Anthropology in India developed through a combination of colonial administration, academic inquiry, and the growing need to understand the country's immense social and cultural diversity. Its growth can be divided into several phases, each contributing to the expansion of anthropological knowledge and research methods. The early phase of anthropology in India began during British colonial rule in the nineteenth century. British administrators, missionaries, and travelers collected information about various tribes, castes, customs, languages, and religious practices. Their primary objective was administrative convenience rather than scientific understanding. The decennial Census of India, initiated in 1871, played a significant role in gathering systematic data on the population. Ethnographic surveys conducted by officials such as H. H. Risley, E. T. Dalton, and Edgar Thurston documented the physical characteristics and cultural practices of different communities. Although these studies were often influenced by colonial biases and racial theories, they laid the foundation for