Madhumala Chattopadhyay

Madhumala Chattopadhyay (born 16 March 1961) is an Indian anthropologist who specializes in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 1991, Chattopadhyay and her colleagues were the second outsiders to make peaceful contact with the Sentinelese people.

Early life and education Chattopadhyay was brought up in Shibpur, a small suburb in Kolkata, West Bengal. Her father was an accounts officer with the South Eastern Railway. Her mother was Pronoti Chattopadhyay. She first became interested in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands when she was twelve years old.

She graduated from Bhabani Balika Vidyalaya in Shibpur. Afterward, she obtained her Bachelor of Sciences (with honors) in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. She wrote a dissertation, Genetic Study among the Aborigines of the Andaman. She applied for a PhD fellowship with the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) in order to do field research with the tribes of the Andaman Islands. Chattopadhyay obtained her PhD on the tribes of the Andamans. She went to the North Sentinel Island with the support of local administration's ship MV Tarmugli. She was a part of a team of 13. The key team members were S. Awaradi (Director, Tribal Welfare, A&NI administration), who was the team leader; Arun Mullick, who was the medical officer (for providing medical attention in case of sickness or injury); and Chattopadhyay herself, the team anthropologist. The rest of the team were support crew.

The team initiated contact by approaching the island on a smaller vessel and dropping coconuts into the water as gifts. A few armed men came into the water to collect coconuts. This repeated until the team ran out of coconuts, at which point they returned to the main ship to resupply. The second time, a young man aimed his bow at Chattopadhyay, but a Sentinelese woman made him drop his weapon. Chattopadhyay escaped from this attack and the team retreated. When the team returned for a third time, Chattopadhyay and colleagues jumped into the water near the boat and handed the islanders coconuts in person. One of the crew took photographs of crew members handing coconuts to the islanders, which were widely circulated in the press. Writer Vishvajit Pandya notes that these photographs made the public rethink their mental image of the Sentinelese.

On 21 February of the same year, a larger team came back to another successful contact with the tribe. Some Sentinelese saw them approach and went over, unarmed, to meet the team. The Sentinelese party boarded the AnSI ship and took coconuts. She also observed, "Never ever in my six years of doing research alone with the tribes of Andamans did any man ever misbehave with me. The tribes might be primitive in their technological achievements, but socially they are far ahead of us."

The Indian government later banned any more expeditions, citing the possibility of the tribe contracting disease due to frequent visits by outsiders. The Indian government had established friendly contact with Aong people in 1975, but prohibited women from joining contact parties, as visiting women had previously been attacked. Although Chattopadhyay was allowed as a member of the 1991 contact party, she stayed on a small boat while her male teammates went ashore to meet with the islanders. However, Aong women on shore called for Chattopadhyay to come and meet them. Chattopadhyay has some mastery of the Ongan languages, Chattopadhyay speaks Onge. She has a desk job which does not involve field work.

After an American missionary illegally visited North Sentinel Island and was killed by its inhabitants, Chattopadhyay told reporters that she disapproved of his actions. "The Sentinelese and other tribes don’t need to be oppressed with religion, because doing so will make them more hostile," she said in 2018.