Short Abstract
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There is a standard critique of Indian anthropology advanced by some of the Indian anthropologists. The critics say that Indian anthropology is the product of a colonial tradition and the Indian anthropologists for various reasons followed their colonial masters in one way or the other. On the reverse side of the critiques there also existed a view that a Hindu Anthropology could be discerned in many ancient Indian texts and scriptures before the advent of a colonial anthropology introduced by the European scholars, administrators and missionaries in the Indian subcontinent. Apart form these two views, a nationalist trend in Indian Anthropology could also be discerned which was growing during the pre and post-Independence periods in India and this trend was characterized by the works of the anthropologists who were socially committed and contributed to nation building through their analytical writings and research. These anthropologists learned the methodology of the discipline from the west but did not become blind followers of Europe and America and they also did not want to derive their anthropology from the religious scriptures of the ancient Hindus. Instead, they visualized an Indian character of anthropology which according to them could be used in nation building, a task which finally could not develop into full maturity by their own successors.
