In early May 1853, India’s first baronet Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy wrote to the government of Bombay with a proposal for a new philanthropic endeavor: “a School for the improvement of Arts and Manufactures.” As a member of Bombay’s organizing committee for the Great Exhibition in London, Jeejeebhoy had been struck by both the strengths and weaknesses of Indian artisans. Because of their delicate physiques, Indians were “naturally suited to industry requiring skilled, delicate handiwork”; the problem was that their industrial ingenuity was too often misdirected. The solution, in his mind, would be an art school that would introduce new technologies—including “any practical improvement in the weaving of cotton, silk, Musroo and Velvet”—and offer instruction in “Painting, Drawing, and Design, Ornamental Pottery, Metal and wood carving and turning, wherein the use of complicated machinery is not indispensable, as also in Gem and Pebble cutting.” Such instruction, Jeejeebhoy argued, would do many things: develop skills, elevate taste, expand demand, introduce new industries, stimulate employment, and—finally—improve “the habits of Industry of the Middle and lower classes of our Native population.” The result, Jeejeebhoy hoped, would be that India could then “take up an advanced position among the manufacturing countries of the world.”