Brian Houghton Hodgson

Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a British diplomat, naturalist and ethnologist who spent most of his life in India and Nepal, serving as a British resident in the latter. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himalayas, and several birds were named after him by others such as Edward Blyth. He was a scholar of Newar Buddhism and wrote extensively on a range of topics relating to linguistics and religion. He was an opponent of the British proposal to introduce English as the official medium of instruction in Indian schools.