Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland are individuals who have been elected by the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science literature and the arts in relation to Asia".The Society has around 700 fellows, half of whom reside outside Britain. It is administered by a council of twenty fellows. The Society was established in 1823 and became "the main centre in Britain for scholarly work on Asia" with "many distinguished Fellows". Fellows use the post-nominal letters FRAS.Past and current fellows include leading scholars, writers, and former politicians and governors who have made significant contributions to Asia and their respective fields. Previous Fellows have included British explorers Sir Richard Francis Burton, and Laurence Waddell, Officers of the British East India Company such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, Chief Justice of Ceylon Alexander Johnston, first Asian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and many more. Source: Wikipedia (en)