Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where it is also an official language alongside English. In India, Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language, the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal, Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa, it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, with no official status.
George William MacArthur Reynolds was a British fiction writer and journalist.
John Borthwick Gilchrist was a Scottish surgeon, linguist, philologist and Indologist. Born and educated in Edinburgh, he spent most of his early career in India, where he made a study of the local languages. In later life, he returned to Britain and lived in Edinburgh and London. In his final years, he moved to Paris, where he died at the age of 81.
Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar, 1st Baronet was an influential British merchant of the early nineteenth century who served as a colonial governor and Member of Parliament. During his lengthy service for both the East India Company and the British government, Farquhar gained a reputation as an efficient and ambitious administrator and he notably served as Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales Island from January 1804 to 1805 and as governor of Île de Bourbon, now known as Réunion from 1810 to 1811.
Major-General Samuel Wilson was a career Bombay Army officer, and was commander in chief in Bombay in 1826. He retired in 1826 and went back to England after 46 years of service.
Alfred William Begbie (1801–1873) was a British civil servant in India.
James Atkinson was a surgeon, artist and Persian scholar — "a Renaissance man among Anglo-Indians".
Maria Elizabeth Budden, was a novelist, translator and writer of didactic children's books, who frequently signed her work "M. E. B." or "A Mother". Her True Stories... series of history books for young people remained popular for many years. Little has come to light about Budden's life.
Henry Dominic Phillips was a British civil servant of the Indian civil service who served as an official member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1863 to 1868. He took his seat in December 1864.
Thomas Duer Broughton (1778–1835) was an English soldier and writer on India.
Samuel Ludlow was a British surgeon in the East India Company medical establishment, serving in the Bengal Presidency in British India during the first half of the 19th century. Ludlow spent many years at the Delhi Residency, the headquarters of the British Resident to the Mughal Court in Delhi. The Resident's Office was created some time after 1803, when the British acquired Delhi, which soon became the Delhi Territory within the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, a part of the Bengal Presidency.
John James Snodgrass, was a British military officer, aide-de-camp and son-in-law to Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet and author. He fought in the Battle of Waterloo. The last seven years of his life were spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he died and is buried in the Old Burying Ground.
Francis Brooke Norris was a British colonial administrator who was the fourth Surveyor General of Ceylon. He was appointed in 1833, succeeding Gualterus Schneider, and held the office until 1846. He was succeeded by W. H. Simms.
George Parbury (1807–1881) was a British publisher with a special interest in India, a freemason in India and London, Master of Merchant Taylors livery company, Justice of the Peace for two counties and Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets.
Arthur Lumley Davids was an English orientalist and linguist. He was born in Hampshire, the only child of Jewish parents Sarah Lumley and Jonki Davids.
George Francis Brown (1802–1871) was a British civil servant of the East India Company, and Commissioner of Bhagalpur, Bihar at the time of the Santhal rebellion.
The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies was a regular publication which aimed to be “a faithful register of Indian Occurrences”.
Joseph Walker Jasper Ouseley was a British orientalist and a colonel in the British Army.
