French
DeutschKaukab Quder Meerza
Kaukab Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza (also Dr M Kaukab) was an Indian scholar of the Urdu language[1]
A specialist in the literature of Awadh State during the reign of its last Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887), Meerza taught Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University, retiring in 1993.[1] The Indian filmmaker, Satyajit Ray consulted with Meerza over many months during the writing of the screenplay for his 1977 award-winning film Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players), which was set in Awadh in the period immediately preceding the Indian rebellion of 1857.[2]
Meerza was an enthusiast of snooker; he refereed many tournaments and was the founder-secretary of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India.[1]
The last pensioner in the Awadh Pension Book of 1897 established by the British Raj and honoured by the Government of India after 1947, and the only surviving great-grandson of Wajid Ali Shah, Meerza died of complications from Covid-19 at age 87 in Kolkata on September 14, 2020.[2][1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Chaudhuri, Moumita (October 10, 2020), Jab chhor chale ... Nakhlau nagari: A portraiture of the recently departed Kaukab Quder, a man who lived his heritage, loved it, and never tried to ride it, The Telegraph, Kolkata, retrieved September 7, 2021
- ^ a b Banka, Neha (January 4, 2020), The real Prince of Awadh, Indian Express, retrieved September 7, 2021