Public Anthropology and [Post]Colonial Politics: Perspectives on 'crisis conjunctures' in the Andaman Island

Abstract

In this paper, I suggest a vision for Public Anthropology that offers the potential to transcend the limits of our mandate as a merely academic enterprise, challenging us to consider ethical forms of action and intervention within the current global conjuncture. Drawing on my ongoing involvement with the indigenous groups in the Andaman Islands, this paper examines the post tsunami conjuncture in the islands when the postcolonial politics of internal colonization subverted the opportunity for radical transformation in the situation of the indigenous groups. I map a necessarily provisional and contingent topography for such a project, while taking note of some recent developments that can lead to radically altered modes of engagement with government and institutional processes in India.