Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland are individuals who have been elected by the Council of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science literature and the arts in relation to Asia". The Society has around 700 fellows, half of whom reside outside Britain. It is administered by a council of twenty fellows. The Society was established in 1823 and became "the main centre in Britain for scholarly work on Asia" with "many distinguished Fellows". Fellows are entitled to use the honorific post-nominal letters FRAS. Past and current fellows include leading scholars, writers, and former politicians and governors who have made significant contributions to Asia and their respective fields. Previous Fellows have included British explorers

Sir Richard Francis Burton Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

, and

Laurence Waddell Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, CB, CIE, F.L.S., L.L.D, M.Ch., I.M.S. RAI, F.R.A.S (29 May 1854 – 19 September 1938) was a Scottish explorer, Professor of Tibetan, Professor of Chemistry and Pathology, Indian Army surgeon ...

, Officers of the British East India Company such as

Sir Henry Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to bec ...

, Chief Justice of Ceylon Alexander Johnston, first Asian Nobel laureate

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

, and many more.

Eligibility

Fellows can be nominated by an existing Fellow, or they can submit an application for fellowship; applications are open to "anyone with a serious interest in Asian Studies", considered regularly, and processed within two months. Students are also eligible to become Student Fellows if they are enrolled in an established course of education. The Society also awards a maximum of five Life Fellowships each year worldwide. These are distinct from regular fellowships, but do not affect honorific post-nominal letters of the fellow.

Notable fellows

* Sir Jehangir Hormasji Kothari * Henry Thomas Colebrooke *

* Edward Byles Cowell * Sir Alexander Johnston *

Thomas Manning Thomas Manning may refer to: * Thomas Manning (sinologist) (1772–1840), Chinese studies scholar and the first Englishman to enter Lhasa * Thomas Manning (bishop), Tudor prior and bishop * Thomas A. Manning (1886–1944), American politician * Tho ...

Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to be ...

Brian Houghton Hodgson Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Hi ...

* Col.

Sir Gore Ouseley Sir Gore Ouseley, 1st Baronet GCH, PC (24 June 1770 – 18 November 1844), was a British entrepreneur, linguist and diplomat. He was born in 1770 and died at Hall Barn Park, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire in 1844. He negotiated an important t ...

* Sir George T Staunton * Sir William Wilson Hunter * Sir Stamford Raffles *

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform m ...

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...

* Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy *

Sir William Jones Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of th ...

* Sir Aurel Stein *

Sir Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan ( ar, مُبَارَك بِن لَنْدَن, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's trav ...

* Sir

Jadunath Sarkar Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty. Academic career Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...

* Diwan Bahadur S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar * Sir

Richard O. Winstedt Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt (2 August 1878 – 2 June 1966), or more commonly R. O. Winstedt, was an English oriental studies, Orientalist and colonial administrator with expertise in British Malaya. Life and career Winstedt was born in Oxfo ...

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

Ahmad Hasan Dani Ahmad Hassan Dani (Urdu: احمد حسن دانی) FRAS, SI, HI (20 June 1920 – 26 January 2009) was a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He was among the foremost authorities on Central Asian and South Asian archaeolog ...

Arthur John Arberry Arthur John Arberry (12 May 1905, in Portsmouth – 2 October 1969, in Cambridge) FBA was a British scholar of Arabic literature, Persian studies, and Islamic studies. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridg ...

* Ahmad Zaki Pasha * Prof. Johann

Georg Bühler Professor Johann Georg Bühler (July 19, 1837 – April 8, 1898) was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law. Early life and education Bühler was born to Rev. Johann G. Bühler in Borstel, Hanover, attended grammar school in Hanover, whe ...

* Prof.

David Marshall Lang David Marshall Lang (6 May 1924 – 20 March 1991), was a Professor of Caucasian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was one of the most productive British scholars who specialized in Georgian, Armenian and an ...

* Prof.

Anthony Stockwell Professor Anthony John "Tony" Stockwell, FRAS is a British academic. He is best known for his research into the history of British imperialism and decolonisation in Southeast Asia. Professor Stockwell was appointed President of the Royal Asiat ...

* Elizabeth Anne McCaul Finn * Prof. George V. Tsereteli * Prof. Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri * Prof. Francis Robinson *

Clinton Bennett Clinton Bennett (born 7 October 1955) is a British-American scholar of religions and participant in interfaith dialogue specialising in the study of Islam and Muslim-non-Muslim encounter. An ordained Baptist minister, he was a missionary in Ba ...

* William LancasterRoyal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland List of Fellows, Library Associates and Subscribing Libraries, 1994, pg 19 *

Ustad Aashish Khan Debsharma Aashish Khan Debsharma (born 5 December 1939) is an Indian classical musician, a player of the sarod. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the 'Best World Music' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a rec ...

* Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie (d. 1894) *

Sushil Kumar De Sushil Kumar De (29 January 1890 – 31 January 1968) was a Bengali writer from the early decades of the 20th century. Trained as a lawyer, with degrees in English and Sanskrit Poetics, he wrote extensively on Sanskrit Literature, Philosophy, Po ...

Eric Newby George Eric Newby (6 December 1919 – 20 October 2006) was an English travel writer. His works include '' A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush'', ''The Last Grain Race'' and ''A Small Place in Italy''. Early life Newby was born in Barnes, London, a ...

* Jean Berlie * Daphne Park *

Mary Boyce Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of Iranian languages, and an authority on Zoroastrianism. She was Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the U ...

* William Dalrymple * Prof. Jamal Malik * Prof. K M Baharul Islam * Prof. Dr

Tariq Rahman Tariq Rahman (born 4 February 1949) is a Pakistani academic scholar, newspaper columnist, researcher, and a writer. Currently based in Lahore, he is author of many books and other publications, mainly in the field of linguistics. He has been ...

* Professor Dr William Sweet * Professor Dr Rahul Peter Das * Prof. Haroon Khan Sherwani * Ronald E. Asher * Edward Jarvis * Michael Ridley *Dr.

Rosie Llewellyn-Jones Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones MBE is a well-known British scholar with an expertise on Lucknow and its culture. Based in London, where she worked for the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Llewellyn-Jones is a regular visitor to Lucknow and has authored s ...

* Dr.

Anna Suvorova Anna A. Suvorova (born 11 January 1949 in Moscow) is a Russian orientalist and art critic. She is bilingual in Russian and Urdu. Biography Suvorova is the Head of the Department of Asian Literature at the Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian ...

Michael Axworthy Michael George Andrew Axworthy (26 September 1962 – 16 March 2019) was a British academic, author, and commentator. He was the head of the Iran section at the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 1998 and 2000. Personal life and fam ...

* Deepak Tripathi *

B. N. Mukherjee Bratindra Nath Mukherjee (1 January 1932 – 4 April 2013) was an Indian historian, numismatist, epigraphist and iconographist, known for his scholarship in central Asian languages such as Sogdian. He was a Carmichael Professor of Ancient I ...

J. M. Gullick John Michael Gullick (6 February 1916 – 8 April 2012) was a British Orientalist who is chiefly remembered for his ground-breaking contributions to the study of pre-colonial and early colonial Malay society, ''Indigenous Political Systems of ...

Mark Trollope Mark Napier Trollope (20 March 1862 – 1930) was the third Anglican Bishop in Korea from 1911 until his death. Born on 28 March 1862 and educated at Lancing College and New College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1888. After a curacy at Great Yarmo ...

, third Bishop of Korea * Bijan Omrani * Souhardya De * Gordon Corrigan * Terra Han

References

{{reflist

External links

Royal Asiatic Society

* Helen Wang
"Famous and not-so-famous people associated with the Royal Asiatic Society"
in Shailendra Bhandare and Sanjay Garg (eds), ''Felicitas. Essays in Numismatics, Epigraphy and History in Honour of Joe Cribb'', Reesha Books International (Mumbai, 2011) 413–489.

Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...