India's Stolen Wealth Funded Yale's Construction. Why aren't we talking about it more?

When Francis Day, an officer of the East India Company, negotiated a treaty with the Nayaka monarch of the area, the head of the then-declining Vijayanagara Empire, Madras became a British colony. He purchased a plot of property about three square kilometers with views of the Bay of Bengal and bordered on the south by the Adyar River and the southeast by the Buckingham Canal. Given that there was no established port, this was an intriguing location for a trade station. Small boats were required by traders to transport cargo from bigger ships to shore. However, the East India Company officer chose the area so he could regularly visit his Tamil lover since he was so much in love with her. 

The harbor was also where East India Company official Elihu Yale made much of his money during his nearly 30-year stint at Fort St. George. "Born in America, bred in Europe, traveled in Africa and married in Asia, Where long he lov'd and thrived... much good, some ill he did," his epitaph would say. In addition to enhancing the present-day city of Chennai, enhancing Britain and himself, and leaving a lasting legacy, he would also make a sizable gift that would help establish Yale University, one of the most esteemed institutions in the world.

Yale University has seldom recognized the source of its early riches, particularly the British occupation of India, or whether it owes anything to South Asia now as American institutions debate their past and whether they deserve reparations. But ought it to?