Hauntings of Metiabruz: Urban Legends from The Mini-Lucknow of Kolkata
- October 31, 2022
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Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer
Barnak Das
Portrait of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the last ruler of Oudh
In 1856, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Oudh arrived in Calcutta from Lucknow. He was the last Nawab of Oudh and ruled for nine years until General Dalhousie, the Governor General of India deposed him of his throne on the pretext of misgovernance. The Shah’s plan was to travel to London and appeal before Queen Victoria herself and Kolkata was supposed to be a stopover before the final voyage to England. But unfortunately the Sepoy Mutiny broke off soon and the Shah was imprisoned under suspicion at Fort William for twenty-six months. After he was released there was no hope of regaining his lost claim, the revolts of 1857 had completely changed the political landscape. The exiled Nawab focused on building the shadow of the city that he was forced to leave, with Metiabruz becoming a mini-Lucknow inside the British capital. During his exile he transformed his refuge by building imambaras, palaces and mosques and even a zoo. It is said that he spent an annual twelve lakh rupees from his income to build and decorate the city. Today, the neighbourhood of Metiabruz has developed into an urban ghetto, unrecognisable from the city it was in the 19th century. The death of the Nawab and the extension of the Kolkata port into Garden Reach along with staunch British policies to erase any living memory of Wajid Ali soon led to Metiabruz crumble down into a ghost of its former self. After the extension of the Kolkata port into Garden Reach, Metiabruz, like all other docks, became a den of criminal activity. Following India’s independence and the liberation of Bangladesh, the area became a shelter for Muslim refugees who migrated from the other side of the border.
The story of Metiabruz’s fall from grace is a haunting in itself. But there also exist many legends about this place. The hauntings of Garden Reach shipyard, near Metiabruz, are urban legends unknown even to some of Kolkata’s citizens. According to one legend, on a dark rainswept night, a deck foreman named Maguni Raut walked towards a German ship to unload its cargo at the jetty. While doing his job he heard a beautiful female voice singing to him. Mesmerised by the sweet music, he followed the trail of the voice. But it seemed to him that the closer he got the farther the source moved away. On his way he stumbled across the train tracks of the railway marshalling yard. Here, to his horror, Raut discovered a male body lying diagonally across the tracks with blood soaking all the ground near it. Raut, thinking that a train must have caused the accident, yelled for help. But it was almost midnight and no one answered his call. Hence he rushed to a nearby shed to call the dock hospital. Soon, an ambulance and medical staff arrived at the spot, but to Raut’s surprise there was nothing where he previously saw the body! The tracks were clean and there was no evidence of any blood. In another incident, Ansari Islam, a crain operator at the dock experienced a terrifying supernatural confrontation. He was sleeping in his crane’s cabin at night when suddenly he woke up to metallic sounds coming from the top of his cabin. At first he thought that any colleague might be pranking him, but soon the sound became so loud that Islam thought tha the roof might collapse. He rushed out and with his own eyes saw a headless cloaked figure rushing down from the steps of the crane and vanishing into the darkness.
View of Calcutta from Garden Reach; Sir Charles D’Oyly, 1781–1845, British, active in India, Garden Reach – Calcutta, undated.
Many locals believe that the hauntings are because of the supernatural curse of the ill-fated Nawab Wajid Ali. The Nawabs court in exile was filled with intrigue, violence and brutal murders. The murder of Munsarimwali Gauhar, a famed courtesan who accompanied the ruler from Lucknow, is well known. Jealous of the Nawabs’ affection over Gauhar, the chief Begum of Wajid Ali plotted with another courtesan, named Chunewali Hydari, to burn Gauhar alive and place it as an accident. Gauhar died by burning while performing a musical in 1883, just four years before the Nawabs’ death. Since then, many dock workers have reported witnessing recreations of the fire with terrified screams and flaming figures.
Returning back to the haunting of deck foreman Raut, there is a story that perhaps finds an explanation to the incident. Mir Aman Ali was a handsome pigeon handler in the court of the Nawab. He developed a close relationship with Abrasi, a young water carrier girl whom the Nawab later married and made his Begum. Aman and Abrasi’s relationship soon irked the interest of Ghulam Abbas, who has himself attracted to Abrasi. Ghulam Abbas, enraged about the affairs of Aman Ali reported the incident to the Nawab. There is no record of what happened after, but some say that Aman’s body was found in a narrow lane outside the royal complex.
Grave of Wajid Ali Shah inside the Sibtainabad Imambara, Metiabruz
The most well known is perhaps the legend surrounding the son of Wajid Ali, Mirza Birjis Qadr. A young Birjis was placed on the throne of Lucknow at the age of ten when his father was exiled to Kolkata. After the Sepoy Mutiny, Birjis and his mother Hazrat Mahal fled to Nepal fearing for their life. Eventually pardoned by the British, Birjis made his way to Metiabruz four years after his fathers death and demanded the British Government to pay him a higher stipend than that of his brother. He also demanded the full charge of the royal household at Metiabruz. Alarmed by this developments,Uzma Begum, the mother of Birjis’s half brother, decided that Birjis must be eliminated. So, she and her royal ladies planned upon a coup. Birjis was presented with a royal feast with seven different kinds of Pulao in celebration of some event. But one of the pulao was spiked with poison. After eating this lavish meal Birjis died of food poisoning within hours.
References
Chakraborty, Y. (2021, November 23). Ghosts of Garden Reach, whare history speaks [Blog]. Get Bengal.
https://www.getbengal.com/details/ghosts-of-garden-reach-where-historys-speaks
Guzashta lakhnow yani hindustan mein mashriqi tamaddun ka akhri namoona—Maulana abdul haleem sharar lakhnavi. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2022, from
Samajdar, S. (1963). Purano Kolkatar Bhuture Bari.
