A pioneering anthropologist who closely studied little-known Indian tribes, Verrier Elwin's writings provide insight into Indian tribal life, art, and culture. The essays in this collection discuss his experiences in India, Indian tribes, Muria and their ghotul, Maria murder and suicide, art, folksongs, myths, and Nagaland. Nineteen black and white photographs, the majority taken by Elwin, are also included.
"Described by his contemporaries as a cross between Albert Schweitzer and Paul Gauguin, Elwin was a man of contradictions, at times taking on the role of evangelist, social worker, political activist, poet, government worker, and more. Intensely political, the Oxford-trained scholar tirelessly defended the rights of the indigenous and despite the deep religious influences of St.
Verrier Elwin Was An English Intellectual Who Came To India As Missionary But Was Himself Converted To Indian Ways Of Thinking By His Contact With Mahatma Gandhi, The National Movement And Tribal India. A Classic Autobiography Of One Of India`S Great Pioneering Anthropologists.
This book explores Sino-Indian tensions from the angle of state-building, showing how they stem from their competition for the Himalayan people's allegiance.
From presenting, in Elwin's own words, the account of his going to work among the tribal peoples of central India, to affording glimpses of his seminal work on the unique institution of the ghotul among the Murias of Bastar, or relating Elwin's attempts at understanding the high incidence of murder and suicide among the Bison-horn Marias of Bastar, The Oxford India Elwin looks beyond the general and the oft-repeated to include within its covers the many fascinating discoveries that Verrier Elwin made while working among the different tribal communities in India. While the Introduction to Folk Songs of the Maikal Hills discusses the principles of translating folk poetry, the importance of the elements of nature, magic, the supernatural, and song and dance in tribal life is highlighted through selections from The Myths of Middle India. Whether providing glimpses of Elwin's travels in the remote Northeast, or discussing the effects of 'civilization' on tribal art, or describing the Naga people and their customs, or presenting the myths of the NEFA region, the effort is to bring the man, his thoughts and actions, the contributions he made towards upholding and preserving the cultural diversity of the Subcontinent, closer to readers through a single volume which will be both accessible and affordable. The book will be a valuable addition to the Oxford India Collection which includes the writings of Ghalib, Premchand, Ramanujan, Nehru, and Gandhi. Armed with a useful and perceptive Introduction by G.N. Devy, this edition will appeal to all those who know and adore Elwin, as also students and researchers of anthropology, cultural studies, and Indian history.
A compelling and untold bunch of short non-fiction, essays and poems that address the issues faced by the North-Eastern states of India. The North-East is a complex mosaic of multiple ethnicities, languages, religions and tribes. Apart from the groups that lay claim to indigeneity, there are minorities here from communities that are majorities elsewhere in the Indian mainland. These are people who are typically viewed as outsiders in the North-East, though they may have been living there for generations. Theirs is something of a mirror image of the experience of North-Easterners in mainland Indian cities such as Delhi, who have often had to deal with an outsider tag they did not relish, in the capital of a country against which many of the picturesque, remote hills and valleys they called home saw armed insurgencies. These shared twin experiences of being simultaneously insiders and outsiders is the subject of this anthology. There are scholarly essays as well as personal accounts and a few poems. The result is a delightful mix that opens up a window to a part of the world that is still little-known and poorly understood, whose experiences may shed some light on global issues of migration and citizenship as embodied in the lives of ordinary people.
A pioneering anthropologist who closely studied little-known Indian tribes, Verrier Elwin's writings provide insight into Indian tribal life, art, and culture. The essays in this collection discuss his experiences in India, Indian tribes, Muria and their ghotul, Maria murder and suicide, art, folksongs, myths, and Nagaland. Nineteen black and white photographs, the majority taken by Elwin, are also included.
A history of the colonial tea plantation regime in Assam, which brought more than one million migrants to the region in northeast India, irrevocably changing the social landscape.
