Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Elements in Indian Population M. K. Bhasin

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Indian Anthropology
Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Elements in Indian Population
M. K. Bhasin



CONTENTS

Racial groups

Caucasoid (Europoid)
Negroid
Australoid
Mongoloid
Negrito Element
Proto-Australoid Element
Mongoloid Element
Other Racial Elements
Classifications on Peoples of India
Ethnic groups
Castes
Religious groups
Linguistic groups


The populations of India and other South Asian countries offer great opportunities to
study socio-cultural and genetic variability. Perhaps, nowhere in the world people in a
small geographic area are distributed as such a large number of ethnic, castes, religious
and linguistic groups as in India and other South Asian countries. All these groups are not
entirely independent; people belong concurrently to two or more of these groups. People
of different groups living side by side for hundreds or even thousands of year try to retain
their separate entities by practicing endogamy.
India is a multicultural country. Anthropologists are committed to grasping the dynamics
of communities and populations. As anthropology combines the premises of a biological
as well as well as socio-cultural study, it looks at the diverse sections of human beings
with dual perspective, one derived from its branch called biological anthropology, and the
other from social/cultural anthropology. How communities and populations continue to
retain their identity, in social and cultural terms on one hand and biological on the other,
and how they acquire the characteristics of the others because of cultural borrowing or
interbreeding are the questions anthropologists systematically investigate.
India with about 1000 million people has the second largest population in the world and it
is one of the world’s top twelve mega diversity countries and has vast diversity of human
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beings, fauna, flora and environmental regimes. Its present population includes stone-age
food-gatherers, hunters, fisher-folk, shifting cultivators, peasant communities, subsistence
agriculturists, nomadic herders, entertainers, as well as those engaged in mechanized and
chemicalised agriculture, mechanized fishing, tapping offshore oil and natural gas,
running atomic power plants and producing computer software. India has been peopled
by human groups carrying a diversity of genes and cultural traits. We have almost all the
primary ethnic strains Proto-Australoid (skin colour-dark brown), Mediterranean (skin
colour-light brown), Mongoloid (skin colour-yellow), Negrito (skin colour-black) and a
number of composite strains. It is homeland of over 4000 Mendelian populations, of
which 3700 endogamous groups are structured in the Hindu caste system as ‘jatis’.
Outside the preview of caste system there are a thousand odd Mendelian populations
which are tribal autochthones and religious communities (Bhasin et al., 1994; Bhasin and
Walter, 2001).
Like any other plural society, India offers a cauldron where the processes of unification
as well as of fragmentalisation are unceasingly taking place. This presents a situation of
cultural, biological and environmental richness and diversity, and one where the constant
interactions between communities are aiding the formation of bridges, thus creating a
sense of unity. It is in these terms that India offers an ideal case for examining unity in
diversity both biological and socio-cultural perspectives.
In the present chapter an attempt has been made to give an outline of racial, ethnic,
religious and linguistic groups of India.

Racial groups

Anthropologists distinguish groups of people on the basis of common origin, living, or
having lived, in certain defined regions and possessing differing characteristic features in
their appearance. But one should remember that there are no strict lines of demarcation
between races. All these groups blend imperceptibly into one another with intermediate
types possessing various combinations of physical characteristics. Modern man is
biologically uniform in basic features (for example upright posture, well-developed hand
and feet, prominent chin, absence of bony eye brow, an intricately structured brain
encased in a big skull with a straight high forehead and 46 number of chromosomes) and
polymorphous as regards many secondary features. Scientists consider all human beings
as belonging to a single species, Homo sapiens. The variations found in groups living in
different geographical areas reflect only a differentiation within the single species due to
host of biological, social and other factors. In anthropology there are two schools of
thought on the origins of man and the major races—the polycentric and the monocentric
schools. The polycentric theory (Franz Weidenreich, U.S.A.) claims that modern man
evolved in several regions relatively independent of one another and that peoples
developed at different rates. This theory claims that modern man evolved from the
“oldest” and “old” people in each region and that this gave rise to the formation of the
major races3

Caucasoid (Europoid)

Morphological Features: (Skin Colour-White; Head Hair Colour - Lighter Shades; Hair
Texture - Medium to Fine; Head Form - Broad (Brachycephalic) to Long
(Dolichocephalic); Nose Form- Medium to Long; Face-Jaw is not projecting forward,
Pragnathism is usually absent; Forehead - High; Lip: Thin to Medium; Eye Colour-
Lighter Shades; Height- Medium to Tall
Inhabitants of Europe, America (White) Australia (White), New Zealand (White), South
Africa (White)

Negroid

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark Brown to Black; Head Hair Colour-Black;
Head Hair Form - Woolly or Frizzly; Head Form- Predominantly (Dolichocephalic) with
protruding Occiput and rounded Head; Nose Form- Broad and Flat, Bridge and Root of
the Nose are usually Low and Broad; Face Form - Prognathism is often marked; Brow
Ridges-Small; Lip Form – Thick and Everted; Eye Colour – Dark Brown to Black,
Height-Very Short to Tall.
Inhabitants of Africa, Blacks of America

Australoid

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Medium to Dark Chocolate Brown; Head Hair
Colour - Medium Brown to Black, Head Hair Form - Curly sometimes Wavy; Head
Form - Usually narrow Long (Dolichocephalic); Vault to Gable shaped; Nose Form- very
Broad, Nasal Root is markedly depressed and Tip is very Thick; Face Form- Short
showing medium to pronounced Prognathism and Chin is usually receding; Lip-Full;
Eye Colour - Medium to Dark Brown; Brow ridges - Extremely Large; Height-Short to
Medium.
Inhabitants of India (South and Central), Australia, Sri Lanka, Malay Peninsula

Mongoloid

Morphological Features: (Skin Colour - Yellow or Yellow-Brown); Head Hair Colour -
Brown to Brown Black, Hair Form-Straight and Coarse; Head Form - Predominantly
Broad (Brachycephalic) Nose Form – Medium to Broad, usually Bridge is low to
medium; Face Form – Medium Broad to very Broad; Cheekbones are high and flat; Lips-
Thin; Eye - Brown to Dark Brown in Colour, Oblique Eye with narrow slit-like opening
and internal Epicanthic Fold or Total Mongoloid Fold; Height - Short to Medium.
Inhabitants of China Mongolia, Tibet, North America, Siberia, Greenland, Burma,
Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Japan, North-East India.

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On the other hand monocentrists (for example Henri-Victor Vallois and G. Olivier in
France, Francis Howell in the U.S.A., Kenneth Oakley in Britain, Vsevolod P. Yakimov,
U.S.S.R.) consider modern man to have evolved in a single region. The ancient Homo
sapiens who evolved there did not possess clearly distinguished traits of any of the
modern races. It was only when human groups spread geographically and settled in
definite territories that racial types evolved. That is why the races of modern mankind
resemble one another so closely. This resemblance is a sign of their common origin, of
their emergence in a single region. Darwin more than 100 years ago, ventured to predict
that one day it would be found that man had originated in Africa (Bhasin et al., 1994;
Bhasin and Walter, 2001).
Mourant (1983) in his book “Blood Relations” stated that it is almost certain that man
evolved from his pre-human ancestors and emerged as a unique tool-making animal
somewhere in tropical Africa and that we are therefore, in a sense, all of African origin.
Using five polymorphic restriction sites on beta gene cluster, Long et al. (1990) worked
out, the evolutionary histories and relationships among Africans, Eskimos and Pacific
Island populations and reported an African origin for modern Homo sapiens and a
phyletic structuring in the major geographical regions. It is probably rather over a million
years ago that man entered Asia from Africa; bones of the early human species, Homo
erectus have been found in China as well as in Java, which could have reached only
through Asia. Moreover, to reach Europe, which he probably very soon did, he must have
passed through south-west Asia. It probably was in Asia that Eurasian man, by now of
the modern Homo sapiens species, diverged from African man, and then became
differentiated into Caucasoid and Mongoloid types. Another differentiation, which
probably took place in Asia, is that of the Australoids, perhaps from a common type
before the separation of the Mongoloids. The Caucasiods and the Mongoloids almost
certainly became differentiated from one another somewhere in Asia and Caucasoids
subsequently spread to the whole western part of the continent and thence to Europe and
North Africa (Mourant, 1983). The divergence lines among the three major races—
Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid—estimated by Nei and Roychoudhury (1982) by
using a number of genetic markers, reported the divergence between the Negroid and the
Caucasoid-Mongoloid groups seem to have occurred about 110,000 ± 34,000 years ago.
On the other hand the divergence between the Caucasoid group and the Mongoloid group
seems to have occurred about 41,000 ± 5,000 years ago. This corresponds to the time
when classic Neanderthals were living. These estimates of divergence lines are much
earlier than Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer’s (1971) (20,000-50,000 years ago), but they are
not unreasonable in view of the fossil records available (Birdsell, 1972).
The Mongoloids are the most numerous of the three major races of mankind and China in
the centre of the Mongoloid area has the largest population of these than any country in
the world, so the Chinese must be taken as the typical Mongoloids. The ancestors of
Japanese passed through Korea to reach Japanese Islands, where they found ancestors of
the present Ainu. Through an area to the south of China, extending from the Vietnamese
border to the tip of Malaya peninsula, through this there must have passed Homo erectus
very long ago on his way to Java [“Sundashelf, a dry land as the route from Asian
mainland to Java is now so well accepted that Shutler and Braches (1987) in their review
5

of the paleoanthropology of Pleistocene island Southeast Asia see it as the route to Java
from the Asian mainland for all migrating land mammals” (p. 186) cited from Tumer II
(1990)] than perhaps (some forty thousand years ago) the ancestors of the Australian
aborigines. After that came the Indonesians, and finally the Mongoloids in narrower
sense, represented by the Mons and the Khmers, the Tibeto-Burmans and the Thais, all of
whom probably entered the region before 1000 B.C. (Mourant, 1983).
The populations of Siberia are important in supplying evidence regarding the original
peopling of the American continent. This took place perhaps about thirty thousand years
ago; it was through the Bering Strait which was then dry land owing to the recession of
sea level accompanied by last glaciations. Perhaps about thirty thousand years ago,
populations of Mongoloid physical type moved into north eastern Siberia and thence into
America (Mourant, 1983).

The differences between Mongoloids and Caucasoids appear rather sharp as one crosses
the mountains in the northern boundary of the Indian sub-continent. The passage from
India to Burma is somewhat more gradual, probably because contact here has been
present for a long time and some mixing has taken places, whereas the Mongoloids north
of the mountains were probably fully differentiated in the Far East before the retreat of
the ice allowed them to enter Tibet (Mourant, 1983).
In Asia, Australoid if people now live in South of India, the deep ocean between India
and Australia means that the direct ancestors of the Australians could not have set out
from there. We must picture both India and south-east Asia as being at one time inhabited
largely by Australoids who were driven by technologically more advanced people from
the north, in the one instance into southern India and Sri Lanka and in other, across
Burma and Malaysia and so ultimately through Indonesia and New Guinea to Australia
(Mourant, 1983).

A number of racial classifications of human populations have been reported in the
literature, but there seems to be no agreement about these classifications among
anthropologists. However the human populations are broadly divided into three major
races: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid. Many anthropologists have considered two
more major groups i.e., Amerind [Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Yellow Brown
to Red Brown; Head Hair - Black rarely Dark Brown hair colour, which is Coarse,
Straight and sometimes slightly Wavy in form; Head Form - Long-Medium and Round
Shape; Face - Broad with typical Mongoloid Cheekbones; Chin - More prominent than
in typical Mongoloid, Lip - Thinner; Brow-Ridges and Glabellar portions are strongly
developed, Eye - Dark Brown to Black Colour, Complete Mongoloid Fold is almost
absent, Internal Epicanthic Fold is frequently present in women and children but rare in
males, External Epicanthic Fold is common; Nose – Prominently Medium, it is very
Long, Bridge is usually high and convex, Tip is of medium thickness. Height - Variable.
Inhabitants of America] and Australoid or Oceanian (Boyd, 1963). These schemes of
classification of human populations were largely based on morphological and
anthropometric characters. In the last few decades, however, new methods with elaborate
6

statistics and biometry along with the latest concepts on human genetics have added fresh
dimension to the study of human population groups.
To the Indian subcontinent came several waves of immigrants at different periods of
history and entered into the ethnic composition of the population at different levels from
a very early phase of human civilization. The intrusions of these people with several
racial elements have left the strains of various developed races together with their ethnic
and cultural substrata in the land, thus representing the elements of all the main divisions
of mankind.

In India the range of somatic variations in different physical traits of its people is
remarkably wide. To account for the heterogeneity and to highlight the underlying pattern
of the observed variations, earlier European anthropologists, like Charles de Ujfalvy
(1881-82) and Captain Drake-Brockman, Sir T.H. Holland (1902) and Waddell (1899)
measured groups from various parts of India and attempted various taxonomic
classification of the Indian peoples. During the early part of the last century the schemes
of classification of Indian people were largely based on morphological and
anthropometric characters. The list of various classifications that have been given on the
people of India by different authors is as follows:
1. Risley’s Classification (1915)
2. Giuffrida-Ruggari’s Classification (1921)
3. Haddon’s Classification (1924)
4. v. Eickstedt’s Classification (1934, 1952)
5. Guha’s Classification (1935, 1937)
6. Roy’s Classification (1934-38)
7. Sarkar’s Classification (1958, 1961)
8. Biasutti’s Classification (1959)
9. Roginskij and Levin’s Classification (1963)
10. Büchi’s Classification (1968)
11. Bowles’s Classification (1977)

So many classifications on the people of India have been reported and almost all seem to
make some sense. An attempt has been made to evaluate the distribution of various racial
strains/elements present in the peoples of India and this is represented in figure 1 (This
7

figure has been drawn while taking into consideration the classifications reported by
Guha and others).
INDIA
PAKISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
CHINA
TIBET
NEPAL
BURMA
Andaman and Ni cobar I sland (India)
Lakshadweep
(India)
SRI
LANKA
ARABIANSEA
INDIAN OCEAN
Moldive Islands
Racial Groups
BAY
OF
BENGAL
0 500 1000

Negritos
Proto-Austroloids & Negritos
Paleo-Mediterrneons, Proto-Austroloids & Alpo-Dinarics
Alpo-Dinarics, Orientos and Mediterraneons
Paleo-Mediterraneons, Mediterraneons and Alpo-Dinaric
Mediterraneons, Orientos & Proto-Nordics
Orientos and Tibeto-Mongoloids
Tibeto-Mongoloids and Paleo-Mongoloids
Paleo-Mongoloids

Fig. 1. Distribution of various racial strains present in the peoples of India

Negrito Element

It is generally admitted that the Negrito represents the oldest surviving type of man and it
is possible even that they preceded Neanderthal man by whom, according to Grifth-
Taylor, they were displaced and disposed. In any case Negrito seems to have been first
inhabitants of South East Asia. The traces of the stock are still to be seen in some of the
forest tribes of the higher hills of the extreme south of India and similar traces appear in
the inaccessible areas of Assam and Bengal, Burma, where dwarf stature is combined
with frizzly hair which appears to have resulted from recent admixture of pure Negrito
stock of the Andamans with blood from the main land of India or Burma.
8

If Negrito was the earliest inhabitants of Southern Asia, they must have been displaced or
supplanted by the Proto-Australoid. This dolichocephalic type appears to have its own
origin in the west. The view that the Australian is connected with the Neanderthal man,
though repeatedly rejected by authorities, seems to die hard since Hrdlicka apparently
regards the Neanderthal as having contributed to existing human types, while Sewell
appears to revert to the theory of Australian origin and in his account of Mohenjodaro
skulls he definitely associates Indian Proto-Australoid type with Australian aborigines on
the one hand and with Rhodesian skull on the other.

So many views on the Negrito problem in Indian ethnology have been reported in the
literature. Guha (1928, 1929) observed the presence of Negrito racial strain from the
solitary character of hair form (frizzly type) which he found among the Kadars who live
in the interior of the chain of hills running from the Anamalais to Travancore. Guha
(1961) wrote to Sharma (personal communication) that frizzly type of hair occurs not
only among Kadars but among Irulas and the Pulayans also. Guha (1961) disagree with
the hypothesis that there had been admixture of African slaves with the Malabar people;
giving the reason that if it has occurred in that case it should have been in the coastal
areas, where Zamorins of Calicut imported African slaves but not in the interior of the
hills 100 miles away. He further added that there is no sign of any African culture among
the Kadars. However v. Eickstedt (1939) stated that genuine Negro frizzly hair never has
been found in South India. The problem probably arose because the distinguishing words,
spiral, woolly or frizzly, have been applied in a vague manner. Sarkar stated that the
sporadic cases of frizzly hair may not be Negritoid at all. They may be independent
mutations. Whether they are genetically related to Negro or Melanesian frizzly hair
group, further genetic researches can disclose.

Banerjee (1959) reported the presence of intermediate or mixed types of hair among the
Kadar and accounted its origin as due to admixture with Negroid elements.
Rakshit (1965) suggested that the alleged Negrito Dravidian tribes of south India viz., the
Kadar, Irula, and Pulayan etc. are in all probability, the foetalized derivatives of
Australian basic type.

From the genetic structure of Kadar of Kerala, Saha et al. (1974) evaluated their findings
with the other (Sarkar et al., 1959) and observed that there is a little to support that a
proportion of Kadar show Negritoid traits. However they added that there is slender
evidence which supports the possibility of past African Negro admixture on a small scale.
The postulated genetic reconstruction of ancestral Kadar population by them suggested
that they may have been similar to Melanesian and Australian aboriginal populations, but
their original genetic structure has been modified through incorporating genetic elements
not only from Black Africans but from surrounding Dravidian populations.
Sarkar (1954) has discussed the Negritos of the Andaman in the light of the process of
pygmy formation. Steatopygia, infantilism and dwarfism are probably the effect of
endocrine derangements and the reproductive physiology of the Andamanese appears to
have been affected as well. The Andamanese appear to have been facing extinction long
9

before they came in contact with civilization. The Andamanese were probably peopled in
the quaternary times during a glacial period when the fall of sea-level brought lower
Burma in direct contact with the Islands.
Negrito populations occupy parts of the Philippines, Northern Malay Peninsula,
Andaman Islands and New Guinea has a number of morphological characters similar to
those of Pygmies and Bushmen of Africa. Because of this similarity, some
anthropologists have hypothesized a common origin of the Negrito populations.
However, Nei and Roychoudhury (1982) analysed the genetic relationship and reported
that despite some morphological similarity between the Negritos of Southeast Asia and
the Pygmies and Bushman of Africa the genetic distance analysis shows them to be
genetically different. This result supports Coon’s (1965) thesis that the Pygmies and
Asian Negritos developed their phenotypic similarity by adapting to similar
environmental conditions independently rather than by common descent.

Proto-Australoid Element

The earliest stratum of Indian populations was a long-headed, dark skinned, broad nosed
people. Their physical features are closely akin to modern aborigines of Chota Nagpur,
Central India and the primitive tribes of South India. They are original inhabitants, the so
called ‘Adi-basis’ of India. In the hymns of Rigveda the oldest sacred texts of the Hindus,
they are mainly addressed as ‘Dasa’ (Barbarians) or ‘Dasyu’ (ugly, sub-human)
described as ‘Anas’ (‘a-nas’ = noseless or ‘an-as’ = without a mouth), Krishnagarba
(Dark skinned), ‘Mridhravak’ (Hostile speech) not worshiping Vedic gods with whom
Aryan speaking tribes fought during their advent into India from Transcapia.
They have been classified by various authors and so far there has been no agreement on
this. Lapicque (1920) was probably responsible for the term Pre-Dravidian. Ruggeri
(Chakladar, 1921) named it‘Australoid-Veddaic’, while Chanda (1916) favoured the term
‘Nishada’. v. Eickstedt used the term Weddid for those having closer affinity with the
Veddas of Ceylon. Sewell and Guha (1929) in trying to find out the physical affinities of
the Nal race have described Tamils and the Veddas as descendants of the original Proto-
Australoid and Proto-Negroid blend. They have also found the Proto-Australoid type
occurring among the Mohenjodaro skeletal remains. Hutton (1933) used the term Proto-
Australoid exclusively in his census reports. He even put Veddas under Proto-Australoid.
The term Proto-Australoid owes its origin to Dixon (1923). Hooton (1930) introduced
changes in Dixon’s terminology and replaced term Proto-Australoid as Pseudo-
Australoid while he similarly renamed Proto-Negroid as Pseudo-Negroid.
The Papuas of New Guinea and the Australian aborigines of Oceania are often called
Australoids. Guha (1937) used the term ‘Proto-Australoid’ to designate the indigenous
people of India presumed to have racial affinities with Australian Aboriginals. It was
observed in the morphological traits that there seems to be a regular gradation, the
shortest and smallest being the Indian tribes, then come Veddas of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
and lastly the Australians. The Indian tribes retaining the more basic characters and the
two extra Indian groups having developed some of the features in a more marked manner.
10

The most appropriate term to apply to them therefore is Proto-Australoid which shows
best the genetic relationships between the three. Sarkar (1954) pointed that so long the
Australoid is regarded as one of the basic stems of mankind and its prototype is unknown,
the use of the term Proto-Australoid seems to be unjustified.
Sanghvi (1976) compared allelic variability observed among tribal populations in India
and Australia to study the postulated ancestral relations between Indian and Australian
Aboriginal people. He concluded that the search for appropriate weights for individual
alleles to be considered in genetic distance analysis of problems for racial origins has not
so far been rewarding.

Simmons (1976) reported on the basis of the blood group genetic data, presently
available, that the Veddoids, and other aboriginal peoples of South India relate most
closely to the Indian populations, and neither they nor the Veddhas relate in any obvious
blood groups genetic make-up to the distant Ainu, or to the even more distant Australian
Aboriginals.
Kirk (1976) reported his investigations 15 years ago as he was searching for specific
markers which might link Australian Aboriginals with the Veddahs of Ceylon and the
“Veddoid” populations of South India and stated that so far no specific markers common
to any of these sets of populations have been found. By contrast, the Veddahs of Ceylon
do have some genetic markers in common with groups of Southeast Asia, particularly TF
CHI (Serum Transferrin CHI) and the abnormal haemoglobin HB*E (Haemoglobin E).
The ‘Veddoids’ of South India, however, have neither of these markers that possess the
abnormal haemoglobin HB*S (Haemoglobin S) and having no transferrin variants in the
populations which he studied. It is only in the north east of India that transferrin allele
TF*CHIi is found while HB*E is not uncommon among tribal populations such as
Oraons, Konda Reddis and Koya Dora.
Roychoudhury (1984) studied genetic relations between Indian Tribes (Toda, Irula,
Kurumba of South India); Veddah of Sri Lanka with the Aboriginals of Malay, New
Guinea and Australia by genetic distance analysis and found the tribes of South India and
Sri Lanka genetically closer to each other than to the Aboriginals of Southeast Asia and
Oceania. He concluded that despite their morphological similarity there is no genetic
evidence to suggest that the Indian tribes and Australian Aboriginals are biologically
related.

Pietrusewsky (1990) reported from the craniofacial variation that Australians represent a
biologically distinct population, sharing ancestral ties with Melanesians but not with the
recent populations of Asia and the rest of the Pacific. The latter represent a second major
population complex.

Mongoloid Element

The Mongoloids are mainly present in the northern and north eastern zones of the
Himalayan ranges, valleys and eastern frontiers. Regarding the Mongoloid element,
11
Hutton is of the view, that it may be said to fringe upon the area to Indo-European
languages. There is very considerable overlap in the places. In all the overlapping areas
the Indo-European languages are definitely intrusive and the Mongoloid element in the
population is strong enough to retain its own languages. It is possible that the extension
of Mongoloid physical elements has gone a good deal further than the present range of
their language would suggest. One of the Mohenjodaro skulls has been identified as
definitely Mongoloid and from the lowest stratum of the excavation have been recovered
terracotta figurines with unmistakable Mongoloid features having the typical sloping
narrow eyes of caricatures of that type.
On the other hand, Eastern Bengal is strongly suggestive of mixed Mongoloid and Proto-
Australoid strain. Buxton suggests that the Pareoean element extends to southern India.
Burma, of course, is almost completely Mongoloid and though the existence of other
strains is not doubted, they are no longer easy to isolate. There are Proto-Australoid
elements too. In some of the hill tribes and on the Assam side a Melanesian strain is to be
expected.

Mongolian features have been observed among the tribes of Central and Eastern India,
the tribes occupying such States as Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh,
in the latter state in areas adjoining Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The list includes almost
important Mundari speaking (Munda Group of Austro-Asiatic Family) tribes like the
Munda, Santal, Ho, Juang, Saora, Gadaba etc. and number of Central Indian Dravidian
speaking tribes like the Maria, Muria, Kondh, and Oraon etc. The occasional presence of
Mongolian features among the central and eastern Indian tribal groups foetalised
derivative’s of Australian types as suggested by Rakshit (1965).
Other Racial Elements

Amongst the earliest arrivals into Indian sub-continent were long-headed people of
Palaeo-Mediterranean stock, who came in successive waves. They were closely related
with the Proto- Mediterranean or Proto-Egyptian Brown Race and were long, narrowheaded
people, having medium to tall stature, possessed relatively long, narrow faces,
low orbit, and vertical forehead with protruding occiput and mesorrhine nose. Later
waves of this race belonged to the more basic stock of the Mediterranean race. Their
skeletal remains have been recovered from the Chalcolithic sites of the Indus Valley
(Harappa, 1963, Mohenjo-daro, 1931) etc. and further west from the Aeneolithic sites of
Iran and Mesopotamia. They now form a dominant element among the populations of
North India and the upper classes.

The next wave was allied to the so-called Oriental Race of Eugen Fischer (1923). They
were relatively broad-headed, medium in stature, and broad faced, thus closely related to
the Brachycephalic Alpine and Armenoid racial type of Europe. Their major
concentration was in Asia Minor, Pamirs or the Iranian plateau, from where they are
supposed to have infiltrated into India during the third to second millennium B.C.
12

The early evidence of these elements was found among a few of Chalcolithic crania from
Indus Valley sites and later among Iron Age crania from Adittanallur in the Tinnevally
District of South India (1963). The origin of the broad-headed strain allied to Alpine and
Armenoid lies primarily among the brachycephalic hordes of prehistoric Homo alpinus
stock of Central Asia. However, the original source of brachycephaly in Western India
appears to have come from Scytho-Iranians who had infiltrated from the ethnic intrusion
of the Sakas, Huns, Kushans and Abhiras. Today the stronghold of this type is in Bengal,
Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The Dinaric type (medium to light pigmented, hook nosed, acrocephalic, round heads)
finds expression among the population of Bengal and Orissa and got mixed with varying
degrees of the Mediterranean element. It is also to be seen in Kathiwar, Kannanda and
Tamil areas. The latest great racial movement into India was associated with a longheaded,
tall, delicate-nosed, fair-skinned people having a long face with well-marked
chin, possessing blue eyes more akin to the so-called Nordic Race (pure blond or near
blond, long heads) of Europe. During the close of the third or at the beginning of the
second millennium B.C. they were supposed to have entered India across the
northwestern frontier from the Eurasiatic steppes between southwestern Russia and
Siberia. On the basis of linguistic and cultural evidence, they have been described as
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, or Aryan people, who were Proto-Nordics. The area of their
civilization was said to be in the Aralo-Caspian Basin.

If the millions of population of India are members of some great branch of humanity, yet
strange to say, all or nearly all, who have sought to explain the differentiation of
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 proceeded on the assumption that evolution has taken place long ago, far too
away but not in India, the great anthropological paradise (Keith, 1936). No doubt India
has been invaded time and again but it is a fact that 85 per cent of the blood in India is
native in the soil. It is necessary that our eyes should be more directly focused on the
possibility of India being an evolutionary field both now and in former times.
Classifications on Peoples of India

The outline of various classifications that have been reported on the composition of the
Indian Region population is as follows:

Risley’s Classification (1915)

In India the schematic classification of races was first attempted by Sir H.H. Risley in
1886-88. On the basis of physical characters based on nine anthropometric measurements
of 5784 individuals, he envisaged a seven-fold division of the peoples of India:
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1. The Turko-Iranian Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour-Fair Complexion; Head Hair-Medium Brown to
Black Colour, Wavy to Curly hair form; Head Form – Broad (Brachycephalic); Eyes
Colour - Generally Dark, Grey; Nose Form-Fine to Medium; Stature-Tall.
Represented by the Baluchis, Brahuis, Afghans and North-Western Frontier Province.

2. The Indo-Aryan Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour-Fair Complexion; Head Hair-Brown to Black
Colour and Hair Form-Wavy to Curly; Head Form – Long (Dolichocephalic); Eyes-Dark
Colour; Nose Form -Long, Narrow and prominent; Stature-Tall.
Inhabitants of Rajasthan, Punjab, Kashmir predominantly represented by the Rajputs,
Khattris and Jats.

3. The Scytho-Dravidian Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Fair Complexion; Head Hair-Dark Brown to
Black Colour; Wavy to Curly Hair form; Head Form – Medium (Mesocephalic) to Broad
(Brachycephalic); Eyes – Dark in Colour; Nose Form - Medium; Stature - Medium
height.
Represented from Western India, including the Maharashtrian Brahmins, Kunbis and
Coorgs probably formed by a mixture of Scythian and Dravidian elements.

4. The Aryo-Dravidian Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - It is variable, varies form light brown to dark;
Hair - Dark Brown to Black colour, Wavy to Curly form; Head Form-Long
(Dolichocephalic) with tendency towards Medium; Eyes - Dark Colour; Nose Form -
Medium to Broad; Stature - Short to Medium height.
Represented by the peoples of Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Rajputana, Behar and Sri
Lanka (Ceylon) as well as higher caste and lower caste people. This type is a result of
admixture between Aryan males and Dravidian females.

5. The Mongolo-Dravidian Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark; Hair - Black in Colour, Wavy Hair form;
Head Form - Broad (Brachycephalic) to Medium (Mesocephalic) Eyes – Dark in Colour;
Nose Form - Medium to Broad; Stature - Short to Medium height.
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This type is represented by the people of lower Bengal and Orissa, particularly the
Bengali Brahmins and Kayasthas, Mohammedans, possessing a strain of Indo-Aryan
blood and a blend of Dravidian and Mongoloid elements.

6. The Mongoloid Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark with Yellowish tinge; Hair - Dark Colour
and Straight form; Head Form - Generally Broad (Brachycephalic); Eyes-Oblique eye
showing Epicanthic Fold; Face - Broad Mongolian face; Nose Form- Fine to Broad;
Stature-Short to Below Medium height.
Inhabitants of the people of Himalayas, Nepal, Assam and Burma represented by the
Kannets of Lahul, Kulu, Lepchas, Limbus, Murmis and Gurangs of Nepal and Bodos of
Assam and Burmese.

7. The Dravidian Type

Morphological Features: Skin Colour – Very Dark; Hair - Dark in Colour and form is
generally Curly; Head Form – Long (Dolichocephalic); Eyes - Dark in Colour; Nose
Form - Very Broad and sometimes a Depression is seen at the Root of the Nose; Stature-
Short height.
Represented by the people from the valley of the Ganges to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) including
the whole of Madras, Hyderabad, Central Province and Chota Nagpur. Paniyans of South
India, the Santals of Chota Nagpur are the best examples of this type.
The results of Risley’s study were published in 1891 and 1901 in a volume of
Ethnographic Appendices of the Census Report. Later his classifications were criticized,
particularly his techniques of measurements, his statements of brachycephaly in Western
India as due to Scytho-Iranian and Scythian invasion and his hypothesis of the Mongolo-
Dravidian origin of the Bengalis.


Guha’s Classification (1935)

Later, the reliability and standardization of measurements were emphasized by the
authorities. In 1931 the task was then under taken by Dr. B.S. Guha of the Zoological
Survey of India. His work was published in the Census of India (1931, Pt. III) based on
an analysis of 29 characters and 63 crude coefficients of racial likeness of different
measurements of 2511 persons belonging to 34 groups. His survey was claimed to have
the great advantage of standardization of the anthropometric techniques of the
International Agreements of 1906 and 1912. This was regarded as a very important
landmark in the racial history of Indian Anthropology. His extensive applications of Karl
Pearson’s coefficient of racial like-ness proved very useful for biological relationships
among the different populations of India.
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According to Guha (1931), the classification of racial groups determined 6 main races
with 9 subtypes:

1. The Negritos

Morphological Features: Skin Colour – Dark Brown to Dark Black; Hair - Woolly in
form; Head Form - Small, Round, Medium or Long; Forehead is Bulbous; Supraorbital
Ridges - Smooth; Eyes - Dark in Colour, Nose Form - Straight, Flat and Broad; Stature-
Very Short height or Pygmy.
Represented by the Kadars, Pulayans (Cochin and Travancore, Irular and Primitive tribes
of Wynad. They are considered to be autochthones of India.

2. The Proto-Australoids

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark Brown; Hair - Dark in Colour; Wavy and
Curly Hair form; Head - Long (Dolichocephalic); Forehead - Less Developed and
Slightly retreating; Supraorbital Ridges - Prominent; Eyes - Dark in Colour; Nose –
Broad, Depressed at the Root; Stature - Short, Limbs are delicate.
This type is represented by Urali (Travancore), Baiga (Rewa), the tribal groups -
Chenchu, Kannikar, Kondh, Bhil, Santal, Oron belong to this group. Their morphological
features wavy hair is different form the Negritos who are having frizzly or woolly hair.

3. The Mongoloids

This group is characterised by straight hair, obliquely set eyes showing Epicanthic fold;
scanty hair on body and face, flat face with prominent cheek bones.
They are represented by two groups - (i) Palaeo - Mongoloids who are categorized into
(a) Long - headed and (b) Broad - headed and (ii) Tibeto - Mongoloids:
(i) Palaeo – Mongoloids
(a) Long - headed:

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark to Light Brown; Hair - Dark Colour
Straight form; Head Form – Long (Dolichocephalic), Face - Short and Flat; Surpraorbital
Regions - Faintly developed, Cheekbones - Prominent; Nose Form - Medium; Stature –
Medium height.
The peoples of sub - Himalayan Region represented by the tribal groups of Assam (Sema
Nagas); Nepal (Limbus)
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(b) Broad - headed

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark; Hair - Dark Colour, Straight form; Head
Form – Broad (Brachcephalic); Eyes - Obliquely set eyes which show marked Epicanthic
fold; Nose - Medium; Stature – Medium height.
They are represented by Lepchas of Kalimpong; Hill Tribes - Chakmas, Maghs of
Chittagong.
(ii) Tibeto - Mongoloids:
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light Brown; Hair - Dark and Straight form;
Head Form – Broad (Brachycephalic) and Massive; Face - Long and Flat; Eyes - Oblique
having marked Epicanthic fold; Nose - Long to Medium; Stature – Tall Height.
The Tibetans of Bhutan and Sikkim are representing this type.

4. The Mediterranean:

They have been categorized in three different racial types:
(i) Palaeo - Mediterranean: They are considered like more ancient people.
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark; Hair - Dark Colour, Wavy to Curly hair
form; Head Form - Long (Dolichocephalic) and narrow with bulbous Forehead;
Projecting Occiput and high vault; Face – Narrow; Chin – Pointed; Eyes - Dark in
Colour; Nose Form - Small and Broad; Stature – Medium height.
The Tamil Brahmans of Madura, Nairs of Cochin, and Telegus Brahmans are
representing this type. The Dravidian speaking people of South India show the
preponderance of this type.

(ii) Mediterranean

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light; Hair - Dark Colour; Head Form - Long
(Dolichocephalic), Head with Arched Forehead; Face - Long; Chin - Well Developed;
Eyes - Dark Brownish to Dark Colour; Nose Form - Narrow and Prominent; Stature -
Medium to Tall and slender body built.
The Numbudiri Brahmans of Cochin, Brahmins of Allahabad, Bengali Brahmans, and
Marathas are representing this type. The people of this group are inhabitants of Uttar
Pradesh, Bombay, Bengal, and Malabar.

(iii) The so - called Oriental sub - type of the Mediterranean

Morphological Features: The Oriental type has been described by Fischer and the
people represent all most all the characteristics of the Mediterranean type except the nose
form which is long and convex.
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Punjabi Chettris and the Pathans is representative of the group. The people of Punjab,
Sind, and Rajputhana etc. are representative of this group.


5. The western broad headed people of Brachycephals consisting of three types:

(i) The Alpinoids

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light; Hair - Dark Brownish to Dark Colour and
Form - Wavy; Head Form - Broad (Brachycephalic) with rounded occiput; Face -
Round; Eye – Dark Brown in Colour; Nose - Prominent; Stature - Medium and body is
thickly set.
The representatives of this group are Bania of Gujarat, Kathi of Kathiawar, and the
Kayasthas of Bengal among others.

(ii) The Dinarics

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Darker; Hair - Dark in Colour; Head Form -
Broad (Brachycephalic) with rounded occiput and high vault; Face - Long; Eyes - Dark in
Colour; Forehead - Receding; Nose Form - Very long and often convex, Stature – Tall
height.
This type is represented among Brahmans of Bengal; Kanarese Brahmans of Mysore and
the inhabitants of Bengal, Orissa, and Coorg. The Alpino - Dinaric people are considered
to enter India through Baluchistan, Sind, Gujarat, and Maharashtra into Kannade and than
Sri Lanka (Ceylon). This type has been observed in the Indus Valley site, Tinnevally,
Hyderabad.

(iii) The Armenoids

Morphological Features: The Armenoids are having most of the morphological features
similar to Dinaric. They are having more prominent, narrow and aquiline nose and
occiput is more marked.
The best representative of this group is the Parsis of Bombay.

6. The Nordics

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Fair Complexion; Hair - Brown to Dark in
Colour Wavy hair form; Head Form – Long (Dolichocephalic), protruding Occiput and
arched Forehead; Jaw - Strong; Eyes - Mostly Bluish Tinge; Nose - Fine, Narrow; Face -
Long and Straight; Stature - Tall with powerfully built body.
Inhabitants of Northern India, mainly the people of Punjab, Rajputana are representative
of this group. Kaffirs, Kathash belong to this group.
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Guha considered that the Negritos are the earliest racial element in India and believed
that the Kadars, Irulas and the Pulayans of South India have a Negrito strain.


v. Eickstedt’s Classification (1934, 1952)

The next large - scale attempt at racial classification was made by Egon von Eickstedt
who classified the people of India into 3 main races and 18 subraces:

1. Weddide (Ancient Indians)

(a) Gondide (Proto - Australoid)

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark brown.
The representative of are tribal groups - Juangs, Bhils, Oraons, Gonds etc. form Central
India.

(b) Malide

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark Brown; Hair – Curly form; Stature – Short.
This group is represented by Kurumber, Weddah etc. tribal groups from South India.

2. Melanide (Black Indians)

(a) Melanide

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Black,
Yanadis group is the representative of this group.

(b) Kolide

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Black Brown, Hair - Dark Colour and Curly
form; Stature - Short;
The peoples of the group are found in North Deccan Forests. The representatives are
Munda, Ho, Santal etc.

3. Indide (New Indians)

(a) Gracile (Graceful) Indid

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Brown; They have gracile in appearance.
The representatives of the group are Bengalis.

(b) Coarser - Mediterranean

Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light Brown.
Representatives are Rajputs of North India.
According to v. Eickstedt the Melanide race is the oldest and descended from the Indo -
Negroid or the Eastern branch of the Negro Race. His monumental work, Rassenkunde
und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit (1934) and his scheme of classification is based
partly on physical traits and partly on geographical localities.


Haddon’s Classification (1924)

Among the other notable works regarding the racial classifications of the peoples of India
mention must be made of Haddon (1924) who found 15 major races all over the world
and classified Indians into three basic regional types:

I. The Himalayan Region:

The dominating characteristics are Mongoloid morphological features among people of
Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Assam etc. In Assam the following racial elements were
observed which is classified on the bases of head and nose form.
(i) Dolichocephalic - Platyrrhine type (Pre - Dravidian) (Long Head - Broad Nose)
Khasi, Kuki, Manipuri, Kachari etc are representative of the group
(ii) Dolichocephalic - Mesorrhine (Long Head - Broad Nose)
This type is observed among Naga tribal and Hill tribes etc.
(iii) Mesocephalic - Platyrrhine (Medium Head - Broad Nose)
Reported among Khasis group
(iv) Brachycephalic - Leptorrhine (Round Head – Long Nose)
They moved form north and related to the Eurasiatic group.
(v) Mesocephalic - Mesorrhine (Medium Head – Medium Nose)
(vi) Brachycephalic - Platyrrhine (Round Head – Broad Nose)
They are a variety of Parecoean (Skin Colour – Olive Brown to Coppery Brown; Hair -
Coarse and Lank texture; Head Form - Broad (Brachycephalic); Face - Broad; Nose -
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Short and flat, Eyes - Narrow, Oblique; Epicanthic Fold is present; Stature - Short and
body is thick set.
(vii) Dolichocephalic - Leptorrhine (Long Head - Long Nose)
This form is from India.

II. Hindustan Region or the Northern Plains:

(i) Indo - Afghan
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light Brown complexion; Hair – Black in colour
and Wavy form; Head – Long (Dolichocephalic); Face - Long; Eyes - Dark; Nose -
Finely cut straight or convex, prominent; Stature - Medium to Tall height.
Representative of this groups are Jats, Rajputs etc.

III. Deccan Region or Southern Plateau:

(i) Negrito
Negrito racial characteristics were suspected among some people like Kadars of south
India

(ii) Pre - Dravidian
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Dark Brown to Black; Hair – Dark in colour,
Curly form; Head – Long (Dolichocephalic); Eye - Dark in Colour; Nose Form – Broad;
Stature – Short height.
The representatives of these groups are Bhil, Gond, and Oraon Santal etc.

(iii) Dravidian
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Brownish Black; Hair - Dark in Colour, Curly in
form; Head – Long (Dolichocephalic); Eye – Dark in colour; Nose Form - Medium;
Stature – Medium height.
The representatives are Malayams, Telegu, Tamil, Cancrease, speaking people.

(iv) Southern Brachycephals
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Brown Complexion; Head Form – Medium
(Mesocephalic) to Broad (Brachycephalic); Nose Form - Medium.
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The representatives of these groups are Panyan in Tamil Nadu, Pavara of Tinnevelly
coast.

(v) Western Brachycephals
Morphological Features: Skin Colour - Light Brown Complexion; Head Form- Broad
(Brachycephalic); Nose Form - Long; Stature – Tall height.
The representatives are Nagar Brahmans of Gujarat; Prabhu. The people from Gujarat to
Coorg along with western coast are representing these groups.