UK-based Sanskrit scholar MN Nandakumara receives King Charles’s honorary MBE award

A well-known UK-based Sanskrit scholar and chief executive of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan center in London was awarded an honorary MBE by King Charles III for services to Indian classical arts in Britain.

Dr. MN Nandakumara, hailing from the village of Mattur in Karnataka, has been associated with Bhavan for 46 years and has welcomed Charles, the then Prince of Wales, to the popular Indian cultural center on several occasions.

The honorary award, endorsed by the British monarch for foreign nationals for their contribution to public life, was confirmed by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) earlier this month and will be formally awarded at a ceremony at a later date.

The Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) has been conferred “for services to the teaching, performance and accessibility of classical Indian arts in the UK”.

“I feel truly honored and humbled; I am very happy because this award is a recognition of Bhavan’s work and service in the field of arts and culture in India and it comes as we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year,” said Dr. Nandakumara.

“The King himself has visited the Bhavan four times and has always shown immense interest in the classes we run. On one occasion, the then Prince of Wales even sat down with our tabla player on the mat and tried his hand at the tabla,” he shared.

Charles first visited the Bhavan when its main auditorium was named after his beloved uncle, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India.

The centre, registered as Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan with the Charity Commission for England, offers a range of classes including yoga, Indian languages, dance and music.

Before the COVID pandemic, he had 900 students enrolled in his classes, and while that number has dropped somewhat since then due to a move to online classes, his principal is confident of a boost in the coming months as he sees a growing interest among young people to learn. on the arts and culture of India.

“Our center is not just for Indians or the Indian diaspora, but for everyone because we operate on the principles of Gandhi. In fact, our Yoga class has 95 percent European students and all other classes have a similar mixed appeal as well,” said Dr. Nandakumara, known to his students as Nandaji.

His association with Bhavan dates back to the 1970s, when he joined as a professor of Sanskrit while completing his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and has been its Chief Executive since 1995.

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