A British by birth, Verrier Elwin came to India in 1927 and associated himself with the Seva Sangh at Poona. On Gandhi’s advice, he started to work for the upliftment of the tribal people. He set up the Gond Seva Mandal which was later named as Tribal Welfare and Research Unit. His sincere concern for the rights of the aboriginals was recognised and he was made the Deputy Director of the Anthropological Survey of India in 1946.

In 1960, he became the Advisor for Tribal Affairs to Chairman of a committee set up to study progress of development in selected tribal areas. He served as member of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission. Elwin also wrote a number of books related to the field of anthropol­ogy. Some of these are—The Baiga (1939), Agaria (1942), Tribal Art of Middle India (1951), Religion of Indian Tribe (1955), India’s North-East Frontier in the 19th Century (195Q), A Philosophy of NEFA (1957) and Tribal India and Nagaland (1961).