Saeed Naqvi | Is Naseer right? That Hyderabad more ‘cultured’ than Lucknow?
Published Dec 11, 2020, 10:10 am IST
Updated Dec 11, 2020, 10:10 am IST
Both cities were around, their culture intact, till 1947
Charminar in Old City of Hyderabad (DC photo)
I don’t know when the interview was done but I saw it on YouTube last week. Naseeruddin Shah dismissed Lucknow as a centre of culture and praised Hyderabad sky-high by comparison. Naseer’s right but there’s a reason why Lucknow lost out in the culture stakes with both Hyderabad and Lahore. Both cities were around, their “culture” intact, till 1947. Lucknow had begun to “die” in 1857, after the British exiled Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Metiabruz near Kolkata in late 1856, triggering 1857’s Great Uprising.