Lucknow, one of the richest of the northern Hindu cities. The British Resident in Lucknow, up until July 1796, was George Frederick Cherry; the role of the Resident was to gather intelligence and, to the extent possible, shape events such that they favoured the interests of the East India Company. Cherry excelled as a spy-master and was inevitably associated with, or interested in, the intrigues of the Nawab's court and state, to the extent that he was withdrawn to Benares in 1796 for his own safety having made sufficient enemies locally.

By September 1797, when Oudh's ruler, Asaf-ud-Daula, died, it was a vassal state to the British in the form of the East India Company, which more directly controlled all Indian territory surrounding Oudh. The British, under the Governor-Generalship of Sir John Shore, felt themselves 'compelled' to take a hand in the succession, the choice appearing to rest between Wazir Ali Khan, the adopted son of Asaf-ud-Daula, or his uncle, Saadat Ali Khan II, half-brother of Asaf-ud-Daula and lineal descendent of Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab preceding Asaf-ud-Daula. Initially satisfying themselves that Wazir Ali was the heir apparent, the British selected him as Nawab; but quickly came to regret their decision when it became plain that the 17-year old Ali did not intend to co-operate with British wishes. Notably, he demoted and isolated Zehseen Ali Khan, a minister who under Asaf-ud-Daula was identified as being sympathetic to the British; and he acted in a threatening fashion when Shore visited Lucknow.

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