Our Trustees
A distinguished panel of professionals who are committed to maintaining the highest standards.
Ambassador Ajai Malhotra IFS (Retd) (Chairman)
Ambassador Malhotra, who most recently served as India's Ambassador to the Russian Federation, holds an M.A. in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1977. In addition to assignments at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, he served at Indian diplomatic missions in Bucharest,Geneva, Kuwait, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, andWashington DC. He was India’s Ambassador to Romania, Albania and Moldova, Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN Offices at New York, Ambassador to Kuwait, and Ambassador to the Russian Federation. He retired on November 30, 2013, after thirty seven years of distinguished service with the Government of India.
His Excellency Alexander Ellis, British High Commissioner to India.
Sir Alex Ellis was appointed as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Spain and Andorra in September 2024. Previously, Alex served as the British High Commissioner to the Republic of India (2021 to 2024) and before that, he worked as the Deputy National Security Adviser in the Cabinet Office (2020) focussed on foreign and security policy. Alex joined the FCDO (then FCO) in 1990 and has extensive experience across a range of diplomatic, EU, security and strategy roles
Divia Patel, Senior Curator (South Asia), Asian Department, V&A Museum.
Divia Patel is a curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her areas of expertise include contemporary art, popular culture and photography of South Asia, as well as the 19th century copies of the paintings of Ajanta. She has curated several exhibitions including the award-winning, internationally touring show, Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood and The Photographers’ Pilgrimage: Exploring Buddhist Sites. She co-curated Indian life and Landscape, an exhibition of paintings by western artists in India from the 17-20th centuries, which toured extensively through India. She has published widely on Indian cinema graphics, photography, contemporary art, design and paintings. She is currently co-curating a forthcoming exhibition on Indian Textiles.
Dr Anil Seal, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK.
Dr Anil Seal was educated at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, where he took his BA, MA and PhD in History. He is, together with John Gallagher, one of the founders of the 'Cambridge School of Indian History' which has helped to transform the understanding of modern India. His pioneering work on the 'Emergence of Indian Nationalism', published more than four decades ago, has led to many monographs from this 'school' by many of his erstwhile research students, now among the biggest figures in the subject. Collections of essays by Anil Seal and members of this 'informal school' have been published in 'Locality, Province and Nation' in 1973 and 'Power, Profit and Politics' in 1981.
Professor Deborah Swallow, Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK.
Educated at Cambridge University, UK (BA in English Literature and PhD in Social Anthropology), she moved to The Courtauld in 2004 from the Victoria and Albert Museum where she had been Director of Collections and Keeper of the Asian Department between 2001 and 2004, following a career in the Museum’s Indian Department which began in 1983. Her first professional appointment was as Assistant Curator at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University (1976-83). In the course of her career Professor Swallow has curated and managed a range of exhibitions, and published and supervised research on Indian and South-East Asian art and culture.
Professor Naman Ahuja
A Ph.D. in Art History from London University, Professor Naman Ahuja specialises in Ancient Indian Art History (including Indian iconography, temple and stupa architecture, terracotta and other small-finds, the art of Gandhara; Indian, Hellenistic and Roman transculturalism in antiquity). Medieval Indian Art History (including arts of the Indian temple and sultanate period painting). Modern Indian art history (with specific reference to the the Arts and Crafts Movement and the development of Indian design). Experience Academic teaching: at JNU since 2006, at SOAS (and its collaborators’ – the British Museum, Sotheby’s and Christie’s) Diplomas on Indian Art: since 1999. Visiting Professorships at SOAS, University of London; Kunsthistorisches Institute in Florence; University of Zürich, Switzerland; University of Alberta, Canada.
Dr Asok K Das - Academic Advisor
Asok Kumar Das was the Director, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur. He was also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the V & A Museum, London; Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow; Satyajit Ray Chair, Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan; Visiting Professor at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Hart Fellow, Smithsonian Institution; Getty Museum Scholar, Los Angeles; Andrew W Mellon Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Visiting Scholar, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha and Dar al-Atharyya, Kuwait, and Tagore National Fellow at the Indian Museum, Kolkata. The thrust areas of his research and publication are Mughal and Rajasthani art and culture, Museology and history on which he has published more than sixty books, Portfolios, research papers, popular articles and book reviews in leading Indian and foreign art journals. His monograph on the great Mughal natural history painter, Ustad Mansur was published last year.
Aruna Ghose, Executive Secretary
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