Quick Facts
Biography
Madhumala Chattopadhyay is an Indian anthropologist.
Early life
Chattopadhyay was brought up in Shibpur, a small suburb in Kolkatta, West Bengal. Her father was an accounts officer with the South Eastern Railway. Her mother was Pronoti Chattopadhyay.
Chattopadhyay finished her schooling from Bhabani Balika Vidyalaya, Shibpur. She did her B.Sc (Hons) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. She wrote a dissertation on “Genetic Study among the Aborigines of the Andaman”.
Chattopadhyay applied to a PhD fellowship with the Anthropological Survey of India for doing field research with the tribes of the Andamans.
Career
On 4 January 1991, Chattopadhyay was part of a team, that made the first ever friendly contact with the hostile Sentinelese tribe of Andamans. Chattopadhyay at that time was a research associate with the Anthropological Survey of India. She went to the North Sentinel Island with the support of local administration's ship MV Tarmugli. She was a part of a team of 13. The key team members were S. Awaradi (Director, Tribal Welfare, A&NI administration) who was the Team Leader, Arun Mullick who was the Medical Officer (for providing medical attention in case of sickness or injury) accompanied by Chattopadhyay as an anthropologist. The rest were support crew. On day 2 of this expedition, Chattopadhyay escaped from an arrow attack and the team retreated. On February 21 of the same year, the team came back to a successful contact with the tribe. The Indian government banned any more expeditions citing the possibility of the ancient tribe contacting epidemics due to frequent visits by outsiders.
She spent six years researching the various primitive tribes of Andaman and Nicobar islands.
She last visited Andamans in 1999.
Chattopadhyay's book Tribes of Car Nicobar and journal papers are used as standard reference texts in universities worldwide.
Chattopadhyay currently works in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and lives in New Delhi.