Hampstead

T. W. Rolleston

About: 

T. W. Rolleston graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1878 and was editor of the Dublin University Review from May 1885 to December 1885. He was friends with W. B. Yeats and helped found the Irish Literary Society in London in 1892. Rolleston was a journalist who wrote for the Irish press and then moved to Hampstead, North London, in 1909. He was a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, specialising in Oriental subjects.

In 1910, Rolleston was involved in the foundation of the India Society. He acted as Treasurer and then Honorary Secretary of the Society. Rolleston was involved in the aim of establishing a Lectureship in Indian Art at the School of Oriental Studies, but was unsuccessful in raising enough funds before his death in 1920.

Harihar Das called Rolleston 'a friend of India' and praised him for 'his service to Indian culture' in an obituary written for The Asiatic Review in January 1922.

Date of birth: 
01 May 1857
Connections: 

T. W. Arnold, Mohini Chatterjee (Rolleston was editor of Dublin University Review in August 1885 when it mentioned the anticipated arrival of Mohini Chatterjee to Dublin later that year), Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, A. H. Fox-Strangways, K. G. Gupta, E. B. HavellChristiana HerringhamWilliam Rothenstein, Rabindranath Tagore, W. B. Yeats (in Dublin)

Reviews: 

Harihar Das, 'Obituary', The Asiatic Review XVIII. 53, (January 1922), pp. 119-122

Involved in events: 

Formation of India Society, March 1910.

City of birth: 
Glasshouse, Shinrone
Country of birth: 
Ireland
Other names: 

Thomas William Hazen Rolleston

Date of death: 
05 Dec 1920

India Society

About: 

Founded in March 1910 at the home of E. B. Havell, the India Society was created to bring attention to Indian Art, in its many forms, to audiences in Britain and the world. In February 1910, Havell gave a lecture to the Royal Society of Arts on Indian Art, to which the chair, George Birdwood, responded that India had no fine art tradition. In response a number of British figures, including William Rothenstein, wrote a letter to The Times affirming the presence of an Indian fine art tradition, and as a result the India Society was formed. The Society had close links with other societies in Paris and with India. Many of their members were based in India and included a number of South Asians studying and working in Britain, such as Jawaharlal Nehru (a student called to the Bar in London). The Society was keen to bring out regular publications, one of which was Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali (Song Offerings) in 1912, which led to the award of Nobel Prize for Literature to Tagore in 1913. The Society also brought out its own journal, Indian Art and Letters, from 1925.

The Society received royal patronage and became the Royal India Society 1944-1948. From 1948 to 1950, it was known as the Royal India and Pakistan Society. From 1950 to 1966, it was known as the Royal India, Pakistan and Ceylon Society. In 1966, it incorporated the East India Association and was renamed The Royal Society for India, Pakistan and Ceylon.

Published works: 

Indian Art and Letters: Journal from 1925

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K, Indian Drawings (1910)

Havell, E. B. (ed.), Eleven Plates. Representing Works of Indian Sculptures Chiefly in English Collections (1911)

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., Kapilar and a Tamil Saint (1911)

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., Indian Drawings (1912)

Tagore, Rabindranath, Gitanjali (1912)

Tagore, Rabindranath, Chitra (1913)

Fox-Strangways, A. H., The Music of Hindostan (1913)

One Hundred Poems of Kabir, trans. by Rabindranath Tagore and Evelyn Underhill (1914)

Herringham, Christiana, Ajanta Frescoes (1914)

Ajanta Frescoes, 42 plates in colour and monochrome, with explanantory and critical texts by Lady Herringham, Laurence Binyon, William Rothenstein and others (1915)

The Mirror of Gesture (1916)

Havell, E. B. Handbook of Indian Art (1920)

The Bagh Caves in the Gwalior State (1927)

Ganguli, Taraknath, The Brothers, translated by Edward Thompson (1928)

Kak, Ram Chandra, Ancient Monuments of Kashmir (1933)

Gangulee, N., The Red Tortoise and Other Tales of Rural India (1941)

Rawlinson, H. G. (ed.), A Garland of Indian Poetry (1946)

Iqbal, Muhammad, The Tulip of Sinai, trans. by A. J. Arberry (1947)

Secondary works: 

Indian Magazine and Review 473 (May 1910) and later issues for notices and reviews

‘Proceedings of the Society: Indian Section’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 58.2985 (Feb. 1910), pp. 273-298

Lago, Mary, Christiana Herringham and the Edwardian Art Scene (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996)

Lago, Mary. 'A Lost Treasure: William Rothenstein, Tagore and the India Society', The Times Literary Supplement, 16 April 1999

Mitter, Partha, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)

Mitter, Partha, The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-Garde 1922-1947 (London: Reaktion Books, 2007)

The Times, 29 April 1911, 13 July 1912, 22 December 1919

Turner, Sarah Victoria, ‘The India Society and the Networks of Colonial Modernity, c.1910-1914’, in ‘“Spiritual Rhythm” and “Material Things”: Art, Cultural Networks and Modernity in Britain, c.1900-1914’, unpublished PhD thesis, (University of London, 2009)

Date began: 
17 Mar 1910
Key Individuals' Details: 
Connections: 

Laurence Binyon (committee member), Krishna G. Gupta (committee member), Roger Fry, Eric Gill, Jawaharlal Nehru (member from 1911 and vice-president from 1950s), T. W. Rhys-Davids (President), Earl of Ronaldshay (later Marquess of Zetland), Rabindranath Tagore (guest and committee member), Sourindro Mohun Tagore (Vice-President), Ratan Tata (committee member), Francis Younghusband (President).

Archive source: 

Mss Eur F147/65A-114, including minute books, cuttings, and correspondence, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Involved in events details: 
Tags for Making Britain: 
Subscribe to RSS - Hampstead