PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 6

Probashi-Cover Story

Creating Anthropological History

Madhumala Chattopadhyay: Creating Anthropological History
On Jan 4, 1991 more than 1200 kms from Indian mainland in the Bay of Bengal, a young Indian women anthropologist waded waist
deep on the coral reefs to hand over a coconut to a man from the Sentinelese tribe, making it the first ever friendly contact with this
hostile primitive tribe of the Andamans. Perhaps no people on earth remain more genuinely isolated than the Sentinelese, one of the
few uncontacted people in the world, who have lived in the North Sentinel Islands of the Andamans for last estimated 60,000 years
shunning any contact with the outside world. Their antiquity traced to the Palaeolithic age makes them the first inhabitants of India.
There had been many attempts previously to establish contact with the Sentinelese, which however failed with contact parties being
received with arrows, some even finding their mark. Given the hostile nature of the Sentinelese the contact parties would avoid
approaching the tribe directly and watch them from the safety of their ships or leave gifts in remote part of the Island. Probably what
changed the equation on that fateful day was the presence of a woman in the contact team who maintained her calm and took the
initiative. A woman in the contact party indicated to the Sentinelese, who are extremely protective of their women, that the boat
people meant no harm. For a brief moment the Sentinalese let their guard down, and allowed outsiders into their world. And of course
there was Providence, for an arrow shot at her by a renegade Sentinelese did not find its mark by a whisker. She is also the first woman
to be accepted by another Andaman tribe, the Jarawas, with whom she established a friendly relationship, especially with the women
folk.
This brave heart anthropologist is Dr. Madhumala Chattopadhyay, then a researcher ( initially a fellow and subsequently research
associate) with the Anthropological Survey of India, who went on to spend six years researching the various primitive tribes of the
Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Unfortunately her