Verrier Elwin

Verrier Elwin arrived in India as an English scholar trained at Oxford and ended up one of its adopted sons. Over the course of his life he became the most prominent voice speaking on behalf of the country's tribal communities, a role that earned him both admiration and controversy in the land he chose as his home.

Tribal people made up close to 8 per cent of India's population, yet the national freedom movement paid them little attention, and the neglect has continued since. Elwin took up their cause when few others would, writing and arguing on their behalf.

The communities he influenced now sit at the centre of the Maoist rebellion in India. That gives his ideas a fresh urgency, and this piece argues that anyone trying to understand the present conflict needs to know what he thought and wrote.

Ramachandra Guha examines Elwin's most influential writing in the chapter 'Verrier Elwin: The Defender of the Tribals'.