The Indian Institute was an institute within the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. It was started by Sir
Monier Monier-Williams
Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especiall ...
in 1883 to provide training for the
Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
of the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
. The institute's building is located in central
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, at the north end of
Catte Street
Catte Street is a historic street in central Oxford, England.[Ca ...](_blank)
, on the corner with
Holywell Street, and facing down
Broad Street from the east.
History and building
In June 1881, plans were submitted to the University of Oxford's
Hebdomadal Council
The Hebdomadal Council was the chief executive body for the University of Oxford from its establishment by the Oxford University Act 1854 until its replacement, in the Michaelmas term of 2000, by the new University Council. Chaired by the Vice- ...
to build an Indian Institute. The original site was occupied by four old buildings. The building was designed by
Basil Champneys
Basil Champneys (17 September 1842 – 5 April 1935) was an English architect and author whose most notable buildings include Manchester's John Rylands Library, Somerville College Library (Oxford), Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hal ...
and the first section opened in 1884. Originally there was a low shop to the south, but neighbouring
Hertford College
Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...
has now encroached on the Institute with a much taller building. The Institute was built of
Taynton stone in the style of the
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th cent ...
, with different oriental details to the designs of Champneys. In 1974
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
observed that the rounded corner cupola made an excellent ''point de vue'' at the east end of Broad Street.
Along with the
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
''(see below)'', the institute contained
lecture room
''Lecture Room'' is a Chinese television programme hosted by China Central Television (CCTV), in which scholars from various disciplines are invited to provide lectures. It was first broadcast on 9 July 2001 on CCTV-10. In its early days, featur ...
s and a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
. Some contents of the museum are now present in the
Ashmolean
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University o ...
and
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...
s. The original Indian Institute building is now the
Oxford Martin School
The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian I ...
of the University of Oxford, the History Faculty having moved to the old
City of Oxford School building on
George Street and its library to the Bodleian site.
Indian Institute Library
The
Indian Institute Library
The Indian Institute Library is a dependent library of the Bodleian and part of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Opened in 1886, the library specialises in the history and culture of South Asia, Tibet and the Himalayas. The Indian Insti ...
opened in 1886. It became a dependent library of the
Bodleian Library, the main library of the University, in 1927. It specialises in the history and culture of
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
, especially the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
and
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
. The library was formerly located in the Indian Institute building, but was moved to the top floor of the New Bodleian Library.
Indian Institute Museum
The Museum was an integral part of Monier-Williams’ design, modelled to some extent on the India Museum in South Kensington. Monier-Williams acquired some pieces during his fund-raising and collecting tour of India in 1883–1884, including from the International Exhibition, at Calcutta, and arranged for regional representatives to send objects to Oxford. Babu T. N. Mukharji was commissioned to catalogue the collections in 1886 (but he never finished doing so). The installation of the museum was done by Dr
Heinrich Lüders, assisted by Mr. Long of the Pitt Rivers Museum, and completed in 1898. When Monier-Williams died in 1899, no financial provision had been made for running the museum. Gradually, the collections were dispersed: entomological and zoological collections to the University Museum; and many pieces to the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. A summary catalogue of the museum was prepared by Mr. A. Rost (for a short handbook to the Institute, by Professor
Arthur Macdonell
Arthur Anthony Macdonell, FBA (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1930) was a noted Sanskrit scholar.
Biography
Macdonell was born at Muzaffarpur in the Tirhut region of the state of Bihar in British India, the son of Charles Alexander Macdonell ...
, 1922, but never published).
Accusations of racism
The building was financed entirely by private donors in India and Britain, for the sole purpose of constructing an edifice to house study for and on the Indian sub-continent. There was consequently great controversy in 1968, when the University's governing council evicted the Indian Institute from the premises without compensation, and then made a gift of the premises to the History Faculty, which specialises in European history to the exclusion of Indian history. The government of India filed a formal protest on behalf of the families of the original donors, who felt defrauded by the University's actions. The
Oxford University Student Union
The Oxford University Student Union is the official students' union of the University of Oxford. It is better known in Oxford under the branding Oxford SU or by its previous name of OUSU. It exists to represent Oxford University students in ...
went further still, accusing the University administration of racism in the decision.
The Institute's aim
The aim of the Indian Institute was:
:''The work of fostering and facilitating Indian studies in the University; the work of making Englishmen, and even Indians themselves, appreciate better than they have done before the languages, literature and industries of India.''
See also
*
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
*
Departments of the University of Oxford
The various academic faculties, departments, and institutes of the University of Oxford are organised into four divisions, each with its own Head and elected board. They are the Humanities Division; the Social Sciences Division; the Mathematical ...
*
Buildings and structures in Oxford
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...
*
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, founded in 1997, is a recognised independent centre of the University of Oxford, England. It develops academic programmes of education, research and publishing in Hindu studies. It aims to encourage the Hindu ...
*
Hertford College
Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...
*
Oxford Martin School
The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian I ...
(currently housed in the old Indian Institute building)
Further reading
*A Record of the Establishment of the Indian Institute in the University of Oxford: Being an Account of the Circumstances which led to its Foundation (Oxford: Compiled for the Subscribers to the Indian Institute Fund, 1897)
*Symonds, Richard, Oxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause? (New York: St Martins Press, 1986)
*The Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette, 5 May 1883
*Indian Institute Archives, Bodleian Library, Oxford
*Monier Monier Williams, 'Notes of a long life's journey', unpublished memoir, Indian Institute Library, Oxford.
*Evison, Gillian, 'The Orientalist, his Institute and the Empire: the rise and subsequent decline of Oxford University's Indian Institute', unpublished paper, December 2004.
References
External links
Old Indian Institute Broad Street, Oxford (including photographs)
Indian Studies at Oxfordfrom the
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, founded in 1997, is a recognised independent centre of the University of Oxford, England. It develops academic programmes of education, research and publishing in Hindu studies. It aims to encourage the Hindu ...
Indian Institute Librarynow in the
Bodleian Library
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
{{Coord, 51, 45, 17.5, N, 1, 15, 15.0, W, display=title
Educational institutions established in 1883
Departments of the University of Oxford
Indology
Grade II listed buildings in Oxford
Indian Civil Service
1883 establishments in England