Who Was Irawati Karve? First Female Anthropologist In India

In an era when women's voices were often disregarded, Irawati Karve emerged as a symbol of curiosity and intellect. Born in 1905 in Burma (present-day Myanmar), she fulfilled her hunger for knowledge by moving abroad to study and became India's first female anthropologist. Beyond studying human society, she was passionate about many other studies, including sociology, anthropometry, serology, palaeontology, folk music, and feminist poetry. She has also authored many culture-shifting books and studies about Indian society and culture.

Irawati Karve's Life

Irawati Karve was born on December 15, 1905, in Burma, where her father worked for the Burma Cotton Company. She attended a girls' boarding school in Pune and then studied at the prestigious Fergusson College. After graduating in 1926, Karve obtained a 'Dakshina Fellowship' to study sociology under G. S. Ghurye, founder of Indian sociology.

Karve studied under Ghurye's mentorship at Bombay University and obtained a master's degree in 1928. While studying there, she married Dinkar Dhondo Karve, a school teacher who taught chemistry. He was the son of Dhondo Keshav Karve, a social reformer, women's welfare advocate, and Bharat Ratna awardee. 

Irawati Karve defied social norms and the disapproval of her father to marry the man of her choosing, who was also from a different caste.

In 1928, Karve moved to Germany for her higher education financed by a loan from Jivraj Mehta, a member of the Indian National Congress. Her husband had also earned a PhD in organic chemistry from there. Her father-in-law, ironically a female education pioneer, opposed her decision to study abroad. However, that did not stop her.

Irawati Karve's Fight Against Racial Superiority

The following part of Irawati Karve's journey has been documented in the book, Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve, written by her granddaughter Urmilla Deshpande and academic Thiago Pinto Barbosa

Irawati Karve studied anthropology in Germany, under the mentorship of revered professor Fischer. Although she had arrived there before World War II, a wave of anti-Semitism had already been stirred. Fischer assigned Karve a thesis to prove that white Europeans were more logical and reasonable - thus racially superior to non-white Europeans.

Karve studied 149 human skulls, as Fischer hypothesised that white Europeans had asymmetrical skulls to accommodate larger right frontal lobes, making them more intelligent. "[Karve] contradicted Fischer's hypothesis, of course, but also the theories of that institute and the mainstream theories of the time," Deshpande and Barbosa write in the book.

Needless to say, Karve received the lowest grade for her defiant thesis, yet her boldness cemented her legacy as a scholar who prioritised truth over compliance. Her legacy as a crusader for integrity continues to this day. The Nazis later used Fischer's theories of racial superiority to further their agenda. The professor also joined the Nazi party.

Return To India

After Karve returned to India, she remained a trailblazer in Indian anthropology. She worked as an administrator at SNDT Women's University in Bombay from 1931 to 1936 and did some postgraduate teaching in the city. In 1939, she moved to Pune's Deccan College as a Reader in Sociology and remained there for the rest of her career.

Karve founded the Department of Anthropology at what was then Poona University (now the University of Pune) and served for many years as the head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Deccan College. She also presided over the Anthropology Division of the National Science Congress held in New Delhi in 1947. 

True to her rule-breaker spirit, Karve continued to challenge social norms as she did what was 'unthinkable' for Indian women at the time. She travelled far and wide for her research, interacted with her male colleagues, went on field trips to remote villages, and interacted with people from all communities, castes, and tribes.

Karve was also known as a prolific reader, whose library included Sanskrit epics such as the Ramayana to the Bhakti poets, Oliver Goldsmith, Jane Austen, Albert Camus and Alistair MacLean. She also wrote many anthropology books in Marathi and English. Irawati Karve passed away in 1970, leaving behind a lasting impact on many Indian academics to come.