Tribal Law and Justice: A Report on the Santal

W.G. Archer carried his passion for poetry and interest in art into his administrative career spread over sixteen years in the Indian Civil Service in Bihar. His interest in folk art in the remote jungles of West Bihar was reflected in the publication of the Vertical Man: A Study of Primitive Indian Sculpture (1947). He also published another volumes on Oraon poetry, The Dove and the Leopard (1948), translated with a poet’s sensitivity. In December 1942 he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Santal Parganas. Before he finally left India on Premature retirement, he worked as Additional Deputy Commissioners, Mokokchung in Nagaland from November 1946 to February 1948. After 1949, Archer emerged as an eminent specialist on Indian painting, cultural and Poetry, becoming Keeper of the Indian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.