Ruth Vanita: Pre-colonial Lucknow’s court culture was exceptional in the prominence women obtained, and the Nawabs’ patronage of the arts and crafts. The British were draining the state of Awadh’s exchequer, so the Nawabs preferred to spend money on patronising all arts and crafts, from music, dance, poetry to puppetry, juggling and theatre. Hundreds of women were employed at court in different capacities, and were very well paid. Women of the royal family exercised immense influence over the Nawabs. Courtesans, who were highly educated women, often poets, were treated as intellectual equals by many male poets. They were the only women in the highest tax brackets and owned considerable property. Same-sex love had always been openly written about in India. Male-male attraction is one of the themes of pre-colonial Urdu poetry in general, but the unique feature in pre-colonial Lakhnavi poetry is the depiction of female-female relationships as well. The most important thing about this poetry is that it depicts cross-sex romances and same-sex romances in the same tone, showing that all relationships face ups and downs, and all lovers, experience similar emotions. Unlike heavily Persian-ised Urdu poetry, this is written in simple, colloquial language, easily understandable even today, and was popular in its time. More here.