Filippo Osella, an anthropologist and academician from the UK currently involved in research on traditional fishing in Kerala, was deported to his country by India soon after his arrival at the international airport in Thirivananthapuram on Thursday, official sources said.
"He (Osella) was refused entry", said a top Immigration officer at the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in the airport without giving further details.
A professor of anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Sussex, Osella conducted research on rural Kerala and published two joint monographs, one on stratification, identity, and social mobility among a community that was formerly untouchables (Social Mobility in Kerala, 2000), and the other on masculinities (Men and Masculinity in South India, 2007).
His recent research examines contemporary transformation of South Indian Muslims with field-work in Kozhikode and in a number of Gulf countries.
Osella reportedly arrived here to attend a conference on coastal communities in Kerala.
His new research, funded by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, explores new ways to make traditional fishing in Kerala safer and sustainable by co-producing knowledge on marine weather and fish resources with traditional fishermen and weather forecasters.
