“Amjad Ali Shah enacted anti-Hindu policies, founding Shii shops to drive Hindu merchants out of business, and rewarding Hindu officials who adopted Imami Shiism. The provision of government welfare monies to only the Shii poor encouraged thousands of Hindus to convert to Shiism in the 1840s, according to clerical sources. Awadh’s fiercely Usuli governments showed little understanding of their Hindu subjects, allowing communal resentments to fester, a policy that culminated in a major battle over a religious edifice in Faizabad.”