{"product_id":"iru-the-remarkable-life-of-irawati-karve","title":"Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1927, when Irawati Karve, aged twenty-two, arrived in Berlin to do her\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edoctoral studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, she was faced with a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edilemma. As a woman of colour, the subject of her thesis was to prove her\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esupervisor Dr Eugen Fischer's theory of the superiority of the European\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003erace over people of colour, based on the measurement of their skulls. After\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eexamining 149 'white' skulls from Germany and 'non-white' skulls from\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGerman colonies in East Africa, Irawati came to the opposite conclusion: the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eshape of the human skull did not prove racial superiority. Fischer's theory was\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elater discredited, but at the time, it took courage to present the paper to him and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eit nearly cost Irawati her PhD.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCourage and a pioneering spirit continued to be her hallmarks on her return\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto India. At a time when such field trips were difficult if not dangerous, she\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etravelled to the Adivasi areas in Coorg, Western Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand Bihar. Her research resulted in two seminal works, Kinship Organisation in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndia and Hindu Society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1968, she won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her book of essays on the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMahabharata, Yuganta. Irawati's belief that the Mahabharata was not just an epic, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebut a historical record, earned her some criticism from her peers at the time, but\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYuganta remains a classic to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the daughter-in-law of the reformist and feminist thinker, Maharshi Dhondo\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKarve, adored wife of Dinkar Karve, and privileged daughter of two families-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eher own parents, Ganesh and Bhagirathi Karmarkar, and her adoptive family, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eR.P. Paranjpye and his wife, Saitai-Irawati's personal life was as rich and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecolourful as her professional one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this biography like none other, writer Urmilla Deshpande, Irawati's\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egranddaughter, and academic researcher Thiago Pinto Barbosa, have created\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ean intimate, captivating portrait of Irawati Karve, the anthropologist and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ephilosopher, and Irawati, the woman, wife and mother.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs author and Joint Director, JLF, Namita Gokhale says, 'Irawati Karve stood\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etall with the tallest of her generation. This biography is a beacon for those who\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewant to understand the Indian way-an inspirational story of an iconic figure.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thiago Pinto Barbosa, Urmilla Deshpande","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46337039991020,"sku":"9789354478475","price":30.07,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9789354478475.jpg?v=1743695677","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/iru-the-remarkable-life-of-irawati-karve","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}