Eternal India Encyclopedia

PEOPLE

Eternal India encyclopedia

PEOPLE

RACES The population of India has been divided into six principal cate- gories. Risley who compiled the first Indian census in 1901 distin- guishes seven ethnic types : the Indo-Aryans of Punjab, Rajasthan and Kashmir; the Dravidians of the then Madras, Hyderabad, Southern Madhya Pradesh, and Chotta Nagpur; the Mongoloids of the Himalayan belt, Nepal, and Assam; the Aryo-Dravidians of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar; the Mongoloid-Dravidians, or the Bengalis of Bengal and Orissa; the Scytho-Dravidians of Sau- rashtra, Coorg, and the hilly tracts of Madhya Pradesh; and the Turko-Iranians of the extreme north-west, now in Pakistan. But this classification was somewhat unscientific. The most accepted classification is that of B.S.Guha (1935) who divided the population into six principal categories: the Negroids; the Proto- Austroloids; the Mongoloids; the Mediterraneans; the Alpo-Dinar- ics and the Nordics. The first people who came to India as a distinct entity were the Negroids. The principal Negroid characteristics are fine woolly hair; short stature with a small bulbous forehead; dark skin and a short protruding face; and a flat nose with broad and thick lips. These characteristics can be seen in the Kadars and the Pulayans of Kerala, the Angami Nagas of Manipur and Kochar hills; the Uralis of the forests of Southern India; and the indigenous population of the Andamans. This has led scholars to develop the hypothesis that the Negroids were displaced by the pre-Dravidians and Dravidians. These new immigrants were a stronger and more resourceful type who either absorbed the Negroids or drove them to inaccessible jungles or into the islands in the Bay of Bengal. "The actual contribution of the Negroid or Negrito in the evolu- tion of the Indian temperament and the Indian way of thinking does indeed still remain a matter of speculation. Anthropologists have held, in the material sphere, the Negroids may be credited with the invention of the bow (although it may have been independently invented by other races). The cult of the ficus tree, associated over the great part of the world with fertility and with the souls of the dead, obtains very largely in India, and it may have been an inheri- tance from the Negroids. Certain totemistic notions connected with fishes, animals and plants may similarly have originally belonged to the Negroids, and have been handed over to the people who sup- planted them" (Sunith Kumar Chatterji, Article "Contributions from different language culture groups" in The Cultural Heritage of India 1970). The second important wave of social immigration into India was the Proto-Austroloid, or pre-Dravidian, distinguished by wavy or curly hair, dark complexion, flat nose and thick lips. The Proto- Austroloids are so called because the Indian strain has a strong affinity with the Australian aboriginals. The Mundas, Kols, San- thals and the Bhils are predominantly Proto-Austroloid as also the Chenchus, the Malayans, the Kurumbas and the Yeravas of South India. The Proto-Austroloids were animists. Animistic ritual espe- cially in the tribal population of India can be traced to Proto- Austroloid influences. Where did the Proto-Austroloids come from? This remains a major mystery. "From current evidence their original home would appear to be Palestine" (S.N. Chopra, India : An Area Study, 1977). "The other noteworthy feature in all the previous studies is that almost all have sought to bring the races from outside India. Sir

Arthur Keith commented upon this fact in very strong terms more than twenty years ago (1936); but since that date, there has been no improvement in our line of thinking. To quote Keith: "The bridge which links the Pathans of the North-West to the hill-tribes of Travancore is still in existence. If evolution is true and if the 352 millions of people now in India are members of the same great branch of humanity, this ought to be the case. Yet, strange to say, all, or nearly all, who have sought to explain the differentiation of the population of India into racial types, have sought the solution of this problem outside the Peninsula. They have never attempted to ascertain how far India has bred her own races. They have pro- ceeded on the assumption that evolution has taken place long ago and far away, but not in the great anthropological paradise of India." "Racial formation is a dynamic process and, in the variable vicissitudes of this country, environmental stimuli have caused many changes in ethnic types.......... It is difficult to assume that this vast sub-continent was once a vacuum, and one is forced to this impression when one finds the following question in the Cambridge History of India regarding the Dravidians. 'Is there any evidence to show whence they came to India?' But could they not have evolved on Indian soil. Keith is inclined to regard the Dravidian type as having evolved from the Veddids (Austroloids) and this.... appears to be true". (Sasanka Sekhar Sarkar, article "Race and Race Movements in India" in The Cultural Heritage of India, 1970). The third wave of racial immigration into India is represented by the Mongoloid, which originated from China, entering India via Tibet. The two main Mongoloid groups are the Palae-Mongoloid and the Tibeto-Mongoloid. The Palae-Mongoloids are predomi- nant in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, the hills of Assam, and on the Burma border and are represented by the Chakmas and the Mughs of Assam, West and East Bengal and the Lepchas. Their Mongoloid features are less sharply marked. The Tibeto-Mongoloid has marked Mongoloid features broad nose and tall stature. The absence of hair on the body and face is characteristic. The bulk of the population of Sikkim and Bhutan is Tibeto-Mongoloid. The bulk of the tribal population of India is distributed among the Negroid, Proto-Austroloid and the Mongoloid ethnic strains. The non-tribal population is Mediterranean, Alpo-Dinaric and Nordic. "If one were asked what is the dominant racial strain in the Indian population, the correct answer would be the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean group is not uniform. Three distinct types are distinguishable: the dark-skinned Palae-Mediterranean; the olive brown Mediterranean proper; and the Oriental or the Semitic Medi- terranean. The Palae-Mediterranean is predominant among the Telugu and Tamil Brahmins of south India. Apart from the complex- ion, a distinctive characteristic of the Palae-Mediterranean is the projecting, high vaulting occiput set on a narrow face. Anybody who has travelled through south India would have noticed this distinc- tive ethnic type. Some scholars attribute the matriarchal institution in southern India to Palae-Mediterranean influence". (S.N. Chopra, India: An Area Study) The Alpanoids are fairer than the Mediterranean type with a prominent narrow nose. This strain can be seen in the Kathis of Saurashtra, the Banias of Gujarat and the Kayasth of Bombay. "The principal racial strain east of Bihar and Orissa but west of