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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2019/Paper II/Foundations of Anthropology
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2019 15 Marks Model Answer Available

Colonial Administration and Anthropology in India — 2019 Paper II

Question · 2019 · Paper II · 15 Marks

Write about the role of colonial administration in the development of Anthropology in India.

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question: Explain how British colonial administration contributed to the collection, classification and institutionalization of anthropological knowledge in India.
  • Structuring the Response: Discuss censuses, ethnographic surveys, gazetteers and administrator-ethnographers, followed by a critical assessment of colonial biases.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover: Census, Ethnographic Survey, Risley, Dalton, Crooke, Thurston, Hutton, tribes and castes, racial classification and colonial knowledge.

Model Answer

Introduction: Anthropology in India developed partly within the requirements of the British colonial administration, which sought systematic knowledge of India’s castes, tribes, customs and physical populations for purposes of governance. Colonial officials consequently produced extensive ethnographic and anthropometric documentation.

  1. Census operations

The colonial censuses, beginning on an all-India basis in the late nineteenth century, became important sources for studying:

  • caste;
  • tribe;
  • religion;
  • language;
  • occupation;
  • demographic distribution.

Census officials attempted to classify India’s diverse population into standardized categories.

Thus:

Administrative enumeration → Social classification → Ethnographic knowledge

  1. Ethnographic Survey

The Ethnographic Survey of India, associated particularly with H.H. Risley, encouraged systematic documentation of castes and tribes.

Risley attempted to relate:

  • caste rank;
  • physical measurements;
  • racial type.

His use of the nasal index became influential in colonial racial anthropology.

  1. District gazetteers and manuals

British administrators prepared:

  • district gazetteers;
  • settlement reports;
  • tribal monographs;
  • provincial ethnographies.

These recorded information on:

  • kinship;
  • marriage;
  • customs;
  • economy;
  • religion;
  • political organization.

Despite their biases, these became valuable early ethnographic archives.

  1. Administrator-ethnographers

Several colonial officials made important contributions:

E.T. Dalton: Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal documented many tribal communities of eastern India.

William Crooke: Studied castes, tribes and popular religion in northern India.

Edgar Thurston: Produced extensive ethnographic descriptions of castes and tribes of southern India.

H.H. Risley: Developed racial-caste classifications using anthropometry.

J.H. Hutton: Census Commissioner and anthropologist who made important studies of Naga tribes and caste.

Administrators such as J.P. Mills also produced detailed Naga ethnographies.

  1. Physical anthropology

Colonial surveys encouraged:

  • anthropometry;
  • cranial measurements;
  • nasal indices;
  • racial classification.

This established an empirical tradition of measurement, later developed more scientifically by Indian anthropologists such as B.S. Guha.

  1. Tribal administration and anthropology

Knowledge of tribal customs was regarded as necessary for governing frontier and forest regions.

Administrative interest therefore encouraged studies of:

  • customary law;
  • tribal political institutions;
  • land tenure;
  • shifting cultivation;
  • customary leadership.
  1. Institutional development

The colonial period also witnessed the gradual institutionalization of anthropology through:

  • museums;
  • surveys;
  • universities;
  • ethnographic collections.

The Anthropological Survey of India was established in 1945, providing an important institutional foundation for postcolonial anthropology.

Critical assessment

Colonial anthropology was not politically neutral.

Its major limitations included:

  1. Administrative orientation: Communities were often studied primarily to facilitate rule.
  2. Static categories: Fluid social identities were converted into fixed categories of “caste”, “tribe” and “race”.
  3. Racial determinism: Anthropometry was often used to create questionable racial hierarchies.
  4. “Tribe-caste” dichotomy: Colonial classifications sometimes exaggerated differences between social groups.
  5. Orientalist bias: Communities were frequently portrayed as timeless and isolated rather than historically changing.

Hence:

Knowledge production ↔ Colonial governance

Conclusion

Colonial administration provided extensive census, ethnographic, linguistic and anthropometric data and helped institutionalize anthropology in India. However, this development was deeply shaped by administrative requirements and racial-classificatory assumptions. Indian anthropology subsequently inherited this empirical archive while critically moving beyond its colonial and typological biases.

2026 Contribution of L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer in Anthropology. 2026 Assess the contribution of colonial scholars in studying the tribal populations of North-East India. 2025 Highlight the significant contributions of B. S. Guha, Irawati Karve and S. R. K. Chopra to Indian Anthropology. 2025 Anthropology provides a multidimensional understanding of human beings by bridging the gap between science and humanities. Elucidate.

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