Sarat Chandra Roy

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Sarat Chandra Roy
British India
Died30 April 1942(1942-04-30) (aged 70)
Ranchi, Bihar Province
, British India
NationalityIndian
Other namesS. C. Roy
Occupation(s)Lawyer, ethnographer, cultural anthropologist, lecturer, reader
Known forEthnography

Sarat Chandra Roy (4 November 1871 – 30 April 1942[1]) was an Indian scholar of anthropology. He is sometimes regarded as the 'father of Indian ethnography', the 'first Indian ethnographer', and as the 'first Indian anthropologist'.[2]

Early life

Born on 4 November 1871 to Purna Chandra Roy, a member of the Bengal Judicial Service, in a village in

Khulna district (now in Bangladesh), young Sarat came in contact with tribal people after his father was posted in Purulia. After his father's death in 1885, he was educated at his maternal uncle's home in Calcutta. In 1892, he graduated in English literature from the General Assembly's Institution (now Scottish Church College). He earned a postgraduate degree in English from the same institution, and subsequently studied law at the Ripon College (now Surendranath College). He had worked for some time as a headmaster at the Mymensingh High School, and later as a principal at the GEL Mission High School in Ranchi. In Ranchi, he became aware of the plight of the tribals. He left teaching and started practicing as a lawyer and became a pleader in the district court in the 24 Parganas in Calcutta in 1897. A year later he moved to Ranchi, where he practiced at the court of the judicial commissioner in Ranchi.[3]

Career in anthropology

His interest into the plight of the "

ethnographer or an Indian anthropologist.[4]

In his later years, he spent his time editing Man in India and in other journals, writing and lecturing at the newly established anthropology department at the University of Calcutta, and serving as a reader at Patna University.[5]

Works

Books and monographs

Journal contributions

Recognition

  • Kaisar-i-Hind Silver Medal, 1913
  • Roy Bahadur, 1919
  • Elected as honorary member of the Folklore Society of London, being the only Indian to be awarded thus
  • Elected as president of the Anthropological Section in the
    Indian Science Congress
  • Elected as president of the Anthropology section of the All India Oriental Conference, 1932
  • Elected as president of the Folklore section of the All India Oriental Conference, 1933
  • Elected as member of the Council d'Honour of the International Congress of Ethnological Sciences
  • Foundation Fellow of National Institute of Sciences
  • Foundation Fellow of Patna University
  • The Indian Science Congress awarded him with a commemorative volume of essays in anthropology.[9]
  • The Sarat Chandra Roy Institute of Anthropological Studies in Ranchi, established in 1979, commemorates his name.[10]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-81-7955-135-6
    .
  2. ^ Upadhyay, Vijay S. and Gaya Pandey. Indian Anthropologists - Sarat Chandra Roy: The Father of Indian Ethnography (1871–1942) in History of Anthropological Thought, Concept Publishing Company, 1993, p. 395.
  3. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 395-6.
  4. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 396.
  5. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 398.
  6. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 396.
  7. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 397-8.
  8. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 401.
  9. ^ Upadhyay and Pandey, p. 397
  10. ^ Srivastava, Vinay Kumar and Sukant K. Chaudhury. Anthropological Studies of Indian Tribes in Sociology And Social Anthropology In India, edited by Yogesh Atal, Indian Council of Social Science Research, 2009, p. 52.
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