The Royal India Society was a 20th-century British

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...

concerned with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Society has had several names: the India Society (founded 1910); the Royal India Society (from 1944); the Royal India and Pakistan Society; the Royal India, Pakistan and Ceylon Society; and finally merged with the

East India Association The East India Association (EIA) was a London-based organisation for matters concerning India. Its members were Indians and retired British officials. About the Society The East India Association was founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866. The first ...

in 1966. Not to be confused with the London Indian Society, or the

British India Society The British India Society was a society concerned about ethical practice in India. It was founded in 1839, and from 1843 had a branch society in Bengal. Not to be confused with the India Society. About the Society The British India Society was fou ...

The India Society

The India Society was founded in 1910. The earliest members were T.W. Rolleston (Honorary Secretary),

T.W. Arnold Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (19 April 1864 – 9 June 1930) was a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art. He taught at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, later Aligarh Muslim University, and Government College University, Lahore. ...

Mrs Leighton Cleather

Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...

, E.B. Havell, Christina Herringham,

Paira Mall Paira Mall (1874-1957) was an Indian medical doctor, linguist, and collector for Henry Wellcome's Historical Medical Museum, in London. Biography Born in India, Mall served as an army surgeon in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). He was fluent ...

, and

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

. "In 1910 he oomaraswamybecame involved in a very public controversy, played out in the correspondence columns of ''The Times'' and elsewhere, on the status of Indian art. This had started when Sir

George Birdwood Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood (8 December 183228 June 1917) was an Anglo-Indian official, naturalist, and writer. Life The son of General Christopher Birdwood, he was born at Belgaum, then in the Bombay Presidency, on 8 December 1 ...

, while chairing the Indian Section of the annual meeting of the Royal Society of Arts, had announced that there was no “fine art” in India and had somewhat unwisely responded to the suggestion that a particular statue of the Buddha was an example of fine art: “This senseless similitude, in its immemorial fixed pose, is nothing more than an uninspired brazen image. . . . A boiled suet pudding would serve equally well as a symbol of passionless purity and serenity of soul. This controversy culminated in the, foundation of the India Society, later the Royal India Society, to combat the views of the Birdwoods of this world." (Mark Sedgwick 2004) The Society's aims and plans were described in ''The Times'', 11 June 1910 as follows:
"The society desires to promote the study and appreciations of Indian culture in its aesthetic aspects, believing that in Indian sculpture, architecture, and painting, as well as in Indian literature and music, there is a vast unexplored field, the investigation of which will bring about a better understanding of Indian India. Everything will be done to promote the acquisition by the authorities of our national and provincial museums of works representing the best Indian art. The society proposes to publish works showing the best examples of Indian architecture, sculpture, and painting, and hopes to co-operate with all those who have it as their aim to keep alive the traditional arts and handicrafts still existing in India, and to assist in the development of Indian art education on native and traditional lines, and not in imitation of European ideals." The India Society organised a conference on Indian Art at the

British Empire Exhibition The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. Background In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibit ...

, at Wembley, on 2 June 1924.

Publications of the India Society

The Society's publications included: * ''Indian Art and Letters'' - twice-yearly journal, issued from 1925 * ''Indian drawings'', ed. A.K. Coomaraswamy (1910) * ''Examples of Indian sculpture at the British Museum: twelve collotype plates'' (1910) * ''Indian drawings II'', ed. A.K. Coomaraswamy (1911-12) * ''Eleven Plates. Representing Works of Indian Sculptures Chiefly in English Collections'', ed. E.B. Havell (1911) * ''Kapilar and a Tamil Saint'', by A.K. Coomaraswamy (1911) * ''Gitanjali'' (‘Song-offering’), by Rabindranath Tagore (1912) * ''Chitra'', by Rabindranath Tagore (1913) * ''One hundred poems of Kabir'', tr. by Rabindranath Tagore and Evelyn Underhill (1914) * ''The Music of Hindostan'', by A.H. Fox-Strangways (1914) * ''Ajanta Frescoes: being reproductions in colour and monochrome of frescoes in some of the caves at Ajanta, after copies taken ... 1909-1911'', by Christiana Herringham and her assistants (1915) * ''The Mirror of Gesture'' (1916) * ''Handbook of Indian Art'', by E.B. Havell (1920) * ''Indian Art at the British Empire Exhibition'', with introduction by Lionel Heath (1924) * ''The Architectural Antiquities of Western India'', by Henry Cousens ( ASI) (1926) * ''The Bagh Caves in the Gwalior State'' (1927) * ''The Brothers'', by Taraknath Ganguli, tr. by Edward Thompson (1928) * ''Ancient Monuments of Kashmir'', by Ram Chandra Kak (1933) * ''The Red Tortoise and Other Tales of Rural India'', by N. Gangulee (1941) * ''A Garland of Indian Poetry'', ed. by H.G. Rawlinson (1946) * ''The Tulip of Sinai'', by Muhammad Iqbal, tr. A.J. Arberry (1947) * ''Indian Art and Letters'' (1947) * a book on Mughal Painting, edited by Sir

and

Laurence Binyon Robert Laurence Binyon, CH (10 August 1869 – 10 March 1943) was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. Born in Lancaster, England, his parents were Frederick Binyon, a clergyman, and Mary Dockray. He studied at St Paul's School, London ...

The Royal India Society

In 1944 the Society was granted permission to become The Royal India Society under the patronage of the Dowager Queen

Mary of Teck Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 186724 March 1953) was List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 Janua ...

Subsequent names

After partition, its name was again changed to the Royal India and Pakistan Society, and then again to the Royal India, Pakistan, and Ceylon Society. In 1966 it merged with the

External links

The Society's archives (held at the British Library)

References

{{authority control Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom 1910 establishments in the United Kingdom Arts organizations established in 1910 Indian art