Racial groups in India (historical definitions)

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This article presents some historical definitions of race in India. Most of these theories are pre-1940 and only of historical interest now. The scientific support for terms such as Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid used widely in these theories has fallen steadily. Where 78 percent of the articles in the 1931 Journal of Physical Anthropology employed these or similar synonymous terms reflecting a bio-race paradigm, only 36 percent did so in 1965, and just 28 percent did in 1996[1].

Since the 1940s, the evolutionary scientists have rejected the view of race. Also, it should be noted that the national Census of India does not recognize any racial groups in India[2]. In India, the Dravidian, Indo-Aryans and similar words are generally considered as linguistic terms, rather than ethnic terms. Pre-colonial Indian literature and traditions make no such racial classifications.

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[edit] Risley's Racial Classification of India (1881)

British anthropologist Sir Herbert Hope Risley's Racial Classification of India (1881) is as follows[3]:

[edit] Hodson and Wyse

In Analysis of the 1931 Census of India[4] (Government of India Press, 1937), Prof. Thomas Callan Hodson (1871-1953) and William Wyse (Professor of Social Anthropology, Fellow, St Catharine's College, Cambridge), analyzed the physical types in India, in great detail. This analysis was independent of the castes, and Brahmins and Dalits were classified in the same racial groups. For example, Telugu Brahmins and Chamars were classified as Racial Element A.

Hodson and Wyse belived that the earliest occupants of India were probably of the Negrito race, followed by the proto-Australoids. Later, an early stock probably of the Mediterranean race, came to India and mingled with the proto-australoids. These people spoke an agglutinative tongue from which the present Austro-Asiatic languages are derived. They had a rudimentary knowledge of agriculture, building stone monuments, and primitive navigation. This migration was followed by a immigration of civilised Mediterraneans from the Persian Gulf (ultimately from eastern Europe). These people had the knowledge of the metals, but not of iron. They were followed by later waves of immigrants who developed the Indus valley civilization. All these immigrants were of the dolichocephalic type, but the Indus valley people had a mixed brachycephalic element coming from the Anatolian plateau, in the form of the Armenoid branch of the Alpine race. These people probably spoke the Dravidian languages. Later, a brachycephalic race speaking perhaps an Indo-European language of the "Pisacha or Dardic family", migrated to India from the Iranian plateau and the Pamirs. During about 1500 B.C., the Indo-Aryans migrated into Northern India.

Hudson and Wyse stated that, broadly, seven racial elements are present in Indian people:

Racial Element A
Characterized by short-stature, long-head with high cranial vault but faintly marked supra-orbital ridges and broad, short but ortho-gnathous face, with medium lips. The nose is prominent and long but the alae moderately spread out, giving a mesorrhine index. The skin color varies from light brown to dark tawny brown. The eye color is dark brown, and the hair color is usually black. The authors stated the Telugu Brahmins, "Kallas of Southern Tamil country" and the "Illuvas of Cochin" (Ezhava) as examples. They said that this element is predominant in the lower stratum of the population of Northern India, including to some extent the Punjab (for example, Chubra and Chamar, which appear to be closely related to the Mediterranean stock of Europe)
Racial Element B
A Brachycephalic element of medium stature with flattened occiput but having also high head and not infrequently receding forehead. Characterized by short and orthognathous, but somewhat broader face. "The nose is long and quite often arched and convex". The skin color varies from a pale white to light brown. The eye color is usually dark brown, but a small per cent shows light eyes. The hair color is black with a small proportion showing a dark brown tint. The hair is generally straight and the pilous system well developed. The examples given by the authors included the Nagar Brahmins of Gujarat, the Kayastha of Bengal and the Kannada non-Brahmins.
Racial Element C
A long-headed strain with comparatively lower but longer head and tall stature and possessing a long face and prominent narrow long nose. The skin color varies from a rosy white tint to light transparent brown. The eye color is usually grey-blue, and the hair color is chestnut. A small proportion of people have light eyes and brownish hair. Among this type also the hair is usually straight and the pilous system well developed. The examples stated by the authors included the "North-west Himalayan tribes like the Kaffirs and the Pathans", the Sikhs of the Punjab, and the Brahmins of U. P.
Racial Element D
A short and moderately high-headed strain with very often strongly marked brow ridges, broad short face, the mouth slightly inclined forwards and small flat nose with the alae extended. The hair varies from wavy to curliness and the skin is of a shade of dark chocolate brown approaching black. The examples given were the aboriginal tribes of Central and Southern India, including Bhils and the Chenchus. The authors also stated that this strain seems to have entered in a considerable degree in the lower stratum of the Indian population. The authors also believed that this type is closely related to the Veddas of Ceylon, the Toalas of Celebes, and the Sakais of the Malay Peninsula. The Aborigines of Australia were considered a primitive form of this type by the authors.
Racial Element E
A dark Pygmy strain having spirally curved hair. The examples given were the Kadars, the Pulayans, and the Angairti Nagas. The authors stated that the Andamanese are racially homogeneous and of distinct type, characterised by a dwarfish stature, black complexion and woolly hair.
Racial Element F
A brachycephalic Mongoloid type, having. The authors stated that the Mongoloid racial strain does not appear to have entered in any considerable extent in mainland Indians. It is found along the sub-Himalayan region of North-Eastern Kashmir to Bhutan. The type that forms the dominant element in Burma (which was then a part of British India) is also brachycephalic but somewhat shorter in stature and having a short flat nose and a tendency to alveolar prognathism. It appears to exhibit certain affinities with the Siamese, the Malay and the Cochin Chinese.
Racial Element G
A second Mongoloid strain characterised by medium stature, longish head and medium nose, but exhibiting like the typical Mongoloid characteristics of the face and eye. Examples given were people of Assam and Northern Burma, including the Angami Nagas and the Mikir-Bodo people.

[edit] Dr. B. S. Guha's classification

Dr. Biraja Sankar Guha (1894-1961), an eminent Indian anthropologist, believed that the population of India is derived from six main ethnic groups[5][6]:

Negritos
Guha stated that the Negritos or the Brachycephalic (broad headed) people from Africa were the earliest inhabitatnts of India. They have survived in their original habitation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and the Great Andamanese are some examples. Some hill tribes such as the Irulas, Kodars, Paniyans, and Kurumbas are found in some places in the southern part of mainland India. Siddis are tribes found in Gujarat.
Pro-Australoids or Austrics
According to Guha, Austrics were the next to come to India after the Negritos. He believed that the Austrics were the main builders of the Indus Valley Civilization. The people that Guha classified as Austrics are now found in some parts of India, in Myanmar and on the islands of South-East Asia. Their languages have survived in Central and Eastern India and are said to "form the bedrock of the people".
Mongoloids
These people are found in northeastern India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They also are found in northern regions of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Ladakh.
Dravidians
Guha stated that this group came to India from the Southwest Asia. These people built up the city civilization of the Indus Valley and comprised of three types: Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean and Oriental Mediterranean.
Western Bracycephals
These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids. The Parsis, who arrived long after the Indo-Aryans, and the Kodavas (Coorgis) were also classified in this category by Guha.
Indo-Aryans
According to Guha, this group arrived between 2000 and 1500 B.C, and is now mainly found in the northern and central parts of India.

[edit] McCulloch's Racial Classification of India

Richard McCulloch (born 1949) is an author, who proposes racial separatism. He divides Indian people into three races[7]:

  • Indic race, North India
  • Dravidic race, Central India
  • Veddoid race, South India

[edit] Other theories

Thomas Huxley, in his Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1870), claimed that India was obviously Australoid due to the Australoid physical type's distinctiveness in physical appearance[8].

Genetecist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (b. 1922) believes that a majority of the people of India are Caucasoid. On page 119 of The great human diasporas, he writes: The caucasoids are mainly fair-skinned peoples, but this group also includes the southern Indians(dravidians), who live in tropical areas and show signs of a marked darkening in skin pigmentation, however their facial and body traits are caucasoid rather than African or australoid. Cavalli-Sforza also claims that genetically, Indians are three times closer to Western Europeans than they are to East Asians.[9]

Interestingly, the The CIA World Factbook mentions[10] ethnic breakup of Indian people as:

  • Indo-Aryan 72%
  • Dravidian 25%
  • Mongoloid and other 3%

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Leonard Lieberman, Rodney C. Kirk, and Alice Littlefield, "Perishing Paradigm: Race—1931-99," American Anthropologist 105, no. 1 (2003): 110-13. A following article in the same issue, by Mat Cartmill and Kaye Brown, questions the precise rate of decline, but agrees that the Negroid/Caucasoid/Mongoloid paradigm has fallen into near-total disfavor.
  2. ^ Kumar, Jayant. Census of India. 2001. September 4, 2006.
  3. ^ http://www.csas.ed.ac.uk/fichiers/BATES_RaceCaste&Tribe.pdf
  4. ^ Analysis of the 1931 Census of India: Race in India. Government of India Press (1937). Retrieved on 2006-11-12. (Now in public domain)
  5. ^ http://www.culturopedia.com/Tribes/tribesintro.html
  6. ^ http://www.southasianmedia.net/profile/india/india_ethnology.cfm
  7. ^ http://www.racialcompact.com/racesofhumanity.html
  8. ^ http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/GeoDis.html
  9. ^ http://www.vdare.com/sailer/india.htm
  10. ^ https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html
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