6 Main Types of Racial Groups in India – Essay
Racial differences are based on physical attributes of the humans. The inner qualities of an individual have nothing to do with the races. On the broader scale the present day population of the India has been derived from the following racial groups and sub-groups.
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1. The Negritos
2. The Proto-Australoids
3. The Mongoloids:
(i) Palaeo-Mongoloids
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(a) Long-headed type
(b) Broad-headed type
(ii) Tibeto-Mongoloids
4. The Mediterranean:
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(i) Palaeo-Mediterraneans
(ii) Mediterraneans
(iii) The so-called Oriental sub-type of the Mediterraneans
5. The Western broad-headed people or Bra- chychephals consisting of the
(i) Alpinoids
(ii) Dinarics
(iii) Armenoids
6. The Nordics
The above racial divisions are identified on the basis of the superficial physical and biological differences among human beings such as (i) Colour of skin (ii) Stature and build of the body (iii) Form of head and face (iv) Formation of nose, lips and forehead and (v) Colour and form of eyes and hair. The physical differences distinguishing racial stocks from one another owe their origin to differences in environmental factors in which early evolution took place.
1. The Negritos:
They are the short statured type of human race, believed to have come to India in the earliest time. Negroid race are characterised by (i) woolly hair, (ii) bulbous forehead (iii) broad flat nose and (iv) slightly protruding jaws. Tribal groups such as Poliyans and Kedars living in the hills and forests of the Indian Peninsula and Andaman Islands constitute the Negrito race in India.
2. The Proto-Australoids:
They came to India just after Negritos. The Indus-valley civilization was built by them, along with Mediterraneans, as their skeletons have been discovered from the burial grounds both at Mohanjodaro and Harappa. They make the majority of the population in many isolated or semi-isolated parts of the country. Physically they differ from Negritos mainly in the absence of woolly hair. The hilly and forested tracts of Central and Southern India are inhabited by them.
3. The Mongoloids:
This racial stock is mainly concentrated in the Himalayan border land specially in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Ladakh and other parts of North-Eastern India like Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam and Manipur. Their original homeland was China from where they were pushed southward into the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia and entered India through mountain passes in northern or eastern section. The two sub-groups of Mongoloid racial stock are (i) The Palaeo- Mongoloids and (ii) the Tibeto-Mongoloids.
The Palaeo-Mongoloids:
They are further divided into broad-headed and long-headed subtypes. They inhabit mainly along the fringes of the Himalaya and is found in majority in the population of Assam and the Myanmar border.
Tibeto Mongoloids:
They have come from Tibet as their name indicates. They mostly live in Bhutan and Sikkim as well as in the north-western Himalayan and trans-Himalayan regions.
4. The Mediterranean’s:
This racial stock arrived in India from South-West Asia. From this region during the third and second millennium B.C. the Mediterranean race slowly spread over the surrounding areas.
The people entering India belonged to different though related types of the Mediterranean stock. They are divided into three distinct subgroups such as (i) Palaeo- Mediterranean, (ii) Mediterranean and (iii) So called oriented type. They are all long-headed and they came to India with a fairly high level of civilization. They are also believed to be the bearers of the earliest form of Hinduism into India.
Palaeo-Mediterranean:
The first and the most ancient of these Mediterranean immigrations races entering India have been termed as the Palaeo-Mediterranean. They first settled down in northwestern India and are supposed to have started agricultural practice there.
They were medium statured dark-skinned, slightly built and long-headed people. Later on subsequent immigrations forced them to move to Central and Southern India. At present the bulk of population inhabiting Southern and Northern India are of Palaeo-Mediterranean type of human race.
Mediterranean’s:
This sub group is considered to be the mainstream of the Mediterranean race which entered India a little later. They also settled in the North-Western part of India and are supposed to be the builders of Indus-valley civilisation along with the Proto-Australoids and introduced the first metal or bronze cultures in India roughly between 2500 and 1500 B.C. Later immigrations of human races pushed them into the Ganga plains and even beyond, the Vindhyan mountain ranges. At present the majority of Scheduled Caste Population in North India is constituted by this race.
So-called Oriental type:
They came much later in India. They have a much limited distribution than the other two types. They constitute the majority of the population of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh.
5. Brachycephals:
The broad heads is the characteristics feature of these Brachyacephal groups of races of India. Brachycephals in India are represented by Coorgis and Parsis. These groups consist of the three main sub-groups like (i) Alpinoids (ii) Dinarics and (iii) Armenoids.
Alpinoids:
Alpinoids came to India along the routes passing through Baluchistan, Sind, Kathiawar Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Dinarics:
They followed the Ganga-Valley and its delta as their route to enter India.
Armenoids:
Armenoids of the Brachycephal group of race entered India through the third route formed by Chitral, Gilgit, Kashmir and Nepal.
6. The Nordics:
The final wave of migration into India brought the Aryan speaking Nordics. They spoke Aryan language and migrated to India sometime during the second millennium B.C. They are long-headed, fair-complexioned and have well developed noses and strongly build bodies.
They are mainly concentrated in the north-western part of the country. They are a predominant type in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. In Punjab of north India they are represented among the upper castes.
It is evident from the above description that Indian population has various ethnic components which are quite different from one another. It is rather difficult to find groups having the pure racial blood because of inter mixing among the people of the different racial stock. The concept of purity of race is not feasible anywhere in the world today as there is a mixture of all racial groups in most parts of world.
It is only a comparative concentration or dominance of certain groups in various parts that can be known today. In India also people belonging to different races are found living together. The mixing of people and intermarrying has resulted in inter-mixing of racial characteristics.
The physical characteristics have merged with one another with the result that the race similarities and differences arc- only indicators of some association with certain racial stock.