In looking at the life and work of the late Professor K. P. Chattopadhyay, we get a view of anthropology in India in its formative years. We abo get a view of a certain intellectual and cultural milicu which once gave the city of Calcutta its pre-eminence K. P. Chattopadhyay belonged to that city, he had a place not only in its university but also in its civic life. Though endowed with an abundance of natural talent, he did not devote himself solely to the pursuit of his career as an academic. He put to high a value on his own dignity to gossip about his younger colleagues, but it was obvious that he did not view their narrow professional concerns with any great enthusiasm. He liked and enjoyed the good things of life which included not only good books but also good food and good company.
He was universally known among his students, and, I suspect through their influence, also in his family as KPC, and it is in that name that he lives in my memory. When I knew him, he was no longer in his prime; he had suffered a serious illness and had become somewhat cautious about his health. Despite his illness and the restrictions he had put upon himself, he was still by any standard an imposing presence tall, broad-shouldered and with a commanding voice. For some time I was, like his other students, in awe of him when I overcame that awe, I found him to be warm, courteous and amiable, with something of the charm of a grand seigneur.
His magisterial presence made him noticeable in any company. I have the feeling that several of his professional colleagues felt a little ill-at-case in his presence, both intellectually and socially, and then blamed him for being haughty. I was of course too young and too obscure to dream of putting myself on a level with him, but found him quite easy to talk with once the ice was broken. The ice was in fact broken due to a rather peculiar circumstance. KPC had an uncle, his father's younger brother, who was in my childhood a familiar figure in our home where he was much respected for his learning, his simplicity and, I suspect most of all, for the fact that 'he came from the family of Raja Rammohun Roy. My mother thought that it would be a good idea for me to take lessons from him, so I became his pupil, first, on a trial basis, in Persian (for six days), and then in English language and literature of which his love and knowledge were un-bounded. Now, this person, though very well born and very learned, was also rather eccentric, and he provided much merriment to me and my siblings in our childhood. I found KPC quite prepared to exchange stories about his uncle with me, and he may have felt that someone who had received that benefit of instruction from such a person ought to be alright, socially as well as academically.
Thus, on his father's side, KPC came from the family of Raja Rammohun Roy. Through his mother he was descended lineally from Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar references to Vidya-sagar's ancestral village, Birsingha which KPC regarded as also his home, may be found in several of the essays in the present collection. To add to this, he married the granddaughter of Satyendranath Tagore, the first Indian member of the ICS and an elder brother of Rabindranath. He had, as it were, a right by birth to the genealogical method which other anthropologists had to learn as a part of their trade.
I write all this to note that Bengalis of the generation to which KPC belonged valued the graces of life which they associated to some extent with 'family' in the broad sense of the term. They also valued individual talent, for Vidyasagar shone more by his native gifts than on account of family distinction. But if the family was their link with the past and its traditions. it was education, particularly scientific education, that opened the doors to the future. Rammohun Roy. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and the Tagores all valued education, and they all welcomed modern ideas and institutions for the uses to which they could be put in creating a better life.
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