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Bulletin of the Ramaltrishna Mission Institute of Culture

SE,pTEMBER 2O2O

rssN 0971-2755 * Vor. LXXI No.9 * GOL PARK * 7OOO29 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

Editor SWAMI SUPARNANANDA '\'i0t oJlt''>r Associate Editor r TIRTHANKAR DAS PURKAYASTHA

Vor-urr,lr. LXXI SEPTEMBER 2O2O NuHassn

* OBSERVATIONS On Enemies And Allies 4 * SAYINGS Akhanclanancla " 5 -swanti * RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY Law of Karmo--Jhe Saving Grace K. Sarkar 6 -Bid.v-ut * PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE Prdna Kuntar Laha 13 -Arun * AROUNDTHEWORLD The Ramakrishna Movement in the West : Contribution of Some of Its Pioneer Swamis (1920-70FXl 17 -sihato.sh Bagchi * FORGETNOT ln Search of a Nationalist Anthropology in Guha ... 21 -Abhilit * LANGUAGEANDLITERATURE Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale': A Study of the Manuscript Rolt 23 -Anuraclha Kalam, the Poet's Concept of HarmonY 3l -Asit Kuntar Ciri * WELLBEING Holistic Living: Hidden Treasure of Life Agrawal Y -Lalita * THEARTS At Play with Ramakrishna-A Drama Based on the Life of Sri Ramakrishna-Xl ika Shucldhatntaprana "' 38 -Pravraj

The Institute is not necessarily in agreement with the views of contributors to whom fieedom of expression is given. 225- Life subscription (20 ),ears-,Janrru)t to December): India { 1.0001 Other countries $ 300 I f Annual sutrscription (Jarutary to December): India { 100; Other countries $ 27 / f 18. FORGET NOT

In Search of a Nationalist Anthropology in India

ABHIJIT GUHA

Introduction As earl1, as 1952 Nirrnal Kttmar Bose (a esearch on the history of doyen of Indian authropology) in a I significant article errtitled'Current Research "fJ, " Projects in Indian Arrthropology' published ra#y':ff ' [,i::' #"T Ji"" I become a formidable tradition. Existing in Man in Inditr enumerated the research projects undertaken works contain a lot of useful data on the by the Departntent of Anthropology, (the history of anthropology during the colonial Govt. of India fonner narne of the Anthropological Sr-rrvey and post-colonial periods but they do not of India) and the anthropology venture into a search for the growth of departrnents of Calcr-rtta, Madras, Lucknow, , GaLrhati nationalist anthropological writings by the and Osmania universities. Bose's Irrdian anthropologists or the role of the investigation was exhaustive and based on anthropologists in nation-building in the pre- written replies from the Heads of the and post-independence periods. On the other aforementi oned i nstituti ons. A fler rev i ewi ng hand, 'we find critiques of Indian the overall scenario l-re concluded. anthropology, which found a colonial hangover in Indian anthropology. Within this There does not seem to be any problenr context I shall argue that along with the which Indian anthropologists have rnade colonial tradition, a nationalist trend in Indian peculiarly their own. Anthropology in our anthropology can also be discerned, which country has, on the whole, followed the was growing during the pre-and-post- tracks beaten by anthropologists in the independence periods in lndia and this trend rnore powerful countries of the West. was represented by the works of the What they do, we generally try to repeat anthropologists who were socially on the Indian soil (Bose 1952:133). committed and contributed to nation-building Bose, however, ended rvith tlre positive through their analytical writings and note that there were exceptions to the above research. generalisation and if Indian anthropologists could work independently on lndian Critiques of Indian anthropology problems, tlrere was still sign of hope. There is a standard critique of Indian After Bose, his famous student Surajit anthropology advanced by some eminent Sinha in his insightful arlicle pr-rblished in the Indian anthropologists. The critics held that Journql o.f the Incliun Anthropological Indian anthropology is the product of a Socie0, it"t 1971 observed that despite colonial tradition and the Indian considerable growth in research publications anthropologists for various reasons followed arrd professional human power in social and their colonial masters in one way or the other. cultural anthropology dLrring the last 100

Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture * September 2020 21 ABHIJIT

the years. rlre Incliarr antllropologists largely In tlte clisct-tssion that tollowed statelxellt. tlte authors rernained dependerlt otl Western and colorlial above quoted opening traditions (Sinha l97l : l- l4). Itr adrnitted two important points. flrst. tltat the nationalistl.t occr-rpied a 'very continr.tatiot.t of his pertinent exatnitration of questiott of the colonial dependence of Irrdiart rvide spectrum' and secondlv. Ito Itrdiatt did oppose anthropology. Sinha contributed a full antltropologist or sociologist I have been chapter entitled 'lndia: A Western nationalism. I do not clairn that rvhole ratrge of the Apprerrtice' in a book. Anthropolrtgt't' able to cover the of Irrdiarr anthropology Anceslors and lleit's, edited by the Marxist nationalist spectrLllx only discover solrle of the antlrropologist Stanley Diamond in 1980 ancl but I could artthropologists and published by Morrton. In that article Sinha notable nationalist their r.vorks it.t some detailjLrst as a discr-rssed 'the process of naturalization of highlight the diff-erent strands of Westertr beginning. with the colonial tradition. a anthropological traditiorrs' and finally ended Along trend in Indian anthropology witli a pessitnistic note: nationalist could also be discerned that was growirrg For sonre time, the proliferation of trained during tlte pre and post-irrdependence maltpower, ranclotn efforls at catching up periods in lndia arrd this trend was with the latest developments in the West represerltecl bY the works of the and a general increase in the nurnber of arrthropologists who were socially publications will characterize the comrnitted and contributed to nation bLrilding development of Indian anthropology through their analytical writings atrd (Sinha 1980:281)' researcl-t (GLrha 2018:8). These learned the rnethodology of SLrrajit Sinha never calne up with a anthropologists the cliscipline frorn the West bLrt did not comprehensive and overall review of the beconte blind lollowers of Europe and results of the 'mental independence' of his America and they also did llot want to derive predecessors who lived their 'lives under their antlrropology from the religious colotrial rttle'. scriptures of the atlcient Hindus' lrtstead. Nationalist anthroPologY they visualised an Indian character of rvhich according to thetn In all imPortant book entitled anthropology, courld be used in natiot.t bLrilding, a task Anthropologlt in the East, Patricia Uberoi' which. however, finally could not develop Nandini Sundar and Satish Deshpande in into fLrll maturity in the hands o1'their own the subsectiot.t'Nationalism and the of tlle'lntrodtrction' s u cces sors. Natiou-State' As early as 1938. one of the fbr-rnding corltnented. fathers of lndian anthropology' Sarat entitled 'Arl We are yet to fornl a detailed picture of the Chanclra Roy wrote an article Mqn' ways in rvhich nationalism exerted its Inclian Otrtlook on Anthropology' in Arrthropological influetrce in shaping Indian sociology and the Journal of the Royal Ireland' This social anthropology. To be sure, almost lnstitute of Great Britain and one of the every historical account of the discipline. article catr be regarded as whether it concerns an irldividual, an pioneering ones rvhich atternpted to bLrild Lrp anthropology' institution or the discipline at large, makes a nationalist tradition of Irldiar-r critically mention of this factor.... (Uberoi, Sundar & ln tl-ris article Roy not only rna.lor theories developed in the Deshpande 2007: 38). evalr-rated the

Septernber 2020 22 Bulletin of the Rarnakrishna Missiou InstitLtte of culture * IN SEARCH OF A NATIONAI-IST ANT'HROPOLOGY IN INDIA

then westem anthropology. like [-rniversal Self in all individual-and group- evoIution ism. ditf usionism arrd firrrctional isrn selves. and the consequent elevation or witlr much scepticisnr but lTe also rnade a transtorr.nation of individLral ancl novel attenrpt to synthesize the ideas of 'national' character and conduct. through arrcient Irrdiarr philosophers in westerrr a spirit of universal love. The anthropological concepts. According to Roy. anthropological attitude rvh i le du ly the essence of lndiarr thor"rght lay irr the appreciating and fbstering the varied sel{'- I subjective process of 'syrrpathetic expression of the lJniverstrl Spirit in imurersion' in other cultures and societies diflerent conrrnunities and countries, and and this could be combined with the not by any nleans seeking to rnould ob.jective approacl-r of Western them al l in one universal racial or anthropology. I qLrote Roy. cultural pattern, is expectecl to help forward a synthesis o1'the past and the Thus the ob.lective rnethods of present, the old ancl the ne',v. the East and investigation cultural data have be of to the West (lbid). helped out, not only by historical imagination and a background of historical Sarat Charrdra Roy's approach to and geographical facts, but also by a develop a rrationalist arrthropology in India sub.jective process of self-forgetting was not a simple theoretical exercise. One absorption or rneditation (dhvinct) and shoLrld rernember that he rvas the flrst Indiarr intuitiort born of syrrpathetic irnrnersion who fbunded the second prof-essional journal in. and selt--iclentifrcation rvith, the society in under investigation. of arrthropology in lndia nanred i\lon Indict in l92l.r Roy's airr was to develop an The spread of this attitude by means lndian School of Antlrropology. ln an of anthropological study can surely be a editorial of Mun in lnclio pLrblished in 1985. factor helping tbrward the large rtnih,-in- the tlren editor SLrra.iit Chandra Sinha clit,ersilt'-thrttugh-syntpalhy that seerns to cornrlented. an Indian mind to be the inner ureaning o1' the process of hunran evolution, and the Sarat Chandra Roy's enterprise in ,llan in rvorld perplexed rnultitude hope of a by a lntliu was rnotivated by the national needs netv and violent contacts, notably of of his times and his personal pride in betu,een Eastern and Western civilizations nationalism. As for Iines of scientific (Roy 1938:150). enquiry he also wanted Indian scholars to One may note tlrat Roy did not bring ir-r seek suggestions fiorn Western scholars any Hindu religioLrs counotation to this and so lvas adopted a policy.... It also rnethod. For him. tlre Indian way of transpires that practically all the Western reaching the Universal through a and Indian path-finders in the synrpathetic understandin-q of particular anthropology of India have contributed to cultures through tolerance and love could thisjournal (Sinha 1985: iv-v). build up a national character wlrich woLrld SLrffice it to say that Roy was not a not try to shape the diff-erent peoples and blind nationalist. He was open to sr.lggestions cultures in a unifonn pattern. In Roy's and contributions fiom western experts in words, the pages of Mun in Inclicr and qurite a good l-he better rrinds of India are norv harking number of western anthropologists had back to the old ideal of culture as a lreans contribr-rted their origirral research findings of the progressive realization of the one on India to this pioneering.journal. Sangeeta

Bulletin of the Rarnakrishna Mission Institute of Culture * September 2020 ABHIJIT GUHA

Dasgupta's perceptive comn'lent in this Mitra was 'syrnpathetic immersion' for Roy regard is useful: and llone of tlrern invoked the idea of a 'Hindu anthropology' or seelned to believe Roy's long and varied career rvitnessed that modern anthropological concepts were the rise of Victorian evolutionisrn. then already present in the ancient Hindu period diffusionism. and the eventual in India. displacenrent of these by functionalism: at different points in tirne he applied all these Brief biographies of Nationalist concepts to the Indian context. At the anthropologists in India sarne time, as a professed Hindu and In this section I would provide a brief nationalist Indian, particularly in the later descriptiorr of solne of the oLltstanding phases of his career, Roy sought to scholars of the early Indian anthropology methodologically establish an'lndian who, tholrgh working during the colonial view-point' for anthropology, believing period, tried to bLrild r"rp a nationalist tradition that anthropology would help in the of anthropology. All of the tollowing integration of national life (Dasgupta anthropologists were born in lndia in the 2007:144). l9th century and applied their knowledge in Roy's nationalism, despite his professed anthropology and sociology for the cause of HindLr background. was basically Indian. In the marginalised and exploited tribals and this connection one may recall a 1933 article other underprivileged and deprived sections written by Panchar-ran Mitra who was Roy's of the Indian popLrlation. Although these contemporary and the first professor of anthropologists were influenced by the anthropology in India. The article was theory and methodology of the western published under the editorship of Roy in anthropologists. they used tlre western Man in Indiq under the title 'Research knowledge for the cause of the exploited Leads in Anthropology in lrrdia'. In this tribals and marginalised communities of article Mitra justified not only the India and also tow'ards the rnaterialist importance of India in cultural str"rdies but exposition of Indian social realit1' (Guha also pointed out the relevance of Indian 2016). I present belou a list ol seven plrilosophical thinking in developing modern natiorralist anthropologists ri ho neither anthropological theory. I quote hirn, blindly irnitated the colonial masters nor were they besieged by' a 'Hindu It is a far cry yet frorn the India of the day Antlrropology'. when it would not merely echo the rnodern Sarat Chandra Roy (1871-1942). He West but would try its own nrethods to is regarded as the father of lndian interpret anew the laws of riature and the anthropology. He was a practicing Iarvyer at predominant culture pattern of India would Ranchi and began to do research on the lead it to its time-old probing of all the society and culture of the tribes of the secrets of creation through the region not ollt of ethnological cLrriosity, introspection and scientific investigation adrninistrative need or evangelical rnission of microcosmic man (Mitra 1933:12). like the Europeans, but driven by his One may find a similarity in the tlroLrghts humanitarian passion to deliver justice to the of P. Mitra and S. C. Roy in their hopes to exploited tribals. He was deeply moved by syrrthesise h-rdiar, pliilosophy with western tlie plight of the Mr-rnda, Oraon and other anthropology. What was 'introspection' for tribal gror-rps. who were subjected to the

24 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture * Septernber2020 IN SEARCH OI- A NATIONALIST AN'|HROPOLOCY IN INDIA

cor.ltinued oppressiolt by al1 apathetic and colleges. Ambedkar is still a nobody in colonial adrr-rinistration and by a gerreral the syllabi of anthropology in lndia. As early contempt towards them in coLlrts of law. as as 1916. he rnade a novel attetnpt 'upper-caste' to explain Hindr_r lawyers had little tl-re caste system in Irrdia in a paper read knowledge of their customs, religiorrs, before the anthropology serninar of the traditional laws and langr,rages. His keen American anthropologist Alexander sympathy for the oppressed tribals inspired Goldenweizer (l 880-1940) at Colurnbia hirn to str"rdy their culture and Roy always Universitv. Arnbedkar was then 25 years old stood for their cause. His house at Ranchi and a doctoral studerrt in anthropology. The had a set of rooms reserved fbr his tribal full title of his paper rvas 'Castes in India: clients so that those who came from far-off The ir M ec han isrr, G e nes is an d villages could stay on while their cases were Development'. Starting from a fundanrental being fought in court (Ghosh 2008). anthropological finding of tribal clan Bhupendranath Datta (1880-1961). exogamy, Ambedkar had been able to show Bhupendranath was the younger brother of how caste endogamy was superirnposed on the famous HindLr revivalist social refurmer it. Secondly. his exposition of caste as an Swanti Vivekananda. He joined the anti- extrerne fornt of class system as early as British struggle and was sent to prison by l9l6 was also exemplary and this work of the colonial govenlnent in India. and later Arnbedkar was ltever rnentioned or referred earned an M.A. in sociology frorn Brown to by the world-renowned scholars on caste University, phD USA and a in anthropology in India (Arnbedkar I 91 6). Take for example from the University of Harnbr-rrg in 1923. His G. S. GhLrrye. In his famous book Ccrste ancl books Dialcctics ofHindu Ritualisnr (1950) Class irt India (1957) Churye mentioned tlre polity and Studies in Indian Socictl (1963), name of Arnbedkar only once at page 226 althoLrgh published much later, can be and that too as 'the leader of tlre Sclreduled regarded as pioneering works on lndian Caste' althoLrgh GhLrrye discussed at length society and culture fiom a Marxist the importance of endogamy in perspective (See https:i/en.wikipedia.org/ characterisirrg the caste society in India wiki/B hupendranath_Datta). Datta presented (GLrlra 2017). his research paper on the political condition Panchanan Mitra ( I 892-1936). He of color-rial India to V. I. Lerrin. Lenin gave a was the first prof-essor of anthropology ilt reply to Bhupendranatlr and requested hirn India at the University of CalcLltta. He was to collect data on the peasant organisations among the first lndiarrs to stlrdy at yale in India. which was very rnuch appreciated University and conducted several by Datta (littps ://www. marx i sts. o rg I arcl.iv e / anthropological expeditions in India and ler-rin/worksllg2llaugl26c.lrtrn). His abroad. He was tlre head of the Department contributior-rs have not yet been included in of Anthropology of the University of the curriculurn in lndian Anthropology nor Calcr-rtta and is mostly known for his do the critics of Indiarr anthropology pioneering book PrehisIrtric India published rnentior-t Datta's narne in their critiques on as early as 1923. Tliis book whiclr was the the sLrbject(Guha 20 I 9). first of its kind by any Indian scholar B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956). showed tlie antiqLrity. richness and diversity Ambedkar's views on the origin of caste of the culture of hr,rrrankirrd in the lndian were also neglected in the anthropology and subcontinent long before the advent of sociologv curricula irr tlre Indian universities scripts. He is still tlre lone Indian

Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture * September 2020 25 ABHIJIT CUHA

anthropologist r'vho wrote a book on the Tarah Chandra Das (1898-196'1). Das history of Arnerican Anthropology in 1930 made a marvelloLls ernpirical stLrdl . still (Bose 2006:1439). unparalleled in global and Indian Biraja Sankar Guha ( 1894-1961). anthropology. on the devastatiot-ts caLrsecl by Guha was the fbunder of the the f'amine of 1943 during the Anthropological Sr-rrvey of India and rvas colouial period. Das was suclr a coLlrageolls knotvlr to the students of anthropology orrly acadernic that he in his presidetttial address as a plrysical anthropologist who tnade a in the Anthropology section of the Indian classillcation of tlte lndian population on Science Congress in l94l criticised the l the basis of tlreir physical features. Very colonial govenlnent and tlte Christian t'ew people kttorv tltat he flrst uttdertook a missionaries for doing a lot of ltarrll to tlte thoroLrghgoing field sLrrvey on the social tribals of north east India. He had a vision tensior.rs among the retirgees of the therl for the applicatiorr of anthropologl for East Pakistan lor suggesting to the l.uman rvellare but that was forgotten by the govenllrent horv to t-ttrderstaud their Indian anthropologists. The critics of Indian problems and itnprove their living anthropology also did not care to look at the conditions. (Guha: 1959) socially relevartt and nationalist studies of K. P. Chattopadhyay ( 1897-1963). T. C. Das (Guha 201 l). Chattopadhyay was not only the Head of the Department of Anthropology at the Conclusion LJniversity of Calcr-rtta but was also a [if'e- Tlte firture of anthropology in lndia irr lon-e tighter for civil liberties movernent in the broader context of nation-bLrilding West Beugal befbre attd after the cannot be understood withoLrt lookin-q irrto independence o1'India. l-lis researches on tlre its past. Tlre true nationalist tradition of jLrte mill workers and tlte workers of the anthropology in India, or, for tlrat matter. in therr Calcutta Corporation were pioneering in any coLlntry cannot be developed rvithout anthropology lvhiclr broke away fiorn the looking into the works of the anthropologists colonial anthropological traditiorr (Roy- that contributed towards the goal of natiot-t- Burman 2000). building.

ACKNOWLEDCEMENT I orve my debt to the Indian Council of Studies Kolkata for providing tne the necessary Social Science Research for granting me a infrastructural support to carry out my Senior Fellorvship to work on the nationalist research. I am grateful to Anthropological trends in Indian anthropology during 2018-20. I Survey of India for allowing me to use its arn also indebted to Institute of Development Central I.ibrary at Kolkata for my research.

NOTE The first professional .iournal of the Governlnent Law College, Bornbay anthropology in India was .lournal of the (now Murnbai). This journal continued .lntht'opologicul Sociely o.f Bontbay up to 1973 (Shah 2014 363). Shah, rvhich was founded in 1886. Its first A. M. 'Anthropology in BombaY', editor was Edward Tyrrell Leith, a 1886- 1936. Sociological Bulletin. 63 British national and professor of Law at (3):.155-367.

26 Bulletin of tlre Rarnakrishna Mission Institute of Culture * September2020 IN SEARCH OF A NATIONALIST ANTHROPOLOGY IN INDIA

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untl Heirs Edited by Stanley Dianrond. n sd l. n i sca i r. res. i n/.i spu i/b i tstreatrr/

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Places and Institutions' .lnthropolog_v- in Culture. LXX ( I 2): 20-23. 'l'hesis'- lhe Ea.st f'oundcr.s o.f lndicrn soc'iologv C}Lrha, A. (2017). '1'he forgotterr und anthropologi'(l-63). (eds.). P. LJberoi, I & ll. The Sttrtcsttrun.9th & l0tlr Januarv N. Sundar and S. Deshpande. Ranikhet: 201 7. (p. 8). Pennanent Black. Bose, I(. (2006). Panchanan Mitra. ()urrent Guha. A.(2018). 'ln Search of Nationalist Science.9/(l l): 1439. trends in Indian Anthropology: Opening a Gtrha, B. S. ( 1959). Sttrtlies iu Sociul Tett.tion.s

Nelv Discourse.' Occ:ctsionol Puper No. 62. Antong lhe Ref ugces f i'ottt Euslet'n Pukistun Kolkata: lnstitute of Developntent Studies. (Mernoir No. I .) Delhi: Departrnent of Roy, Sarat, Chandra. (1938). 'An lndian A nthropology, Governrnent of lndia.

Outlook on Anthropology' . Man. 38( l7l- Burntan Roy, B. K. (2000). 'Prof'essor K. P. 172): 146- l-50. Chattopadhyaya- A Scientist with Social Sinha, S. (1985). L,ditorial o1'Man in Indiu. Concern' in G. Chattopaclhyaya (Ecl.) Li/e 65(4): i-v. untl Tintcs o/'un lncliun Anthrupologi.yl K. P. Dasgupta, S. (2007). 'Recasting the Oraons Llhattopuclln'a.\,(1: A OoIIection ttf Sent inur and the'Tribe'Sarat Chandra Roy's Pupers. Calcutta: . Anthropology' in P. LJberoi, N. Sundar, & S. Cuha, A. (2011). 'Tarak Chandra Das: A

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East: Fotrnders o/ lndian Sociologt: und Bu I I e t i n. 60(2):245 -265.

* Former Professor of Anthropology at Vidyasagal University, the author is currently Senior Fellow. Indian Council of Social Science Research, The Institute of Developrlent Studies Kolkata.

Bulletin of the Rarnakrishna Mission Institute of Culture * Septernber 2020 21