M. N. Srinivas

"| want to assert this because nowadays under the influence of some theory of the other from the west we forget our basic task, which is to record the life of our people as truthfully, as honestly, as we can do."

"Intensive studies of individual tribes are very important and I think ASI (ie. the Anthropological Survey of India) will always help scholars studying tribal society in different parts of the country. We should not leave the study of Nadars of Tamil Nadu or Patidars of Gujarat to foreign scholars. We should study them ourselves. This is very very necessary particularly because their intellectual and political perspectives are different from our own."