The Variegated Integration of an Anthropologist in an Eastern Indian Steel Town

Abstract

When Christian Strümpell came to Rourkela, an industrial town that had grown around a large steel plant in a remote part of the Indian state of Odisha, he encountered a most heterogeneous population. This chapter portrays it as composed of Odia, Punjabi, Bihari and Bengali—all being subject to the rules of Hindu castes—and the so-called scheduled tribe of Mundari. Because of the acquaintances he had made during prior ethnographic research Strümpell associated first with an Odia family in an Odia neighbourhood, but later also with Mundari. His hosts and friends of either background integrated him by teaching him the rules of proper conduct and by assigning him a quasi-kinship position. However, the different ethnic groups had different kinship systems, and in several regards, they also held sharply contrasting notions of what constitutes “proper conduct”. The constant crossing of ethnic as well as class boundaries that Strümpell’s research required was often disapproved by various individuals. But it did not deter most others to continue integrating him according to their rules.