ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the key role that Husainabad Trust played in keeping Shi‘a institutions going long after the decline of Nawabs of Awadh and the funding it provided for the largest manifestation of Shi‘a identity in Awadh – Muharram. After partition and decline of sources of patronage from Hyderabad, the Trust provided an element of continuity to Shi‘as of Lucknow to make their political identity felt and keep Shi‘a institutions going. Elaborate Muharram processions became an important aspect of Lucknow’s landscape at a time when court patronage declined with the decline of pensioners of the court of Awadh. In independent India, the Trust had to evolve a new working relationship with the state as waqf property increasingly came to be encroached upon and when funding was crucial for the Shi‘as for Lucknow. However, it was not without its problems which the chapter points out. The first question was to ascertain whether the Husainabad endowment was a waqf or a trust and what role it would play in post-independence India. There were many claimants to the Trust funds which the new state had to contend with along with evolving a new scheme of management for better management of Trust expenditure and finances which were in trouble.
