果冻影院 and India: A historic relationship

15 November 2023

Between 18 and 25 November, a 果冻影院 delegation will be visiting India to meet with key partners and strengthen ties in the country. Ahead of the visit, learn about 果冻影院's historic links to India.

Bust of poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square

The rich heritage of collaboration between 果冻影院 and India serves as the cornerstone for our activities, rooted in principles of mutual respect, equitable partnerships聽and trust. This profound history is exemplified by numerous remarkable milestones and notable figures.聽

Connections dating back to the 1800s

Indian languages were integral to 果冻影院's curriculum from its early days. Dadabhai Naoroji, famously known as the 鈥楪rand Old Man of India鈥�, taught Gujarati at 果冻影院 from 1856 to 1865.

He also made history as the first Indian UK Member of Parliament, elected to London鈥檚 Finsbury seat in 1892.

One of the only monuments commemorating his legacy can be found on the exterior wall of Finsbury Town Hall, not far from 果冻影院's main campus.聽

Sir William Ramsay, 果冻影院 Professor of Inorganic Chemistry between 1887 and 1913, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904. In 1900, he visited India on a trip sponsored by Jamsetji Tata to consult on the formation of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru.

Ramsay conducted extensive research and the resulting report was instrumental to the choice of location for the IISc.

His co-workers, Professor Morris William Travers FRS, and then Sir Alfred Gibbs Bourne, both 果冻影院 alumni, went on to become the institute鈥檚 first and second directors.

Augustus De Morgan was born in Madurai, India. At just 22, he became 果冻影院鈥檚 first Professor of Mathematics, shortly after the university鈥檚 formation. Today, the headquarters of the London Mathematical Society is called De Morgan House and the student society of 果冻影院鈥檚 Mathematics Department is called the Augustus De Morgan Society.

Professor Otto Koenigsberger, 果冻影院鈥檚 first Professor of Planning, was Director for the Indian Ministry of Housing from 1948 to 1951 in the Nehru Government. He was instrumental in designing settlements for refugees displaced by partition and migrating from Pakistan. He also crafted the town plan for Bhubaneswar in Odisha and, guided by J.R.D. Tata鈥檚 vision, contributed to the layout of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.

Notable scholars

果冻影院 counts a number of notable Indian figures among its alumni, including the acclaimed Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore, who studied law at 果冻影院 in 1880.

Romesh Chunder Dutt was another 果冻影院 student and later lecturer of Indian History who completed a seminal piece of work on economic nationalism. He also translated the Ramayana and Mahabharata. He served as President of the Indian National Congress in 1899.

Baroness Shreela Flather is聽a British-Indian politician, teacher and life peer. Baroness Flather studied Law at 果冻影院 in 1955 and was elevated to the peerage as Baroness Flather, of Windsor and Maidenhead in the Royal County of Berkshire, in June 1990.

This made her the first Asian woman to receive this honour in Britain.

S. R. Ranganathan, considered the father of library science, documentation and information science in India, came to 果冻影院 in 1925. It was here that he found inspiration for some of his notable contributions to the field, including the first major faceted classification system, the colon classification, which is still widely used in libraries today.

Today, 果冻影院 continues to seek collaborators and students from India to enrich its diverse community.

Featured image

Bust of poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square

Further links

Learn more about 果冻影院's connections with India at the links below.聽