A two-day workshop
Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 April 2026
King’s College London, Strand Campus, Bush House South East Wing 1.05
This is an in-Person event. Please book your ticket here.
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.
Current programme
DAY ONE – 27th April 2026
9.30am-10.00am Tea and Coffee (BH SE 1.11)
10.00am Welcome
Dr Sunil Mitra Kumar, Director King’s India Institute
Dr David Shankland, Director Royal Anthropological Institute.
10.15am Keynote address
Anthropology in India: From the Colonial Past to Innovative Futures
Professor Subhadra Channa (Delhi University)
Chair: Dr Kriti Kapila, King’s College London.
11.45am
Using Museums for Demuseumization (remote presentation)
Dr. Kalyan Kumar Chakrabarty, former Director, Lalit Kala Academy, Indira Gandhi Museum in Bhopal.
12.30pm – 1.30pm LUNCH (BH SE 1.11)
1.30pm-2.15pm
Caste and Social Justice: Various Models in India
Professor Badri Narayan (Vice Chancellor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)
2.15pm-3.30pm
Indian Anthropology and Sexuality: Feminist and Queer Interventions (remote presentation)
Professor Pushpesh Kumar, University of Hyderbad.
3.30pm-4.15pm
Anthropology in India’s North-East Frontier
Dr. Kanato Chophy (Dibrugarh University)
4.15pm-5.00pm Tea and Coffee (BH SE 1.11)
5.00pm-6.30pm LECTURE (This lecture needs to be booked separately HERE)
From magic to monumentality: the ‘museum’ in today’s India
Professor Deborah Swallow, CBE. former President RAI, former Director Courtauld.
! Different location: King’s College London, Bush House, North East Wing, Lecture Theatre 0.01 (Strand Campus, WC2B 4BG)
6.30pm Drinks (BH NE The Exchange)
DAY TWO 28th April 2026
9.30-10.15am
Consumer Culture in India: Historical Trajectories, Contemporary Transformation and Future Research Agenda (remote presentation)
Dr Nita Mathur, Director, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi.
10.15am-11.00am
Political Anthropology – the Indian Story (remote presentation)
Dr. Suman Nath, Government General Degree College, Keshiary, Paschim Medinpur, West Bengal.
11.00am-11.30am Tea and Coffee (BH SE 1.02)
11.30am-12.15pm
Studying ‘Religion’ in Indian Anthropology (remote presentation)
Dr. Renny Thomas, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal Madhya Pradesh.
12.15-1.00pm
From Tools to Thought: A Historiography of Palaeolithic Archaeological Research in India (remote presentation)
Dr. Shanti Pappu (with Kumar Akhilesh), Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
1.00pm-2.00pm LUNCH (BH SE 1.08)
2.00pm-2.45pm
Ethnographic Work in India: Fieldwork, Reflexivity and Positionality
Dr Rukshana Zaman, Indira Gandhi Open University, New Delhi.
2.45pm-3.30pm
Anthropology in Action: Engaged Anthropology, Policy Intervention and the Socio-Legal Dimensions of Research in India
Professor Srinivasalu Sumathi (with Dr M. Muniraj) University of Madras.
3.30pm-4.15pm
Environmental Anthropology in India: An Exploration into its Past, Present and Future Directions
Dr Prashant Khattri, University of Allahabad.
4.15pm-5.00pm Tea and Coffee (BH SE 2.11)
5.00pm-6.00pm
CLOSING DISCUSSION
Chair: Professor Shalini Randeria, Vice-Chancellor, Central European University, Vienna.