Verrier Elwin: Difference between revisions

'''Harry Verrier Holman Elwin''' (29 August 1902 – 22 February 1964)<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=143}}</ref> was a [[Great Britain|British]]-born [[India]]n [[anthropologist]], [[ethnologist]] and [[tribal]] activist, who began his career in India as a [[Christian missionary]]. He first abandoned the clergy, to work with [[Mohandas Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] and the [[Indian National Congress]], then converted to [[Hinduism]] in 1935 after staying in a Gandhian ashram,<ref name=ka/> and split with the nationalists over what he felt was an overhasty process of [[Transformation of culture|transformation]] and [[cultural assimilation|assimilation]] for the tribals. Verrier Elwin is best known for his early work with the [[Baiga (tribe)|Baigas]] and [[Gonds]] of [[Orissa, India|Orissa]] and [[Madhya Pradesh]] in [[central India]], and he married a 13 year old member of one of the communities he studied. He later also worked on the tribals of several [[North East India]]n states especially [[North-East Frontier Agency]] (NEFA) and settled in [[Shillong]], the hill capital of [[Meghalaya]].<ref name=li>[[#li|Linebaugh, p. 162]]</ref>

</ref> He served as the Deputy Director of the [[Anthropological Survey of India]] upon its formation in 1945.<ref>[http://www.anthsi.com/ Anthropological Survey of India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311183127/http://www.anthsi.com/ |date=11 March 2010 }} [[Anthropological Survey of India]], Kolkata, website.</ref> Post-[[Independence of India|independence]], he took up Indian citizenship.<ref name=li/> Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] appointed him as an adviser on tribal affairs for north-eastern India, and later he was Anthropological Adviser to the Government of [[North-East Frontier Agency|NEFA]] (now [[Arunachal Pradesh]].<ref name="bc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4869778.stm|title=British scholar's Indian widow in penury|date=4 May 2006|work=BBC News}}</ref> His philosophy towards the north-east was partially responsible in its disconnect from the modern world.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Das|first=Pushpita|date=2008|title=Management of India-China Border Area: A Case Study of Arunachal Pradesh|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45340743|journal=Indian Foreign Affairs Journal|volume=3|issue=3|page=100|jstor=45340743|issn=0973-3248}}</ref>

 

The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the [[Padma Bhushan]] in 1961.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=July 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2015 |df=dmy }}</ref> His autobiography, ''The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin'' won him the 1965 [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] in [[Sahitya Akademi Award to English Language Writers|English Language]], given by the [[Sahitya Akademi]], India's National Academy of Letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in/old_version/awa10304.htm#english |title=Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955–2007 |publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi Award]] Official listing |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611080633/http://www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in/old_version/awa10304.htm |archive-date=11 June 2010 }}</ref>

Harry Verrier Holman Elwin was born on 29 August 1902 in Dover. He is the son of [[Edmund Henry Elwin]], Bishop of [[Sierra Leone]]. He was educated at [[Dean Close School]] and [[Merton College, Oxford]],<ref name=MCreg /> where he received his degrees of BA First Class in English Language and Literature, [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge)|MA]], and DSc. He also remained the [[Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union#List of OICCU Presidents|President]] of [[Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union]] (OICCU) in 1925. He had a nice career at Oxford, where he took a Double First in English and in Theology, before being ordained a priest in the Church of England. He came to India in 1927, to join a small sect, the Christa Seva Sangh of Poona, which hoped to 'indigenise' Christianity.{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}}

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]]. Over the years, he was influenced by the philosophies of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]]. He quickly threw in his lot with the Congress, winning Gandhi's affection and becoming a camp follower and occasional cheerleader to the popular movement against British rule. Seeking fuller immersion in the toil, the sufferings, the poverty of India, he resolved to make his home among the Gonds. He first joined Christian Service Society in Pune. The first time he visited the central India, now the states of [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Chhattisgarh]], and parts of eastern [[Maharashtra]], was with an Indian from Pune, Shamrao Hivale. For the first time, he visited a remote village in the forests of  Mandla district. Hivale and he were to spend some twenty years in Central India, living with and fighting for tribal rights. Their studies on the tribes are some of the earliest anthropological studies in the country. In January 1954, Elwin became the first foreigner to be accepted as an Indian citizen. In the same year, he was appointed anthropological adviser to the Indian Government, with the special reference to the hill tribes of the north east. Moving to Shillong, he served for a decade as a leading missionary of what he liked to call 'Mr Nehru's Gospel for tribes'. He died in 1964, a greatly esteemed public figure in his adopted land, the recipient of the Padma Bhushan and countless other medals and rewards. He participated in the [[Indian independence movement]], and in 1930 Gandhi said he regarded Elwin as a son.<ref name="Mandelbaum">{{cite journal|last=Mandelbaum|first=David|title=Verrier Elwin (1902–1964)|journal=American Anthropologist|year=1965|volume=67|issue=2|pages=448–452|doi=10.1525/aa.1965.67.2.02a00140|doi-access=free}}</ref>

* ''[[The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin|The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin: An Autobiography]]''. Oxford University Press, 1964.

* Warren E. Roberts, 'Verrier Elwin (1902–1964)', ''[[Asian Folklore Studies]]'' 23:2 (1964), 212–14

* [[The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin|The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, An Autobiography]], ''Oxford University Press (1964)''