ABSTRACT
The introduction to the book foregrounds and challenges the ubiquitous dismissal of queer expressions as a reading too much into things and, through the poetry of nawab Asaf-ud-Daula of Lucknow which celebrates homosexual desire, positions the politics of Awadh. Asaf and Wajid were both subjected to colonial ridicule—one on the pretext of his homosexuality and the other on the pretext of being effeminate in mannerisms. To situate this ridicule, the chapter exhaustively brings out words of disdain in the colonial archive that describe Lucknow architecture commissioned by the two nawabs. Familiarizing the readers with a brief history of nawabs, the chapter then provides details of the nawabs’ non-normative expressions and their subsequent colonial dismissal. The chapter draws upon queer studies to make a case for reclaiming the words of derision and use them to reveal the capacity of nawabi architecture to contest and discomfort the colonial gaze. The chapter also makes a case for queer reading as a strategy in countering the colonial archive and provides a brief outline of the method of queer reading undertaken in the book.
