IOR/L/PS/12/2847

Correspondence between the Foreign Secretary of the Government of India, the Office of the High Commissioner for Iraq, and Saiyid Kalbe Abbas Naqvi, Honorary Secretary of the Waqf Section of the All-India Shia Conference. The correspondence concerns the administration of the Oudh Bequest Fund, and the appointment of a mujtahid to the Charitable Committee at Karbala, following the death of the previous incumbent, Mauli Kalb-i-Mahdi.

Details of the composition of the Karbala and Najaf Committees are provided, and the correspondence also provides information on candidates for the mujtahid position. The religious and charitable nature of the bequest is also discussed. At the front of the file are excerpts from the Official Report of the Legislative Assembly Debates, providing details of the terms of the Oudh Bequest.

Note:

The Oudh Bequest was a fund established by the King of Awadh to provide for the annual distribution of funds to improve religious learning and to help poor Shia communities in Iraq. The payments were distributed by selected mujtahids of the holy shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf. Following the annexation of Oudh in the 1850s, administration of the bequest was passed to the Government of India, and was supervised by the Head Clerk of the British Residency in Baghdad, and later by the Protector of Indian Pilgrims, attached to the Secretariat of the High Commissioner in Iraq.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 1).