Nation-building in Indian Anthropology: Beyond the Colonial Encounter

155 Pages·2023·6.635 MB·English

by  Abhijit Guha

NATION-BUILDING IN INDIAN

ANTHROPOLOGY

Researches on the history of anthropological studies in India,
unlike in western countries, have not yet been an established
tradition, despite the fact that courses on the growth and de­
velopment of anthropology in India are being taught at the
graduate and postgraduate levels in the Indian universities and
are strongly recommended by the University Grants Commission.
Indian anthropologists, however, in the early decades after the
independence made inspiring and solid research contributions
on the major problems encountered by the new nation, which
has been described and analyzed in detail in this book.
These problems include rehabilitation of refugees after the
1947 Partition; and displacement of people from their homes
and land caused by the big dams, industrialization and famines.
This book, result of years of painstaking research by the author,
critically reviews the existing works and their gaps in the history
of Indian anthropology and makes a new and valuable addition
in the field of the history of academic disciplines in the context
of nation building. It should be read not only as a text by the
students of anthropology and sociology, but also as a reference
work for researchers interested in the history of social sciences
and development studies in India.
Abhijit Guha was a professor in Anthropology at Vidyasagar
University, and a Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Social
Science Research, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.
He has published a number of research papers and popular
articles on the history of Indian anthropology, and a book on
T.C. Das.

Nation-Building in

Indian Anthropology

Beyond the Colonial Encounter
ABHIJIT GUHA
MANOHAR
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Abhijit Guha and Manohar Publishers
The right of Abhijit Guha to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Pakistan or Bhutan)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 9781032377247 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032377254 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003341581 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003341581
Typeset in Janson Text 11/13
by Kohli Print, Delhi 110051
Dedicated to

Raghabendra Guha my uncle (Chotokaku)

whose invaluable collection of old books

in Anthropology was my first inspiration

Contents

Acknowledgements 9

1. Introduction: History of Indian Anthropology as

Depicted by the Founders 11

2. Conceptual Framework of the Study and

Methodology 31

3. Did the Early Indian Anthropologists Follow

Their Colonial Masters? 37

4. Nationalist Anthropology in India: Origin and

Growth 45

5. The Future of Nationalist Anthropology in India 91

6. Conclusion 132

Bibliography 137

Index 151

Acknowledgements

The research for writing this book was made possible through
a senior fellowship awarded to me by the Indian Council of
Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, during 2018­
20. I am indebted to the ICSSR for providing me financial
support to carry out the aforementioned research on the
‘Nationalist Trends in Indian Anthropology: An Historical
Exploration’. I owe my debts to Institute of Development
Studies Kolkata (IDSK), with which I was attached during
the ICSSR senior fellowship period and its director, Profes­
sor Achin Chakrabarty, for providing me the infrastructural
support to work on my research project. I am indebted to all
the library staff at IDSK and, particularly, Sanjoy Kar, library
assistant, for untiringly providing me with valuable articles. I
am grateful to late Professor Vinay Kumar Srivastava, direc­
tor, Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), Dr Sasikumar
Mundayat, deputy director of AnSI, and Dr Umesh Kumar,
head of office, AnSI, Kolkata, for allowing me to use the
central library of the institute. I am particularly indebted to
Ramu Ram, librarian, and all the staff of the AnSI library
who supplied me with the books and journals useful for my
research. I owe my debt to my student, Subhra Bhattacharya,
and her colleagues at the physical anthropology laboratory of
AnSI who indefatigably supplied me with the hard and soft
copies of the journal articles and books on my research topic.
I am also grateful to Dr Nabakumar Duary for providing me
with some of the valuable articles which I have used in this
research. Dr Bidhan Kanti Das, Dr Gorky Chakrabarty,
Smt Srija Mondal, Dr Subhanil Choudhury, Dr Ratna Dhar,
Professor Kaushik Bose, Dr Subhamay Kisku, Dr Amit Kisku,
Dr Uttam Bhattacharya, Dr Sumahan Bandopadhyay, Pro­
fessor Dipak Midya, Dr Gautam Bera and Mr Tamil Selvan