William Wilson Hunter

Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900)

Sir William Wilson Hunter , KCSI , CIE (born July 15, 1840 in Glasgow , † February 6, 1900 in Oaken Holt , Oxfordshire ) was a British statesman and writer.

Life

Hunter studied at the universities of Glasgow , Paris and Bonn . After successfully completing these studies, he got a job in the administration of the British colonies . In 1862, under the aegid of Viceroy James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin , Hunter began his service in British India and remained there until his retirement.

When a famine broke out in 1866, Hunter was placed in charge of public education in Orissa Province . It was here that he began working on his first book. In 1868 he was able to publish his study Comparative dictionary of the non-aryan languages ​​of India and High-Asia ; in it compared 139 dialects and tried to analyze them.

Hunter also made a contribution to the local population, as he repeatedly pointed out the injustice inflicted on these people. Even so, Hunter was officially and publicly recognized for his work (and his publications).

After Hunter had held various government offices, he reached the height of his career in 1871 when he was appointed Director General of the Indian Statistical Bureau. As such, he headed the census record of 1872 and published the results of the same in 1876 in a comprehensive work of 20 volumes. In 1878 he was one of the first to be awarded the Order of the Star of India . The Order's Grand Master, Viceroy Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton , presented this award to Hunter.

Fonts

• Comparative dictionary of the non-Aryan languages ​​of India and High-Asia . 1868
• Annals of rural Bengal . 1872, 7th edition 1897
• Brief history of the Indian people . 4th edition 1884.
• History of British India . 1899–1900, (2 volumes)
• England's work in India . 1881, 10th edition 1890
• Famine aspects of Bengal districts . 2nd edition 1874.
• Imperial Gazetteer of India . 1881 (9 volumes), new edition 1885–87 (14 volumes), 3rd edition 1908 (26 volumes with atlas)
• Indian empire. Its history, people and products . 1882, 2nd edition 1886, 3rd edition 1896.
• The Indian Musulmans: are they bound in conscience to rebel against the Queen? 1871, 3rd edition 1876. Text archive - Internet Archive
• Life of the Earl of Mayo (2nd edition 1876, 2 volumes, short biography 1891)
• Orissa. The vicissitudes of an Indian province under native and British rule . 1872 (2 volumes)
• Statistical account of Assam . 1880 (2 volumes)
• Brief history of the Indian peoples . 20th edition 1892
• Bombay 1885 to 1890, a study of administration . 1892
• Life ot Brian H. Hodgson , British resident of the court of Nepal . 1896.
• as editor: Rulers of India (biographical compilation)
• The India of the Queen, and other essays . 1903 ( posthumously )

literature

• Francis Henry Bennett Skrine: Life of Sir William Wilson Hunter, KCSI . Longmans, Green, 1901.
• JS Cotton: Hunter, Sir William Wilson (1840–1900), administrator in India and historian. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004 (rev. S. Gopal).
• Hunter, 3) William Wilson . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 8, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, pp. 812–813. - (p. 813)
• Hunter, 3) William Wilson . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 9, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, pp.  661–662 .
• Hunter, Sir William Wilson . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 13 : Harmony - Hurstmonceaux . London 1910, p. 945 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

• Works by Hunter, William Wilson, 1840–1900 in Project Gutenberg ( currently not available to users from Germany )