The Royal India Society was a 20th-century British

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

concerned with

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. The Society has had several names: * The India Society (founded 1910); * The Royal India Society (from 1944); * The Royal India and Pakistan Society (after the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947); * The Royal India, Pakistan and Ceylon Society (after 1948); * Finally it was 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. It is noted as the precursor to the Indian National Congress. About the Society The East India ...

in 1966.

India Society

The India Society was founded in 1910. The earliest members were T. W. Rolleston (Honorary Secretary), T. W. Arnold
Leighton Cleather
A. K. Coomaraswamy,

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 Ka ...

, E. B. Havell,

Christiana Herringham Christiana Jane Herringham, Lady Herringham (née Powell; 1852–1929) was a British artist, copyist, and art patron. She is noted for her part in establishing the National Art Collections Fund in 1903 to help preserve Britain's artistic heritag ...

, Paira Mall, and

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Though he covered many subjects – ranging from landscapes in France to representations of Jewish synag ...

. "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 1832 – 28 June 1917) was an Anglo-Indian official, naturalist, and writer. He served as the first Sheriff of Bombay from 1846 to 1858. Life The son of General Christopher Birdwood, he wa ...

, 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 Government of the United Kingdom, British Government decide ...

, 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 __NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' () is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, for its English translation, '' Song Offerings'', making him the first non-European and the fi ...

'' ('Song-offering'), by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

(1912) * '' Chitra'', by Rabindranath Tagore (1913) * ''One hundred poems of Kabir'', tr. by Rabindranath Tagore and

Evelyn Underhill Evelyn Underhill (6 December 1875 – 15 June 1941) was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spirituality, spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism. Her best-known work is ''Myst ...

(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

and her assistants (1915) * ''The Mirror of Gesture'' by A. K. Coomaraswamy (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'', by

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remai ...

, M. B. Garde, J. Ph. Vogel, E. B. Havell, and

James Cousins James Henry Cousins (22 July 1873 – 20 February 1956) was an Irish-Indian writer, playwright, actor, critic, editor, teacher and poet. He used several pseudonyms, including Mac Oisín and the Hindu name Jayaram. Life Cousins was born at 29, ...

(1927) * ''The Brothers'', by Taraknath Ganguli, tr. by Edward Thompson (1928) * ''Ancient Monuments of Kashmir'', by

Ram Chandra Kak Ram Chandra Kak (5 June 1893 – 10 February 1983) was the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–1947. One of the very few Kashmiri Pandits to ever hold that post, Kak had the intractable job of navigating the troubled wate ...

(1933) * '' The Red Tortoise and Other Tales of Rural India'', by N. Gangulee (1940) * ''A Garland of Indian Poetry'', ed. by H. G. Rawlinson (1946) * ''The Tulip of Sinai'', by

Muhammad Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

, tr. A. J. Arberry (1947) * ''Indian Art and Letters'' (1947) * a book on Mughal Painting, edited by T. W. Arnold and

Laurence Binyon Robert Laurence Binyon, Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (10 August 1869 – 10 March 1943) was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. Born in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, England, his parents were Frederick Binyon, ...

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

References

External links

The Society's archives (held at the British Library)
{{authority control Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom 1910 establishments in the United Kingdom Arts organizations established in 1910 Indian art