Ram Gopal

Ram Gopal may refer to:

Ram Gopal (dancer)

Bissano Ram Gopal OBE (20 November 1912 – 12 October 2003) was an Indian dancer and choreographer who performed mostly as a soloist and toured extensively throughout his lengthy career. A modernist, he blended the classical Indian dance with balletic choreography, and along with Uday Shankar was among the first to showcase Indian classical dance in the West starting in the 1930s, Polish critic Tadeusz Zelenski called him "the Nijinsky of India".

As a choreographer, he is most known for his productions, Legend of the Taj Mahal, Dance of the Setting Sun and Dances of India. He is also noted for his collaboration, "Radha-Krishna" with British ballerina, Dame Alicia Markova in 1960.

Early life and training

Gopal was born in Bangalore, India. He had a Burmese mother and a Rajput father who was a barrister. They lived in a mansion called Torquay Castle. Drawn to dance early on in his life, he learned Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup and Chandu Panickar. Once he danced at the annual garden party of the Maharajah of Mysore without of his father permission, but fortunately the Maharaja persuaded his father to allow him receive further dance training.

Ram Gopal (author)

Ram Gopal (born 1912) was an Indian writer and historian.

Life

His biography of Lokmanya Tilak was considered by the press as 'an admirable history and authoritative and standard work'. Reviewing it The Times said: "it is extremely well done". His Indian Muslims – A Political History (1858–1947) also brought him high praises. Rushbrooke-williams said reviewing it in International Affairs: "The author has taken the greatest possible pains to maintain impartiality, and his book is the product of much industrious research and is exceedingly well written".

He was also author of several books on civics and politics. For some time he did research for the Union Ministry of Education in the Board of the History of the Indian Freedom Movement.

He was arrested in connection with the (August 1942) "Quit India" Movement and detained in Lucknow Central Jail. He worked in editorial position in prominent English language newspaper published from allahbad in UP during his initial career. He was Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative council .