The House of Awadh : A Hidden Tragedy
Tucked within Delhi's Ridge Forest stands Malcha Mahal, a crumbling monument that became the unlikely home of one of modern India's most baffling families. Begum Wilayat Mahal, along with her children Princess Sakina and Prince Ali Raza, claimed descent from the royal House of Awadh. Whether you believe that claim or not, their story is genuinely difficult to shake off. It began with a gesture of startling defiance: the family arriving at New Delhi Railway Station in 1975 and simply staying there, camped on the platform for a full decade. From that strange, stubborn act of protest to their final years inside a deteriorating Mughal-era hunting lodge, Abhimanyu Kumar traces a story that touches on colonial grievances, the violent ruptures of Partition, and the question of what happens to those India's new republic quietly decided to forget. Short, sharp moments of detail sit alongside broader historical currents here, giving the narrative an unsettling texture. It's part biography, part ghost story, part indictment. The family's isolation, their pride, their poverty, and their refusal to be ordinary are all examined with care. For readers drawn to the stranger corners of South Asian history, this is a quietly compelling account of identity, inheritance, and the cost of being left behind.
- Author: Abhimanyu Kumar
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
- Genre: Journalism & Media Studies
- ISBN: 978-9365693690
- Pages: 352 pages