Glynn Vivian Art Gallery - On Air

Bridging Cultures: Sir William Jones and the India–Wales Connection Hadi Baghaei-Abchooyeh is a specialist in English and Comparative Literature. This talk explores the remarkable life and legacy of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), the Welsh-born jurist whose work in late-18th-century Bengal forged enduring intellectual ties between Wales and India. This talk explores the remarkable life and legacy of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), the Welsh-born jurist whose work in late-18th-century Bengal forged enduring intellectual ties between Wales and India. We’ll trace his early bilingual upbringing and classical education in Wales, his pioneering role as a judge who championed legal pluralism in Calcutta, and his ground-breaking hypothesis linking Sanskrit and Persian with Greek, Latin, and Celtic languages—an insight that launched modern comparative linguistics. Along the way, we’ll consider how Jones’s dual identity as a Welshman and a colonial official shaped his empathy for both Celtic and South Asian traditions,