From Bahu to Badshah: The Begums of Awadh and Political Ideology in Early-Colonial North India

Focusing on two particularly influential women, Bahu Begum (r. 1754-1814) and Badshah Begum (r. 1814-37), Abbott examines developments in the begums’ political thought from the late-18th until the mid-19thcentury. He argues that the begums responded vigorously to challenges from the Awadh rulers and from the Company by drawing upon both Islamic legal and Mughal imperial traditions, as well as on a shared, dynamic Anglo-Indian political culture emerging in the late eighteenth century.