I ndia, Anthropology in

This synoptic survey of anthropology and sociology in India is framed within the larger history of the subcontinent's successive encounters with colonialism, nationalism, the developmental state, and neoliberal globalization. In India, social anthropology and sociology have been closely intertwined, and colonialism has been a major influence. After independence, the twin disciplines had to find space within the larger context of a developmentalist state driven by nationalist ideology. Caste, religion, village, and kinship were the major areas of early research, located in state institutions (such as the census) and the early universities. Contemporary concerns include caste, tribe, religion, class, gender, and urban culture, among many others. Questions of location and of indigeneity have long been raised, though their urgency and resonance have varied.