Uttar Pradesh Elections: In Rampur, A Royal Battle

Entering Rampur immediately conjures up two contesting images of the city. One is an image inspired by royal lineage. Second, the image that was created of Rampur under the rule of Azam Khan. Rampur is in election mode and on the day of polls, Outlook tried to look at both these images to gauge the pulse of Rampur. 

Though these two images of Rampur do not fit in any overarching prism suggesting a class difference, the imprints of two different ruling families are very visible. One image is known through music, cuisine, and royal swagger, and the second is, where artists, craftsmen, and daily wage workers are struggling to survive and are forced to change their traditional occupations.

The first image is represented by Raza library founded by Nawab Faizullah Khan in 1774, Noor Mahal and eight gates out of which only two have survived, others have been brought down to rubble, the pride with which people talk about the royal history of Rampur, Music, cuisine and fond memories of old Nawabs.

The bustle of e-rickshaw drivers, shoppers, factory workers, white cap-clad Muslim man walking, also women in Burkha claiming some public space, beggars roaming around to get some money, two gates named Bab-e-Hayat, Bab-e-Nijat and Gandhi Samadhi, placed in between them, Jauhar University, represent the second image.

The argument one often hears that Azam Khan – the tallest Muslim leader of the Samajwadi Party and has represented Rampur for nine terms – is the leader of rickshaw pullers, vegetable vendors, and cycle repairers – in other words, represents a working-class sensibility. 

But that is not at all an uncontested claim. We met Gulshan, who runs a Paan shop just outside Rampur railway station, and is disgruntled with Khan, “Azam Khan has benefited people who were close to him only, Abdullah’s friends who had small shops, now roam around in Scorpios, bullet. While Nawab’s family was not like that. They were loved by everyone.” 

A 100-meter away was standing Nawab Ahmad, a porter who has been working at the station for the last three decades. He did overhear us, so when asked about Khan and Nawab he avoided speaking much, but said, “when we reach out to our MLA, we get responses.” 

Saddam Market, half a KM walk from the classic Raza Library, an 85-year-old, Karnal Khursoon Miya, also known as “Karnal Papa” runs a shop of knives, for which Rampur has been known. He rued over the diminishing charm of the business of knives, saying that all who kept this business alive died or shifted to other works. “lack of political support destroyed our business.” 

He thinks, in the period of Nawab Zulfikar Ali Khan Bahadur, father of Kazim Ali, who is the candidate against Azam Khan – situations were favourable to selling knives. “He used to assure us that he had told the administration to not disturb us. You do your work.” 

Miya does not like politicians. “What did they do to the poor, they are still suffering.” “Azam is no different.”

Rampur is also known for caps. Outlook met Muhammad Zubair, who told us about its history. “Nawab Raza Ali Khan, and Nawab Faizullah when they founded Rampur, invited craftsmen from outside Rampur. These caps are worn by royal families and the artwork on these caps is all done by hand, and you will find them only in Rampur. There are three main types of caps – Raza cap, Hamid cap, and Sayyed cap, popularised by Nawabs.”

But, Kazim Ali, a descendant of the Nawab of Rampur believes that knives and caps do not represent Rampur, but what legacy his family has left does. “You know about knives because Bollywood romanticised it.” 

“Whose collection is in the Raza library? Who established Rampur cuisine? My family. Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana of Hindustani music, which is one of the best music Gharanas of India, was established by my family. Talk about these things, they represent Rampur.”

Raza Library, which has a rare collection of 17,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and Turkish languages, and an exquisite collection of paintings, is one of the most important libraries of India. “All nawabs were great patrons of learning and the learned ulema, poets, painters, calligraphers, and musicians - enjoyed their patronage.”  After independence, the library was brought under the management of the trust, which was created on 6th April 1951 under the Ministry of Culture.

The food of Rampur – Rampuri Korma, Biryani, Zarda, and Halwa, are the exports of the city to the world over. The “habshi halwa” goes to various countries. Parvesh Khan, who sells this Halwa in over twenty countries and has had a shop in his grandfather Hakim’s name since 1930, said, “This is a South African dish, Nawab brought a chef from there, who cooked it and after that, it became a famous dish of Rampur. People of Rampur, who went to other countries, popularised it.”

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A few minutes' walk from the railway station comes Ambedkar Park, near Jauhar Ali road. In front of the park stands a small statue of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a proponent of Hindutva ideology. That statue has been shifted from its earlier spot. In 2005, this statue was allegedly removed when Azam Khan was a minister in the SP government. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, currently the Union minister of minority affairs, who has been the MP from Rampur Lok Sabha got stay orders from the court when Khan attempted to build a decorated gateway there in 2012. The spot is a matter of contention for both the BJP and SP.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is the first BJP candidate to win from Rampur Lok Sabha in 1998, and he has a loyal following. Local journalists believe that BJP is an assertive party here, but in this election, they are not campaigning as much as it was before the SP candidate was announced. 46- year-old, Akash Saxena, son of a four-time BJP MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena is contesting from BJP.

“We used to see hoardings and door-to-door campaigns of BJP. But now, one lone e-rickshaw would keep roaming around with BJP banners,” said Shiv Kumar, a local. There is a sense that BJP is deliberately doing it. BJP seemed to have realised that their interference in the election may result in the victory of Khan.

Another important name in Rampur is Jaya Prada, who won twice from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 on the ticket of the Samajwadi Party. Prada was a star campaigner of SP when Khan introduced her to the politics of Rampur and helped her win. In 2010, Prada and Amar Singh were expelled from the party, which political commentators say was due to “her allegiance to Amar Singh and not listening to Khan, who helped her win.”

Kazim Ali thinks, “Azam didn’t want two centers of power. When Jaya Prada won, people started to reach out to her instead of him because has an independent identity. That angered Khan.”

BJP in 2019 fielded Prada from Rampur against Azam Khan. This time, Khan was fierce in his attack. In a campaign, Khan made an indirect reference to the colour of Prada’s underwear, linking it to RSS. Which prompted the election commission to ban him. Despite that, he won this seat. Which shows the impact of Khan on the people of Rampur.

When Outlook visited the rally of Akhilesh Yadav in Rampur on 11 February, we found that, even in the absence of Khan, his loyal supporters are not taking back their support. Shadab Khan, a young supporter said, “a wave of change will come in UP, but not in Rampur, only Azam Khan will win. There was no development in Rampur before Azam Khan, only he built schools, colleges, and hospitals.”

Balbinder Singh, a local from the Sikh community says that for the first time he is seeing this close a fight in the election. “Azam’s absence is affecting SP because this time the candidate fighting against him is the Nawab. So, this will be a very interesting battle to see.”