This volume explores the inherent pluralism of Hinduism through ethnographic and philosophical evidence as presented in the Journal of Anthropological Society of Bombay. The essays dated 1886-1936, represent a period that marked the emergence of a European-educated native intelligentsia with a rationalist outlook.
Subhadra Mitra Channa is retired Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, India. Her research interests are in Gender Studies, Marginalization, Identity Studies, Urban Ethnography, Environment, Cosmology, and Religion and Caste Studies in India. She is the recipient of Charles Wallace Fellowship, the United Kingdom; Fulbright Lecturer, the United States, 2003 and 2008-2009; Visiting Professor to Maison D'Sciences De L'Homme, Paris; Visiting Scholar, University of Kentucky, the United States (2015); Visiting Professor University of Bahia, Brazil (2019); Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, the United States; President of the Indian Anthropological Association (1997-2000); and S. C Roy Gold Medal (Asiatic Society). She was awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award Delhi University, in 2016, as the best teacher of the university.
She is the present Senior Vice-President of (IUAES) from 2018 and Chair of the Commission on Marginalization and Global Apartheid (2017-2021). Her publications were Gender is South Asia; Life as a Dalit (ed.), The Inner and Outer Selves; Gender, Livelihood and Environment (ed.) with Marilyn Porter, and Anthropological Perspectives on Indian Tribes (2019), more than 80 scholarly papers.
Lancy Lobo holds a master's degree in Anthropology and a doctoral degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. He has authored and co-authored 25 books and scores mimeographs based on research over 40 years. He has been a professor and the Director of Centre for Social Studies, based in Surat, an institute under the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Delhi. He was International Visiting Fellow at the Woodstock Centre, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, in the year 1999-2000. He is the founder director of Centre for Culture and Development, Vadodara, completing 20 years. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus at the Indian Social Institute, Delhi. Some of his recent publications include, with Jayesh Shah (eds.), The Legacy of Nehru: Appraisal and Analysis (2018), with A.M. Shah (eds.), Essays on Suicide and Self-Immolation (2018), with Kanchan Bharati (eds.), Marriage and Divorce in India: Changing Concepts and Practices (2019), with A.M. Shah (eds.), An Ethnography of Parsees of India (2022), and with A.M. Shah (eds.), Indian Anthropology (2022).
