BRITISH ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE
Mutual influences and correspondences, 1850-1940

Peter Pels

Since Michel Leiris' seminal L'Etnographie devant le colonialisme
(1950), the idea that Anthropology was the child of Western
imperialism has been discussed among anthropologists, to the
extent that it has now become commonplace in disciplinary
discourse. Yet up to now, historical research into this
relationship has been very uneven: studies of the French, German
and Dutch anthropological traditions are rare, while large areas
of US and British Anthropology remain underexposed. In the
British tradition in particular the focus has usually been on the
relationship between 20th century functionalism and British
colonial policy in Africa, ignoring almost completely the vast
ethnographic output about India in the 19th century. These
discussions often reiterate the conclusion that academic
anthropologists and 'practical men' had such divergent interests
that one cannot speak of the colonial complicity of academic
anthropologists.

The fact that Indian colonial administrators like William Crooke,
Alfred Lyall, Herbert Risley and Richard Temple were recognized
ethnographic authorities in late 19th century British
Anthropology suggests that such conclusions are based on
insufficient insight into the history of Anthropology. The
careers of William Crooke and Herbert Risley, who started their
ethnographic work as members of the Indian Civil Service and rose
to become president of major anthropological associations, are
examples of the influence of ICS Ethnography on British academic
Anthropology. The influence of the work of Sir Henry Maine or
Francis Galton on ICS civil servants shows that the current also
flowed in a reverse direction, while intellectual friendships
such as that between Maine and Alfred Lyall allowed for
cross-currents between anthropological theory and colonial
policy. Anthropometry, measuring skulls in particular, is often
ridiculed today, but was an important asset to the colonial
police in 19th century India. Most of the standard
classifications that anthropologists applied to Indian society
(religion, caste, tribe) were also employed by administrators in
census operations and taxation.

This project will proceed from a reading of secondary sources on
ICS ethnography and historiography, on Orientalism in India and
on the training and recruitment of the ICS, to a survey of the
contributions of ICS ethnographers to academic Anthropology as
can be assessed from major anthropological journals (like Journal
of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Folk-Lore and the
Fortnightly Review). This broad approach will be complemented by
a few case-studies (the career of one or two ICS ethnographers,
the involvement of one or two major academic anthropologists with
India, and/or the study of a geographically bounded ethnographic
tradition in India). Research should finally also lead to a
reassessment of the debate about the relationship between
Anthropology and colonialism in the British Anthropology
tradition.

Peter Pels (1958) studied Anthropology and Sociology at the
University of Amsterdam, where he also worked as
assistant-lecturer and researcher at the Department of
Anthropology and the Amsterdam School for Social Science
Research. He was editor of Skript and Critique of Anthropology.
He obtained his Ph.D. in January 1993 for "Critical Matters.
Interactions between Missionaries and Waluguru in Colonial
Tanganyika, 1930-1961", and recently co-organized an
international conference on "Colonial Ethnographies" at the
Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam (June 1993). His publications
include: "Defensief, teruggetrokken, veilig en voorzichtig: De
stijl van de Nederlandse antropologie", Kennis en Methode 10
(1986): 150-168; "Africa Christo! The Use of Photographs in Dutch
Catholic Mission Propaganda", Critique of Anthropology 9 (1989):
33-47; (ed. with Lorraine Nencel) Constructing Knowledge.
Authority and Critique in Social Science (London: Sage
Publications, 1991); "Alterity as Intellectual Involution",
Semiotica (in press); (ed. with Oscar Salemink) Colonial
Ethnographies, special issue of History and Anthropology
(forthcoming).