From raj to swaraj and beyond: School of Oriental and African Studies hits a century

LONDON: It was established in 1916 with the mission to advance knowledge about Asia – training officials for overseas postings across the British empire – but today the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is celebrating a century of global impact in the field and beyond.

Located in central London, the university’s domain includes Africa and the Middle East, but generations of Indian students and academics have passed through its portals, influencing thought and practice at key levels before and after independence.

Part of the original idea behind the school was to provide the University of London with a rival to the then famous Oriental schools of Berlin, Petrograd and Paris. Its first director (1916-37) was the celebrated linguist and former principal of the Calcutta Madarsa, Edward Denison Ross, a specialist in Persian, Sanskrit and other languages.

A decade after the establishment of SOAS, the school was offering degree courses in a range of languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Urdu and Hindi. In 1920-21, of the 274 men and 138 women enrolled by the school 54 were from India. The first diplomas were awarded to K A Subramani Iyer (Sanskrit), who later became the vice-chancellor of Lucknow University. In 1921, Dlits were awarded to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji and the Bengali polymath, Sushil Kumar De.

Rumour has it that several intelligence officers too trained at SOAS over the decades, enriching their skills through its rich language portfolio. New disciplines such as Area Studies and Subaltern Studies found fertile soil there.

SOAS has close links with Indian institutions, while alumni hold influential posi tions in government, media, academia and other sectors.

“The SOAS centenary marks an occasion to celebrate the institution’s deep links with India. It has long been a centre of excellence of the study of Indian history, and has the largest faculty in the world working on India and South Asia,” Gurharpal Singh, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, told HT. During the centenary year, a rich menu of seminars, lectures and conferences will be served up. A time capsule to be opened in 2116 was buried in the school’s environs in June.

Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta who earned a doctor

ate at SOAS, said: “I spent an enjoyable five years in SOAS from 1975 to 1980. They were among the best years of my life.”

“SOAS was in many ways an eccentric place: most of the students were studying subjects that were regarded as quirky. That made them and the teachers doubly interesting. I think the institution epitomised the best in British outward thinking and even eccentricity,” he added.

SOAS uniquely offers over 350 undergraduate degree combinations in social sciences, arts, humanities and languages, with a distinctive regional focus and global relevance and over 115 postgraduate programmes.

“You will be hard placed to find another institution of its size where so many regional specialists congregate. Students from India come here to study media with me and find that they can do an optional course on Bollywood or one which exposes them to the myth of development in India,” said Somnath Batabyal, an alumnus who now teaches at SOAS.

Among SOAS strengths is a focus on the study of Zoroastrianism and Jainism, among other faiths. The South Asia Institute set up in 2015 represents the largest multi-disciplinary community of scholars working on South Asia in any university in Europe.

“We are in the process of launching major initiatives in Indian history, Indian philosophy, Zoroastrianism and Sikh Studies. We have significant scholarship support from India for Bengali and Indian art. We have also received a major donation from the Chicagobased Alphawood Foundation for the study of Hindu art in South East Asia,” Singh said.

However, SOAS has not been unaffected by the deep funding cuts in Britain’s higher education sector and other sector headwinds in recent years, which have challenged most universities, particularly in research, provision of scholarships and student recruitment