Indera Paul Singh

Indera Paul Singh
Indera Paul Singh
Born	January 20, 1928[1]
Died	September 27, 2016 (aged 88)[1]
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Anthropologist
Board member of	Former Executive council and Academic council member of University of Delhi
Academic background
Education	Doctor of Philosophy
Alma mater	University of Delhi
Thesis	Inheritance of Fingerball Patterns in a Human Population[2] (1959)
Academic work
Discipline	Anthropology
Institutions	Former associate secretary general, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences

Indera Paul Singh (January 20, 1928 – September 27, 2016) was an Indian anthropologist who had served as the associate secretary general of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.[3]

Education

Singh did Intermediate of Science in medical stream at the Hindu College of the University of Delhi, and completed his master's in anthropology from the university in 1950. From 1950 to 1952, he obtained "specialized training in anthropology" at the Franz Weidenreich Anthropological Institute of Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. In 1959, he became the first ever student of the University of Delhi to obtain a Ph.D. with a specialty in anthropology. He also did a certificate course in Russian language and literature at the university.[4]

He viewed Oscar Lewis as his guru.[5]

Career and research

From February to June 1953, Singh worked as a research assistant for Oscar Lewis who was doing a field study in Rampur village at Delhi in India with financial grant from the Ford Foundation's behavioral sciences division.[6] He served the Department of Anthropology of the University of Delhi as a lecturer from 1953 to 1961, as a reader from 1953 to 1967, as a professor from 1961 to 1971; and he had been the head of the department from 16 June 1968 to 6 June 1979, and from 4 April 1981 to 3 April 1984. While serving as the head of the department, he build several laboratories for particularly those of cytogenetics, forensic, physiological, and molecular studies. Also, he was dean of the university's Faculty of Science from 1971 to 1975, and from 1983 to 1984, and university's proctor from 1973 to 1992. He promoted association with German scholars, and a few of them came to India and assisted him in training the research students and faculty members in "methods of advanced genetics". His efforts also resulted in visitations of the university's faculty to Germany and joint execution of some research projects. He was a member of the university's court from 1959 to 1993, of the executive council from 1973 to 1992, and of the academic council for over twenty years; and he was also on the governing bodies of the Hamdard College of Pharmacy, Institute of Home Economics, Lady Irwin College, Satyawati College, Shyam Lal College, and St. Stephen's College. He was University Grants Commission's member,[7] and assisted the UGC in establishing anthropology departments in India.[4]

He had been Indian Social Science Academy's fellow, and had served as a member of the Asian Association of Bioethics (Tokyo), International Commission of Urban Anthropology, International Commission on Documentation, Council for Nutritional Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, Indian Academy of Sciences, and International Council for Scientific Development; and as the vice–president of the Ethnographic and Folk Culture Society (Lucknow), and as the president of the Indian Anthropological Association, Indian Society for Human Ecology, and Indian Dermatoglyphic Association; and as the Regional Commissioner for the South Asia Regional Group of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Food Problems, and as the associate secretary general of International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences; and as the secretary general of the Tenth International Congress of Anthropological Sciences and the Indian Science Congress Association (1975); and as the Chairman of the Eleventh UNESCO Conference of International Voluntary Work Camp Organizations.[4]

Under the chairmanship of Singh, out of all the teachers at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Delhi, three had a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and ten had a Ph.D. in physical anthropology,[8] and he himself oversaw the doctoral studies of thirty three students.[4]

He carried out field researches in northern India and northwestern Himalayas.[4]

Reception

Eight of Singh's research projects were awarded by various organizations from India and other countries.[4] Vinay Kumar Srivastava (the director of the Anthropological Survey of India)[9] notes that Singh delved into anthropology's various branches and suggests that he was "one of the few anthropologists who tried to integrate the different branches of anthropology."[4]

University of Oxford's Philip Stewart in 1991, while reviewing Singh's contributions to the first issue of commencing volume of the Journal of Human Ecology, noted that while at that time there was lack of "synthesis" between the two greatly varying approaches towards the study of human ecology – "biological adaptations" and "cultural adaptations" – Singh had worked out both of them. Overall, he gave a balanced review while assessing Singh's work in the journal, simultaneously pointing out some areas of studies where Singh could have done better.[10]

Edward Eyre Hunt Jr. positively reviewed Singh's co–authored book Anthropometry; though, he viewed the approach of the authors as similar to the Germans, noting that P. C. Biswas (the founder of University of Delhi's Department of Anthropology and Singh's teacher at the university)[7] had received training from Eugen Fischer in Berlin.[8]

Death

Singh died at the age of 88 years on 27 September 2016.[1]

Works

Srivastava notes that Singh wrote 5 books and 202 articles.[4] Some of the books and research papers authored and co–authored by Singh are as follows:

Books

Singh, I. P.; Bhasin, M. K. (2004). A Manual of Biological Anthropology. Delhi: Kamla-Raj Enterprises. OCLC 70886634.
Malhotra, R.; Singh, I. P. (1989). The Indian Islanders: An Athropological Perspective. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. OCLC 466472388.
Singh, I. P.; Tiwari, S. C. (1980) [1978]. Man and His Environment. New Delhi: Concept. OCLC 7273670.
Singh, I. P.; Bhasin, M. K. (1968). Anthropometry. Delhi: Bharti Bhawan. OCLC 1965040.

Select papers

Malik, S. L.; Bhasin, M. K.; Singh, I. P. "Communities, Castes and Tribes of India: An Overview of Morphometric Variations". OCLC 993648330. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Singh, I. P. (June 1988). "Anthropological Strategies of Tribal Health". Indian Anthropologist. Indian Anthropological Association. 18 (1): 69–79. JSTOR 41919574.
Mukhopadhyay, P.; Singh, I. P. (December 1986). "Intra–familial Correlations Amongst Mahalis". Indian Anthropologist. Indian Anthropological Association. 16 (2): 185–193. JSTOR 41919542.
Bhasin, M. K.; Sharma, A.; Singh, I. P.; Walter, H. (December 1985). "Morphological and Metric Dental Study on Indians". Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 76 (1): 77–90. JSTOR 25757164.
Malik, S. L.; Singh, I. P. (1984). Ecology and Human Physiology in Ladak.[11]
Singh, I. P.; Bhasin, M. K. (June 1983). "Anthropological Studies Among Pangwalas and Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh, North India". Anthropologischer Anzeiger. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 41 (2): 137–148. JSTOR 29539426.
Bhasin, M. K.; Walter, H.; Singh, I. P.; Meena, R. (February 1981). "Geographic and Ethnic Distribution of Genetic Markers in India: 1. Haptoglobin and Transferrin Polymorphisms". Anthropologischer Anzeiger. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 39 (1): 36–60. JSTOR 29539233.
Bhasin, M. K.; Walter, H.; Singh, I. P.; Hilling, M.; Bhardwaj, V. (September 1981). "Geographic and Ethnic Distribution of Genetic Markers in India: 2. Inv, Gm, Gc, ADA, AK, aP, PGM₁, 6-PGD and EsD Polymorphisms". Anthropologischer Anzeiger. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 39 (3): 200–243. JSTOR 29539280.
Singh, I. P.; Bhasin, M. K.; Sharma, A. K. (December 1979). "A Socio–Biologic Study of a Scheduled Tribe — Bodhs of Lahul, Himachal Pradesh". Indian Anthropologist. Indian Anthropological Association. 9 (2): 111–124. JSTOR 41919376.
Singh, I. P. (April–June 1969). "On Karve and Malhotra's Biological Comparison of Eight Endogamous Groups of the Same Rank". Current Anthropology. University of Chicago Press. 10 (2/3): 224. JSTOR 2740481.
Singh, I. P.; Singh, D.; Gates, R. R.; Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology (1961). "The Study of ABO Blood Groups of Sainis of Punjab". Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. OCLC 757402300. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Singh, I. P.; Kumbnani, H. K.; Gates, R. R. (1959). "Distribution of Papillary Patterns on the Middle and Proximal Phalanges of Sindhi Khatris". New Delhi: Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi. OCLC 783946284. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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References

"ISS Newsletter" (PDF). Indian Sociological Society. Vol. 4 no. 2. July–December 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
"Department of Anthropology | University of Delhi | Ph.D. recipients" (PDF). University of Delhi. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
Zamora, Mario D. (June 1982). "Anthropological Diplomacy: Issues and Principles. Studies in Third World Societies, Publication Number Twenty" (PDF). Institute of Education Sciences. Others. Virginia, US: Department of Anthropology, College of William & Mary. p. 151. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
Srivastava, Vinay Kumar (July–December 2017). Mehrotra, Nilika; Srivastava, Sumit Saurabh; Nayar, Mahima (eds.). "Professor Indera P. Singh (20 January 1928 – 27 September 2016)". Indian Anthropologist. Delhi, India: Indian Anthropological Association. 47 (2): 105–108. ISSN 0970-0927. JSTOR 26494039.
Singh, Indera P. (July–September 1958). Sebeok, Thomas A.; Singer, Milton; Dorson, Richard M.; Bayard, Samuel Preston; et al. (eds.). "A Sikh Village". Journal of American Folklore. American Folklore Society. 71 (281): 503. doi:10.2307/538573. JSTOR 538573.
Lewis, Oscar (June 28, 1956). "The Festival Cycle in a North Indian Jāṭ Village". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. 100 (3): 1. JSTOR 3143771.
Nurolhoda Bandeh–Ahmadi. "Anthropological Generations: A Post–Independence Ethnography of Academic Anthropology and Sociology in India" (PDF). University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan, US. p. 63. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
Hunt (Jr.), Edward E. (June 1970). Goodenough, Ward H.; Hicks, Ronald; Fogelson, Raymond D.; Gibson, Gordon D.; et al. (eds.). "Reviewed Works: Practical Anthropology by Georges Olivier, M. A. MacConaill; Anthropometry by Indera P. Singh, M. K. Bhasin". American Anthropologist. American Anthropological Association. 72 (3): 714. JSTOR 673082.
"Director's Profile". Anthropological Survey of India. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
Stewart, Philip (August 1991). Crawford, Michael H.; Koertvelyessy, Tibor; Lefevre–Witier, Philippe; Halberstein, Robert A.; et al. (eds.). "Reviewed Work: Journal of Human Ecology, vol. 1, no. 1 by Indera P. Singh". Human Biology. Detroit, Michigan, US: Wayne State University Press. 63 (4): 564–565. ISSN 0018-7143. JSTOR 41464205.
Lukacs, John, ed. (2013) [1984]. "Ecology and Human Physiology in Ladak". The People of South Asia: The Biological Anthropology of India, Pakistan, and Nepal (illustrated ed.). Springer. pp. 421–439. ISBN 978-1489950017.