Descendants of the royal family of Awadh have decided to move court to demand a “respectable” pension, or wasika, against the loan their ancestors gave to the East India Company.

They claim that the British used to pay the wasika in silver coins. The payments were made with nickel coins after Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister after Independence, leading to a sharp drop in value. Subsequent governments switched to the rupee, further devaluing the wasika.

“We’ll move court soon and make the British high commission one of the parties besides the central and the state governments,” said Shikoh Azad, general secretary of the Royal Family of Awadh, an organisation of descendants of the nawabs of Awadh.

Historical records show that Bahu Begum, the principal consort of the third nawab of Oudh — Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula (1754 to 1775) — had lent the East India Company ₹4 crore to do business on the condition that they would pay back each member of the royal family and their employees a monthly pension in silver coins. She had signed the agreement with Nathaniel Middleton, an official of the East Indian Company.

Azad, who is a descendant of former Awadh ruler Mohammad Ali Shah (1837-1842) and gets ₹281.45 per month, said: “Shah had also given a loan of ₹12 lakh to the East India Company because they had begged the nawabs to help them in running their businesses. The British promised a pension in return, and it was called wasika. The successive governments kept defining the amount according to their wish. Currently, the government pays a cumulative ₹22,000 per month to over 800 members of the royal family, who live in Lucknow.”

Azad claimed that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had promised four times that he would revert to the system where payouts were made in silver coins, but didn’t do anything.

“We have met Lucknow MP and defence minister Rajnath Singh twice. He also gave us a positive response, but did nothing substantial. Our only option now is to approach the court. We’ll make the British high commission a party because our money is still with the British and it is their responsibility to continue paying us what they had agreed upon,” said Azad.

At present, the descendants of the royal family get anything between ₹2 and ₹569 per month. Azad said ₹2 should ideally be two silver coins.

“Even though it’s a paltry amount, we don’t deny it because it is a reminder of our royal lineage. We are proud of our past, but the present is deplorable,” he added.

The recipients have to collect their pension from the wasika office housed in the picture gallery of the office of Husainabad and Allied Trusts, which comes under the minority welfare and waqf ministry and takes care of several buildings constructed by the nawabs.

“We make it a point to look our best while visiting the office. We may have been short-changed, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we belong to the royal family,” said a member of the royal family on the condition of anonymity.