The University of Kent has conferred on Antony Copley the title of Honorary Professor of Modern European and Indian History.
Antony was appointed to the Faculty of Humanities in January 1967. This was the rewarding time of inter-disciplinary teaching and he was heavily involved in the teaching of Part 1 Topics. Out of Colonialism and the Emergent Nations was to come future publications, The Political Career of C Rajagopalachari 1937-54 (Macmillan 1978) and Gandhi: Against the Tide (Blackwell 1987 and OUP 1993). Gandhi was to be a lifetime interest and Antony has been an active member of the Gandhi Foundation UK since the 1980’s. The other topic was Sex, Literature and Morality, and that in time led to Sexual Moralities in France 1780-1980 (Routledge 1989) and much later in retirement A Spiritual Bloomsbury (Lexington Books 2006).
Another off-shoot of teaching these two topics was the highly ambitious part 11 course, Moral Codes and their Critics. Subsequent publications included Religions in Conflict (OUP 1997), a study of Evangelical missionaries in 19th century India and several editions on the Hindu Religious Reform Movements, Gurus and their Followers (OUP 2000) and Hinduism in Public and Private (OUP 2003). He retired as Honorary Reader in 2001, and The School of History appointed him an Honorary Senior Research Fellow. He was to publish two monographs in retirement, A Spiritual Bloomsbury and by way of new departure, a book on music, Music and the Spiritual: Composers and Politics in the 20th Century (Ziggurat 2012). Both books were republished by Indian published. He has just completed a personal memoir, Marginalised: A Post-War Adolescence.