• Irawati Karve was an Indian educationist, anthropologist, sociologist, and writer from Maharashtra, India.
• She was born to G.H. Karmarkar, an engineer, in Myingyan, Burma on December 15, 1905, and died on August 11, 1970.
• Irawati was named after the Irrawaddy river, the great and sacred Burmese river.
• She grew up in Pune.
• Irawati was the daughter-in-law of Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve.
• Her husband, Dinkar Karve, was an educator and the Principal of Fergusson College.
• Their son, Anand, runs an NGO called ‘Arti’ in Pune.
• Their youngest daughter, Gauri Deshpande, was a well-known Marathi writer of short stories and poems.
• Their eldest daughter, Jai Nimbkar, is a writer of novels and short stories and lives in Phaltan.
• Jai’s daughter, Nandini Nimbkar, is a distinguished alumna of University of Florida, USA.
• Priyadarshini Karve, Anand’s daughter, has been working on developing biomass energy technologies and their dissemination in rural areas since 1991.

Education and Career

• Irawati Karve did her schooling at Huzurpaga, Pune, and completed her matriculation in 1922.
• She received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Philosophy in 1926 from Fergusson College, majoring in Sociology.
• In the same year, she married Dr. Dinkar Dhondo Karve, son of Maharshi Karve.
• Under the guidance of Dr. G.S. Ghurye, she researched and submitted two essays: ‘Folklore of Parshuram’ and ‘Chitpavan Brahman’.
• Irawati received her Master’s in Arts in Sociology from Mumbai University in 1928.
• She pursued doctoral work in anthropology at the University of Berlin, Germany, from 1928-30, under the guidance of Eugene Fischer, focusing on the Normal Asymmetry of the Human Skull and Bones.
• She was conferred with the D. Phil degree by Berlin University in 1930 for her research in anthropology.
• Irawati served as the head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune (University of Pune) for forty years until her retirement.
• She presided over the Anthropology Division of the National Science Congress held in New Delhi in 1947.
• Irawati also served as the head of the Sociology Department at Pune University for some time.
• Later, she became the Vice Chancellor of SNDT College for a while.
• She was invited by the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1951-52, where she prepared her first draft of the book on Kinship Organization in India.
• Irawati was invited by the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, USA, and traveled from New York to San Francisco, meeting colleagues and discussing anthropology.
• She was an independent thinker who strongly followed her beliefs and preferred working independently as a researcher.
• Irawati was an assiduous professor, researcher, author, and orator, known for spreading her knowledge.
• She had unmatched enthusiasm for study, research, and travel.
• In 1952, she became the first woman two-wheeler driver of Pune.
• Her ideas on women’s liberation were modernistic, urging women to fight for more rights rather than just equal rights.
• After World War II, Cultural Anthropology and Social Anthropology became independent sciences, fields Irawati contributed to through her in-depth research.
• She successfully analyzed culture and history through her unparalleled research.
• Irawati’s research legacy continues through her son, Dr. Anand Karve.