Racial Diversity in India

Racial Diversity in India

We live in a world of differences, of seemingly infinite diversity and variety. These differences are of all types, affecting both animate and inanimate matter, living and non-living thing.

There are also different levels of human variation. Some differences are at the individual level, others are at the population or racial level. The first distinguish us as separate individuals, the second distinguish a population of individuals as a separate race.

In the system of biological classification called taxonomy a race is a subdivision or branch of a species, and a species in turn is a subdivision or branch of a genus.

®  Race-Meaning & Definition

Meaning. A race is a group of people with a set of distinctive physical features such as skin, color, type of nose, form of hair etc.

Definition. A. W. Green says, “A race is a large biological human grouping with a number of distinctive, inherited characteristics which vary within a certain range.”

The Indian sub-continent received a large number of migratory races mostly from the Western and Eastern directions.Majority of the people in India are descendants of immigrants from across the Himalayas. Their dispersal into sub-continent has resulted in the consequent regional concentration of a variety of ethnic elements.

The diversity in India is unique.India presents endless varieties of physical features and cultural patterns. The vast population is composed of people having diverse creeds, customs and colours.

®  The characteristics that help to identify different racial groups include,

*        Colour of hair

*        Quantity and distribution of the hair on the body

*        Colours of eyes

*        Shape of eyelids

*        Shape of the nose, the lip,and the skull

*        Skin colour

*        Body height

®  Scientific racism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries divided mankind into three races (Classification of Contemporary Anthropologists) :

          1.Mongoloids       -        North eastern region

                                                Tibeto Burmen language

          2.Caucasoid                    -       Indo-Aryan

3.Negritos            -       Andaman island of  the south eastern                                               country

These six racial types can be reduced to three basic types- the Indo-Aryan, the Mongolian and the Dravidian.

®  Herbert Risley had classified the people of India into seven racial types. These are –

1.     Turko – Iranian,

2.     Indo-Aryan,

3.     Scytho-Dravidian

4.     Aryo-Dravidian

5.     Mongo o- Dravidian

6.     Mongoloid and

7.      Dravidian.

®  Dr B.S Guha identifies the population of India into six main ethnic groups, namely

(1) Negrito’

(2)  Proto-Australoids,

(3)  Mongoloids

(4) Mediterranean or Dravidian

(5) Western Brachycephals and

(6) Nordic.

®  A general classification:-

*        The hierarchical positions of the caste are also believed to have their origin in the racial characteristics.

1.     Aryans

2.     Dravidians

1.Aryan:-

*         Dark-skinned people

*        They represented the Caucasoid

2.Dravidians:-

*         Yellow Skinned People

*        They represented Proto-Australoid races.

®  Racial diversity of modern India

v According to a 2009 study published by David Reich., the modern Indian population is composed of two genetically divergent and heterogeneous populations which mixed in ancient times (about 1,200–3,500 BC), known as

1.Ancestral North Indians (ANI)

2. Ancestral South Indians (ASI)

In this way diversity pervades on the whole of Indian subcontinent. And such diversities are not the hallmarks of Indian culture. The main theme of Indian culture is unity which absorbs all these diversities.

Physical Diversity

Based on Physical and Geographical features of India. Spanning an area of 3,287,263 square kilometers, India is a vast country with great diversity of physical features like dry deserts, evergreen forests, snowy Himalayas, a long coast and fertile plains. Certain parts in India are so fertile that they are counted amongst the most fertile regions of the world, while other are so unproductive and barren that hardly anything can be grown there.

The region of Indo-Gangetic valley belongs to the first category, while certain areas of Rajasthan fall under the latter category. From the point of climate, there is a sharp contrast; India has every variety of climates from the blazing heat of the plains, as hot in places as hottest Africa to freezing points of the Himalayas as in the Arctic.

The Himalayan ranges which are always covered with snow are very cold while the deserts of Rajasthan are well known for their heat. As India is dependent on Monsoons, the rainfall is not uniform across the country. While the places like Mawsynram and Cherapunji in Meghalaya, which are considered to be the places which receives highest amount of rainfall in the world gets rainfall almost all the year, places like Sindh and Rajasthan gets hardly any rainfall in an year.

This variation in the climate has also contributed to a variety of flora and fauna in India. In fact, India possesses the richest variety of plants and animals known in the world. The unique geographic demographics also host a unique eco-system rich with vegetation, wildlife, rare herbs, and a large variety of birds

*        Features:

          North-Himalaya

          Western Ghats & Eastern Ghats

          Planes of Ganges and Indus

          Plateau

          Western and Eastern  sea coast

          Islands

          Deserts