I thought it would be a good idea to give a bit of background to the main figure of my project as well as present a few of the ways in which Sir William Jones was a truly transnational and global actor and then briefly lay out how he links to my project.
Sir William Jones is was a multifaceted character, as he was one of the most well-known orientalists, a talented translator, poet and philologist just to name a few areas of his life. He went to Oxford University and practiced law on the Carmarthen and Oxford circuits. Later in his career he became a judge on the Supreme Court of in Bengal. However, he is most well-known for his ‘discovery’ of what is now known as the ‘proto-European language’ which is thought to be one of the largest language families encompassing most European and southern Asian languages. He is also the founder of the Asiatic Society (founded in 1784), which is still running to this day.
Jones was a very connected individual with links on opposite sides of the world in America and in South Asia. For example, he had a fond friendship with Benjamin Franklin as a big supporter of the American Revolution, as well as being connected to the British radicals. It’s even been argued that Franklin improved upon Jones’s proposal for a tripartite government which since has become central to US politics. He was even invited to the court of Louis XVI in France, impressing the King with his linguistic skills. Furthermore, his links to the East were extensive as an orientalist he translated Persian and Sanskrit poetry. He fell in love with India after his move there as a Judge in Bengal and was fascinated by the Sanskrit language. He is also fondly remembered in Indian culture as being the harbinger of India’s cultural renaissance.
His links to Wales are particularly interesting as his father, the Mathematician William Jones (colleague of Newton and one of the first people to introduce the pi symbol) was from Anglesey in North Wales and he was also a descendent of Hwfa ap Cynddlew, Lord of Llyslifon, and the Welsh princes of Gwynedd. It was on the West Wales circuit he championed the rights of a Welsh peasants oppressed by the anglicised landowners who were demanding unreasonable rents and taxes, as well as representing them in front of English-speaking courts and Judges when the vast majority of peasants at the time only spoke Welsh. This angered Jones that the courts would only translate what had been said in court for the benefit of the English-speaking court and judges rather than the peasants as he felt that it was unfair that his clients could not understand court procedures in an unfamiliar language. Thus, he switched between welsh and English in the court room. It was in Wales that he formed many of his values and sided with those who were marginalized and downtrodden by powerful interests often defending small time tenants and workmen gratis. Being of English and Welsh descent he empathised with his subaltern and marginalised countrymen from the position of growing up in the dominant metropolitan culture. His dialogue The Principles of Government (Barn ar Egwyddorion y Llywodraeth) was translated into Welsh and widely distributed and performed in towns and fairs so even illiterate people could understand. This highlighted how Jones could link the metropole and the margins (as the text became a key text in the movement for parliamentary reform) and centred his concerns on the colonised and the oppressed, which carried over to his work in India. I am interested in is this idea of the ‘Welsh Subaltern’ or ‘Subaltern Wales’ and how this influenced Jones in his work in India. It will be interesting to see if there is any comparisons and connections between the Welsh and Indian subalterns. Also, like Indian culture, Wales has a rich cultural past of poetry and mythical stories and Jones also had links with the Celtic revival movement, so it would be interesting to see if there were any parallels between the revival of Indian and Celtic cultures which Jones was involved in and potential the political implications of this on future Welsh nationalist movements. Finally, I’m curious to see how Empire fits into this equation when looking at the subaltern at home and abroad, as Jones was a Judge for the East India Company and a lot of his work was used to produce english versions of Indian laws which permitted British rule Indians by their own laws.