Oxford University Press in India

[Klaus Karttunen]

On 11 Feb 98 at 17:51, Allen W Thrasher wrote:
>
> Would that it were so.  I have never seen OUP eds. of the Greek and Latin
> classics on sale in India (except perhaps secondhand), much less special
> versions for the Indian market.  Unfortunately there is practically no interest
> or study of the Western Classics in India, except perhaps in Christian
> colleges for the sake of studying the Greek New Testament and church
> history and theology.  But I suspect that this also is greatly reduced
> nowadays.

Some small interest there is (or was quite recently). In 1980 I
visited a bookstore in Bombay and find a very good selection of Greek
and Latin texts, mainly in bilingual Loeb editions. I bought myself
the three volume edition of De natura animalium by Aelian.

> So separate eds. for the South Asian market would scarcely be worth
> OUP's while, and they might find their way back to the West to undermine
> its full-cost market there.
>
This is certainly true.

> However, this raises an interesting historical question.  Has any research
> been done on the study of Greek and Latin in colonial and post-colonial
> South Asia?  They must have been taught at a great many schools and
> colleges in India for the sake of the ICS examinations, but I have seen
> nothing about the subject.
>
This is really interesting question and I hope somebody is able to
give some light on this. In Sri Lanka the University of Peradeniya
still has a Department of Classics teaching Greek and Latin, but how
is the situation in India.

Klaus Karttunen