ABSTRACT
The chapter brings together examples which position nawabi architecture as an expression of excess, variety, theatricity, and plurality. It presents the architecture as an enactment and as an expression of interchangeability discussing its multivalence as a form of drag. In discussing multivalence, ambiguities, and plurality, the chapter elaborates on the word “multivalence” and its history in queer studies, noting the various examples of nawabi projects that were sites of unfixed and flexible identity, served varying purposes even though seemingly incongruent, and constituted overlapping realms. The chapter argues that the queer architecture of Lucknow sustained a culture of inclusivity. Pluralities of race, gender, and class found safe environments that fostered self-expression at the nawabi courts. These sites, thus, became grounds for the existing intersectional inhabitance to manifest. In discussing theatricity, the chapter argues that the architecture of the nawabs was an extension of their larger than life expressions—blurring the limits at which life in private apartments ended and began in the political arena of the court. Theatricity, thus, was exercised in the private day to day encounters as well as in exaggerated court proceedings. The nawabs’ exhibitionism, opulence, and self-indulgence—aware of the colonial gaze—challenged the colonial expectations of a ruler.
