By Srija Naskar Irawati Karve lived a life that defied conventions at every turn. She was born in Myanmar, raised in a foster home in Pune known to espouse atheism, and eventually married into a family of social reformers. Today known as India’s first female anthropologist, Karve was able to navigate multiple social identities with both intellect and a certain degree of panache, challenging rigid hierarchies along the way. This complexity of a woman and anthropologist in a turbulent historical era is the subject of a recent biography, Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve, by Urmilla Deshpande and Thiago...