Verrier Elwin

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Verrier Elwin (1902-1964) was an self-trained anthropologist and tribal activist, who began his career in India as a missionary. He was a controversial figure who first abandoned the clergy to work with Gandhi and the Congress, then later split with the nationalists over what he felt was an overhasty process of transformation and assimilation for the tribals. Elwin is best known for his early work with the Baigas and Gonds of central India, and he famously married a member of one of the communities he studied there.

Verrier Elwin was the son of the Bishop of Sierra Leone. He was educated at Dean Close School and Merton College, Oxford (BA First Class in English Language and Literature, MA, DSc).

In 1926 he was appointed Vice-Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and in the following year he became a lecturer at Merton College, Oxford. He went to India in 1927 as a missionary. He first joined Christian Service Society in Pune. The first time he visited the central India, current states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and parts of eastern Maharashtrawas with another Indian from Pune Shamrao Hivale. Their studies are on the tribes are the first anthropological studies in the country. Over the years he was influenced by the philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He came out with numerous works on various tribal groups in India, the best acclaimed being those on Maria and Baigas.

After India attained independence in 1947 he was asked by Jawaharlal Nehru to find solutions to the problems that emerged in the North Eastern States of India, then called NEFA currently the region has 7 states adjunct to the state of Assam.

One of the recent the biographies of Verrier Elwin is by Ramchandra Guha [1] Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals, and India an Oxford University Publication [2]

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