Public anthropology in practice
Public anthropology in practice
By Prof. Abhijit Guha
BACKGROUND
A.L. Kroeber
(1876-1960) in his essay Eighteen
Professions published in the American
Anthropologist in 1915 began with two interesting paragraphs. I quote:
Anthropology today
includes two studies which fundamental differences of aim and method render
irreconcilable. One of those branches is biological and psychological; the
other, social or historical (Kroeber 1915).
The second paragraph
starts with a more interesting sentence, which runs as follows:
There is a third field,
the special province of anthropology, concerned with the relation of biological
and social factors. This is no-man’s land, and therefore used as a
picnic-ground by whosoever prefers pleasure excursions to the work of
cultivating a patch of understanding. Some day this tract will also be
surveyed, fenced and improved (Ibid).
Yes,
Kroeber was right and he came to anthropology from another subject like his
teacher Franz Boas. Anthropology is an important subject not only for the Europeans
and Americans but also for the Indians and particularly for the ordinary
citizens. Why this is so? Because, it looks at human beings from a wholistic perspective.[1]
The
subject is no less important than History and Geography and it should be taught
from the school level. Therefore, there is an urgent need for making
Anthropology visible in all spheres of public life.
In
India, we should be grateful to those anthropologists who have made
anthropology as one of the subjects in the curriculum of colleges and
universities (Indira Gandhi National Open University included) and also as one
of the optional subjects in the Indian Administrative Services. In this
connection we should not also forget the fact that under the initiative of the
great anthropologist Dr.Biraja Sankar Guha (1894-1961), the first and the
largest governmental organization in anthropology, the Anthropological Survey
of India, was established as early as 1946(https://ansi.gov.in/profile/). So,
Anthropology is already in the public life of the Indians.
STORY
I am very happy and
all of you will also like the fact that in the prestigious Indian
Administrative Services Examination Anthropology is one of the most popular
optional papers chosen by the candidates in the IAS Main written Examination.
In this context, I
also find myself happier that I was requested by the academic consultant of the
Centre, Dr.J PalChaudhuri of the reputed Satyendranath Tagore Civil Services
Study Centre (https://www.csscwb.in/) at Salt Lake Kolkata to teach some basics
of Anthropology and Research Methods to a batch of 20 IAS aspiring candidates
during 13-16 November 2023. The most significant aspect of my interactive
teaching was the keen interest of the students, and the questions they asked.
One particular lady student was most vocal and she asked me a number of
questions, which I answered over emails and found to be worth publication for
wider dissemination. Mutatis mutandis,
I reproduce here the questions with their answers.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. How is Indian Anthropology
different from Western Anthropology?
Anthropology in India began with
the censuses conducted by the British administrators, like H.H.Risley in the
1870s and the first Department of Anthropology was established in 1920 at the
University of Calcutta. Indian anthropologists initially followed the British
anthropologists. Later they were also influenced by the works of the American anthropologists.
But unlike anthropologists in UK and USA, Indian anthropologists devoted
more time towards empirical studies on tribes and castes instead of building
theories. Few years before independence and particularly after independence
Indian anthropologists paid more attention to the study of the problems on
nation-building. There were remarkable studies done by the Indian
anthropologists on famine, resettlement of refugees and the impact of
industrialization and big dams on the local populations and the wider impact of
development efforts undertaken by the government in the building of the new
nation.
2. How can Anthropology be used
in Public Administration?
Anthropology in India is used and
can be employed in public administration, particularly in the tribal areas by
studying the health, nutrition, disease patterns as well as cultural patterns
of the tribal populations. Unless we know in detail about the tribal societies
how can we run the administration among them? The anthropologists can also study
the various problems of the non-tribals by studying their culture. The path has
already been set by the pioneers who studied the impact of development projects
(dams, industries, highways, urban centres) on both tribal and non-tribal
populations. Anthropologists can suggest measures through social impact
assessment studies of development projects about how to minimise the adverse
impacts of development projects on local populations. Very recently, a new
branch is developing in Anthropology, named Public Anthropology. Here again, we
find that the western anthropologists are not giving due importance to Public
Anthropology in India. I have recently published a research article on Public
Anthropology in India. I attach the paper. You may read it. This journal, Man in India is the oldest journal of
Anthropology in India and it has completed 100 years in 2022. You
will also get a detailed picture on the History of Anthropology in India in my
paper published in The Eastern
Anthropologist, which I also attach.
3. What is the aim of this
science?
The aim of Anthropology is to
study human variation, evolution and change from a holistic perspective,
particularly from a biocultural perspective in a comparative framework. It is a
science but it is also a humanistic discipline. Its ultimate aim is to make
human life better on this earth. No culture is superior or inferior to other.
Each culture is unique in its own context and environment. So each has to be
studied in its own context. This is the aim of Anthropology.
4. By studying the past and the
present human developments, why does Anthropology not predict or suggest the
future behavioural differences?
Anthropology is not Futurology.
We study the past and the present based on empirical data. Where is empirical
data on future? At best we can make
policy recommendations but that is nor prediction about the future.
5. Also, why would these foreign
people open up to any foreign interviewer? Are there any indigenous
Anthropologists to probably demystify the white man's claims? From all the
examples you have mentioned in class, most of the Anthropologists have gone to
'exotic' places and interviewed people of colour. Sir, was it a trend of
exoticisation and hence an endeavour to stand out as well as a colonial enterprise?
Also, how well can their accounts be trusted? Them being the white outsider and
them being the silent, observed, exotic tribes-people?
The colonised people often opened
up to white anthropologists since the former were already subjugated by the
more powerful Europeans. Secondly, the elites among the colonised very often
helped the European anthropologists in their mission. H.H.Risely in India for
example did not conduct the census alone but was assisted by a host of Indian
surveyors employed by the colonial administration in conducting the very
successful census in a vast and diverse country like India. Much of these
census data are still being used by later Indian researchers as a rich
storehouse of anthropology, ethnology and history. If you go through the
pages of Risley's Tribes and Castes of
Bengal you will find vivid descriptions of cultural customs and anthropometric
measurements of hundreds of tribal and caste populations and communities in
Bengal, which are still useful for the anthropologists.
6. How is questionnaire style
different from journalism?
A journalist can also use
questionnaire schedules. But the main difference between an anthropologist and
a journalist is while the(i) latter searches for spectacular and sudden
accidental events, like a plane crash, an epidemic, a battle, a natural or
man-made disaster(an earthquake, flood, warfare etc.) the former is interested
in studying the normal daily lives of people, the world-of-everyday-life
of the folks. Secondly,(ii) the journalist covers a spectacular event
within a few days, writes a report and leaves the place. The anthropologist
studies the daily lives of people by staying at the place for a prolonged
period of time to her/his in-depth ethnography.
7. Was your research on Land
Acquisition of any use? Did it stop the government or did it bring about any
meaningful change? What are the real life applications of Anthropological
research studies? Were there any Indian bills or laws or acts which were
influenced by Anthropological studies?
My research on land acquisition
is of use primarily for the future researchers in terms of its methodology (combination
of field and archival data) and it was the first of its kind in India. In fact,
its foreword was written by a famous resettlement specialist of the World Bank,
Professor Michael Cernea, who first prepared the first resettlement and
rehabilitation(R&R) policy of the Bank, which is still being followed. A
country will not be given money by the Bank as loan in a development project
unless it submits its R & R policy in detail. In India, I was invited by
the Standing Committee on Rural Development of the Parliament to submit my
suggestions on land acquisition in 2008 when the 1894 colonial law was
reformed. Finally, the draconian law was reformed, and not only by my work but
also by the works of many researchers (mainly anthropologists &
sociologists) and activists (Medha Patkar & Aruna Roy, for example) the
central government had enacted a more progressive law known as LARR(Land
Acquisition Resettlement and Rehabilitation).This is a classic and real life
example of the application of anthropological research on one of most vital
public issues in our country.
8. What is the utility of this
subject in UPSC and Public Administration?
Anthropology has great utility in
UPSC and Public Administration because what and whom do you administer?
The people. How can you administer a
community unless you know the insider's view? Take my research for example, How
can you make an assessment of the impact of land acquisition unless you know
and collect data how it will or has affected the economy, occupation, education
and above all food security of the people whose land has been or about to be
acquired by the government for industries, highways etc.?
In lieu of a conclusion
As ethnographers we know that
theoretically conversations are unending, so does classes until one says
good-bye or the bell rings for the end of the class. I too had to end my
conversation with the aspiring IAS candidates hoping for their success. I hope
they will not forget anthropology while discharging their administrative
duties.
References
Guha,
A. (2022).A Century of Anthropology in India: Searching the Nationalist Trends.
(2022).The Eastern Anthropologist,
75(3-4): 213-242.
Guha,
A. (2022).Enhancing the public visibility of anthropology: an auto-ethnographic
account of the journey of a practitioner. (2022). Man in India, (Centenary Volume), 102(3-4):175-196.
Kroeber, A.L. 1915 (2004).
Eighteen Professions. Reprinted in Anthropological
Theory: An Introductory History. Eds. R. Jon McGee & Richard L.
Warms.2004. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York.
[1]
I use the spelling ‘wholistic’ consciously not ‘holistic’ by following Jack
Goody’s eloquent logic that Anthropology is concerned with the ‘whole’ and
there is nothing ‘holy’ about it! In fact one of the students asked me about
the spelling.
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