Awadh (also known to the British as Oudh) is a region in the center of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It includes the districts of Ambedkar Nagar , Bahraich, Balrampur , Barabanki , Faizabad, Gonda , Hardol , Kheri , Lucknow, Pratapgarh , Raibareilly , Shrawasti , Sitapur , Sultanpur , and Unnao. The traditional capital of Awadh has been Lucknow. The region is home to a distinct dialect, Awadhi.
Awadh figures in early Indian history as the Kingdom of Kosala , with Ayodhya as its capital.
It was a province of the Mughal Empire, and was ruled by a Nawab (a provincial governor) of the empire from the capital at Lucknow. With the weakening of the central institutions of the empire through the 18th century, this province and its Nawab effectively became an independent state, one of the princely states of India.
Awadh was known as the granary of India and was important strategically for the control of the gangetic plain.It signed a treaty with the British East India Company in 1765, from which time it effectively became dependent on the company. In the later part of the century Awadh ceded major parts of its territory to the company. The company recruited many of its troops from this kingdom, and maintained a Resident there. In 1819, it declared independence from the Mughal empire, one of the few princely states to do so.
In 1856 the East India Company first moved its troops to the border, then annexed the state, which was placed under a chief commissioner. Wajid Ali Shah , the then Nawab, was imprisoned, and then exiled by the Company. In the subsequent Revolt of 1857 his 14 year old son Birjis Qadr was crowned ruler. Following the rebel's defeat, he and other rebel leaders obtained asylum in Nepal.
Those company troops who were recruited from the state, along with some of the nobility of the state, were major players in the events of 1857. The rebels took control of Awadh, and it took the British 18 months to reconquer the region. Oudh was placed back under a chief commissioner, and was governed as a British province. In 1877 the offices of lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces and chief commissioner of Oudh were combined in the same person; and in 1902, when the new name of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was introduced, the title of chief commissioner was dropped, though Oudh still retained some marks of its former independence.