Born in Indore, India in 1939, Brijraj Singh studied at St. John’s College, Agra before coming to Oxford to read for a second undergraduate degree in English. He went on to Yale as a Fulbright Scholar to take his PhD before returning to teach English in India. In 1985, he and his family left India and went to US where Singh joined the faculty at Hostos Community College, New York. His published works include Professing English and In Arden. A Memoir of Four Years in Shillong (1974-78). This narrative is excerpted from an interview with the Rhodes Trust on 2 October 2025.
Brijraj Singh
India & Lincoln 1962
At the end of a short walk on a Florida beach at the end of November 2025.
Brij celebrating his 86th birthday.
Brij in a park in fall 2025.
‘At home we lived a thoroughly, perfectly, completely Indian life’
Although I was born in Indore, which was then – as it is now – a bustling commercial centre, that is not where my parents lived. My father at that time was Prime Minister of one of the Indian states that were supposed to be independent but that were actually under the ruling authority of the British. He was employed by the British service in central India and he worked in different places, effectively acting as regent in a number of states, until in 1947 he was sent back to Indore to wind up the affairs of the British Residency there at the time of independence.
I had been born in a Christian mission hospital that was run by the British, my father had served the British from a very young age, and when my brother and I went to school, it was run along the lines of British public schools. We studied British History, not Indian history. We studied British geography. English culture was quite an important part of our lives at school. At home, of course, it was totally different: we lived a thoroughly, perfectly, completely Indian life. My earliest ambition was to join the Indian Foreign Service and be posted abroad and work as a diplomat. I suppose it was simply because in the early 1950s, India was a non-aligned country and rather important in world affairs, given that the Cold War was being waged in the West.
On applying for the Rhodes Scholarship
I had wanted to go to St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, but I was too young to be admitted, so the Principal of my school recommended I go to St. John’s College in Agra instead. I remember my ticket said that the journey was 460 miles, and it was like going to a foreign country. My first years there were not happy, but I got used to it. I studied English literature and economics and political science, and I did not do well in economics or political science, so, for my MA, I studied just English. While I was doing my MA, I was also appointed as a tutor and I enjoyed helping the younger students.
I was still too young to take the exams for the civil service, so I went to Delhi to study law while I prepared for the exams. But the law classes were awful and I found myself thinking I could do a much better job. Then, the principal of my college in Agra wrote and said that the college had a number of vacancies in the English department, so I went back and began to realise that being a teacher was my calling. That was actually why I applied for the Rhodes Scholarship, to complete my education and equip myself to be a better teacher.
I remember that the interview for the Scholarship was very interesting. The dinner the night before was also enjoyable because the food was good and the company was stimulating. But I never thought I’d get the Scholarship and I was absolutely shocked when my name was called out. I felt a needed a quiet place where I could recollect my thoughts and say a prayer
‘A very mind-broadening experience’
Lincoln turned out to be the happiest of places for me. I was doing a second BA in English, which meant I was allowed to do the final exams after two years instead of the usual three. I found Oxford a very mind-broadening experience, getting to know people from other parts of the world and having access to all these books and libraries. I took my degree and was then given an extension of my Rhodes Scholarship so that I could stay on and read for a BLitt. I never completed that, and ended up doing a PhD from Yale in a somewhat different area altogether.
In India, I had met a senior faculty member at Agra who was a high-altitude entomologist. and I had joined an expedition to the High Himalayas and spent a month there, camping at about 12,000 feet. In Oxford, I joined the Oxford University Exploration Club, where I met an insect collector. He and I teamed up and went to the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco over the summer. Every day, we would go to a different area to make collections. When we came back, we gave our collection to the British Museum and published a little paper, and that was my first publication.
‘I have tried to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before’
From Oxford, I moved back to India, this time to teach English literature in St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. I discovered I would need a PhD to get any kind of promotion and the opportunity came up to apply for a PhD in the US, funded by a scholarship from the United States Educational Foundation. I was lucky enough to get a place at Yale, where I was in quite a large class, although we all did different courses. I kept seeing one name on the lists, but I never met her, until we were introduced at a party. We became very good friends and ended up getting married, and we have now been very happily married for 52 years.
When I finished my PhD, I returned to St. Stephen’s College. Frances, my wife, finished at Yale the year after I did and she came out to India where we got married. We stayed in Delhi for a year and then moved to a new university that had just opened in the hills of Northeast India. The government had set it up in the hope of developing the local culture and languages and our students there were wonderful.
After four years there, we returned to Delhi until, and in 1985, we decided to move to the US. My wife’s parents were in New York and had both died in very quick succession, and that was also the year that my parents died. Three years before that, our son had been born. He has Down syndrome, and we decided it would be better for him to be brought up in the US which had facilities for the training and education of people with disabilities that did not exist in India. Frances got a job teaching at Hostos Community College and a few days after I arrived, I opened the newspaper and saw an ad for a post in Hostos Community College. They interviewed me and I was appointed as an Associate Professor.
At first, I thought I’d teach there just for a year or two, but after the first year I began to feel that it was really where I belonged. The majority of the students were women, often in difficult situations at home and holding a job or sometimes two jobs, and doing all this while trying to attend college to improve their lives. I decided that was where I was going to stay, and I was happy there. In a sense, I felt I was fighting the world’s fight.
Nothing is more gratifying to me than seeing my students achieve success, and some of them have been very successful indeed. But even those who have not distinguished themselves in that way have been good people, good citizens. You know that whatever they are doing, they are doing well. What I hoped was that each of the students that I was teaching would do something that would inspire other people, and gradually, each person would inspire others and some kind of success would be achieved at the end. It’s not been very much, but I have tried to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before.
After I retired, I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with City University, becoming a mentor to junior faculty. I found it extremely rewarding and very enjoyable. It was like tutoring in the old days: helping people out, making suggestions. I also volunteered for a number of years teaching American history for citizenship classes and offering classes in basic physical exercise. I finally retired from that at the age of 80.
‘Do things you would not otherwise think of doing’
The Rhodes Scholarship has changed over the years but I think there are still countries that we haven’t reached – in South America, for example. I would also like to see the possibility of Scholarships being extended for longer periods of time. I’m not sure I have words of wisdom to offer today’s Scholars: they should be offering their words of wisdom to older Scholars, not the other way around! The only thing I would say is that it’s a marvellous opportunity, so make the most of it and do things you would not otherwise think of doing.