Indian Traces in Oxford

Indian Traces in Oxford was an exhibition mounted in collaboration with the Bodleian Library, showcasing the remarkably wide range of textual and photographic traces or leavings of Indian students, activists, politicians, artists and others in the Bodleian special collections and College libraries, in the period 1870-1950. The exhibition opened with a half-day workshop, on 1 March 2010, in Convocation House, to be introduced by the acclaimed Indian novelist – and Oxford alumnus – Amitav Ghosh.\r\n\r\nIndian Traces at Oxford focuses in close detail on Indians' impact on Oxford University’s life and culture. Both the exhibition and the 1 March workshop considers the value and meaning of manuscript traces, how they reflect on the ways in which Indians and Britons interacted in the period, and how we are able to imagine the lives of these early Indian travellers to Oxford into these textual tracks and marks.

  • 33 minutes 31 seconds
    Cornelia Sorabji: Jowett's protégée in Oxford 1889-1893
    Professor Richard Sorabji (Wolfson College, Oxford) - Cornelia Sorabji: Jowett's protígíe in Oxford 1889-1893.
    3 March 2010, 2:10 pm
  • 26 minutes 7 seconds
    Repainting Ajanta: the global impact of the Frescoes and their copies
    Dr Rupert Arrowsmith (UCL) - 'Repainting Ajanta: the global impact of the Frescoes and their copies.'.
    3 March 2010, 2:02 pm
  • 18 minutes 2 seconds
    Tracing Indian students at Oxford before the Second World War
    Dr Sumita Mukherjee (Oxford) - 'Tracing Indian Students at Oxford before the Second World War'.
    2 March 2010, 6:12 pm
  • 26 minutes 58 seconds
    Indian imperial crossings and the Oxford hub
    Professor Elleke Boehmer (Oxford) - 'Indian imperial crossings and the Oxford hub'.
    2 March 2010, 6:10 pm
  • 16 minutes 6 seconds
    Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824-1873): a young Bengali poet's exam script washes up on Albion's distant shore
    Dr Alex Riddiford - "Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824-1873): a young Bengali poet's exam script washes up on Albion's distant shore." This reading was delivered by Anshuman Mondal.
    2 March 2010, 6:03 pm
  • 24 minutes 28 seconds
    Musings of Sir Mohammad Iqbal on the Place of Muslims in late Colonial India: Letters to Edward John Thompson, 1933-1934
    Professor Humayun Ansari (RHUL) - 'Musings of Sir Mohammad Iqbal on the Place of Muslims in late Colonial India: Letters to Edward John Thompson, 1933-1934'.
    2 March 2010, 5:56 pm
  • 31 minutes 9 seconds
    Introduction and Reading
    Opening of exhibition by Amitav Ghosh and a reading from his In an Antique Land. Introduced by Anshuman Mondal (Brunel).
    2 March 2010, 5:50 pm
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