Bridging Cultures: Sir William Jones and the India–Wales Connection
A Friends of the Glynn Vivian talk with Dr Hadi Baghaei
Saturday 5 July, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
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 groundbreaking 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, and how his scholarship still resonates in contemporary debates on cultural revival, postcolonial identity, and the politics of heritage.
Book online: https://www.glynnvivian.co.uk/book-now-friends-of-the-glynn-vivian-talk-with-dr-hadi-baghaei/
Dr. Hadi Baghaei-Abchooyeh is Postgraduate Research Supervisor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He earned his PhD in English Literature from Swansea University in 2021, with a dissertation on ‘Sir William Jones and Oriental Mysticism,’ and specialises in Colonial, Oriental, Post-Colonial, and Comparative Studies of British India. His publications include the forthcoming edited volume Bridging the Unknown to the Known (2026) and the monograph Beyond Orientalism: Sir William Jones (1746–1794), a Journey of Understanding (2025).
