Abstract
In November 2024, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) hosted a book discussion showcasing 40 brief autobiographies of contemporary Indian anthropologists. The event highlighted an important question: why have there been so few significant (auto)biographies of Indian anthropologists in nearly a century of the discipline’s history? Against this backdrop, the appearance of a full-fledged biography of Irawati Karve is especially significant, given that her influential contributions to kinship and Hinduism are well established, yet her intellectual and personal life has remained largely unexamined.
Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve by Urmilla Deshpande and Thiago Pinto Barbosa is a rich and evocative biography of Irawati Karve, who is often referred to as India’s first female anthropologist. Structured into 4 thematic parts with 16 vivid chapters, the book provides a comprehensive portrayal of Irawati and her time by putting together historical context, personal anecdotes and scholarly reflections. The authors travelled to seven cities worldwide to research this book, relying primarily on first-hand accounts from interviews with Irawati Karve’s friends, family and colleagues, as well as her personal correspondence. Written in a novelistic style, the authors employ a method they call critical fabulation, blending factual research with imaginative reconstruction to bring Karve’s story to life.
The first section begins with Irawati’s 1927 voyage from Bombay to Berlin and highlights her adjustment to post-World War I vanquished, anxious but liberal, utopianistic 1920s (p. 14) Germany and Berlin. Describing the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A), its imposing architecture, laboratories and classrooms, the authors narrate Karve’s PhD work under Professor Eugen Fischer, an advocate of ‘Rassenhygiene’ and the first party-appointed university rector. The section also explores the KWI-A’s colonial background of acquiring human remains from East Africa and their transformation into ‘scientific resources’, which were integral to her PhD research but also evoked a deep sense of violation. Reflecting upon the complex intersections of science, ethics and colonial history, it provides a brief account of the terms such as ‘genocide’, ‘the concentration camp’ and ‘final solution’ and their consequences. The section ends with exploring Karve’s loneliness during her stay in Germany, the friendships she formed and the unexpectedly compassionate side of Professor Eugen Fischer. It also recounts her bold rejection of Fischer’s theories linking racial differences to skull asymmetry, resulting in her PhD being graded as ‘Doneux’, or sufficient, and her eventual return to India as Dr Karve.
In the second section, the authors recount Karve’s childhood in Myingyan, Burma, as the first daughter of Ganesh and Bhagirathi Karmarkar, who worked in the British cotton industry. Highlighting her unique name, the monotonous life in Burma, and her parents’ decision to send her to Pune for further studies, the section describes the influence of Wrangler Prananjpye’s family in exposing her to world literature and continuing education in spite of her father’s objection, who wished her to marry into a princely family. The section ends with describing the condition of widows in pre-independent India, especially in Pune, and Irawati’s meeting with the Karve family and her marriage with Dinkar Karve in 1926.
In the third section, the reader learns about her time at Ferguson College and her association with H. D. Sankalia, with whom she excavated many archaeological sites. Her observations of development-induced displacement and ecological degradation in different parts of the country, including Koyana Dam, and her fieldwork among different tribal and displaced communities reflect her concerns about the nature of development in post-independent India. Her writings concerning Indian women, especially widows, have been discussed in great detail. This section also describes how anthropology produced in Nazi Germany led to tragic consequences and how Irawati’s own anthropological research influenced and shaped the linguistic nationalism in India. At the end, the authors critique the biases of Western anthropology, especially Louis Dumont’s dismissive view of Karve’s textual methodologies, which reflected his deep colonial legacy.
The fourth and final section reflects on Karve’s philosophical and spiritual journey. ‘Weeping Plateau’ and ‘Brahman’ explore her travels across India, her critical engagement with Hinduism and her personal connection with the deity Vithoba. Descriptions of the last years of Irawati, inscribed in ‘Brahman’, reveal a contemplative thinker who grappled with morality, existence and the dualities of life.
For anthropologists being trained in fieldwork traditions today, the scattered descriptions of Karve’s different field experiences, including her travels to far remote tribal areas, are like reliving the early encounters of rapport building and data collection. From eating mashed potatoes in Europe to accepting pink meat from the village head in the field, Karve’s story presents a revisit to the development of fieldwork tradition in India during the formative years of the discipline. The biography situates Karve’s life against the backdrop of significant historical events. It spans from Burma’s colonial past as part of British India to Europe’s post-World War era. Karve’s observations on war veterans turned beggars and her experiences in Germany, Britain and the USA underscore the sociopolitical upheavals of her time. The book also contrasts the academic environments of post-war Europe and America, highlighting Karve’s adaptability and intellectual versatility. The biography engages critically with themes of gender, caste and academic hierarchies. It examines the biases Karve faced as an Indian scholar in Western academia and her efforts to challenge them. It also reflects on the importance of academic networks, demonstrating how personal connections often facilitated opportunities in Karve’s era—an observation that remains relevant today.
In brief, Iru is a compelling and meticulously researched biography that celebrates the legacy of both Irawati Karve as well as Indian anthropology. While the authors make an important contribution by foregrounding Irawati Karve’s intellectual journey, two critical points remain underdeveloped. First, the book does not sufficiently clarify all the materials used in its writing. It is not evident whether Karve herself left behind diaries, journals or other personal writings and, if so, how these sources were incorporated into the narrative. Second, the authors miss the opportunity to situate Karve more firmly within the networks of her contemporaries. Apart from her association with Sankalia, little is said about the broader intellectual exchanges between Karve and her other contemporaries that shaped the contemporary anthropological work in India.
However, by capturing Karve’s academic brilliance, personal struggles and spiritual quest, the book is a must-read for those interested in Indian anthropology, feminist history and intellectual traditions of India.
