Folklore of Corruption in the Eyes of Anthropologists

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During the seventeenth-eighteenth century anthropology first came into existence. Darwin's theory of evolution played a great role for the formation of anthropology. The impact of Darwin's theory of evolution brought a revolutionary thought process at that time. With the idea of evolution, some social reformers of that time thought that there were some simple societies (which were described in travelers account) from where the complex society developed through many successive stages; the society developed from simple (which were found among primitive, savage people etc.) to complex (man is not the creation of God). Man is evolved through evolution. It is also sure that before entering these developed complex society there were some simple societies and certainly those were of the primitives. In this way anthropology came into existence, Now, it is a question before us, how the idea of Darwinian Theory of evolution emerges? In the 13th-15th century there happened 'Renaissance'. The cause of renaissance was that after the destruction of important sites of learning by the foreign invaders many scholars, learned social reformers and scientists took shelter in neighbouring country like Italy. They sowed the seed of renaissance which ultimately turned the societies into new prosperous life and Darwin got impetus from this revolution (Sarkar, 2021). "So far as the cause of renaissance is concerned contradiction is inevitable. But, if we recall a major cause and that was definitely "Crusade". It happened to be proved that it was a "fake war of Christians against the Islam". Assumption substantiated by facts is that it may have assisted the existing feudal system. Due to the inequal distribution of wealth in agrarian economy-a vast wealth was accumulated by a restricted band of men enjoying every facility backed by the kings. The poor peasant class many times showed sign of dissent over the existing system and then and there the potential young power and majority of peasants were requested to save the Christianity from the Islamic invasion. On this ground they were sent to Palestine and Middle East Asia. On the way there due to extreme desert climate, the majority among them either extinct or perished and rest were killed at the war and thus the revolt was suppressed by the tactful destruction of man power. Simultaneously, one very illuminating thing has happened. The soldiers, who returned home, exchanged their experiences about the prosperous sites of learning and of the cities with which they passed on their way. In this way the light of renaissance and its tenets of development spread" (Sarkar. 2021). For the sake of administration the colonial government of India had to face a lot of troubles to establish their dictum among the Indian 'natives' because of their diverse cultural activities. At the outset the British administrators, felt that they only rule this subcontinent but for such they have to know the diverse religious beliefs, customs, customary laws and habits of the Indian 'natives (native word was used by British administrators). The then British Government in India undertook different steps to study the people of India about their culture and traditional life. In social sciences it is Social Anthropology which becomes a tool by providing a tacit fund of knowledge to the colonial powers for the suppression of the people. The British had their colonial rule in India. They ruled over the masses of people without doing any substantial good to the common man. This historically made them quite unfriendly to the common man. The British administrators turned Social Anthropologists, such as Risley, Russell etc. provided clues to the authority for doing all kinds of injustice (Sarkar, 2020). The Social anthropology may be defined as the study or investigation of the nature of human society by the systematic comparison of societies of diverse types, with particular attention to the simpler forms of society of primitive-savage of non-literate peoples. The socio-cultural anthropology is rich in its skills to study the indigenous knowledge of the people living in hilly terrain, forests and villages. The forces of fundamentalism have been so strong in India that the tribal categorized either as Hindus or Christians. But when we look this aspect with scientific perspective of anthropological background, we find the tribal are distinct from others. In fact, after detailed empirical studies among them it is revealed that tribal society is neither Hindu nor any other. It is true that the tribal might adopt the Hindu gods and Goddesses, Christian church and practices the rituals but basically they remain tribal and practice their beliefs very rigidly. The tribal has their own indigenous identity with belief systems (Sarkar, 2020).

Anthropology is a study of Man in holistic way. Anthropology in India emerged from the British period for easy and smooth governess among the natives for which chiefly the then administrators focused on ethnographic study. The present volume deviate from the traditional colonial hang over but through ethnographic data this book envisages in understanding the 'Folklore of Corruption' practices in our Country which were gathered and generated by virtue of participant observation by the present anthropologists. The importance and relevance of anthropology in contemporary society where we found the discipline act as a tool of social engineering to understand the social gamut at grass-root levels of this country and which in turns helps the human race through its number of sub-branches of cultural and physical anthropology. In our society manifestation of corruptions are varied in nature. According to Swedish Nobel Laureate Myrdal (1972) 'a major and often decisive causes has been the prevalence of misconduct among politicians and administrators and the resulting spread of unlawful practices'. Empirical study in this arena is very scanty and not a single study has been found by the anthropologists. Why and how these studies are essential in anthropology in order to portray the gap between the haves and have not's in the society. Further, it also discusses the role of traditional empirical study and digital ethnography, due to lack of foresee by the then administrators how the grievances led to practice of corruptions resultant factor at present is social agony exists and also an attempt has been made to analyze the burning social issues of the country in which Policy making of our country involved and these are important arena of anthropological studies. The volume will certainly enrich the various faculty members of academic institutions and Policy Maker of the country for good governance.

Dr. Amitabha Sarkar (Born: 1952) is a M.Sc., Ph.D (Science) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta and Specialized in advanced Social-Cultural Anthropology. His remarkable empirical contribution in anthropological research arena is on impact of industrialization, tribal ethnography, culture ecology, ethno-science, religious belief system being integrative process and culture change. management of environment with traditional knowledge. He has published about 21 (twenty one) books and more than 200 research papers in reputed journals and edited books. He possesses 35 years research experience and carried out empirical study among tribal and weaker section of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. He is the life member of INCAA, South India Medical Anthropology (SIMA), Indian Science Congress Association and Indian Anthropological Society. He was associated with Anthropological Survey of India from 1977 to 2012. He is also consultant researcher and involve in generating empirical data from tribal areas of Odisha. (Contact: AG-44. Salt lake, Sector-II, KOLKATA-700091).

Dr. (Mrs.) Samira Dasgupta (Born: 1953) is a M.Sc., Ph.D (Science) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. She has specialized in Cultural Anthropology and has y and has noteworthy contributions are on culture ecology, role and status of tribal women in unorganized sector, tribal ethnography, ethno-science, religious belief system, traditional knowledge system among the tribals and cultural tourism etc. deserve for praise in academic arena being a perceptive researcher. She has published 19 (nineteen) books and more than 166 research papers in various reputed journals, including contribution in 'People of India: Bihar' Volume and number of edited books of the country. She possesses 35 years research experience and carried out intensive field work among various tribal communities and weaker section of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. and She is a life member of INCAA, South India Medical Anthropology (SIMA), Indian Science Congress Association Indian Anthropological Society. She was associated with Anthropological Survey of India from 1977 to 2013 and carried out several research projects for Anthropological Survey of India where during XIth Plan Period she was involved with the study of Tangible & Intangible Cultural Heritage-Traditional Knowledge System: Ethno Medicine. She is also involved as consultant researcher and devoted in generating empirical data from tribal areas of Odisha.