Urmilla DeshpandeIrawati Karve lived a lifestyle unlike those around her.
Born in British-ruled India, and at a time when people didn’t have some rights or freedoms, Karve did the inevitable: she pursued higher reports in a foreign land, became a university professor and India’s first female archaeologist.
She also had the honor of marrying a man of her choosing, swam in a bathing suit, drove a scooter, and even dared to refute a racist theory from her doctoral advisor, a well-known German anthropologist named Eugen Fischer.
She is a pioneer in the development of Indian culture, civilization, and its caste system, and her writings are included in Indian colleges ‘ curriculum. She continues to be a mysterious figure in history, and much of her life’s history is still unknown.
Urmilla Deshpande and Thiago Pinto Barbosa, the author of the new book Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve, sheds light on her fascinating life and the many odds she braved to set a trail for the women and men who followed her.
Born in 1905 in Burma ( now Myanmar ), Irawati was named after the Irrawaddy river. She was cared on by her family and raised in peace, the only girl out of six siblings.
However, the young girl’s life unexpectedly turned around, giving her experiences that would influence her. Irawati’s life also crossed paths with strong women, along with strong, progressive, empathic men who helped her overcome obstacles and cheered her on along the way.
Irawati was accepted to boarding school in Pune at the age of seven, a rare opportunity given to her father when most girls were forced to marry. She met RP Paranjpye, a well-known educator from Pune, whose family unofficially adopted Irawati and raised her as their own.
Irawati was given a way of life in the Paranjpye household that promoted critical thinking and upright living, even if that meant going against the grain of Indian society. Paranjpye, who Irawati fondly called “appa” or her” second father”, was a man far ahead of his times.
Urmilla DeshpandeA college principal and staunch supporter of women’s education, he was also an atheist. Irawati helped him discover the fascinating social science field and its implications for society.
When Irawati decided to pursue a doctorate in anthropology in Berlin, despite her biological father’s objections, she found support in Paranjpye and her husband, Dinkar Karve, a professor of science.
After a day-long shipwreck in 1927, she arrived in the German city and began studying with Fischer, a renowned professor of anthropology and eugenics, as her mentor.
Hitler had not yet come to power, and at the time, Germany was still suffering from World War One’s effects. However, the spectre of anti-Semitism had begun to rear its ugly head. When Irawati learned one day that a Jewish student had been murdered, she was the one who bore witness to this hatred.
The authors of the book describe Irawati’s fear, shock, and disgust when she saw the man’s body strewn across the concrete as blood poured down from her building.
Irawati struggled with these feelings while completing Fischer’s thesis, which was intended to demonstrate that white Europeans were more logical and reasonable and, consequently, racially superior to non-white Europeans. This involved meticulously studying and measuring 149 human skulls.
Fischer posited that white Europeans had asymmetrical skulls to accommodate larger right frontal lobes, a supposedly sign of higher intelligence. However, Irawati’s research found no correlation between race and skull asymmetry.
” She had contradicted Fischer’s hypothesis, of course, but also the theories of that institute and the mainstream theories of the time”, the authors write in the book.
She boldly presented her findings, risking her mentor’s ire and her degree. Although Fischer gave her the lowest grade, her research critically and scientifically rejected the use of differences to justify discrimination. ( Fischer would join the Nazi party in the future and use Fischer’s theories of racial superiority to advance their agenda. )
Urmilla DeshpandeIrawati would display this streak of gumption and unending empathy throughout her life, especially for the women she encountered.
After returning to India, Irawati went on field trips to remote villages in India, sometimes with her male coworkers, occasionally with her students and even her children, to study the lives of various tribespeople. At the same time, it was unthinkable for a woman to travel too far away from home.
She joined archaeological expeditions to recover 15, 000-year-old bones, bridging the past and present. The book describes her sleeping in barns or truck beds and frequently going days with little food while these brutal journeys took her deep into forests and rugged terrain for weeks or months.
Irawati also bravely confronted societal and societal prejudices while engaging with people from all walks of life.
The authors describe how Irawati, a Chitpavan Brahmin from an traditionally vegetarian upper-caste Hindu community, bravely consumed partially raw meat from a tribal leader she wanted to study. She responded with openness and curiosity as a test of loyalty and a gesture of friendship.
Her studies fostered deep empathy for humanity, leading her to later criticise fundamentalism across religions, including Hinduism. She argued that everyone who called India home should do it.
The book describes a time when Irawati’s mind wandered to a startling realization that would forever alter her view of humanity as she contemplated the horrors the Nazis had inflicted on the Jews.
” In these reflections, Irawati learned the most difficult of lessons from Hindu philosophy: all that is you, too”, the authors write.
Irawati passed away in 1970, but her legacy lives on in the people she continues to inspire.