>Johnpacklambert at 14:03, 24 May 2021

2021-05-24T14:03:02Z

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[[File:The Indian Institute Oxford (5649730817).jpg|thumb|300px|Indian Institute building seen from the north-west]]

The '''Indian Institute''' in central [[Oxford]], [[England]], is at the north end of [[Catte Street]] on the corner with [[Holywell Street, Oxford|Holywell Street]] and facing down [[Broad Street, Oxford|Broad Street]] from the east.<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Oxford |volume=20 |page=413 |first=Osbert John Radcliffe |last=Howarth}}</ref> Sir [[Monier Monier-Williams]] started the Institute in the [[University of Oxford]] in 1883 to provide training for the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] of the [[British Raj]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/broad/buildings/east/history_faculty/index.html |title=From the extract of ''Kelly's directory'' for 1900. |access-date=2012-08-03 |df= }}{{dead link|date=May 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/indian-institute|title=Indian Institute – Making Britain|website=www.open.ac.uk}}</ref>

==History and building==
[[Image:Indian Institute cupola.jpg|thumb|right|Corner cupola with elephant weathervane]]
In June 1881, plans were submitted to the University of Oxford's [[Hebdomadal Council]] to build an Indian Institute. The original site was occupied by four old buildings. The building was designed by [[Basil Champneys]] and the first section opened in 1884. Originally there was a low shop to the south, but neighbouring [[Hertford College]] has now encroached on the Institute with a much taller building. The Institute was built of [[Taynton, Oxfordshire#Taynton stone|Taynton stone]] in the style of the [[English Renaissance]], with different oriental details to the designs of Champneys. In 1974 [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] observed that the rounded corner cupola made an excellent ''point de vue'' at the east end of Broad Street.

Along with the [[library]] ''(see below)'', the institute contained [[Classroom|lecture room]]s and a [[museum]]. Some contents of the museum are now present in the [[Ashmolean Museum|Ashmolean]] and [[Pitt Rivers Museum]]s. The original Indian Institute building is now the [[Oxford Martin School]] of the University of Oxford, the History Faculty having moved to the old [[City of Oxford High School for Boys|City of Oxford School]] building on [[George Street, Oxford|George Street]] and its library to the Bodleian site.

==Indian Institute Library==
{{Main|Indian Institute Library}}
The [[Indian Institute Library]] opened in 1886. It became a dependent library of the [[Bodleian Library]], the main library of the University, in 1927. It specialises in the history and culture of [[South Asia]], especially the [[Himalayas]] and [[Tibet]].<ref>Bodleian Library: Department of Oriental Collections: 'Indian Institute Library', http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/oriental/iil.htm, accessed 2007-02-14.</ref> The library was formerly located in the Indian Institute building, but was moved to the top floor of the New Bodleian Library.

==Indian Institute Museum==
The Museum was an integral part of Monier-Williams’ design, modelled to some extent on the India Museum in South Kensington. Monier-Williams acquired some pieces during his fund-raising and collecting tour of India in 1883–1884, including from the International Exhibition, at Calcutta, and arranged for regional representatives to send objects to Oxford. Babu T. N. Mukharji was commissioned to catalogue the collections in 1886 (but he never finished doing so). The installation of the museum was done by Dr [[Heinrich Lüders]], assisted by Mr. Long of the Pitt Rivers Museum, and completed in 1898. When Monier-Williams died in 1899, no financial provision had been made for running the museum. Gradually, the collections were dispersed: entomological and zoological collections to the University Museum; and many pieces to the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. A summary catalogue of the museum was prepared by Mr. A. Rost (for a short handbook to the Institute, by Professor [[Arthur Anthony Macdonell|Arthur Macdonell]], 1922, but never published).<ref>[http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/7/10230/10260 Andrew Topsfield, ''History of the Indian Collections in Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum: A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art''; by J. C. Harle & Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987)]</ref>

==Accusations of racism==
The building was financed entirely by private donors in India and Britain, for the sole purpose of constructing an edifice to house study for and on the Indian sub-continent. There was consequently great controversy in 1968, when the University's governing council evicted the Indian Institute from the premises without compensation, and then made a gift of the premises to the History Faculty, which specialises in European history to the exclusion of Indian history. The government of India filed a formal protest on behalf of the families of the original donors, who felt defrauded by the University's actions. The [[Oxford University Student Union]] went further still, accusing the University administration of racism in the decision.

==The Institute's aim==
The aim of the Indian Institute was:
:''The work of fostering and facilitating Indian studies in the University; the work of making Englishmen, and even Indians themselves, appreciate better than they have done before the languages, literature and industries of India.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/broad/buildings/east/history_faculty/ |title=Aim of the Indian Institute |access-date=2007-03-02 |df= }}{{dead link|date=May 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[University of Oxford]]
* [[:Category:Departments of the University of Oxford|Departments of the University of Oxford]]
* [[:Category:Buildings and structures in Oxford|Buildings and structures in Oxford]]
* [[Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies]]
* [[Hertford College]]
* [[Oxford Martin School]] (currently housed in the old Indian Institute building)

==Further reading==
*A Record of the Establishment of the Indian Institute in the University of Oxford: Being an Account of the Circumstances which led to its Foundation (Oxford: Compiled for the Subscribers to the Indian Institute Fund, 1897)
*Symonds, Richard, Oxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause? (New York: St Martins Press, 1986)
*The Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette, 5 May 1883
*Indian Institute Archives, Bodleian Library, Oxford
*Monier Monier Williams, 'Notes of a long life's journey', unpublished memoir, Indian Institute Library, Oxford.
*Evison, Gillian, 'The Orientalist, his Institute and the Empire: the rise and subsequent decline of Oxford University's Indian Institute', unpublished paper, December 2004.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Indian Institute, Oxford}}
* [http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/broad/buildings/east/old_indian_institute/ Old Indian Institute], Broad Street, Oxford (including photographs)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061009030031/http://www.ochs.org.uk/studies/ Indian Studies at Oxford] from the [[Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies]]
* [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/oriental/iil.htm Indian Institute Library] now in the [[Bodleian Library]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928103746/http://www.ocvhs.com/studies/ The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies]

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[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1883]]
[[Category:Departments of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Indology]]
[[Category:Grade II listed buildings in Oxford]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service]]
[[Category:1883 establishments in England]]

Indian Institute - Revision history

>Johnpacklambert at 14:03, 24 May 2021