APPENDIX B

Pioneer Biographies
of the Indian Period from 1947

Triloki Nath Pandit (*1934)

T.N. Pandit is the unquestioned doyen of Andamanese studies and the most deeply learned and most widely-read of anyone who has ever interested himself in matters Andamanese. He was born 1934 into a high-ranking Kashmiri Brahmin family that has for many generations supplied India with notable scholars. Pandit's grandfather was a traditional scholar of Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit while his father was a professor of English. Other members of the family were Sanskrit scholars, lawyers and judges. Today Prof. Pandit is retired and lives in a house in New Delhi where everybody - apart, presumably, from a few domestic helpers - is a scholar of some kind.

Initially wanting to be a zoologist, T.N. Pandit acquired a BSc degree in botany, zoology, English, Hindi and Kashmiri in 1955. Shortly after graduation, an uncle drew his attention to the new field of anthropology; the young zoologist was interested and in 1958 received a MSc in social and cultural anthropology from Delhi University. Post-doctoral studies on a Government of India Research scholarship in anthropology followed and in 1962 he was appointed to a lecturership in social anthropology at that same university.

In 1966 the young scientist joined the Anthropological Survey of India and was almost immediately posted to Port Blair where he arrived on 20th March 1966. Far from being breathlessly keen to make his first acquaintance with the Andamanese Negrito, he admits today that he had resisted his appointment to such a remote place where he felt terribly alone and home-sick at first. His father encouraged him to stick it out and when his wife joined him two months later and soon found work as a teacher, things settled down and both began to enjoy their work and the social cohesion and friendly atmosphere of the small Port Blair community.

Dr. Pandit was to remain with the Survey for 26 years and to rise within its ranks through senior anthropologist at Port Blair to Deputy Director of the Survey at Port Blair and Calcutta. For most of the year 1992 he was officiating Director of the Survey at its Calcutta headquarters before retiring at the end of that year.

Dr. Pandit is a well-known figure internationally. He has attended many conferences and has traveled widely in Germany, England and Hungary. Wherever he was, he and his wife made it a point to visit the major local museums and to visit local concerts and other cultural events.

For a scientist of Dr. Pandit's eminence, membership in government advisory bodies and committees is a matter of course. Among others, he is a life member of the Indian Anthropological Association of New Delhi and the Indian Anthropological Society of Calcutta. In 1992 he was also editor of the Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India.

Our rather dry description of a distinguished academic career cannot do justice to this philosopher-scientist. As far as Andamanese studies are concerned, Dr. Pandit is the author of the only work ever written specifically about the Sentineli. Although he has done much work on the Kashmiri Gujar, especially during the 1960s and 70s, the Andamanese and Nicobarese became the major focus of his work - as witnessed by the impressive list of his publications. His specialist knowledge of the subject is unquestioned yet Dr. Pandit is not a narrow specialist - not a fachidiot as the Germans call scientists who cannot or will not look beyond their own narrow field. His very wide range of interests include philosophy, especially the higher reaches of Hindu religious thought, and take in the latest developments in modern science up to and including quantum physics. T.N. Pandit is also a poet of some renown and he is interested in the literature of all the languages he speaks.

To Dr. Pandit, the Andamanese are fellow human beings. During his many years in the Andamans he went to great lengths to convince the sceptical local Indian refugees and settlers that the Negrito are not the "black monkeys living like animals" that many thought them to be. He was alsoin the privileged position to put this point of view personally to India's then prime minister, Indira Gandhi during her two visits to the islands.

T.N. Pandit's whole work is infused with a humanity and deep understanding of the ancient hunter-gatherers that is rare in scientific writing and that goes way beyond mere scientific curiosity and data collection. 

was far more worried about the Bush police than the elephants. 

 

[ Go to HOME ] [ Go to TABLE OF CONTENTS of THIS APPENDIX ]

   

Last changed 29 January 2000