A two-day workshop in collaboration with King’s College London
Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 April 2026
King’s College London, Strand Campus
Anthropology in India: From Colonial Beginnings to Innovative Futures
This workshop aims to explore anthropology in India as it is being taught and practiced at present and how it emerged as a discipline from the 19th Century to the present. Initiated by colonial administrators and Indologists it was first adopted by Western-educated Indians but soon acquired an indigenous character as Indian scholars realized that western categories and typologies were inadequate at times to comprehend the complexities of Indian society.
During the two days devoted to our event, anthropologists from India will come together on a common platform with local British scholars to give a shape to what could be considered as Anthropology in India in the present times linking the present to the past of the discipline. It will highlight new questions that are being thrown up in the times of globalization, neo-colonization and climate change and how the present generation is accepting these challenges through methodological innovations and theorizations. The speakers represent different generations of scholars from India as well as diverse approaches to the discipline in order to create an atmosphere that will be stimulating and informative.
The programme will be announced shortly.