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Eternal India
encyclopedia
PEOPLE
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