Recently, Rashmi Samant’s name made headlines when she became the first Indian woman to head the Oxford Students’ Union but she stepped down soon after some of her old social media posts surfaced that viewed her as being “racist” and “insensitive”. If you read Rob Walters’ new release, Stars of South Asia from Oxford (Palimpsest), you will realise why her short-lived win was a big deal. She was up against illustrious Indian Oxonians who panned blue-blooded royalty, political heavyweights, and famous surnames from the arts, public service and sport. His research offers revelatory accounts about the student lives of such alumni from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The book’s delightful trajectories highlight how these great minds reacted to their earliest introduction to Western values and thought. 

Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984) delivers a lecture at Oxford University. Pic/Getty Images