Madhumala Chattopadhyay

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Madhumala Chattopadhyay
Born
Shibpur, Kolkata
NationalityIndian
Known forAnthropologist

Madhumala Chattopadhyay is an Indian anthropologist.[1][2][3][4] She is the first female anthropologist to make contact with the North Sentinelese tribes.[5][6]

Early life[]

Chattopadhyay was brought up in Shibpur, a small suburb in Kolkata, West Bengal. Her father was an accounts officer with the South Eastern Railway.[3] Her mother was Pronoti Chattopadhyay.

She finished her schooling from Bhabani Balika Vidyalaya, Shibpur.[3] She did her B.Sc (Hons) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. She wrote a dissertation on Genetic Study among the Aborigines of the Andaman. She applied to a PhD fellowship with the Anthropological Survey of India for doing field research with the tribes of the Andamans.

Career[]

On 4 January 1991, Chattopadhyay was part of a team, that made the first ever contact with the Sentinelese tribe of Andamans. She at that time was a research associate with the Anthropological Survey of India.[7] She went to the North Sentinel Island with the support of local administration's ship MV Tarmugli. She was a part of a team of 13. The key team members were S. Awaradi (Director, Tribal Welfare, A&NI administration) who was the Team Leader, Arun Mullick who was the Medical Officer (for providing medical attention in case of sickness or injury) accompanied by Chattopadhyay as an anthropologist.[1] The rest were support crew. On day 2 of this expedition, Chattopadhyay escaped from an arrow attack and the team retreated. On February 21 of the same year, the team came back to a successful contact with the tribe. The Indian government banned any more expeditions citing the possibility of the ancient tribe contacting epidemics due to frequent visits by outsiders.[4]

She spent six years researching the various primitive tribes of Andaman and Nicobar islands.[3][1] She last visited Andamans in 1999.[8]

Her book Tribes of Car Nicobar and journal papers are used as standard reference texts in universities worldwide.[3]

As of 2015, she works in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and lives in New Delhi.[1][8]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Madhumala Chattopadhyay: An Anthropologist's Moment of Truth | Probashi". Probashi. 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  2. ^ "Meet Madhumala Chattopadhyay, First Indian Anthropologist Woman Who Had a Friendly Encounter With Sentinelese Tribe of Andaman". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Madhumala Chattopadhyay, the woman who made the Sentinelese put their arrows down". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b N., Naagesh. "Meet Madhumala Chattopadhyay, first to contact Sentinelese tribe in Anadamans and return alive". International Business Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  5. ^ "Meet the first woman to contact one of the world's most isolated tribes". National Geographic.
  6. ^ Rugile. "27 Years Ago A Woman Contacted The Tribe That Killed John Chau, And Her Encounter Was Completely Different". Boredpanda.
  7. ^ "The woman who made friendly contact with Andaman's Sentinelese". Hindustan Times. 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "What's Christianity to those who pray to sky & sea, says first woman to contact Sentinelese". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
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