Madhumala Chattopadhyay

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Madhumala Chattopadhyay
Born (1961-03-16) 16 March 1961 (age 63) [1]
Shibpur, Kolkata, India
Alma mater University of Calcutta
Employer Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Known for Anthropologist

Madhumala Chattopadhyay (born 16 March 1961) is an Indian anthropologist who specializes in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [2] [3] In 1991, Chattopadhyay and her colleagues were the first outsiders to make peaceful contact with the Sentinelese people. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Chattopadhyay was brought up in Shibpur, a small suburb in Kolkata, West Bengal. Her father was an accounts officer with the South Eastern Railway. Her mother was Pronoti Chattopadhyay. She first became interested in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands when she was twelve years old. [5]

She graduated from Bhabani Balika Vidyalaya in Shibpur. Afterward, she obtained her Bachelor of Sciences (with honors) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. She wrote a dissertation, Genetic Study among the Aborigines of the Andaman. She applied for a PhD fellowship with the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) in order to do field research with the tribes of the Andaman Islands. Chattopadhyay obtained her PhD on the tribes of the Andamans. [4] AnSI was reluctant to grant her a fellowship because she was female, and they worried she would not be safe while doing field work with potentially hostile tribes. However, they granted the fellowship in light of her academic record. [3]

Field work

Before Chattopadhyay was allowed to do field work in the Andaman Islands, the Anthropological Survey of India required her and her parents to sign disclaimers confirming they knew the dangers of work with uncontacted peoples and would not hold the government responsible if Chattopadhyay was injured or killed while doing research. She spent six years researching the various tribes of Andaman and Nicobar islands. [3] She last visited Andamans in 1999. [6]

Contact with the Sentinelese

On 4 January 1991, Chattopadhyay was part of a team that made the first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese tribe of Andamans. She was also the first female outsider to contact them. [7] Chattopadhyay at that time was a research associate with the Anthropological Survey of India. [8] She went to the North Sentinel Island with the support of local administration's ship MV Tarmugli. She was a part of a team of 13. The key team members were S. Awaradi (Director, Tribal Welfare, A&NI administration), who was the team leader; Arun Mullick, who was the medical officer (for providing medical attention in case of sickness or injury); and Chattopadhyay herself, the team anthropologist. The rest of the team were support crew.[ citation needed ]

The team initiated contact by approaching the island on a smaller vessel and dropping coconuts into the water as gifts. A few armed men came into the water to collect coconuts. This repeated until the team ran out of coconuts, at which point they returned to the main ship to resupply. The second time, a young man aimed his bow at Chattopadhyay, but a Sentinelese woman made him drop his weapon. Chattopadhyay escaped from this attack and the team retreated. When the team returned for a third time, Chattopadhyay and colleagues jumped into the water near the boat and handed the islanders coconuts in person. [1] [9] One of the crew took photographs of crew members handing coconuts to the islanders, which were widely circulated in the press. Writer Vishvajit Pandya notes that these photographs made the public rethink their mental image of the Sentinelese. [10]

On 21 February of the same year, a larger team came back to another successful contact with the tribe. Some Sentinelese saw them approach and went over, unarmed, to meet the team. The Sentinelese party boarded the AnSI ship and took coconuts. [4] [1] Reflecting on her work with the Sentinelese, Chattopadhyay said, "You feel that you are there to study, but actually, they are the ones who study you. You are foreign in their lands." [11] She also observed, "Never ever in my six years of doing research alone with the tribes of Andamans did any man ever misbehave with me. The tribes might be primitive in their technological achievements, but socially they are far ahead of us." [12]

The Indian government later banned any more expeditions, citing the possibility of the tribe contracting disease due to frequent visits by outsiders. [7]

In an interview with National Geographic decades later, Chattopadhyay discouraged further attempts to contact the Sentinelese. She said, "The tribes have been living on the islands for centuries without any problem. Their troubles started after they came into contact with outsiders...The tribes of the islands do not need outsiders to protect them, what they need is to be left alone." [7] She also argued that the people of the Andaman Islands suffered greatly during the British occupation, and that Indians should not make the same mistake and try to assimilate the Sentinelese into the larger world. [1]

Work with the Aong (Jarawa) tribe

In 1991, Chattopadhyay was part of a team that contacted the Aong tribe. [7] The Indian government had established friendly contact with Aong people in 1975, but prohibited women from joining contact parties, as visiting women had previously been attacked. [13] Although Chattopadhyay was allowed as a member of the 1991 contact party, she stayed on a small boat while her male teammates went ashore to meet with the islanders. However, Aong women on shore called for Chattopadhyay to come and meet them. Chattopadhyay has some mastery of the Ongan languages, [5] including the Jarawa language, so she was able to understand some of what they said. As she approached shore, five Aong men and one woman climbed aboard. The Aong woman sat next to her, and Chattopadhyay hugged her. More women greeted her when she came ashore. [3]

Over multiple visits, Chattopadhyay developed a bond with some Aong women; she was invited to their homes, given food, invited to play with their children, and given small gifts. She also helped the Aong women with their daily chores. [3] She went on around eight visits to the Aong tribe between 1991 and 1999. [4]

Work with the Onge tribe

Chattopadhyay was known as Debotobeti, meaning "doctor", to the Onge people when she visited them. She checked their health and took blood samples from them as part of her research. [3] New Zealand anthropologist Sita Venkateswar, who also worked with the people of the Andaman Islands, stated that Chattopadyay often positioned herself as a medic during field work, both with the Onge and with the Aong/Jarakawa. Venkateswar wrote, "Chattopadhyay...assigned for herself a kind of Florence Nightingale role during the 'contact.'" [14] Chattopadhyay speaks Onge. [5]

Work on Car Nicobar

Chattopadhyay has also worked with two Indigenous groups on the island of Car Nicobar, the Shompen and the Nicobarese. [15] [4] Her book Tribes of Car Nicobar and journal papers are used as standard reference texts in universities worldwide. [3]

Later career

As of 2015, Madhumala Chattopadhyay works for India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and lives in New Delhi. [6] She has a desk job which does not involve field work. [4]

After an American missionary illegally visited North Sentinel Island and was killed by its inhabitants, Chattopadhyay told reporters that she disapproved of his actions. "The Sentinelese and other tribes don’t need to be oppressed with religion, because doing so will make them more hostile," she said in 2018. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andaman Islands</span> Archipelago in the Bay of Bengal

The Andaman Islands are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about 130 km (81 mi) southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, while the Coco Islands and Preparis Island are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andaman and Nicobar Islands</span> Union territory of India

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 836 islands, of which only 31 are inhabited. These islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a 150 km (93 mi) wide channel. The capital and largest city of the territory, Port Blair, is located approximately 1,190 km (740 mi) from Chennai and 1,255 km (780 mi) from Kolkata in mainland India. The islands are situated between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. The northernmost point is 901 km (560 mi) from the mouth of the Hooghly River. Indira Point, located at 6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E on the southern tip of Great Nicobar, is the southernmost point of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andamanese languages</span> Languages spoken by people of the Andaman Islands

The Andamanese languages are the various languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. There are two known Andamanese language families, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as two presumed but unattested languages, Sentinelese and Jangil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on India</span> Effect of 2004

According to official estimates in India, 10,749 people were killed, 5,640 people were missing and thousands of people became homeless when a tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake near the Indonesian island of Sumatra struck the southern coast on 26 December 2004. The earthquake registered 9.1–9.3 Mw and was the largest in five decades. It was followed by strong aftershocks on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The death toll of the earthquake was 1,500 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Sentinel Island</span> Island in the Andaman Islands

North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. The island is a protected area of India. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by force, their protected isolation from the outside world. The island is about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) wide, and its area is approximately 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sentinelese</span> Voluntarily isolated tribe in the Bay of Bengal

The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andamanese peoples</span> People of Andaman archipelago

The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India's constitution.

Little Andaman Island is the fourth largest of the Andaman Islands of India with an area of 707 km2, lying at the southern end of the archipelago. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It lies 88 km (55 mi) south of Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

South Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is 1.6 km (1 mi) long northeast to southwest and up to 1 km wide. At only 1.61 km2, it is much smaller than its counterpart North Sentinel Island and is currently uninhabited. The island belongs to the Port Blair tehsil in the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, neighbouring North Sentinel Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Andamanese</span> Indigenous people in the Andaman Islands

The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely related languages comprised the Great Andamanese languages, one of the two identified Andamanese language families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onge</span> Ethnic group of Andaman Islands

The Onge are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but also practice plant cultivation. They are designated as a Scheduled Tribe of India.

The Jangil were one of the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in India. They lived in the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighboring Jarawa people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sentinelese language</span> Presumed language of the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island

Sentinelese is the undescribed language of the Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Due to the lack of contact between the Sentinelese people and the rest of the world, essentially nothing is known of their language or its vitality. The Sentinelese people do not allow outsiders onto the island and are generally hostile towards visitors. Friendly interactions have been rare.

The Jarawas are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands in India. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals. They have largely shunned interaction with outsiders, and many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Since the 1990s, contacts between Jarawa groups and outsiders grew increasingly frequent. By the 2000s, some Jarawas had become regular visitors at settlements, where they trade, interact with tourists, get medical aid, and even send their children to school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)</span> Language of India

Järawa or Jarwa is one of the Ongan languages. It is spoken by the Jarawa people inhabiting the interior and south central Rutland Island, central interior, and south interior South Andaman Island, and the west coast of Middle Andaman Island.

The Karen people are an ethnic group native to Kayin State, Myanmar. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, they live in various villages of North and Middle Andaman district.

Shanti Teresa Lakra is an Indian medical nurse and healthcare professional, known for her services to Onge tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the aftermath of the Tsunami of 2004. The Government of India honored Lakra in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.

Triloknath Pandit is an Indian anthropologist. He was the first professional anthropologist to land on the North Sentinel Island in 1967, leading the team that made the first friendly contact with the Sentinelese people on 4 January 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Allen Chau</span> American missionary (1991–2018)

John Allen Chau was an American evangelical Christian missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese, a tribe in voluntary isolation, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island in an attempt to introduce the tribe to Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lidio Cipriani</span> Italian explorer

Lidio Cipriani was an anthropologist, university teacher and explorer from Florence.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Debayan Tewari (4 December 2018). "When the Sentinelese shun bows and arrows to welcome outsiders". Gale OneFile: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Economic Times.
  2. ↑ "Meet Madhumala Chattopadhyay, First Indian Anthropologist Woman Who Had a Friendly Encounter With Sentinelese Tribe of Andaman". 30 November 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sudipto Sengupta (2018). "Madhumala Chattopadhyay, the woman who made the Sentinelese put their arrows down". ThePrint . Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The woman who made 'friendly contact' with Andaman's Sentinelese". Gale OneFile. News Point. 4 December 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Boishakhi Dutt (3 January 2019). "Friends with tribe, a childhood wish". Gale OneFile. The Telegraph [Kolkata].
  6. 1 2 3 Madhumala Chattopadhyay (2018). "What's Christianity to those who pray to sky & sea, says first woman to contact Sentinelese". ThePrint . Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Fehmida Zakeer (7 December 2018). "Meet the first woman to contact one of the world's most isolated tribes". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020.
  8. ↑ Dhamini Ratnam (4 December 2018). "The woman who made friendly contact with Andaman's Sentinelese". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  9. ↑ Schönhuth, Michael (2019). "Dead missionaries, wild Sentinelese: An anthropological review of a global media event". Anthropology Today. 35 (4): 3–6. doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12514 . S2CID   201413913.
  10. ↑ Pandya, Vishvajit (2009). "9". In the Forest: Visual and Material Worlds of Andamanese History (1858-2006). Google Books: University Press of America. pp. 329–332. ISBN   9780761842729.
  11. ↑ Likhitha Chintareddy (2 December 2018). "Death of American missionary sparks controversy". Gale OneFile: ULOOP Inc. UWIRE Text.
  12. ↑ Sengupta, Sudipto (29 November 2018). "Madhumala Chattopadhyay, the woman who made the Sentinelese put their arrows down". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  13. ↑ Venkateswar, Sita (2004). Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands. Google Books: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. pp. 180–182. ISBN   9788791563041.
  14. ↑ Venkateswar, Sita (2004). Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands. Google Books: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. p. 179. ISBN   9788791563041.
  15. ↑ "Sentinelese in shadows: Clear and Present Danger". Gale OneFile: HT Digital Streams Ltd. India Blooms. 4 December 2018.
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