GROWTH OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN INDIA

An attempts have been made on the growth of anthropology as a distinct discipline of study and research in India by S.C. Roy, D.N. Majumdar, G.S. Ghurye, S.C. Dube, N.K. Bose, L.P. Vidyarthi and Surjeet Sinha etc.

In the light of L.P. Vidyarthi and Sinha, the growth of Indian anthropology can be divided into the following historical phases:

i.      The beginning, formative period (1774-1919): In 1774 Sir William Jones started Asiatic Society of Bengal as its founder president, to study nature and man in India. Since then the British administrators, missionaries, travelers and anthropologists studied Indian tribes and published their accounts in the Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784), Indian Antiquary (1872), Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society (1915), and Man in India (1921). Accounts were also published in a series of districts Gazetteer, hand books and monograms on tribes.

Several missionaries including Hoffman and Bodding undertook linguistic studies along with ethnographic search. The inspiration was drawn from British anthropologists who came to work in India. For example, W.H.R. Rivers put his attention on the Todas of Nilgiri Hills (present day Tamil Nadu); A.R. Radcliffe-Brown dealt with the Andaman Islanders, G.H- Seligman and B.G. Seligman concentrated on the Vedas of Ceylon, etc.

ii.      The Constructive Phase (1920-1949): In 1919 Social Anthropology was included in the curricula of Bombay University in Sociology. In 1921 Department of Anthropology was started at Calcutta University. These centres started anthropological research to which important contributions were made by the scholars like A.R. Radcliffe Brown, J.H. Hutton, S.C. Roy, G.S. Ghurye, K.P. Chattopadhyay, M.N. Srinivas, D.N. Majumdar and Iravati Karve.

Among others who made important contribution to the growth of anthropology in India, the most notable were the studies by P.N. Mishra, L.KA. Iyer, K.P. Chattopadhyay, T.C. Das, and D.N. Majumdar in the East and North India, and G.S. Ghurye, Iravati Karve, L.K. Ananthakrishna Iyer and A. Aiyappan in the West and South India. All these scholars stimulated anthropological research and publication of articles, monographs and books. In 1938 a joint session of the Indian Science Congress Association and the British Association reviewed the progress of anthropology in India.

During this period, except a few studies of Indian institutions like Caste, the tribal studies continued to be the exclusive field of study by the enlightened British scholars, administrators, missionaries and later by the British and Indian anthropologists till the end of the forties of this century.

iii.     Analytical Period (1950-1990): After Second World War some eminent American anthropologists including Morris Opeler of Cornell University, Oscar Lewis of University of Illinois, David Mandelbaum of the University of California and others came to India and conducted many important studies in rural and tribal areas./Besides, important rural studies were made by M.N. Srinivas (Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India), Iravati Karve (Kinship Organization in India), S.C. Dube (Emerging Patterns of Rural Leadership in Southern Asia) and D.N. Majumdar (Himalayan Polyandry) among others.

In the words of L.P. Vidyarthi, “The journey of Indian anthropology still continues. It has gone much ahead under the influence of and in collaboration with the British and American anthropologists. Of course, in a broader perspective, they will continue to influence the Indian social science for some more time. Science knows no barrier and the science of man in India will continue to collaborate and learn in the- fields of theory and methods of social research from the other scientifically advanced countries of the world.”

Thus, fresh efforts to undertake researches on the unexplored areas and communities, publication of new bulletins and journals, establishment of more and more research centres characterize the ‘analytic phase’ in the growth and development of Indian anthropology.

iv.  Evaluative Phase (1990 onwards): During recent times new areas of Anthropology and different sub-fields within these areas have been emerging. Indian anthropology from 1990’s has been much concerned with problems of own society, both empirical and normative. New types of data are encountered; the concepts, methods and theories are continually shaped and reshaped. New ways of looking at new types of data have made Indian anthropology much more distinctive ever before. Unlike western countries, in India, a close relationship between sociology and social anthropology prevails from the very beginning. The great size and density of Indian population have facilitated such closeness between the two disciplines.

The present phase of anthropology in India has brought sociology much closer; both the disciplines go on investigating the tribal, agrarian and industrial socio-cultural systems. Many renowned anthropologists namely M.N. Srinivas, S.C. Dube and others were found to penetrate into the field of sociologists to combine the two disciplines successfully, for yielding better result.