The Hindu

Mangalore, Mar 9: “The biggest contribution of foreign historiographers is in the area of research methodology,” said Thi Num Shankara Narayana, folk history expert from Kuvempu University in Shimoga, on Saturday.

He was delivering the keynote lecture at a symposium on the contribution of foreign historiographers towards research of Karnataka’s folk history.
Hailing anthropologist Peter J. Claus, he said that people like him had changed the way of research in the field of history. European researchers were less inclined to sit in the comfort of their “ivory towers” and instead preferred to conduct extensive fieldwork. Their data collation techniques were far superior and more organised in approach.

There should be a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of anthropology, especially while studying subaltern cultures and folk practices. “Anthropological data is the product of research in linguistics, sociology, history, comparative religion, physics, chemistry and biology,” he said.
J S Sadananda, principal of the College of Theology, said that foreign, especially colonial historiographers, had often been criticised for their approach towards documentation of cultural histories. It had been stated that the ulterior motive behind such scholastic pursuits was either evangelism or an attempt to document subject races. But he pointed out that despite this, their contribution in the field of research had been immense.