Biography of Irawati Karve
IRAWATI KARVE
Early Life:
Irawati was born in 1905 and named after the river Irawaddy in Burma where her father, Ganesh Hari Karmarkar worked. At seven, she was sent to the Huzur Paga boarding school for girls in Pune. One of her classmates at the school was Shakuntala Paranjapye, daughter of Wrangler Paranjapye,
Principal of Fergusson College, Pune. Shakuntala’s mother took an instant liking to Irawati and adopted her as her second child. In her new home, Irawati experienced a stimulating intellectual atmosphere and was introduced to a variety of books. Irawati studied Philosophy at the Fergusson College, graduating in 1926. She then got the Dakshina Fellowship to work under G. S. Ghurye, the head of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University. In the meantime, she got married to the chemist Dinkar Dhondo Karve – son of the great social reformer Maharishi Karve – pioneer of widow remarriage and women’s education in Maharashtra. Getting married into a ‘progressive’ family did not prove advantageous. For, while Maharishi Karve encouraged women in public, this liberalism did not extend to his own family. Karve opposed Irawati’s attempts to go to Germany for higher studies.
Despite opposition in 1928, Irawati went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology to do her PhD. Her thesis topic was: The normal asymmetry of the human skull. Irawati and her husband realized early that they were not cut out for social reform work. So, they both stuck to research and teaching. Dinkar taught chemistry and later became the Principal of the Fergusson College.Dinkar recognized the exceptional intellectual abilities of his wife and solidly stood behind her.
Her work brought her recognition in India and abroad. She was elected President of the Anthropology section of the Indian Science Congress in 1947 and was offered a lecturership in the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
Areas of interest:
She was an Indologist, a collector of
Early Life:
Irawati was born in 1905 and named after the river Irawaddy in Burma where her father, Ganesh Hari Karmarkar worked. At seven, she was sent to the Huzur Paga boarding school for girls in Pune. One of her classmates at the school was Shakuntala Paranjapye, daughter of Wrangler Paranjapye,
Principal of Fergusson College, Pune. Shakuntala’s mother took an instant liking to Irawati and adopted her as her second child. In her new home, Irawati experienced a stimulating intellectual atmosphere and was introduced to a variety of books. Irawati studied Philosophy at the Fergusson College, graduating in 1926. She then got the Dakshina Fellowship to work under G. S. Ghurye, the head of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University. In the meantime, she got married to the chemist Dinkar Dhondo Karve – son of the great social reformer Maharishi Karve – pioneer of widow remarriage and women’s education in Maharashtra. Getting married into a ‘progressive’ family did not prove advantageous. For, while Maharishi Karve encouraged women in public, this liberalism did not extend to his own family. Karve opposed Irawati’s attempts to go to Germany for higher studies.
Despite opposition in 1928, Irawati went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology to do her PhD. Her thesis topic was: The normal asymmetry of the human skull. Irawati and her husband realized early that they were not cut out for social reform work. So, they both stuck to research and teaching. Dinkar taught chemistry and later became the Principal of the Fergusson College.Dinkar recognized the exceptional intellectual abilities of his wife and solidly stood behind her.
Her work brought her recognition in India and abroad. She was elected President of the Anthropology section of the Indian Science Congress in 1947 and was offered a lecturership in the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
Areas of interest:
She was an Indologist, a collector of