Lucknow

Lucknow's older story runs through Awadh, the fertile country between the Ganges and the Ghaghra, with a settlement on the Gomti long before it mattered politically; local tradition links the name to Lakshmana of the Ramayana. It grew under the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals as a provincial town, and its rise began only when the Mughal empire weakened and the governors of Awadh became rulers in practice. Asaf-ud-Daula moved the capital here from Faizabad in 1775.

The Nawabi century that followed built almost everything the city is known for. A famine in 1780 prompted the construction of the Bara Imambara as relief work, paid labour for thousands; the Rumi Darwaza and, later, the Chota Imambara, Chattar Manzil and a line of garden palaces along the river followed. The court was Shia and Persianate, patronising Urdu poetry, Kathak dance, courtesan culture, cooking and dress; the British stationed a Resident in the city and steadily took control of its revenues. In 1856 they deposed the last Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, and annexed Awadh.

The annexation helped trigger the rebellion of 1857. Lucknow's Residency was besieged for months, and the fighting, the relief and the recapture cost thousands of lives on both sides; Begum Hazrat Mahal led resistance in the city before retreating to Nepal. The British demolished large parts of the old city to clear fields of fire and left the Residency as a ruin. Lucknow became a centre of the independence movement, notably the Congress and Muslim League pact of 1916, and in 1947 became the capital of Uttar Pradesh, since when it has spread far beyond the Gomti as a government, university and service city.

Lucknow is the guardian of Awadhi tehzeeb, a code of courtesy that residents talk about constantly: polite forms of Urdu, indirect refusals, hospitality pressed on guests, and the celebrated exchange of 'pehle aap', which offers the other person the right to go first. The city was the great centre of Urdu poetry outside Delhi, with a mushaira tradition of poets reciting to an audience that answers back, and it remains a centre of Urdu publishing and of Shia scholarship, its majlis gatherings during Muharram among the largest in India.

The performing arts are as strong. The Lucknow gharana of Kathak developed in the Nawabi court under Wajid Ali Shah, himself a poet, dancer and composer, and thumri singing came out of the same setting; the Bhatkhande music institute continues the classical tradition. Craft is the other pillar: chikankari, white shadow-work embroidery on fine cotton, is stitched in thousands of homes and workshops in the old city, alongside zardozi metal-thread work, ittar perfume distilling and silver foil making.

Lucknow's identity is deliberately composite — the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of shared Hindu and Muslim custom is cited with pride, in shared festivals, shared kitchens and shrines visited by both. Cricket is followed keenly and the city has a Indian Premier League franchise and a large modern cricket stadium. Evening sociability is a ritual: walking, window-shopping and eating in Hazratganj, an activity local usage turned into the verb ganjing.

About 2.8 million people were counted in the city at the 2011 census and the urban area has grown substantially since, making it one of India's larger cities. As the state capital it runs on government: the legislature and secretariat, the High Court bench, state corporations and a very large body of public employees, along with universities, medical institutes and research bodies. Manufacturing is modest, concentrated in machine tools, aeronautics and processing, while the chikan and zardozi trades employ a large, mostly home-based and female workforce on low piece rates.

Residential life has shifted east. Gomti Nagar and the townships beyond it hold malls, apartment blocks, offices and schools, while the old city west of the river remains densely built and poorer, with narrow lanes and workshops. Commuting between them along the river roads is slow, and the metro has taken some of the pressure off the north-south corridor. New expressways have made Delhi and eastern Uttar Pradesh far quicker to reach by road.

The day begins early with markets and prayer, slows in the afternoon heat, and comes alive again after sunset, when Hazratganj fills, the Chowk kebab griddles start, and families take to the parks in Gomti Nagar. Winter smog, water supply and the pressure of population on schools and hospitals are the recurring complaints; the state's politics, decided in good part in this city, are followed closely by everyone.

Awadhi cooking is the reason many Indians come to Lucknow. Its method is dum pukht, slow cooking in a sealed pot so that meat, rice and spices finish together, and its balance favours fragrance over heat: saffron, cardamom, kewra and rose water rather than chilli. The galouti kebab, a soft patty of finely minced mutton said to have been created for a Nawab who had lost his teeth, is eaten with thin warqi parathas; the kakori kebab is a long, delicate seekh; shami, boti and pasanda kebabs fill out the range.

The city's biryani is pale, restrained and perfumed, distinct from Hyderabad's fiery version, and is often eaten with a light korma. Winter brings nihari, a slow-cooked stew eaten at breakfast with kulcha bread, and sheermal, a saffron bread with a sweet edge. Vegetarian Lucknow is substantial too: chaat, aloo tikki, dahi bhalla and the local matar, a spiced pea dish sold in winter, along with the ubiquitous puri and sabzi.

Sweets and drinks close the circle. Malai makhan, a light milk froth dusted with saffron and sugar, appears on cold mornings in the old city; there are kulfi, rabri, imarti and the dark habshi halwa, along with mawa-based sweets sold by weight. Meals end with paan, folded and spiced, and Lucknow's reputation for ittar means the same lanes sell perfume by the drop.