page_title: Birjis Qadr
section_title: Early life and enthronement
hierarchical_section_title: Birjis Qadr / Early life and enthronement
caption_attribution_description: English: From left to right&#160;: Wajid Ali Shah, Birjis Qadr, Begum Hazrat Mahal
context_page_description: Birjis Qadr was the Nawab of Awadh from 1857 until 1858.
  Following the outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny, Qadr's mother appointed him monarch of the state in 1857 and she became his regent. Although they provided stiff resistance to the British forces, they fled to Kathmandu in Nepal the following year after the capture of Lucknow. In Kathmandu, he became a poet and organised mushairas.
  In 1887, he returned to India and moved to Metiabruz, a neighbourhood of Kolkata. In 1893, he was allegedly murdered by his own relatives.
context_section_description: Qadr was born in August 1845 at Qaisar Bagh, Lucknow, Oudh State, to Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal. In 1856, Qadr's father Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was deposed by the British on the pretext of mis-governance, and was exiled to Metiabruz, a neighbourhood of Calcutta (present-day Kolkata).
  In 1857, the Sepoy Mutiny erupted against the East India Company, with Begum Hazrat leading the rebels in Awadh. A decisive victory by the rebel forces in the Battle of Chinhat forced the British to take refuge in The Residency (eventually resulting in the Siege of Lucknow). On 5 June, eleven-year old Qadr was declared the Nawab of Awadh by his mother Begum Hazrat under the active persuasion of Jailal Singh, the chief spokesman of the rebel army; his coronation was widely supported by court-nobles. Historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee notes that though the rebel army allowed Begum Hazrat to rule the state on Qadr's behalf, they had carved out a large degree of autonomy. Qadr subsequently wrote to Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah I, asking for confirmation of his regency. This was granted, and he was awarded the title of Wazir.
caption: From left to right: Qadr's father Wajid Ali Shah, Qadr, Qadr's mother Begum Hazrat Mahal
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