NOTES AND NEWS

I. NOTES

1. Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay 1897-1963

A descendant of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, two great social reformers and educationists of modern India, and an afhne of the distinguished Tagore family, K. P. Chattopadhyay was born in December 1897. He was educated at various schools in Bengal and at the Vidy- asagar and the Presidency Colleges, Calcutta. He took a first class B.Sc. Honours Degree in Physics in 1919 as a student of Megnad Saha, Satyen Bose and P. C. Ray. Thereafter he worked as a research student in physics under C. V. Raman in India, and Thompson and Rutherford in England. At Cambridge he changed over to anthropology and took his M.Sc' degree as a student of W. H. R. Rivers. He was awarded the Anthony Wilkins Fellowship which was later withdrawn because of his activities in behalf of the Indian Seamen's Union (London) were regarded as objectionable. He was thus precluded from obtaining his Doctorate. On his return to India, he was scheduled to go to Nepal to study Newar culture on behalf of Cambridge University; but he was refused the necessary permission by the Colonial government. He, therefore, took charge of the Department of Anthropology in Calcutta University at the behest of Sir Ashu- tosh Mukherjee. But in the same year, 1924, he had to relinquish the charge and take up the post of Education Officer in the newly established Corporation of Calcutta under Deshabandhu C. R. Das's command and at a lower remuneration than he was getting in Calcutta University. As the Education Officer of Calcutta Corporation, during 1924-37, he built up a striking organization of free primary schools and their teachers. He was, however, more proud of having trained about 1,500 teachers to impart free education as well as to be of service in the current political struggle than in establishing 229 primary schools from the modest beginning of 3 in 1924. This gives us the clue to his aim in life. For, to Professor Chattopadhyay activities in the fields of general education, scientific teaching and research, political organization, welfare work, etc., were neither ends in themselves nor the relevant steps to build up a personal career. His objective in life was to contribute his mite to the eventual attainment of social harmony and happiness by the people. Therefore, whichever path he felt useful and necessary to traverse to bring him nearer to the goal, he followed it at the time irrespective of the "material" and/or the "spiritual" gain he could derive from the one followed earlier. Thus while working for Calcutta Corporation he actively participated in the Civil Disobedience movement of the 1930's; becoming a member in 1930- 33 of the Council of what was labelled as "Samar Parisad (war organization)". He also enthused his school teachers to participate actively in the movement of 112 those days. But, afterwards, when he felt that his further contribution in this field was reaching the stage of stalemate, he did not hesitate to return to Calcutta University, as Professor of Anthropology, but at a currently lower remuneration, thus foregoing the prospect of rising higher up in position, prestige, and power within the Calcutta Corporation. Similarly, during 1941-44, he became a member of the Election Tribunal of the Bengal Congress, and later its President at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi. But, while remaining a Congressman all his life, when he felt that his mission would be better fulfilled by taking to not-scheduled paths, he did not hesitate to do so. During 1943-46 he openly sided with the "Left" movement in organiz- ing relief and rehabilitation of the famine stricken people; and after Independ- ence became an independent member of the State Legislature with the support of the "Left". But there, again, when he was offered the Presidentship of All- Bengal Kisan Sabha (peasant organization) he accepted it; but refused to as- sume the office of Presidentship of All-India Kisan Sabha. Thus, all through his career he was steered by a basic aim in life. But on this count also he was neither just emotionally oriented "to do good for the people", nor did he fall into the morass of intellectual quibblings as "how to do good to them". To him emotion and rationality, sentiment and scientific detachment, sympathy and objectivity, remained the means to achieve the ultimate goal of social harmony and human happiness to the extent he could employ his labour in the process. In 1962 at a Seminar in Santiniketan, called on the occasion ofRabindranath Tagore Birth Centenary Celebrations, Professor Chattopadhyay characterised himself as a social worker and a sociologist. One should take note of this blend of theory and practice in his life. He remained active to the end of his life and his retirement from the Calcutta University did not affect his research activities. Just before the fatal cerebral thrombosis in May 1963, he had been working on the second volume of his book on the Santal and on his research project on family structure. The first volume of the Santal work was in the Calcutta Uni- versity Press, and a volume on Culture Contact and Migration in Ancient India was in the Government of West Bengal Press, at the time of his death. As a scholar Chattopadhyay's approach was characterised by a reverence for facts which his training as a physicist had inculcated in him. Thus he did not hesitate to disagree even with his teacher Rivers in his speculative theories. But, on the whole, Rivers had tremendously impressed Chattopadhyay, es- pecially with his diffusionist views. (The admiration was mutual and Rivers bequeathed the manuscript of one of his works to Chattopadhyay.) Rivers' influence was visible in Chattopadhyay's earlier writing on Newar Culture and the historical periodization of the Sat Vahanas, in his essay on Conflict and Social Behaviour, and in other writings. In the last phase of his work also it came out very forcefully in his writings on culture contact in India and in the Far East from the time of the Vedas as well as in his monograph on the Santal. The governing aim in his life (social service) persuaded Chattopadhyay to make terms with the "functional" analysis of social customs and institutions. This orientation is reflected in most of his papers during the years 1937-55, including his thoughtful essays on education, economic and political per- spectives of India, etc. Chattopadhyay also was interested in the study of material culture, mainly on distributionist lines, and wrote, though rarely, on physical anthropological