​​x, y, and in-between respond to the realms of colonial science and anthropological inquiry, shedding light on anthropologist Dr. Irawati Karve (1905-1970) and statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893-1972) as a case study.

Dr. Karve’s work fearlessly challenged prevailing notions of racial distinctions in measured skulls in Berlin, Germany, diverging from the perspectives of most anthropologists of her time. On the flip side, her anthropometric studies in Maharashtra, India, played a pivotal role in formulating notations of differences within various population groups.

The session unveils research that encapsulates the problematics of pseudo-scientific inquiries, colonial methodologies of knowledge production​ and identifying the population groups, ​​and the positions and locations of the observers transferred into the grasp of the narratives.