M.M. Bhownaggree was a lawyer, statesman, and member of high society in British-ruled India. In 1888, he was devastated by the death of his only sister. He responded with a series of memorial projects devoted to educational and medical purposes. Professor McLeod’s talk examines these projects, and argues that they represent a convergence of Indian and British mourning practices with philanthropy. At the same time, they helped pave the way for Bhownaggree’s political career in Britain, where in 1895 he became only the second Indian to be elected to Parliament.

John McLeod is chair of the UofL Department of History and a specialist in the history of India. He has published Sovereignty, Power, Control: Politics in the States of Western India, 1916-1947 (1999), The History of India (2002), and African Elites in India (2006), and he is currently writing the first full-length biography of Bhownaggree. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, one of the oldest organizations devoted to the scholarly study of Asia.