The project undertakes a queer reading of the colonial texts on history and architecture of the nawabs in Lucknow, India. The nawabs—Asaf-ud-Daula, Nasir-ud-Din Haider, and Wajid Ali Shah—were already actively pursuing and propagating a parallel queer culture, often in conflict with the then dominant colonial enterprise. The East India Company targeted the nawabs’ race, gender, sexuality, physical appearance, cultural pursuits and architectural expression—to refute the nawabs’ efficacy as political rulers—gendering the superiority and credibility of a political leader. The absence of nawabi architecture from the mainstream architectural history discourse is evidence that the intentional colonial obliteration has sustained in contemporary architectural studies. This project describes nawabi architecture as queer, establishing it as a significant marker of the architectural history of the subcontinent.

Sonal Mithal is an architect, artist, and educator. She holds a doctoral degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, master’s degree from SPA Delhi; and a bachelor’s degree from Lucknow University. She is founder of research and conservation studio, People for Heritage Concern; and chair of the Conservation and Regeneration graduate program at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. Her work transects architecture, landscape architecture, queer studies, history, and heritage; prioritizing ecological processes and agencies of  survival, contingencies of identity and representation, and emergent intersectionality in shaping of the built environment. She has published Melding Matter—feminist ecologies for architectural thinking (Avani, 2021); and exhibited Matter in the Future Continuous (Art/NaturSci Pavilion’s Equilibrium Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2019), and The Sentient Ruins (India Pavilion, London Design Biennale 2021). She was a panelist at “Building Ground for Climate Collectivism” (AHRA, 2022). She coauthored A Queer Reading of Nawabi Architecture (Routledge, 2025).

Arul Paul, an architect and educator, currently serves as an associate professor at Nitte (Deemed to be University), Nitte Institute of Architecture (NIA), in Mangalore, India. His research focuses on the intersection of architecture, queer theory, and media studies. Arul holds a MArch degree in History, Theory, Criticism, and Urban Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and a BArch from Anna University, Chennai. He employs a historical and theoretical lens to critically examine evolving pedagogical approaches in response to emerging challenges. Arul has published Lucknow Unrestrained (Sage, 2021) and Queering Academia (Avani, 2021). He has also showcased his work through exhibitions, including Lucknow Unrestrained (Srishti, 2019). He is also an ardent campaigner for social justice and equality, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. He coauthored A Queer Reading of Nawabi Architecture: Post-Colonial Perspectives (Routledge, 2025).