Nawab Wajid Ali Shah
| Nawab Wajid Ali Shah | |||||
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| Mirza (Royal title) King of Oudh |
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 5th King of Awadh
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| Reign | 13 February 1847 – 11 February 1856 | ||||
| Predecessor | Amjad Ali Shah | ||||
| Successor | Birjis Qadra | ||||
| Born |
30 July 1822 Lucknow, British India |
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| Died | 21 September 1887 (aged 65) Metiabruz, Garden Reach, Calcutta, British India |
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| Dynasty | Awadh | ||||
| Father | Amjad Ali Shah | ||||
| Religion | Shia Islam | ||||
| Full name | |
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| Abul Mansoor Meerza Muhammed WAJID ALI SHAH |
Wajid Ali Shah (Urdu: واجد علی شاہ) (30 July 1822 – 1 September 1887) was the tenth and last Nawab of Awadh, holding the position for 9 years, from 13 February 1847 to 11 February 1856.
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah's first wife was Begum Hazrat Mahal, a woman who has gone down in history for her valour and courage in standing up to the might of the British forces in the revolt of 1857.
His kingdom, long protected by the British under treaty, was eventually annexed bloodlessly on 11 February 1856, two days before the ninth anniversary of his coronation. The Nawab was exiled to Garden Reach in Metiabruz, then a suburb of Kolkata, where he lived out the rest of his life on a generous pension. He was a poet, playwright, dancer and great patron of the arts. He is widely credited with the revival of Kathak as a major form of classical Indian dance.
Wajid Ali Shah succeeded to the throne of Awadh when the kingdom was well past its heyday. The British had annexed much of the kingdom under the treaty of 1801, and had impoverished Awadh by imposing a hugely expensive, British-run army and repeated demands for loans. The independence of Awadh in name was tolerated by the British only because they still needed a buffer state between their presence in the East and South, and the remnants of the Mughal Empire to the North.
Wajid Ali Shah was most unfortunate to have ascended the throne of Oudh at a time when the British East India Company was determined to grab the coveted throne of prosperous Awadh, which was "the garden, granary, and queen-province of India"- the royal predecessors and successors of Awadh were one of the major threats to the Mughal Empire before Britain's attempt at usurping full political control in India.
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