Dr Gordon Johnson

Gordon was Lecturer in the History of Modern South Asia and Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies. Before retirement in 2010 he chaired a number of Faculty Boards, and served on the General Board, the University Council, and the Syndicate on the Government of the University. He was for thirty years a Syndic of the University Library; joined the Press Syndicate in 1981 and was its chair from 1993-2009. Gordon was the first Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust and a long-time Trustee of the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts. He was Senior Proctor in 1977-1978 and served as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 2002-2010. He was appointed Lady Margaret’s Preacher in 2006 and was the Sandars Reader in Bibliography for 2010.

Gordon came to Cambridge in 1961 from Richmond School in Yorkshire to study history at Trinity College. He graduated in 1964 and took his PhD in Indian history in 1968. He was a Fellow of Trinity for eight years before moving to Selwyn (where he is now an Honorary Fellow) in 1974. He edited Modern Asian Studies for thirty-eight years and was the General Editor of the New Cambridge History of India. His publications include Provincial Politics and Indian Nationalism (CUP, 1973), A Cultural Atlas of India (Time Life Books, 1995) and University Politics: F M Cornford’s Cambridge and his advice to the young academic politician (CUP, 1994 and 2008).