India’s pioneering anthropologist who challenged Nazi racial theories

Irawati Karve led a life different from those around her.

Born in British-ruled India and at a time when women did not have many rights or freedoms, Karve did the unthinkable: she pursued higher education in a foreign country, became a university professor and India’s first anthropologist. .

She also married a man of her choice, swam in a bathing suit, rode a scooter, and even dared to challenge a racist hypothesis by her doctoral advisor, a famous German anthropologist named Eugen Fischer.

His writings on Indian culture, civilization and its caste system are innovative and form part of the curriculum of Indian universities. However, he remains a dark figure in history and much about his life is unknown.

A new book titled Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve, written by her granddaughter Urmilla Deshpande and academic Thiago Pinto Barbosa, sheds light on her fascinating life and the many adversities she faced to blaze an inspiring path for women and men. who came after her.

Born in 1905 in Burma (now Myanmar), Irawati was named after the Irrawaddy River. The only girl among six siblings, she was adored by her family and raised comfortably.

But the young woman’s life took unexpected turns, resulting in experiences that would shape her as a person. In addition to strong women, Irawati’s life also intersected with progressive and empathetic men who paved the way for her to break barriers and encouraged her as she did so.

At the age of seven, Irawati was sent to a boarding school in Pune, a rare opportunity for her father when most girls were forced into marriage. In Pune, she met RP Paranjpye, a prominent educationist whose family unofficially adopted Irawati and raised her as their own.

In Paranjpye’s home, Irawati was exposed to a way of life that celebrated critical thinking and righteous living, even if it meant going against the grain of Indian society. Paranjpye, whom Irawati affectionately called “appa” or her “second father”, was a man far ahead of his time.

Director of a university and strong supporter of women’s education, he was also an atheist. Through him, Irawati discovered the fascinating world of social sciences and their impact on society.

When Irawati decided to pursue a doctorate in anthropology in Berlin, despite her biological father’s objections, she found support in Paranjpye and her husband, Dinkar Karve, a science professor.

He arrived in the German city in 1927, after a several-day boat trip, and began earning his degree under the tutelage of Fischer, a celebrated professor of anthropology and eugenics.

At the time, Germany was still recovering from the impact of World War I and Hitler had not yet come to power. But the specter of anti-Semitism had begun to raise its ugly head. Irawati witnessed this hatred when one day she discovered that a Jewish student in her building had been murdered.

In the book, the authors describe the fear, shock and disgust Irawati felt when she saw the man’s body lying on the path outside her building, blood oozing onto the concrete.

Irawati struggled with these emotions as he worked on Fischer’s assigned thesis: proving that white Europeans were more logical and reasonable, and therefore racially superior, than non-white Europeans. This involved meticulously studying and measuring 149 human skulls.

Fischer hypothesized that white Europeans had asymmetrical skulls to accommodate larger right frontal lobes, supposedly a marker of higher intelligence. However, Irawati’s research found no correlation between race and skull asymmetry.

“She contradicted, of course, Fischer’s hypothesis, but also the theories of that institute and the dominant theories of the time,” the authors write in the book.

She boldly presented her findings, risking her mentor’s wrath and her title. Fischer gave it the lowest rating, but his research critically and scientifically rejected the use of human differences to justify discrimination. (The Nazis would later use Fischer’s theories of racial superiority to promote their agenda and Fischer would join the Nazi party.)

Throughout her life, Irawati would display this streak of common sense combined with endless empathy, especially toward the women she encountered.

At a time when it was unthinkable for a woman to travel too far from home, Irawati took excursions to remote villages in India after returning to the country, sometimes with her male colleagues, sometimes with her students and even her children. , to study the life of various tribes.

He joined archaeological expeditions to recover 15,000-year-old bones, bridging the past and present. These grueling journeys took her deep into the woods and rugged terrain for weeks or months, and the book describes her sleeping in barns or in pickup trucks and often spending days with little food.

Irawati also bravely faced social and personal prejudices while interacting with people from all walks of life.

The authors describe how Irawati, a Chitpavan Brahmin from a traditionally vegetarian upper-caste Hindu community, bravely ate partially raw meat offered to her by a tribal leader she wished to study. She recognized it as a gesture of friendship and proof of loyalty, responding with openness and curiosity.

Her studies fostered a deep empathy for humanity, leading her to later criticize fundamentalism in all religions, including Hinduism. She believed that India belonged to all who considered it their home.

The book recounts a moment when, reflecting on the horrors inflicted by the Nazis on the Jews, Irawati’s mind wandered toward a surprising realization that would forever alter his view of humanity.

“In these reflections, Irawati learned the most difficult lesson of Hindu philosophy: all that is also you,” the authors write.

Irawati died in 1970, but his legacy lives on through his work and the people he continues to inspire.