Hello students, welcome to EPG Partshala. I am Dr. D.V. Prasad from Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkandag. Today, we will discuss the module People of India. from the paper Indian Anthropology and from this module the learning outcomes are to determine the racial elements of India, to determine the ethnic elements of India and to determine the religious elements of India and also to determine the linguistic elements of India.
Further this module also aims to understand the variation in people of India in different geographical regions. India is a multicultural country. The study of different socio-cultural and genetic variability defined the population of India more appropriately. India is the world's second most populous nation after China. Its ethnic composition is very complex.
But two major strains predominate. They are the Aryan in the north and the Dravidian in the south. India is a land of great cultural diversity as it is evidenced by the enormous number of different languages spoken throughout the country.
Although Hindi spoken in north and English, the language of politics and commerce are used officially. More than 1500 languages and dialects are spoken. The Indian Constitution recognizes 15 regional languages i.e. Assami, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu. About 80% of the population is Hindu and 14 population is Muslim and other significant religions include Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and there is no state of religion.
India is a fascinating country where people of many different communities and religions live together in unity. India population is polygenetic and is an amazing amalgamation of various races and cultures. And people of different groups in India living here for hundred or even thousand of years and correspondingly try to maintain their individual identity even by living side by side. anthropology's commitment towards the grasping of different information and the dynamics of communities and populations. India with 1000 million people is one of the world's top 12 mega diversity countries.
Different groups are present in India like from stone age food gatherers to agriculturalists. They also engaged in mechanized and chemicalized agriculture. and mechanized fishing, tapping of shore and oil and natural gas, running atomic power plants and producing computer software.
According to Bhasin and Walter , India is a homeland of over 4000 populations. 3700 endogamous groups are structured in Hindu caste system as Jatis and a thousands of Mendelian population which are autonomous and religious communities. Thus, India offers a cauldron where the process of unification as well as fragmentization are unceasingly taken place. Racial elements of India.
Although there are no strict rules to diversify different races But anthropologists distinguish groups on the basis of common origin living in certain defined regions. and different characteristic features on the basis of geographical regions. Modern man biologically uniform in basic features. For example, upright posture, well-developed hand and feet, absence of bony eyebrow. Scientists depict all human being into single species that is Homo sapiens.
However, Differentiation in groups can be seen on the basis of different geographical regions. The complexity of Indian population by the continuous influence of other new racial elements from outside can be manifested by the classification of different racial elements by different anthropologists. So racial classification of different.
racial elements of India. Different anthropologists try to classify Indian population which are as follows. First of all Sir Herbert Hope Risley. He has given classification basis of physical characteristics based on nine anthropometric measurements of 5784 individuals. In his classification He has given six types of racial groups out of which one Dravidian, second one Indo-Aryan, third Mongoloid, fourth Aryo-Dravidian, sixth Mongolo-Dravidian, then Negrito-Indo-Aryan etc.
When comes to S.E. Haddon, he classified the racial elements in India into the following types. They are mainly Himalayan region, they are Indo-Aryan, Mongolia. B. Northern plains or Hindustan region that consists of Indo-African, Indo-Afghan. The southern plateau or Deccan region consists of Negrito.
Pre-Dravidian and Dravidian, Southern Brachycephalics and Western Brachycephalics, etc. Führer Van Eckstedt, 1934. He has divided the Indian population in three categories. They are Ancient Indians, Melanoid or Black Indians.
Number three, indeed are new Indians. And number four, Paleo-Mongoloid. In Gondid, ancient Indian population, again subdivided into two categories.
They are Gondid and Malid. Gondid, physical features, skin color, dark brown. Their distribution is Juwangs, Bhils, Oran, Gond's.
from central India. Mallid morphological features are skin color, dark brown, hair, curly form, stature, short and their distribution Kurumbar, Veda from south India. Melanite or black Indians are further divided into two groups South Melanite, collate south malanite skin color is black and distribution Anadhis. Kulit. Morphological features.
Skin color is black, brown. Hair dark and curly and the stature is short. Distribution. Munda, Ho, Santal. Indite or New Indians are again classified into two groups i.e.
Grasselle Indite, North Indite. Skin color of Grasselle Indite is brown. And it is common among the Bengalis. North Indian skin color light brown and Rajputs of North India represent this kind of category. When comes to BS Guha classification, it is based on analysis of 29 characters and 63 crude coefficients of racial likeness of different measurements of.
2511 persons belonging to 34 groups with reference to anthropometric techniques of international agreements of 1906 and 1912. So, according to B.S. Guha classification, the following are comes under the racial classification of Guha. Number 1, Negrito.
Number 2, Proto-Australite. Number 3, Mongoloid. Number 4, Mediterranean. 5. The Western Brachycephalus 6. Nordics The Negrito racial groups are found among the Cadars and Puleans.
Their physical features are skin color dark brown to dark black, hair woolly, head small, round, medium, eyes dark. color, nose form, straight, flat and broad. When it comes to proto-australite, the skin color is dark, brown, hair is dark, wavy and curly, long head and eyes are in dark color, nose form broad and stature is short. Proto-australite commonly found among Urali, Baiga, Chanchu, Kanikar, Kone, Bhil, Santal and Uram. Mongolia This is again classified into Paleo-Mongolite, Broad-headed Mongolite and Tibet-Mongolite and their morphological features are straight hair and their eyes showing epicanthic fold.
Distribution tribal groups of Assam, Seminaga, Nepalese, Lepchas are the examples. Tibetan mongolite Tipitans of Bhutan and Sikkim. Mediterranean again divided into three types. Paleo-Mediterranean, Mediterranean and Oriental. And the physical features of Paleo-Mediterranean are Dark hair color or wavy to curly.
Long and narrow head. Narrow face. Dark eyes.
Small and broad nose. and medium stature and they are distributed in tamil brahmins of madhura nairas of cochin and telugu brahmans. skin color is light hair light color hair is dark long head and long face eyes are dark brownish to dark nose form narrow and prominent stature is medium to tall distribution Nambudri Brahmins of Cochin, Allahabad, Bengal and Marathas. When comes to Oriental, almost all characteristics of Mediterranean type except nose form long and convex.
The Oriental are distributed among Punjabi Chettirs and Pathans. Western Brachycephalus are divided into three, Alpanoid, Armonoid and Nadi. Arpanide skin color Light, hair is dark brownish to dark, head broad, face is round, dark brown eyes and prominent nose, stature is medium. They are distributed into Banyas of Gujarat, Khatis of Katiawar, Khayastas of Bengal.
And Armonoid, similar to Dinarik and Parsis of Bombay represent this group. and dinarikar found among the brahmins of bengal, kanaris of brahmins of mysore finally the nautic morphological features are skin color is fair hair is brown to dark and wavy long head and blueish eyes nose form fine and narrow long and straight face tall stature they are distributed among people of punjab rajputna khafirs and Khaistas. Ruggiri's classification. Give Frida Ruggiri classified the Indian population into the following categories.
Number 1, Negrito. Number 2, Pre-Dravidian. Number 3, Dravidian. Number 4, Tall Dolichocephal.
Number 5, Dolichocephalic Aryan. And finally, Brachycephal. like Leukoderma and his classification was not briefly explained to understand the enormous variation of physical types among the people of India. Haddon's classification.
Haddon broadly classified the Indian population into three types. They are Himalayan region, Northern Plains, Southern Plateau region. Again Himalayan region are subdivided into two types. They are Indo-Aryan and Mongolian.
Northland Plains or Hindustan region are again another category Indo-Afghan. Whereas Southern Plateau or Dakkan region subdivided into Negrito, Pre-Dravidian, Dravidian, Southern Brachycephalus and Western Brachycephalus. The main drawback of Hadam's classification was that he did not mention about anything about pre-Aryans of India. When Eckert states classification, he classified the Indian population into four types.
Vedid are ancient Indians, Melanid are black Indians, Indid are new Indians. Finally, paleomongoloid. A kid's classification also faces some criticism from different authorities but it shows a great scope and it can be more convincing by B.S.
Guha's classification. Guha's classification as earlier mentioned he classified the Indian population into negrito, proto-australite, Mongolite Mediterranean Brachycephalus and Nordics. The Negrito elements of Guha's classification also faces criticism almost from all anthropologists.
Further more, Guha tried to prove that all racial elements in India are of foreign origin. Sarkar's classification. As already mentioned, Sarkar classified the population into three types.
That is Dalico Cephalis, Meso Cephalis and Brachycephalis. Although Sarkar's classification was more convincing than any other classification, but contemporary anthropologists are still trying to solve the problem of racial classification of India. Criticism of Classifications Among all the racial classification, Risley's classification has attracted several criticism. From different parts, Rizli classification has neglected Scythio-Dravidian and Mongolo-Dravidians, broad-headed elements in Bengal influenced by Mongolian people.
Speakers of Aryan language also found in vast majority of Indian continent, whereas in Rizli's classification is distributed only in Punjab, Rajputna and Kashmir. According to Risley, broad-headed elements in Bengal have been influenced by Mongolian people, but in reality, it is not found in people living in Bengal. Risley conducted the people of South India speak Dravidian language, but actually, they do not speak Dravidian language and distinctive features from Dravidian. Risley did not mention about Negrito.
elements in India. Guifrata Ragare's classification was too short. In Hadam's classification, he did not mention anything about pre-Aryans of India.
Whereas, Akit's classification shows criticism from different authorities, but it shows a great scope and it can be more convincing by B.S. Guha's classification. Guha's classification Negrito elements of Guha's classification faces criticism almost all from all anthropologists. Furthermore, Guha tried to prove that all racial elements in India are of foreign origin. S.S.
Sarkar's classification is more convincing but contemporary anthropologists try to solve the problems of racial elements of India. Ethnic Elements of India Aggregation of biological and socio-cultural characteristics can be defined as ethnic groups. It comprises caste, schedule caste, schedule tribe and communities. According to Basin and Walter, community can be defined as a group of people having occupational, religious, linguistics or regional characteristics. So, Ethnic elements of India includes caste which include Varna, Jati, Scheduled caste, Scheduled tribe and communities.
Characteristics of caste, these are the following characteristics namely, Hereditary identity, Endogamy, Hereditary occupation, Hierarchy, Purity and Pollution. Restriction on food, drink and smoking, distinction in customs, dress and speech, rules of evidence are found in caste. Hereditary identity and individual born to a particular caste are not allowed to move up and down along the social order.
This means that individual cannot escape from his or her caste identity. comes to endogamy, individual A particular caste can marry within its own caste. Hereditary occupation.
Each caste is associated with its particular occupation. Like Moochies are shoemakers. Chamars are leather workers. Lohars are blacksmiths.
When it comes to hierarchy, each caste cites an evidence of its superiority with reference to the rituals it performs. The customs it observe are the myths of origin. When come to purity and pollution, it is a concept of pollution to maintain between different caste.
Occupational specializations among caste are because of the degree of purity and pollution. Another characteristic is restriction on food, drink and smoking. Membership, norm of each caste determine what a person may eat. and with whom he or she may sit for a meal and distinctions in customs dress and speech the members of high caste are supposed to wear fine clothes and gold ornaments while the members of lower caste wear coarse material and silver ornaments when comes to rule of evidence schedule costs and schedule tribes Schedule costs and schedule tribes were enumerated from 1951 census onwards.
They have been specified by 15 presidential orders issued under the provisions of Article 341 and 342 of the Constitution. They are listed in Schedule Costs and Schedule Tribes Order Amendment Act 1976. In India, 16.2% of the population was schedule costs. and 88.2% as belong to schedule tribes. Occupational specializations of schedule caste and schedule tribe.
Landless agricultural laborers, cultivators with small holdings, small commodity producers or artisans, services particularly of pollution kind. Linguistic elements of India. A high degree of diversity in their languages and dialects is the striking most feature of India.
A linguistic group is an entity of social significance. According to Grierson, India has 179 languages and 544 dialects. According to 1961 census of India, There were 187 languages spoken by different sections of our society.
Classification of Indian Languages The languages in India are grouped under these following 4 family groups. They are 1. Astro-Asiatic Family 2. Nishada 3. Tibeto-Chinese Family Speakers are Kirata, Dravidian family. The speakers are known as Dravida. Indo-Iryapan family, the speakers are Aryans. Austro-Asiatic family are again divided into two branches, Mankhamar branch, Munda branch.
Under Mankhamar branch, it again includes two Khasi group of languages of Assam and Nicobaris of Nicobar island. Whereas Munda branch, speakers belong to central and eastern regions of India. Distribution, hills and jungles of Bihar, Chottanagpur, Odisha and Central India.
They are large in number in Santali speakers and the speeches of this branch, Kherwari, Santali, Mundari, Bhumich, Birhor, Koda or Ho. The Tibeto Chinese language family. They are divided into Simis Chinese subfamily, Tibeto Burmese subfamily.
The Tibeto Burmese family are again divided into Tibeto Himalayan branch, North Assam branch, Assam Burmese branch. You can see the picture, the Tibeto Chinese family were speaking these kind of languages. Dravidian language family, it is again divided into three types.
South Dravidian group, Central Dravidian group, North Dravidian group. South Dravidian group consists of the speeches Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Kodagu, Tulu, Toda, Kota and Telugu. Central Dravidian group includes Kui, Kolami, Gondi, Parji, Koya, Kon and Konda.
North Dravidian group includes Oran and Malto, Indo-European language family. It is divided into Aryan sub-family, unspecified Indo-Aryan tongues. Aryan sub-family is further divided into three branches, Iranian branch, Dardic branch, Dard group. Outer sub-branch consists of the following, North Western group, Southern group, Eastern group and medillite sub-quanch consisting of medillite group central group consisting of hindu hindi hindustani urdu punjabis gujarati hili kandesh rajasthani unspecified indian Aryan tongues Mahasupahari, Tharu, Kevati.
Languages of India in total. Broadly speaking, the principal languages of India constitute the following linguistic regions. 1. Kashmiri, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.
Languages specified in Schedule 8 to the Constitution of India. Thus Schedule 8 recognized 15 languages in India as per census of India 1971. Religious elements of India The major religious distribution in India is as follows. Hindus 80%, Muslims 13.4%, Christians 2.3%, Sikhs 1.9% and Buddhists 0.8%. Jains constitute 0.4%.
Other religious groups are 0.6% and those who are not stated are 0.1%. Then coming to Hinduism, Hindus. Main characteristics of Hinduism is the doctrine of an eternal soul and its rebirth.
It also shows an astonishing variety of doctrines and cultures and the distribution Hindus form over 80% of the total population the entire Orissa state Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh where the population is approximately 90% made up of Hindus and also distinct areas of Himalaya region Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh then coming to Muslims Islam. They are all neither caste the tribes but are merely names given to the groups of tribes supposed to be of similar blood. Two major religious endogamous sections of Muslims are Shia and Sunni and several minor groups like Mumins, Domon, Khoya, Bohra and Moplek are found in India and they are distributed in Kashmir Valley and adjacent Kargil. Thaisil, Mewat, Rohilkand and Upper Doyab, Ganga, Delta and Malasar and the Lakshadweep.
In Lakshadweep, Jammu, Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Christian population and endogamy is found in both the groups. Catholics can marry among its own group and the same can be found in protestant also. Christians, they are the third major religious community in India. Their distribution you can find Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh.
Sixth, the word Sikh is the Punjabi form of the Sanskrit word Sishya, which means discipline, disciple. They are the followers of Guru Nanak Dev. Nine other gurus of whom The last was Sri Guru Gobind Singh. Sikhism was based on the teachings of unity of God, rejection of caste and ritualism and brotherhood of man.
The Sadars include Jat and Khambho, landowners Tarkan, carpenters, kumhar, potters, Mehra, water carrier and Simba. Washerman. The first two castes regard themselves as superior to others. There are some other religious sects among the six like Nihangs, Namdharis and Ramdharis and they are distributed in Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi and any other state including Union Territory which constitute 5%. Then coming to Buddhism.
And evolution of Buddhism was because of the revolt against Vedic religion or Brahminism. Founder of the Buddhism, Kshatriya, Prince Siddhartha. And the principles of Buddhism are non-violence and simple living instead of ritualism. Buddhism is further divided into two sections, Hinayana and Mahayana.
Hinayana believed in Buddha as a guru, whereas Mahayana raised Buddha to the position of a savior God. They are distributed in northeastern states. 28.7% of the Sikkim population and 13.69% in Arunachal and 8.19% in Mizoram constitute the Buddhists. Then comes to other population like Jains.
They are basically urban dwellers. and it is founded by the Kshatriya Prince Vardhaman. Their principles are stress on right actions and good deeds instead of sacrifices.
They are distributed in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Dhalayaras. Their endogamous group migrated from Iran and settled primarily in West India. So, students, let's summarize this module. In this module, so far, you have learned the India's languages, religions, racial, classification and ethnic element differ from place to place within the country.
It often labeled as an amalgamation of several cultures and has been influenced by the history that is. several million old. Also, India is one of the most religious diverse nation in the world and some of the most deeply religious societies and cultures. People of India therefore manifested several features varied in different geographical regions, but it cannot be understand under few contexts.
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