Decolonising anthropology from the margin: A postcolonial and feminist anthropologist from South Asia in Europe

Abstract

This article uses auto-ethnography to analyse the trajectory of an anthropologist and feminist from South Asia to Europe. Through analysing this journey it aims to turn anthropology's gaze from the margin to the centre. Tracing the trajectory, the article contrasts the dominant disciplinary frameworks for generating knowledge in the Global North and the Global South. This comparison suggests the need to focus on decolonial and feminist politics in anthropology in the Global North. To elaborate on the argument, this article historicises and problematises anthropology's discomfort with feminism, which contributes to a distance from political positioning and the obstacles to creating a solid foundation for feminist anthropology in the Global North. The article also analyses the forms of marginalisation practised in neo-colonial anthropology within the neo-liberal knowledge industry in the disciplinary sphere of the Global North, and the ways in which they could be challenged and reversed. It discusses the complex dynamics of gender, race, and colonial legacies, advocating for a reorientation within anthropology that acknowledges and searches for ways to resist the enduring influence of colonial power structures. In short, the article engages with anthropology's systemic, epistemological and methodological decolonisation as a discipline and practice.