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Roundtable: Public Anthropology in South Asia
Organizer: Carole McGranahan, University of Colorado, Boulder
Discussants: Ajantha Subramanian, Harvard University; Dennis B. McGilvray, University of Colorado, Boulder; Kelly D. Alley, Auburn University; Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University
This roundtable is about public anthropology in South Asia—i.e., socially relevant, theoretically informed, and politically engaged ethnographic scholarship. We bring together five anthropologists—archaeologists and cultural anthropologists who work across South Asia—to explore what happens when we preface anthropology with “public.” We argue that if our goal is for anthropology to not be solely an extractive enterprise, but an ethnographic one in the spirit of exchange, then it must be an engaged endeavor. Yet, what is public anthropology and how is it done? Additionally, why is public anthropology worth pursuing now, and why in South Asia? We explore these questions by trying to capture the energy of current anthropological work in India through discussion and debate of work that is and should (or should not) take place. While focused on South Asia, the topic of this roundtable is relevant to communities in and scholars of Asia more broadly in practicing and envisioning a public anthropology.