Hindi writer Uday Prakash pays tribute to Kumar Suresh Singh who died recently in Delhi. As the Director General of the Anthropological Survey of India, Singh compiled the monumental People of India, which, among its other virtues, makes it impossible for bigots to claim an essential India or to say that Indianness is a trait that belongs to any one religion or group. Here is an excerpt from Uday Prakash’s obituary:

He was one of India’s intellectual giants. He died in oblivion in the capital city without making any news. He certainly was not a page 3 man. His monumental output in the field of anthropology and history was not a spectacle like cricket, cinema, politics, crime and commerce. His business was something else. He was one of the very few Indian scholars to have received UN award for the field research in Geneva. Mrinal Sen, the famous filmmaker compared him with any of the “˜five great sons of Bengal,” though he was not exactly from Bengal. Mahashweta Devi felt deeply indebted while writing her one of the best novels “Aranyer Davi” (Owners of Forests). She dedicated her novel to him and said “I can’t forget the day when late Shanti Chaudhury, the famous filmmaker had given me the book, Dust and Storm and the Rising Mist. He wanted to make a film on tribal movement in colonial India and was expecting me to develop a storyline for it. And the book had changed my entire course of life for future.” She adds, “If Birsa Munda today has become a symbol of ‘adivasi desires’ for freedom, justice and rights and has turned in to a long awaited hero of tribals in India, the credit must go to Kumar Suresh Singh. His path breaking research and discovery of a hidden saga of a great tribal upsurge in British India.”

For more.

I cannot resist quoting a small section from Uday Prakash’s tribute, one that cites a few details from People of India:

There are 4,635 communities inhabiting and forming a society we all live in. Their diversity is amazing as well their commonalities too. Can you believe there are 35 communities in India who equally have faith in Islam and Hinduism. Number of communities in relation to Christianity and Hinduism is much more, i.e. 116. there are 17 such communities who are Hindu, Muslim and Sikh simultaneously at any given time, even today. 94 communities are tribal and Christian at the same time, in their faith. You will be surprised to know that the minor and lesser known gods have more followers than the major Gods like Rama, Krishna, Mohammed, Shiva etc. And interesting aspect of these minor gods are that they all are ‘secular’ and have their followers from all caste, religion, race, creed and so on. These minor gods are more useful for the common people and they perform miracles curing leprosy, sugar, skin diseases, impotency and infertility etc.

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