MAJOR RACES AND THEIR HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN SOCIETY

Indian society is one of the oldest in the world. India's social structure and cultural pattern are characterised by unity as well as diversity. Historically, India has been hospitable to numerous groups of immigrants from different parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, but the culture of each group has undergone enough change over the centuries to become an integral part of the Indian mosaic. 

The institution of caste may be mentioned as a typical example of the paradox that is Indian society. Each caste stands for a way of life that is to some extent distinctive, but at the same time the castes of a region form part of a single social framework. It is important to note that caste is found not only among the Hindus but also among Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. Caste is ubiquitous, and this has resulted in an ideology tolerant of diversity. 

Factors making for diversity are apparent even to the casual observer. 
The population of India is racially and ethnically diverse, containing elements from six main racial types: 

(i) Negrito, 
(ii) the Proto-Australoid, 
(iii) the Mongoloid

(iv) the Mediterranean, 
(v) the Western Brachycephals, and
(vi) the Nordic. 

All the great religions of the world are represented in this country. The tribal groups enjoy varying degrees of contact with one or the other of the great religions. The major


literary languages alone number fourteen. Diversity is seen in the patterns of rural as well as urban settlements, community life, forms of land tenure, and agricultural operations. In kinship, marriage rites and customs, inheritance, and general mode of living, there are striking differences between groups. Diversity is, however, only one side of the picture. 
There are underlying factors as well. India is a political entity, every part of which is under the same constitution. The process of unification developed as several great rulers—Asoka, Samudragupta, Akbar—brought large parts of the country under their power; but it was only during the British rule that India became for the first time a single political entity. The concept of unity of India is inherent in Hinduism. There are sacred centres of Hindu pilgrimage in every corner of the country. India is a sacred land not only of the Hindus but also of Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists. 

The Muslims and Christians too, have several sacred centres of pilgrimage in India. The institution of caste cuts across diverse religious groups and gives them all common social idiom. The declaration of India as a Secular state provides one more evidence of the tolerance of diversity which has been characteristic of Indian history from its beginning. The process of economic development ushered in the Five-Year Plans and the spread of egalitarian ideals have brought about revolutionary changes in the Indian pattern of social life. A single government and a common body of civil and criminal law, a developing economy, and a secular approach to public life and problems are now providing substance and reality to India's claim to be a nation.

NEGRITO

The Negrito are several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines.

The Negrito peoples are believed to descend from ancient Australoid-Melanesian settlers of Southeast Asia. Genetically, these peoples also show similarities to their neighboring populations. The appropriateness of using the label 'Negrito' to bundle together peoples of different ethnicity based on similarities in stature and complexion has been challenged.

 The Proto-Australoids were an ancient hunter-gatherer people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave Africa 50,000 years ago. Characterised by gracile body types, they are thought to have had dark skin colour, approaching black, and wavy or curly black hair. They had long heads and broad, flat noses, like the inhabitants of modern-day Oceania and Africa.

The Veddahs, Malavedahs, Irulas and Sholagas are the true representatives of Proto-Australoids. The Bhils, Kols, Badagas, Korwas, Kharwars, Mundas, Bhumjis and Malpaharis of the highlands of Central India and the Chenchus, Kurumbas, Malayans and Yeruvas of South India may all be treated as Proto-Australoids.

Some anthropologists believe that the Proto-Australoids supported the Mediterraneans in building the Indus Valley Civilization. On their arrival in India, the Proto-Australoids pushed, pressed, displaced and supplanted the Negritos and forced them to shift to more inaccessible, remote and less hospitable areas, where they are found even today.

The Proto-Australoid

The proto-Australoids are thought to have begun their exodus out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. Also known as Austrics, they are a black race of people with wavy hair, spread over the whole of India, Burma and the islands of Southeast Asia. Their existence in the "Indus Valley Civilization" has been suggested. They are said by some to "form the bedrock of the people." They cultivated rice and vegetables, and made sugar from sugarcane. Their language has survived in the Kol or Munda (Mundari) in Eastern and Central India.

They are thought to have used a simple form of watercraft to cross the narrow span of water between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. From there it is hypothesized that they followed a coastal route through South Asia into Southeast Asia. Some individuals made a short oceanic voyage into Australia (50-60 thousand years ago), giving rise to the Australian Aborigines. Others continued their coastal migration north into East Asia.

The Mongoloid

The Mongoloids reached India from China, Mongolia, Tibet, Malyasia, Thailand, and Myanmar in about the first millennium BC. They occupied the Ladakh Division of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan belts, and the North Eastern states of India.

According to Risley, “On its northern and eastern frontier, India marches with the great Mongoloid region of the earth”. Most of the anthropologists believe China to be the homeland of the Mongoloid race from where they were pushed southward into the Malaya peninsula and Indonesia.

They entered India through the passes in the northern or eastern mountains. Hutton is of the opinion that the bulk of Burma (Myanmar) in any case is primarily Mongoloid, and any non-Mongoloid streams of migration that may have reached India through Myanmar have absorbed a vast quantity of Mongolian blood.

There is also some evidence of a Mongoloid Melanesian intrusion from Oceania to Tamil Nadu and Kerala and probably that accounts for the occasional Mongoloid element noticed among the people of these states. Presently, they occupy large areas in Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and some other parts of east India

Dr. B.S. Guha has recognised two sub-groups of Mongoloids: (a) Palaeo-Mongoloid and (b) Tibeto-Mongoloid. The Palaeo—Mongoloid are the most primitive type which have long heads, medium stature, light brown colour, medium nose, oblique eyes, and scanty hair on body. Their representatives are found in the sub-Himalayan region, particularly Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Indo-Myanmar (Burma) border districts. Their representatives are Daflas, Garos, Kacharis, Khasis, Kuki-Nagas, Lalung, Machi, Miris, and Tipperas.

The Tibeto-Mongoloids are found in Bhutan, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand. Their typical features are long stature, light yellow colour, hairy body, oblique eyes, long nose, and flat face. The Bhutias, the Gorkhas, the Ladakhis, the Kinnauris, the Tharus are the representatives of the Tibeto-Mongolid racial group. 

The Mongoloid racial stock of India can be divided into two sub-groups as follows:

(i) Palaeo-Mongoloids (ii) Tibeto-Mongoloids.

(i) Palaeo-Mongoloids are further divided into broad headed and long headed sub-types. They settled mainly along the fringes of the Himalayas in Assam and the Myanmar border.

(ii) Tibeto-Mongoloids have come from Tibet as their name suggests. They are mostly living in Bhutan and Sikkim, as well as in the north-western Himalayas and Trans Himalayan regions.

The Mediterranean

The Mediterranean race (sometimes Mediterranid race) is one of the sub-races into which the Caucasian race was categorized by most anthropologists in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. According to various definitions, it was said to be prevalent in Southern Europe and Southeast Europe, in Western Asia, Central Asia and parts of South Asia, in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and in certain parts of the British Isles and Germany

The Mediterranean racial stock came to India from eastern Mediterranean region or South West Asia. They are believed to have migrated during the third and the second millennium B.C. This race has contributed much to the physical composition of peoples of India and also to its culture.

They brought earlier forms of Austro-Asiatic languages and are believed to be the bearers of the earliest form of Hinduism into India.

This group came to India from the Southwest Asia and appear to be people of the same stock as the peoples of Asia Minor and Crete and the pre-Hellenic Aegeans of Greece. They are reputed to have built up the city civilization of the Indus Valley, whose remains have been found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa and other Indus cities.

The Dravidians must have spread to the whole of India, supplanting Austrics and Negritos alike. Dravidians comprise all the three sub-types, Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean and Oriental Mediterranean. This group constitutes the bulk of the scheduled castes in the North India. This group has a sub-type called Oriental group.

Their physical characteristics include medium stature, dark skin and long head. In all probability, they first settled in north-west India and started practising agriculture there. However, they were pushed into central and southern India by subsequent immigrants.

 The Western Brachycephals

These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids.

 Alpinoids represented by Gujarati Banias, Kathis of Kathiawar and Kayasthas of Bengal. They came to India along the route passing through Baluchistan, Sind, Kathiawar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Dinaric represented 'by populations of Bengal,Orissa and/Coorg (Karnataka). Dinarics followed the Ganga valley and its delta as their route to enter India.

Armenoids represented by Parsis, Bengali Vaidyas and Kayasthas.They entered India by passing through Chitral, Gilgit, Kashmir and Nepal formed the third route for the Armenoids of the Brachycephal .

Nordics

Nordics or Indo-Aryans are the last immigrants into India. Nordic Aryans were a branch of Indo-Iranians, who had originally left their homes in Central Asia, some 5000 years ago, and had settled in Mesopotamia for some centuries. Nordics were long-headed and fair complexioned, with well developed noses and strongly built bodies. 

The Aryans must have come into India between 2000 and 1500 B.C. Their first home in India was western and northern Punjab, from where r' y spread to the Valley of the Ganga and beyond.

These tribes are now mainly found in the North West and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Many of these tribes belong to the "upper castes".