The afterlives of Nawabi Lucknow: tahżīb, nostalgia, and emotions after 1947

Thesis

This thesis examines the idea of Lakhavi tahżīb as it has been articulated, felt, and performed after 1947. By focusing on groups outside Lucknow, it argues that communities have claimed an emotional affiliation with Lakhnavi tahżīb that informs the way they see themselves, perceive their past, and imagine their futures. Employing concepts from the History of Emotions, this thesis uncovers some of these visions to demonstrate the diverse ways in which nostalgia for Lucknow is adapted by multiple emotional communities. In doing so, it argues that the idea of Lakhnavi tahżīb begins to develop towards the beginning of the twentieth century as an idea tied to the loss of Nawabi political power and courtly patronage, consolidates in the mid-twentieth century focusing on both personal distinction and national progress, and becomes a commodified form of “authenticity” at the beginning of the twenty-first century while simultaneously becoming a symbol of multiculturalism in an increasingly global, yet polarised, South Asian context. Using multi-archival sources including popular histories and memoirs in Urdu and Hindi, recipe books, oral histories, and literary texts, this thesis argues that an understanding of tahżīb as a distinct emotional style and idiom for personal and collective distinction inspires how Lucknow is represented and remembered across cultural forms today. This study contributes to an emotion-centred and multi-sited approach to nostalgia for Lucknow and an aristocratic Muslim past, challenging the place of nostalgia as a regressive force and asserting the importance of studying Lucknow outside of Lucknow itself.

Authors: Farhan, NZZ

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-m8kq7wrzo
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: nostalgia; Lucknow; authenticity; Nawabs of Awadh; tahzib; 1947 partition; shi'a; migration; modern South Asia; history writing; identity; history of emotions; pakistan; cultural history
• Subjects: Oral history; Postcolonialism; History, Modern; Pakistan; Lucknow (India)--History; History of Emotions; Oudh (India)--History; South Asia; Nostalgia; Collective memory