(a) What are the ethical concerns in biological and socio-cultural anthropology because of recent advances in AI and genetic…

(a) Ethical concerns from AI and genetic research in anthropology

Biological anthropology and genetics

• Consent and secondary use: blood samples given for one purpose are reused for others. In the Havasupai case (USA; settled in 2010), samples given for diabetes research were used for studies of schizophrenia, inbreeding and migration without consent. Tribal communities, with low literacy and unequal power, are especially exposed. Consent must be ongoing, community-level as well as individual, and in the local language.
• "Helicopter research" and data sovereignty: the Human Genome Diversity Project of the 1990s was labelled the "vampire project" by Indigenous groups, who objected to the collection of cell lines without benefit to them. The CARE principles for Indigenous data governance (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) answer these concerns.
• Biopiracy and benefit-sharing: traditional knowledge and genetic resources are patented without return to the community. In a well-known Indian case, the Kani tribe of Kerala shared knowledge of the arogyapacha plant, which was developed into the drug "Jeevani", and a share of licence fees went to a Kani trust. The Nagoya Protocol (2010) and India's Biological Diversity Act (2002, amended 2023) require prior informed consent and benefit-sharing.
• Identity, ancestry and race: consumer ancestry tests and ancient-DNA studies can be misused to rank groups, to question tribal or caste identities based on self-identification and culture, or to feed "purity" narratives. Genetic data can also reveal paternity, disease risk and relatedness, so it can harm whole families.
• Big genome projects: GenomeIndia has sequenced about 10,000 genomes from nearly 100 communities, and biobanks are growing. These raise questions of data security, commercial access and whether small endogamous groups can be re-identified. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023), the ICMR National Ethical Guidelines (2017) and UNESCO's Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) set principles, but enforcement is weak.
• Gene editing: CRISPR and genetic screening raise fears of eugenics and of discrimination by insurers or employers.

Socio-cultural anthropology and AI

• Bias: models trained on data from dominant groups misread minority languages, dress or behaviour. Facial recognition performs worse on darker-skinned faces and can be used to profile communities.
• The black box: AI coding of interviews or social-media data produces results that neither researcher nor community can explain or contest.
• Digital ethnography: scraping WhatsApp or Facebook groups, online forums or smartphone data blurs public and private, and informed consent is often absent.
• Surveillance and dual use: ethnographic knowledge fed into predictive policing, border control or counter-insurgency can harm the people studied.
• Authorship and representation: generative AI can fabricate "ethnographic" text, images or deepfakes of rituals and sacred objects, and can appropriate oral traditions without attribution.

Way ahead: strengthen community ethics boards and benefit-sharing agreements, anonymise data and keep it in community-controlled repositories, audit algorithms for bias, and follow UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of AI (2021). The core ethical duty of anthropology, to do no harm to those who share their lives with the researcher, applies equally to data.

(b) Birsa Munda (1875–1900): life and legacy

Life

• Early years: Birsa was born on 15 November 1875 at Ulihatu (Khunti, in present-day Jharkhand) into a poor Munda sharecropping family. He studied at the German Lutheran mission school at Chaibasa and was briefly a Christian. He left the church, disillusioned with missionaries who did not back the Munda land struggle, and came into contact with Vaishnava teachings.
• Background grievances: the Munda khuntkatti system, under which founding lineages held land in common, was being destroyed as dikus (outsiders: zamindars, thikadars and moneylenders) seized land. People were also forced into unpaid labour (beth-begari). The Sardari Larai (1858–95), a long legal and petitioning campaign, had failed.
• The prophet: around 1895 Birsa proclaimed himself a prophet, Dharti Aba (Father of the Earth). He preached one god, abstinence from liquor and sacrifice, cleanliness, and the rejection of sorcery. This became the Birsait faith, which still has followers.
• First arrest: he was arrested in 1895 for incitement and released in 1897.
• The Ulgulan ("great tumult"): it began around Christmas 1899, when police stations, churches and the property of landlords and officials were attacked. Its aim was to end British rule and diku control and to establish Munda Raj.
• Defeat and death: troops crushed the rising at Dombari Buru in January 1900, with many deaths. Birsa was captured in the Jamkopai forest in February and died in Ranchi jail on 9 June 1900, aged about 24, officially of cholera.

Impact on tribal society

• Legal and land outcomes: the government carried out a land survey and settlement. The Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act (1908) recognised khuntkatti rights, restricted the transfer of tribal land to non-tribals and abolished forced labour. It remains the legal shield of Jharkhand's tribal land.
• Identity and reform: the movement combined religious reform with political resistance. It restored self-respect, reduced dependence on both missionaries and Hindu landlords, and created a model later echoed in the Tana Bhagat movement among the Oraon (1914).
• Symbol of Adivasi assertion: Birsa became a symbol of Adivasi assertion for the Jharkhand movement. Jaipal Singh Munda championed tribal rights in the Constituent Assembly, and Jharkhand state was created on 15 November 2000, Birsa's birth anniversary.
• National recognition: his portrait hangs in Parliament, and since 2021, 15 November has been observed as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas. His 150th birth anniversary (2024–25) was marked nationally.
• Scholarship: K. S. Singh's biography, The Dust-Storm and the Hanging Mist (1966), placed the movement in the history of Indian anti-colonial struggles.

Birsa's sacrifice turned local agrarian grievance into lasting legal protection and a durable Adivasi political identity.

(c) Demographic challenges of the next 50 years

India, the world's most populous country since 2023, is moving through the late stages of demographic transition.

• Fertility and population peak: the total fertility rate is 2.0 (NFHS-5, 2019–21), below replacement (2.1). The UN's World Population Prospects 2024 projects a peak of about 1.7 billion in the early 2060s, followed by decline.
• Regional divergence: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have fertility near or below 1.6–1.8, while Bihar (about 3.0), Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Meghalaya remain above replacement. Southern states will age first, while northern states will still add working-age people. This raises questions of fiscal transfers and the delimitation of parliamentary seats, since the freeze lasts until the first Census after 2026.
• Ageing: people aged 60 and over were about 10% of the population in 2021 and are projected to reach about 21% by 2050 (UNFPA India Ageing Report 2023). Old age will be more female and more often solitary, with weak pension coverage, a heavy burden of non-communicable disease and eroding joint-family care.
• A closing demographic dividend: the window of a high working-age share may close by the 2040s. Unless female labour-force participation, skills and jobs rise, the dividend could become a burden of unemployed youth.
• Gender imbalance: the sex ratio at birth has improved (929 girls per 1,000 boys in NFHS-5), but past deficits mean a "marriage squeeze", bride migration and trafficking in some northern states, alongside the double burden of care on women.
• Urbanisation: India was 31% urban in 2011, and the UN projects that about half of Indians will live in towns by 2050. This brings pressure on housing, water, transport and climate resilience, and the growth of informal settlements.
• Migration: internal migration from high-fertility, poorer states to southern and western cities will grow, raising issues of portability of welfare (One Nation One Ration Card), language and local-job politics. Internationally, India has the largest diaspora (about 18 million) and the largest remittance inflows (about US$129 billion in 2024), but faces brain drain in health and technology.
• Health and nutrition transition: undernutrition persists alongside obesity, diabetes and hypertension, adding to the strain on the health system.
• Data gaps: the long-delayed Census, now set for 2027, is needed to plan for all of the above.

Policy must shift from population control (the National Population Policy, 2000 aimed at stabilisation) to "population management": investment in health through the National Health Mission, education, women's work, social security for the elderly and region-specific planning.