https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Colesworthey_GrantColesworthey Grant - Revision history2026-07-31T20:09:08ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Colesworthey_Grant&diff=494740&oldid=prevWilheminaJanzen at 19:09, 29 January 20262026-01-29T19:09:26Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|English artist, writer and animal-rights activist in India}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}<br />
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}<br />
[[File:Colesworthey_Grant.jpg|thumb|Portrait from the frontispiece of the biography by [[Peary Chand Mitra]] (1881)]]<br />
'''Colesworthey Grant''' (sometimes spelt '''Colesworthy'''; 25 October 1813 – 31 May 1880{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=80}}) was an English artist, writer and pioneer [[Animal welfare|activist against cruelty to animals]] in [[India]]. Teaching himself art and sketching, he produced numerous portraits of many early East India Company servants of influence in Calcutta which were published in the local periodicals of the time. He later became a professor of drawing. He founded the "Calcutta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals" in 1861 after seeing the sorry conditions especially of draught animals on the streets of Calcutta.<br />
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==Biography==<br />
[[File:Colesworthey piller.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial obelisk in Calcutta. The watering trough at the base and the lantern holders are now missing.]]<br />
Grant was born in London to a Scottish father who manufactured mathematical instruments and a mother of Welsh ancestry. He arrived in India at the age of nineteen and joined his brother George who was a clock and watch-maker in Calcutta. Colesworthey was injured in the spine from a fall during one of his exercise sessions and could not walk straight after that. He took an interest in sketching and began to contribute to the ''India Review'' from 1838 through [[Frederick Corbyn|Fred Corbyn]] and later to the ''Calcutta Monthly Journal''. These early works included portrait sketches of many eminent persons who lived in Calcutta. He later became a professor of drawing at [[Presidency College, Calcutta|Presidency College]].{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=80}} Grant also illustrated [[Frederic J. Mouat]]'s ''Atlas of Anatomy''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Tom |date=2022 |title=Colesworthy Grant's Portraits of Colonial Society in India: Lithography, Liberalism, and the Global Making of Middle‐Class Culture, c . 1833–57 |url=https://academic.oup.com/arthistory/article/45/4/712-743/7275153 |journal=Art History |language=en |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=712–743 |doi=10.1111/1467-8365.12682 |issn=0141-6790|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=15}}<br />
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Colesworthey Grant was chosen by [[Lord Dalhousie]] to accompany the Ava mission to [[Amarapura]] in 1855 along with [[Arthur Purves Phayre|Arthur Phayre]]. Paid 500 rupees a month, he was to document the places for the report and was also instructed to attempt the use of photography. The use of photography however was finally done by [[Linnaeus Tripe]] who also joined the mission.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hall, D.G.E| year=1932|title=The Dalhousie-Phayre Correspondence 1852-1856| publisher=Oxford University Press| place=London|pages=332|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.81537/2015.81537.The-Dalhousie-phayre-Correspondence-1852-1856#page/n411/mode/2up/ }}</ref><br />
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Grant was moved by the injuries and mutilations he saw to street animals, particularly draught cattle and horses, inflicted mostly by their owners and keepers.{{sfn|Chakrabarti|2010}} The founding meeting for the Society met on 4 October 1861 and was chaired by [[John Pratt (Archdeacon of Calcutta)|Archdeacon Pratt]]. The other twenty attendees included [[Alexander Duff (missionary)|Alexander Duff]], Mouat, Major C. Herbert, and several others including an Armenian (later the first non-European sheriff of Calcutta for 1866) Seth Arratoon [[Apcar family|Apcar]]; Indians [[Peary Chand Mitra|Peary Chand Mittra]], S. P. Sagrande, M. Rustomjee, Rajali Pertaup Chunder Sing Bahadoor and Moulvie Abdool Lotiff.{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=20}} The aim of the society was to "prevent the cruel and improper treatment of animals, and the amelioration of their condition generally throughout India" by among others establishing paid European officers to enforce those who were guilty of ill-treating animals and educating the public. [[Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin|Lord Elgin]] later became a Patron of the society.{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=22}} Grant published a text for children on animal cruelty that was to be used in Sunday schools. One of the major causes of injury to draught animals was overloaded carts. The Municipal Commissioners of Calcutta were forced to use improved carts with a single bullock having leather collars while the Indian Carrying Company began to use four-wheeled carts that took the load out of the animals. Around 1877 two more societies were established at Madras and Bangalore.{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=63}} Towards the end of his life Grant received an Honorary Diploma from the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]]. A memorial obelisk was erected near [[Writers' Building]] in Calcutta with a watering trough at its base for animals. His position as secretary was succeeded by [[Peary Chand Mitra|Peary Chand Mittra]] who also wrote a biography of Grant.{{sfn|Mittra|1881|p=83}}<br />
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==Works==<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Speede|first1=G. T. Frederic S. Barlow|last2=Grant|first2=Colesworthey|title=Indian Handbook of Gardening ... With illustrations ... To which is added, an Hindoostanee and English Vocabulary of horticultural and agricultural terms|date=1840|publisher=Calcutta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nTAnQEACAAJ|language=en|display-authors=1}} (Illustrator)<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Colesworthey|last2=Collection|first2=Southeast Asia Special|title=Rough Pencillings of a Rough Trip to Rangoon in 1846|date=1853|publisher=Creative Media Partners, LLC |isbn=9781297904301|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZQ8jgEACAAJ|language=en|display-authors=0}}<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Colesworthey|title=Rural Life in Bengal: Illustrative of Anglo-Indian Suburban Life : More Particularly in Connection with the Planter and Peasantry, the Varied Produce of the Soil and Seasons; with Copious Details of the Culture and Manufacture of Indigo: Letters from an Artist in India to His Sisters in England|date=1860|publisher=W. Thacker & Company|url=https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.9351|language=en|display-authors=0}}<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Colesworthey|title=Anglo-Indian Domestic Life: A Letter from an Artist in India to His Mother in England|date=1862|publisher=Subarnarekha|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ukoOAAAAQAAJ|language=en|display-authors=0}}<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Colesworthey|title=Portrait sketches of the public characters of Calcutta, published in the "India Review", "India Medical"... from 1838 to 1850|publisher=s.n.|date=1863|url=https://archive.org/details/b30469302|language=en|display-authors=0}}<br />
* {{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Colesworthey|title=To the children of Calcutta. On cruelty, by the hon. secretary, Calcutta society for the prevention of cruelty to animals|date=1872|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BJkDAAAAQAAJ|language=en|display-authors=0}}<br />
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==Gallery==<br />
<gallery><br />
File:Sir Jang Bahadur Kunwar Rana (1850).jpg|A portrait of the future Maharaja [[Jung Bahadur Rana]] of [[Nepal]], 1850<br />
File:Raja Sher Singh Attariwala (1853).jpg|A portrait of [[Sher Singh Attariwalla]], 1850<br />
File:Portrait of Mir Nasir Khan Talpur.jpg|A portrait of [[Mir Nasir Khan Talpur]] of [[Sind State|Sind]], 1851<br />
File:8th Bengal Irregular Cavalry Officer (1855).jpg|A [[jemadar]] of the 8th Bengal Irregular Cavalry, 1855<br />
File:Manipuri horseman.jpg|A watercolour of a [[Manipur]]i cavalryman in [[Burma]], 1855<br />
File:Monastery near British Residency.jpg|Watercolour with pen and ink of a [[kyaung]] (Buddhist monastery) at [[Amarapura]], Burma, 1855<br />
File:Amarapura Palace.jpg|A watercolour of the king's palace in Amarapura, Burma, 1855<br />
</gallery><br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist|3}}<br />
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==References==<br />
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1177/007327531004800201 |pmid=20582325 |pmc=2997667 |title=Beasts of Burden: Animals and Laboratory Research in Colonial India |journal=History of Science |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=125–152 |year=2010 |last1=Chakrabarti |first1=Pratik}}<br />
* {{cite book|title=Life of Colesworthy Grant| last=Mittra|first= Peary Chand|author-link=Peary Chand Mitra| year= 1881|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55468/2015.55468.Life-Of-Colesworthy-Grant|publisher=I.C. Bose and Company|place= Calcutta}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
{{commonscat|Colesworthey Grant}}<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081017061617/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080914/jsp/calcutta/story_9806560.jsp Monument in Calcutta]<br />
* [https://archive.org/details/angloindiandome00grangoog Anglo-Indian domestic life : a letter from an artist in India to his mother in England (1862)] <br />
* [https://archive.org/stream/roughpencillings00granrich Rough pencillings of a rough trip to Rangoon in 1846 (1853)]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170529050853/http://www.calcuttaspca.org/ Calcutta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]<br />
* [https://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_components&id=1063 Index to portraits]<br />
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{{People in animal welfare}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Colesworthey}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:1813 births]]<br />
[[Category:1880 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century English artists]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century English writers]]<br />
[[Category:Animal welfare and rights in India]]<br />
[[Category:English animal welfare workers]]<br />
[[Category:British people in British India]]<br />
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]<br />
[[Category:English people of Welsh descent]]<br />
[[Category:English horticulturists]]<br />
[[Category:Gardening in India]]<br />
[[Category:Horticulture in India]]<br />
[[Category:Writers about India]]</div>WilheminaJanzen