Nirmal Kumar Bose’s idea of the Hindu method of tribal absorption, which is still regarded as an established anthropological theory, stands on weak methodological foundations and insufficient field data. Bose’s theory not only served the ideology of the privileged class, but also foreclosed the growth of an indigenous, nationalist, and secular Indian anthropology. Ironically, more empirically sound and materialist field findings of anthropologist Tarak Chandra Das, who was a contemporary of Bose, were marginalised in the discipline.
