THE COMING OF THE REVOLT IN AWADH 17 this issue is mentioned as Saiyid Muhammad 'Abdul Qadir. The editor and publisher of Delh i Urdu Akh bar was Saiyad Abdullah. The National Archives of India has 15 issues of this newspaper.2 The earliest available issue is No.10, Vol.19 (8 March 1857) and the last No.37, Vol.19 (13 September 1857). Though most of the issues relate to the period of the revolt, there are a fewissues (Nos.10, 19 &20 of Vol.19) in the series that describe events in Awadh in the period just before the outbreak of the revolt of 1857. It appears from all the three papers that the annexation of Awadh in February 1856 led to widespread resentment among the people of Awadh. Contrary to the "official" view that prior to the outbreak of the Mutiny on 30 June 1857,3 there were no apparent indications of discontent in Awadh against the British over the Annexation, these papers reveal a growing sense of resentment that ultimately found in the Revolt its most bitter expression. Towards the close of April 1857, the editor of Tilism informs us that sepoy mutinies had broken out at Amausa and Mandiyaon in Lucknow.4 In the early part of May 1857 a cantonment (Chhawni) in Lucknowwas set on fire causing extensive damage to the residence of a major sergeant and the death of several Indian foot-men' (Piyadas)? It is certain from these journals that discontent against the British was not confined to the sepoys but was also widespread among the civil population. On 23 February 1857, in a riot in Faizabad, the rioteers seriously injured an English officer and some of his soldiers.6 Resentment against the British annexation, naturally, was more pronounced among the erstwhile ruling classes and the landed families, whose attachment and loyalty (namakhalali) to the deposed ruling house is lavishly praised in the Urdu journals. The Sadiq-ul-Akbbar reported that in January 1857, some Rajput women of Awadh, by way of a "joke" (mazaq) beat up a servant of the Company so seriously that he almost died. The thanedar arrested the women, and to get them released, their men folk attacked police station, killed four constables (barqandaz) and injured several others. In this riot, reports the paper there were in all a dozen fatal casualties.7 The Tilism informs us that the son of a high noble at the court of Awadh, Ihtimam-ud-daula, refused to accept service under the Company nor did he accept its pension, out of what it describes as feelings of "loyalty (namakhalali) and sacrifice (janfishani)" for the deposed ruling house. "He is one of the many, says the editor, who are not well-disposed towards the government, nor do they like its way of doing things."8