Read the passage and answer the questions:
Awadh in Revolt
Lord Dalhousie’s annexations created disaffection in all the areas and principalities that were annexed, but nowhere more so than in the kingdom of Awadh in the heart of North India. Here, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled on the plea that the region was being misgoverned. “The British government also wrongly assumed that Wajid Ali Shah was an unpopular ruler. On the contrary, he was widely loved, and when he left his beloved Lucknow, many followed him all the way to Kanpur, singing songs of lament.” The widespread sense of grief and loss at the Nawab’s exile was recorded by many contemporary observers. One wrote: “The life has gone out of the body, and the body of this town has been left lifeless.... There was no street or market and house which did not wail out the cry of agony in separation from Jan-i-Alam.” One folk song bemoaned that “the honourable English came and took the country.” “The emotional upheaval was aggravated by immediate material losses. “The removal of Nawab led to the dissolution of the court and its culture. Thus, a whole range of people—musicians, dancers, poets, artisans, cooks, retainers, administrative officials, and so on—lost their livelihood.
On what grounds Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Region was being misgoverned
The passage says that Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled on the plea that the region was being misgoverned. Misgovernment was one of the pleas the British used to annex kingdoms, as the refusal to recognise adoption was another.
The idea that the Nawab was unpopular was only a British assumption, and a wrong one: the passage says he was widely loved, and many people followed him from Lucknow all the way to Kanpur, singing songs of lament.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.2 ‘The life was gone out of the body’ … Lord Dalhousie’s annexations created disaffection in all the areas and principalities that were annexed but nowhere more so than in the kingdom of Awadh in the heart of North India. Here, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled to Calcutta on the plea that the region was being misgoverned. The British government also wrongly assumed that Wajid Ali Shah was an unpopular ruler. On the contrary, he was widely loved, and when he left his beloved Lucknow, there were many who followed him all the way to Kanpur singing songs of lament.…” |