Herbert Hope Risley

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Sir Herbert Hope Risley KCIE, CSI (4 January 1851 – 30 September 1911) was a British ethnographer and colonial administrator who did extensive work on the classification of the various castes in India during the "landmark" census of 1901. [1] [2] Risley was influential in the 20th century resuscitation of the hierarchical varna system as a structure for social order in India. According to Lloyd I. Rudolph, Risley believed that the varna, however ancient, could be applied to all the modern castes found in India, and "meant to identify and place several hundred million Indians within it."[3]

Risley was born at Akeley in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford University, and entered the Indian Civil Service in 1873. He would hold several positions in his career, but his most important contributions were anthropological, a discipline he learned in office.

He was knighted into the Order of the Indian Empire in 1907, and was also made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India. In 1910 he was appointed secretary of the judicial department of the India Office. The same year he became President of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

He died at Wimbledon in 1911. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Herbert Hope Risley", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. "English anthropologist, was born at Akeley, Bucks., Jan. 4 1851. Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he entered the Indian civil service in 1873 and he had a distinguished career; but his principal work was done in connexion with Indian ethnography, the discussion of the caste system, etc., and he published under Government auspices some important volumes of anthropometric data. He had charge of the Indian census operations of 1901. In 1910 he was appointed secretary of the judicial department of the India Office. He was made K.C.I.E. in 1907, and he died at Wimbledon Sept. 30 1911" 
  2. ^ Ashok Kumar (2001). 2001 Census as Social Document. Anmol Publications PVT LTD. "The first systematic study of the classification of Indian races was undertaken by Sir Herbert Risley in 1901. In spite of its many lacunae it was regarded as a landmark in the study of the people of India."
  3. ^ Lloyd I. Rudolph (1984). The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India, Susan Hoeber Rudolph, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226731375. 


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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.