Spaces of Protection, Regimes of Exception: Anthropologists, Administrators and the Framing of the Late Colonial Discourse on Tribal Regions (1920-1950)

Abstract

In the decades leading to Indian independence, a number of anthropological works by figures like J.H. Hutton, J.P. Mills, Verrier Elwin, William Archer, Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf and, Wilfrid Vernon Grigson etc. were published at regular intervals from 1920s onwards. Taken together, there is a remarkable unity in the ideas of this ‘knot of men’2 whose writings played a crucial role in articulation of ideas and strategies designed for the protection of tribal communities in future India. These individuals were definitely not the founding fathers of this ‘tradition’ and their arguments built upon a much earlier lineage of similar anthropologically minded administrators. However, given that this period was also the twilight of the British Indian empire, their contributions were extremely significant. Without analyzing them, it is almost impossible to theorize the ‘bridge’ which connects the late colonial to the post-colonial period as far as the discourse on the Indian tribal population is concerned....