THELIGHTOFANDAMANS: Trilok Nath Pandit: Doyen of Andamanese Studies

Monday, March 5, 2012

Trilok Nath Pandit: Doyen of Andamanese Studies

THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS | ISSUE 28 | 2 MAR 2012

Trilok Nath Pandit: Doyen of Andamanese Studies

T.N. Pandit is the unquestioned doyen of Andamanese studies and the most deeply learned and most widely-read of anyone who has ever interested himself in matters Andamanese. Pandit's grandfather was a traditional scholar of Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit while his father was a professor of English. Other members of the family were Sanskrit scholars, lawyers and judges.

Initially wanting to be a zoologist, T.N. Pandit acquired a BSc degree in botany, zoology, English, Hindi and Kashmiri in 1955. In 1958, he received a M Sc in social and cultural anthropology from Delhi University. Post-doctoral studies on a Government of India Research scholarship in anthropology followed and in 1962 he was appointed to a lecturership in social anthropology at that same university.

In 1966 the young scientist joined the Anthropological Survey of India and was almost immediately posted to Port Blair where he arrived on 20th March 1966. Far from being breathlessly keen to make his first acquaintance with the Andamanese Negrito, he admits today that he had resisted his appointment to such a remote place where he felt terribly alone and home-sick at first.

Dr. Pandit was to remain with the Survey for 26 years and to rise within its ranks through senior anthropologist at Port Blair to Deputy Director of the Survey at Port Blair and Calcutta. For most of the year 1992 he was officiating Director of the Survey at its Calcutta headquarters before retiring at the end of that year.

Dr. Pandit is a well-known figure internationally. He has attended many conferences and has traveled widely in Germany, England and Hungary. Wherever he was, he and his wife made it a point to visit the major local museums and to visit local concerts and other cultural events. (Source: www.andaman.org)

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About The Light of Andamans

The Light of Andamans’ was born out of the zeal and determination to fight against the suffocating Kafkaesque atmosphere on the society that existed even after 30 years of Independence under bureaucratic rule. It was a hangover of the ‘Raj’that extended much too long in the Islands.

The Light of Andamans’ was started in 1975. The paper had always been a crusader, taking up the causes that no other newspaper would touch. In doing so, it very often stepped on the toes of the authorities and had to face persecution in the form of denial of advertisements and numerous court cases against it. For a small stint, the publication came to a halt in 2003.

Gezira Publications Private Limited took over the paper in the year 2005 and transferred the title in a bid to revive the second oldest newsmagazine from extinction and also to carry forward the mission.

The Newsmagazine, under the new management, has undergone a sea change both in form and content. It turned into a full-fledged tabloid with 10 pages with plenty of photographs making both pleasing to the eyes and soothing for the mind. “It has acquired a position where it influences the policies in vital matters concerning the development of the islands, protection of aboriginal tribes and addressing the problems of the disadvantaged groups. The newsmagazine is known and appreciated for its bold, free, fair and balanced reporting.”

Late Govinda Raju and his team worked very hard to rebuild the reputation, goodwill and a healthy new image of the newsmagazine brick by brick. After the demise of Mr Raju in 2010, the magazine is now being edited by Zubair Ahmed and published by Basudev Dass. The newsmagazine continues its mission of highlighting policy issues pertaining to the Islands.