David Pocock was born in London and studied under FR Leavis at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In the early 1950s he went to Oxford and under the supervision of Edward Evans-Pritchard, carried out field research among Asian migrants in east Africa and subsequent work in Gujarat which resulted in two monographs. His collaboration with Louis Dumont led to the founding, in 1957, of the journal Contributions to Indian Sociology, which they wrote jointly for five years. He moved to the University of Sussex, Brighton, in 1966, becoming Professor of Social Anthropology, retiring in 1987.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.