Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India: Indian Population ...

CHAPTER 16

Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India:Indian Population Milieu

M. K. Bhasin

INTRODUCTION

Anthropology is the study of man in timeand space. The focus of anthropological researchis on human population(s) living in an ecologicalniche.

Anthropology can be categorized under thefollowing main heads:

1. Palaeoanthropology2. Social/Cultural Anthropology3. Biological Anthropology1. Palaeoanthropology: The research and

training in Palaeoanthropology is divided in twodistinct areas. One emphasizes the metho-dological training in Prehistoric Archaeology andthe other in Palaeontology

Prehistoric Archaeology: The prehistoricarchaeology includes a total introduction to thestudy of geo-chronology through the analysisof such variables as alluvial deposits as alsofaunal and floral characteristics associated withsuch deposits on a world-wide basis. Antiquityanalysis in terms of the techniques of manufactureas well as their morphology is included asstandard components of prehistoric culture.Finally, on the ground of these basics, a thoroughstudy of the various stages of Palaeolithic,Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic culturesfor the entire Old World is undertaken.

Palaeontology: Palaeontological includesthe detailed study of the character anddistribution of fossil primates. Primate behaviourwith specific attention to adaptational attributesare also included within this scheme. Adapta-tional radiation in both hominoid and hominidevolution forms another important aspect of thiscourse.

2. Social/Cultural Anthropology: Social/cultural anthropology is the study of socialinstitutions and human behaviour in a cross-cultural perspective. It attempts to unravel theunderlying designs of human existence with aview to arrive at generalizations having validity

not only at the level of the concerned culture butalso at the global level.

3. Biological (Physical) Anthropology: Itcan be defined as the scientific study of inter-and intra-population variations.

It was in 1951 that S.L. Washburn laid down adistinction between the pre-1951 and post-1951physical anthropology referred as Old PhysicalAnthropology and New Physical Anthropology,respectively. Before 1951 physical anthropologywas considered to be a descriptive study ofbiological parameters to an understanding of theircauses. From 1951 onwards mathematical modelsformulated for population biology have becomepopular for understanding the causes ofvariation and co-existence of genetic traits. Thusthe orientation of physical anthropology haschanged from description to causes to models.

In the descriptive type of physical anthro-pology, G.W. Lasker has identified five major areasof interest according to which relevant techniquesfor investigation were devised.1. The form of bones and teeth2. Determination of age and sex and ethnic

group from bones and teeth3. Human growth and development4. Composition of the body and its variation5. Body build and its application to human

engineering.Although in Lasker’s formulation, dermato-

glyphics did not figure, it occupied an importantplace in physical anthropology preceding 1951.Therefore, for completing the list of the oldinterests, the inclusion of dermatoglyphics isimperative. Since 1951, the various dermato-glyphic traits occupied an important place inbiological anthropology. But it should not beforgotten that these interests listed by Laskerare instrumental in generating a wealth of data,still valuable for accomplishing newer interests.These fields have not been discarded bybiological (physical) anthropologists when theNew Physical Anthropology, the result of theconsanguinity between evolutionary andadaptational theory on the one hand and geneticson the other, had gained ground. With the “New

Address of Correspondence: Dr. M. K. BhasinB-2(GF), South City II, Gurgaon 122 002, Haryana,India

168 M. K. BHASIN

Physical Anthropology”, the interests whichhave come to stay are:1. Serological studies2. Biochemical genetics especially of various

polymorphic systems.3. Studies of evolutionary factors such as

mutation, natural selection and gene flow.4. Primatological studies, of their biology and

behaviour.5. Demographic studies, especially of factors

that affect inbreeding and genetic drift andthe biological consequences of formal kinshipand alliance systems.

6. Anthropometric and anthroposcopic studies,with reference to nutritional factors andensuing demographic characters.

7. Ecological studies dealing with biological andcultural adaptations.Physical anthropology has achieved new

strides after Washburn’s 1951 statement. Forgrasping the laws and processes of human evolu-tion, molecular evidences have been marshalled,leading to the advent of microscopic work in thearea. Human cytogenetics has made an out-standing contribution towards the knowledge ofadaptation and evolution. Evolution at the genic(elemental) level is that which is being soughtthrough DNA analysis using recombinanttechniques. Thus, we have come a long wayfrom morphological studies (morphological,behavioural, anthropometric, and dermatoglyphictraits - the mode of inheritance of all thesecharacters is still rather unclear) to those ofgenetic or classical markers (blood groups andprotein markers), and to the newly discoveredmolecular techniques which have provided a newdirection and a whole battery of powerfulpolymorphic systems to study genetic diversity(Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, 2003; Jorde andWooding, 2004). The question, what happens togenes with degradation in biotic environment,acquires a primary place. With these newer andstill newer interests, different kinds of techniqueshave been enunciated to understand nature-nurture relationship in a better fashion. More-over, there has been a concomitant advancementin statistical methods and we are now in a positionto make use of many parameters (Collins et al.,2003; Bamshad et al., 2004; Tishkoff and Kidd,2004; Cavalli-Sforza, 2005).

The populations of India and other SouthAsian countries offer great opportunities to studysocio-cultural and genetic variability. Perhaps,

nowhere in the world people in a small geographicarea are distributed as such a large number ofethnic, castes, religious and linguistic groups asin India and other South Asian countries. All thesegroups are not entirely independent; peoplebelong concurrently to two or more of thesegroups. People of different groups living side byside for hundreds or even thousands of year tryto retain their separate entities by practicingendogamy.

India is a multicultural country. Anthropolo-gists are committed to grasping the dynamics ofcommunities and populations. As anthropologycombines the premises of a biological as well aswell as socio-cultural study, it looks at the diversesections of human beings with dual perspective,one derived from its branch called biologicalanthropology, and the other from social/culturalanthropology. How communities and populationscontinue to retain their identity, in social andcultural terms on one hand and biological on theother, and how they acquire the characteristicsof the others because of cultural borrowing orinterbreeding are the questions anthropologistssystematically investigate.

India with about 1000 million people has thesecond largest population in the world and it isone of the world’s top twelve megadiversitycountries and has vast diversity of human beings,fauna, flora and environmental regimes. Itspresent population includes stone-age food-gatherers, hunters, fisher-folk, shifting culti-vators, peasant communities, subsistenceagriculturists, nomadic herders, entertainers, aswell as those engaged in mechanized andchemicalized agriculture, mechanized fishing,tapping offshore oil and natural gas, runningatomic power plants and producing computersoftware. India has been peopled by humangroups carrying a diversity of genes and culturaltraits. We have almost all the primary ethnicstrains Proto-Australoid, Mediterranean,Mongoloid, Negrito and a number of compositestrains. It is homeland of over 4000 Mendelianpopulations, of which 3700 endogamous groupsare structured in the Hindu caste system as ‘jatis’.Outside the preview of caste system there are athousand odd Mendelian populations which aretribal autochthones and religious communities.

Like any other plural society, India offers acauldron where the processes of unification aswell as of fragmentalisation are unceasingly takingplace. This presents a situation of cultural,

GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 169

biological and environmental richness anddiversity, and one where the constant interactionsbetween communities are aiding the formation ofbridges, thus creating a sense of unity. It is inthese terms that India offers an ideal case forexamining unity in diversity both biological andsocio-cultural perspectives. (Bhasin et al., 1994;Lahr and Foley, 1998; Bhasin and Walter, 2001;Cann, 2001; Bamshad et al., 2004).

In the present paper an attempt has been madeto give an outline of Indian population milieu.

SKELETAL REMAINS (HOMINOID/HUMAN)

Earlier it was pointed out that the first real“ancestor” of man is Ramapithecus (name afterthe Indian god Rama) who lived about 14 millionyears ago (Fig. 1). Now Ramapithecus is nolonger considered a hominid ancestor bypalaeontologists. From Central India, NarmadaMan skull was found in 1982 by Arun Sonakia(Sonakia, 1982). With regard to both its antiquityand phylogenic position, a good deal ofcontroversy is still going on. It is believed byseveral to be an ante-Neanderthal or Homoerectus (Lumley H and Sonakia, 1985; LumleyMA and Sonakia, 1985). Kennedy et al. (1991)further identified and concluded on the basis ofmetric and comparative investigations that“Narmada Man” is appropriately a Homo sapiens.They added, however, that given its broad suiteof Homo sapiens morphometric characters it isnot appropriate to assign Narmada man to a newtaxon beyond the trinomial designation of Homosapiens narmadensis. In a more recent publicationKennedy writes: “In the context of currentdebates about Homo erectus as a valid taxon (isit a species, an evolutionary grade, a paleo-species, or just a collection of specimens certaininvestigators decide belong together?) and therelationship of middle Pleistocene hominids toanatomically modern sapiens (regional continuity[or multiregional] hypothesis versus themitochondrial Eve-displacement hypothesis),Narmada has a critical role to play. At present itappears that Narmada is a late middle-pleistocenerepresentative of early Homo sapiens with animpressive suite of anatomical characteristicsshared with other early sapiens populations fromEurasia and Africa but possessing certain uniquefeatures of cranial morphology that may haveevolved in India. It does not seem appropriate toassign Narmada to a new taxon” (Kennedy, 2000:

p. 180). A number of fossil specimens have beenrecorded from India, but most of the write-upstotally overlook the aspects of ethnic or racialaffinities of the specimens.

An attempt has been made in cataloguing thevarious skeletal (hominoid/human) remains ofIndia by Kennedy and Caldwell (1984). Theresearch work is mainly confined to the numberof specimens, primary dating and archaeologicalreference and descriptions of burial circum-stances and practices apart from giving anaccount on ageing and sexing. The write-uptotally overlooks the aspects of ethnic or racialaffinities of the recorded specimens. Earlier, in1972, Sarkar, who was actively working on thestudy of the ancient races of India, came outwith some ethnic description of the varioushuman skeletal remains. In his earlier work,Ancient Races of Baluchistan, Punjab and Sind(1964), he tried to throw some light on the Indo-Aryan problem and suggested the builders ofHarappa culture as Indo-Caspians. In his laterexhaustive work on the Ancient Races of theDeccan, on the basis of examination of humanskeletal remains from Langhnaj, Lothal, Nevasa,Chandoli, Hyderabad, Megaliths, Yelleswaram,Piklihal and other sites of the Deccan hepostulated that the Dravidian speaking peopleevolved from the Veddids or Australoids. Evenas early as in 1935, Keith also pointed out theevolution of Dravidians from Veddids orAustraloids. It is believed that the complexitiesand variations as one observes in today’spopulation were the results of environmentalchanges and hybridization. Keith also published(1972) the original reports on skeletal remainsfrom Brahamgiri, where he mentioned of yetanother stock: Scytho-Iranian. Other than this,Sastri (1966) also supposed to have come acrossa fossil pygmy skeleton (although its hominoidstatus and antiquity is not clear as there were nofurther references to it). He attributed this to theearliest representative of Negrito in India.

Nevertheless, it remains a fact that there isalways the problem of disputes arising whileidentifying the specimens correctly and hybridi-zation or environmental effects which are oftenused as alternative causes for marked changesare no longer taken for granted. Moreover, therepeated allegations that most of archaeologistsand other investigators seem to be morepreoccupied with the artifacts and other materialevidences and do not show much interest in the

170 M. K. BHASIN

Fig. 1. Prehistoric sites from where skeletal specimens found from India (after Bhasin,Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

Miocene (Ramapithecus) before 14 million years age

Pleistocene

Holocene and Later Hunter-Gatherer

Harappan Civilization

Gandharan Grave Culture

Central and Southern Indian Communities

Megalith Builders and Their Iron Age Collaterals (1300-500 B.C.)

0

skeletal remains is also mostly true. Therefore,quite a number of studies (may be of the samespecimens excavated earlier) are needed todaywhich may come out with a meaningful fossilstudy of the Indian sub-continent. And it is hopedthat when the number of collections of fossilspresumed to belong to our ancestral stock wouldbe sufficiently large, it would permit somepopulation studies and the specimens can alsobe used as acceptable population samples.

PREHISTORY AND HISTORY

Ancient Age

Both prehistory and history of a country

together form the background material towardsunfolding the pages of emergence of cultures.The problem of terminology in Indian prehistoryis well known. This arises naturaly due to thedifficulty in coinciding the Indian prehistoric agesor cultures (which is based on the materialevidence or tool types and assemblages) withthe European culture items. Many anthro-pologists/ archaeologists (Cammiade and Burkitt,1930; Subbarao and Allchin, 1960; Misra, 1961)have attempted to solve this problem but stilldifferent terms are in vogue. During the longstone age estimated to cover over 5,00,000 yearsand forming part of the last geological periodnamely Pleistocene, and was believed to havebeen a savage-having no fixed habitation hunting

INDIASites-Skeletal Specimens

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and gathering. It is noted that the great climaticchanges of the last glaciation undoubtedlyexerted new environmental pressure alteringman’s number and habitat through changes inthe biota stimulating enforced migrations intonew environmental niches and changing the life-styles. Changing in the environment and circum-stances gradually brought about changes in toolsand artefacts, which are the main, and sometimesthe only source to reconstruct the physcialenvironment, customs, practices and social lifeof a period. However, with further excavations ofother associated materials like mammal bones,ornaments etc. terms like stone age became moreor less irrelevant.

Human occupation in the Indian subconti-nent began with a series of stone-tool industries(Fig. 2). The stage in man’s progress that arethen put forward by Sankalia et al. (1973) are:1. Primitive Food Collecting Stage or Early and

Middle Stone Age2. Advanced Food Collecting Stage or Late

Stone Age/Mesolithic3. Transition to Incipient Food Production or

Early Neolithic4. Settled Village Communities or Advanced

Neolithic/Chalcolithic5. Urbanization or Bronze Age

The Earliest Human Settlements

The evidence of stone tools in IndianPalaeolithic and certain caves and rocksheltershelps only in a very small way to visualize the lifeof their makers (for the sites see Fig. 2). It is moreor less clear that they were ignorant of agricultureand house building and had no domesticatedanimals. The caves and rockshelters might haveserved as seasonal camps for human being (?).In the Palaeolithic Age the communities musthave been very small and perhaps semi-nomadic.

Piggot, (1952) also mentioned that dating isuncertain but earlier man was living in scatteredhunting and gathering communities on thealluvial plains and in the marshlands and openparklands of the major river valleys (as suggestedby the location and type of tool assemblages).

The epiglacial phase from 10,000 to 50,000B.C. following the end of pleistocene more orless coincided with the transitional Mesolothiccultural dispersals. Hunting and gatheringremained the main sources of making a living butas vegetation shrank and the bigger game gra-

dually disappeared (presumably due to markedclimatic changes ) man turned to other sourceslike water sources, birds or exploitation of plantproducts as suggested by tool assemblages. Butoverall, this was a preparatory stage during whichman was mostly dependent upon natural resour-ces. In other words, in this period the concen-tration of population began along river valleysmarking the start of a transition to settled livingin which food-gathering turned into food-producing. It was argued that the people whocamped in rock shelters, the mouths of cavesand in open settlement sites could not havenumbered more than a couple of hundredindividuals.

Kivisild et al. (2000) have studied Indianmitochondrial DNA variants in the global networkof maternal lineages and the peopling of the OldWorld. They summarized their results as follows:“Both western and eastern Eurasian-specificmtDNA haplotypes can be found in Indiatogether with strictly Indian-specific ones.However, in India the structure of the haplo-groups shared either with western or easternEurasian populations is profoundly different.This indicates a local independent developmentover a very long time period. Minor overlaps withlineages in other Eurasian populations clearlydemonstrate that recent immigrations have hadvery little impact on the innate structure of thematernal gene pool of Indians. Despite thevariations found within India, these populationsstem from a limited number of founder lineages.These lineages were most likely introduced tothe Indian subcontinent during the MiddlePalaeolithic, before the peopling of Europe andperhaps the Old World in general. Ourdemographic analysis reveals at least two majorexpansion phases that have influenced the wideassortment of the Indian mtDNA lineages. Themore recent phase, which according to ourestimation started around 20,000-30,000 yearsago, seems to correspond to the transition fromthe Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. The firstexpansion phase may reflect a demographic burstimmediately after the initial peopling of Indiaaround 50-60 thousand years ago. This wave ofexpansion brought forward also those maternallineages that can rightfully claim the name ofEurasian Eves” (p. 150).

Roychoudhury et al. (2000) reportedmitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profile of 23 ethnicgroups of India, which have been drawn from

172 M. K. BHASIN

different cultural, linguistic and geographicalbackgrounds. They observed that Indian popu-lations were founded by a small number offemales, possibly arriving on one of the earlywaves of out-of-Africa migration of modernhumans; ethnic differentiation occurred subse-quently through demographic expansion andgeographic dispersal. Further they have foundthat South-east Asia was peopled by two wavesof migration, one originating in India and the otheroriginating in Southern China.

The Neolithic Age of the Ancient Orient isapproximately dated from 6000 to 4000 B.C. Thechief characteristics of this period are theexclusive use of non-metal implements, domesti-cation of animals, and a knowledge of agriculture(for the sites see Fig. 2) Corollary to agriculture isthe development of village life. Towns alsostarted appearing during the Neolithic phase.Towards the end of Neolithic pottery began to

appear and metals came into use around 4000 to3000 B.C.

The full Neolithic which began in differentcommunities between the seventh and sixthmillennium B.C. was not characterized by auniform step-by-step technological sequencefrom one type of artefact to another or in thepresence of types of ceramic ware or even inhouse types and settlement patterns, rather itwas an adjustment of separate small communitiesto the ecological resources and advantages oflocal environments.

In other words, the Neolithic does not alwaysimply the universal presence of specified domes-ticated plants and animals, pottery, polishedstone tools and sterotyped settlment patterns.The biological consequences to man were alsonot the same throughout India.

Bowles (1977) put forth the interpretation thatthe ability to control production and storage of

Fig. 2. Major cultural sites found from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

Lower and Middle PalaeolithicUpper PalaeolithicMesolithic SitesNeolithic Sites

INDIAMajor Cultural Sites

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life’s essentials encouraged the growth of largerpermanent settlements and these in turn led totechnical innovation, division of labour, theformation of social classes and ultimately thesuperimposition of a system of administrativecontrols. Biologically such developments meantan increase in the demographic dimensions ofalimited number of populations (gene pools)-these possessing the knowledge of food produc-tion-at the expense of other who retained theearlier type of natural economy and who couldnot expand numerically beyond the limits set bynature.

As urban centres developed, they attracteda large number of traders, artisans and labourersfrom ever-increasing distances, a process accen-tuated during the metal age with the emergenceand expansion of Empires and commencement ofthe historic period about 3000 B.C. After the firstpopulation explosion Asia remained, for amillennium or more, the most favoured quartersand thus by the end of this period, Indus valleydeveloped a comparable neolithic nexus.

Permanent settlements of substantial sizewith populations ranging from a few hundredsto two or three thousands began to emerge atsuch sites as Brahmagiri, Nevasa, Chandoli,Pandu-Rajar Dhibi (in East Indian Neolithic) etc.

With complexity in society, trade flourished.The development of trade became an importantfactor in knitting together the social fabric of localcommunities into village units and regionalsocieties. However it may prove impossible todetermine how many clusters there were.

Although a negligible number of hominidremains have been found, it is actually thousandsof artefacts from a large number of sites whichpoint to probable contact and migration eitherwest ward or east ward or both during all majorperiods. Microliths for example, were foundconcentrated in the western half which seems toimply introduction from that direction.

It has been commented that so much is knownabout the mesolithic, neolithic and chalcolithicperiods of Western Asia than of the southernPeninsula that it is easy to overlook the impor-tance of these areas.

India apparently derived much of its Neolithicas well as its Metal age civilization from twosources—one along the Makran Coast andBaluchistan in the west, the other from south-east Asia by way of the Arakan coast and Assam(Fairservis, 1971). The knowledge of the first

source is documented from numerous sites inthe arid regions along the foothill rim of the Indusvalley, the second is still largely covered withdense vegetation and is only beginning to beunderstood (Bowles, 1977).

Until recently, it had been thought that theIndus Valley or Harappan Civilization sites wereactually scattered mesolithic hunting andgathering communities transformed into moreconcentrated permanent Neolithic and Copper-Bronze Age Settlements. But the discovery of anumber of wall-enclosed complex urbanizedmound-based Neolithic settlements in the nowdried-up Saraswati river bed in Rajasthan inKathiawar and parts of southern Gujarat havechanged this view.

The distinctive features of Harappan Civiliza-tion with uniform assemblages of tools, uniquemethods of water supply, drainage, hypocaustsystem for heating grand central bath, remarkableindividual feature including the ceramic techni-ques, the systems of weights and measures andthe differentiation between the citadel and slavequarters all point to the existence of a complexsociety with considerable social stratification andcomplex administrative machinary.

The Indus Valley Civilization extendedthroughout the entire river basin from theHimalayan foothills and the Doab or Gangeswatershed to coastal Gujarat with an estnarinedock at Lothal and an outpost at Thane nearBombay.

About the origin of the Harappan Civilizationpractically nothing definite is known. Differentversions are put forward-right from Sumerian ora Semitic origin, to the Dravidian and Mundari areoften mentioned. Even origins from Baluchistanand Iranian uplands were suggested1.

Sastri and Srinivasachari (1980) proposed thatat about 3000 B.C., Baluchistan which as lessarid than now was inhabited by small groups ofpeople from the Iranian uplands. These migrantsbrought with themthe knowledge of agricultureand the organisation of small self-sufficientvillage communities. In the course of about 500years, after they had settled in Baluchistan, they

1Excavations at Harappa were resumed in 1986 underthe direction of Dr. George F. Dales of the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, and are countinuing each year atthat site. Some 100 skeletons have been removed fromsite (Mature Harappan cemetery of R-37) by Drs. Nancy C.Lovell, John R. Lukacs, Brain E. Hemphill and KennethA.R. Kennedy.

174 M. K. BHASIN

migrated in big or small group into the Indusvalley.

But the sudden emergence of the urban civili-zation still baffles the interpreters of Harappancultures. Some believe that urban civilization wassuperimposed on the people suddenly bystrangers coming from outside at some time inthe middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. It is quiteimpossible to say when Harappan civilizationgrew up’. The civilization is unique in a sensethat it was almost a fully classified state as earlyas 3000 B.C. It is said that it may well have beenevolved by the natives of the soil and foreignsettlers induced new ideas which Harappansabsorbed and evolved into a distinct matureculture.

The Indus Valley Civilization has spread fromit southern bases to the Himalayan foothills, upthe the valley of Kashmir, around 1800 B.C.

The next culture in the chronology which isknown as the Chalcolithic is dated roughly from4000 to 3000 B.C. This is called so because themain tool types representing this culture weremade of copper along with stone (for the sitessee Fig. 3), although there was no proper BronzeAge in India as in Europe. However, bronze wasnot unknown and many bronze materials werefound. Here, it should be mentioned that thereare hundreds of diverse findings which suggestthat there are still many problems to be solved.

It is also noted that early Neolithic and BronzeAge migrations into India have not been clearlydefined and skeletal evidence from Baluchistanis far from satisfactory.

Sen (1967) argued that leaving aside thequestions of ordered sequence of migrations anddemographic fluctuations, there was no skeletalevidence to show that a biologically new elementcould be held accountable for the developmentof Indus Valley Civilization. Estimations of totalpopulation have varied widely and the rationalesfor the differences climate, food supply, diseasesand technology—and their analyses also varysignificantly. According to Sarkar (1972), thepopulation of Mohenjodaro and Harappa hadbeen estimated variously between 35,000 and40,000 with a very high density of population peracre.

It is proved that the valley of Kashmir wasknown earlier to the settled people and mesolithicartefacts have been found. Excavations in Kash-mir also give evidence of earlier proto-urbansettlements. Apart from the above, Kashmir also

yielded earlier palaeolithic artefacts which aremore allied to those of North India, so it might beconjectured that the builders of Burzahom(Kashmir) crossed the Hindukush by 2000 B.C.or thereabouts.

For the rest of Greater India - the scenario is afollows during the ancient age. About the GangesBasin, the Deccan and the Peninsular and coastalsouth is far less known but it is assumed thatnothing like the civilization developments hadtaken place at comparable levels of antiquity. Itwas not until after the entry of the Aryans thatthe urban civilization extended into the middleGanges and parts of the Deccan synchronisedwith the entry of Aryans. The so-called Chalcoli-thic, Pre-Harappan and Harappan periods in theIndus valley, Gujarat and western Maharashtraare generally contemporary with the so-calledNeolithic of the Deccan and Eastern India.

Towards the end of the stone tool phase, thefirst evidence of agricultural settlement appearedin Baluchistan in the northwest. This culturespread across the northwest corner of the countryduring the next 2000 years, giving rise eventuallyto the highly developed Indus Civilization, whichcame to an abrupt end around 1750 B.C. Whetherdirectly related or not, the decline of the Induscivilization coincided with the movement intoIndia from the Iranian plateau and the Caucasusof Aryan peoples speaking an Indo-Europeanlanguage.

Culture Phase and Tools Types

The contemporary culture phase with the tooltypes and areas of reign may be a follow:1. Neolithic - Polished celts, Pottery limited to

hand-made jars, in the east (Assam, Bihar,Bengal and parts of the adjacent Deccan).

2. Neolithic - Chalcolithic with polished celtsand blade tools, hand-made pottery andwattle and daub houses in Central India,Karnatak, Gujarat, Baluchistan.

3. Chalcolithic- Bronze with Stone blade andcopper-bronze tools wheel-made pottery inthe north-west (Sind, Saurashtra andPunjab).

4. Chalcolithic-Bronze- with copper or bronzebut no stone tools, wheel-made pottery innorth-west-Sind, Saurashtra and Punjab.To sum up, during the second millennium B.C.,

settlements associated with copper and bronze


tools spread rapidly down the Ganges valley.Within a matter of centuries the entire basin hadbeen largely cleared of forests and was suppor-ting a relatively dense population which at leastin its biological aspects, is probably reflected inthe majority of the present day inhabitants.Meanwhile, it is believed that there was a spreadof south-east Asian culture complex and a possi-ble minimal immigration via Assam and Burmainto Bengal and Central India.

Main Tools Types

The terms attributed to different cultures arebased on the tool assemblages and types. Forexample the chalcolithic age has come to beknown as an age where the tool assemblageswere mainly composed of copper artefacts.Though there are scores of tool assemblagesreported and analysed and some are still beingexcavated—it is impossible to give a descriptionof all these tool types here. Therefore, thefollowing is a simplified and short version of thedominant/main tool types found from the Indiansub-continent (for the sites see Figs. 2 and 3).

A detailed and extensive account on theprehistory and protohistory of Indian subconti-nent can be studied from Sankalia (1962, 1979)and Allchin and Allchin (1983).

4), also associated with Aryan cultural levels inthe Ganges valley.

These Aryan penetrations into the Deccanput into contact, by the end of the first millenniumB.C., with other types as revealed by the presenceof megalithic burial sites, which were widespreadin southern Indian by about 300 B.C. Whetherthe megalithic builders came from outside Indiaor represented a local development is still notclear.

HISTORY

From the fourth century B.C. onwards for 2000years, India, particularly in the north, wassubjected to repeated waves of penetration byalien peoples. History testifies that Greeks,Parthians, Sakas (Scythians) and Pahlavasincluding the Kushans were the first to come inafter the Indo-Aryan civilization entered itssettled course (Fig. 5). The Huns came insomewhat larger numbers at the close of theGupta epoch. These succession of peoples fromoutside India were assimilated into Hindu society.On the west coast, Jews and Parsis came afterfleeing from their own homelands. ArabianMuslims, Persian Muslims, Turks and Afghans,whose total number was very large came to Indiafrom time to time. The Muslim immigration intoIndia began even before the Arab invasions ofthe Sind quite early in the eighth century A.D.and ended with the establishment of the MughalEmpire in the sixteenth century. This was the lastmajor movement which produced someperceptible changes in the composition andculture of the indigenous population. TheMuslims did not accept the Hindu religion butthey made converts to their religion. The Euro-peans—Portuguese, Dutch, French and Britishstarted their intrusions from 15th century A.D.onwards and the Indo-European community grewfrom these infusions. In the east Shan peoplesfrom Southeast Asia the entered eastern part ofIndia (Assam).

RACIAL CLASSIFICATION

Anthropologists distinguish groups ofpeople on the basis of common origin, living, orhaving lived, in certain defined regions andpossessing differing characteristic features intheir appearance. But one should remember thatthere are no strict lines of demarcation between

Geological Tool Types CultureAge Terms(European)

Copper ChalcolithicHolocene Polished Celts Neolithic

Microliths MesolithicPalaeolithic

Pleistocene Bone Points, Harpoons UpperBlades, Burins, Art objectsFlakes with Levalosians MiddleTechniquesCore Bifaces Lower

The Aryans

The Aryans were initially localized to the westof Indus river, but gradually their influence,observed by the presence of Painted Grey Warepottery extended further east into the westernGanges valley. Aryan influence also appears tohave moved south to the Deccan plateau,indicated by the introduction of iron and later ofthe Northern Black Polished pottery type (Fig.

176 M. K. BHASIN

races. All these groups blend imperceptibly intoone another with intermediate types possessingvarious combinations of physical characteristics.Modern man is biologically uniform in basicfeatures (for example upright posture, well-developed hand and feet, prominent chin,absence of bony eye brow, an intricately struc-tured brain encased in a big skull with a straighthigh forehead and 46 number of chromosomes)and polymorphous as regards many secondaryfeatures. Scientists consider all human beings asbelonging to a single species, Homo sapiens.The variations found in groups living in differentgeographical areas reflect only a differentiationwithin the single species due to host of biological,social and other factors. In anthropology thereare two schools of thought on the origins of manand the major races—the polycentric and themonocentric schools. The polycentric theory

(Franz Weidenreich, U.S.A.) claims that modernman evolved in several regions relativelyindependent of one another and that peoplesdeveloped at different rates. This theory claimsthat modern man evolved from the “oldest” and“old” people in each region and that this gaverise to the formation of the major races—Europoid,Negroid, Australoid, Mongoloid, etc. On the otherhand monocentrists (for example Henri-VictorVallois and G. Olivier in France, Francis Howell inthe U.S.A., Kenneth Oakley in Britain, VsevolodP. Yakimov, U.S.S.R.) consider modern man to haveevolved in a single region. The ancient Homosapiens who evolved there did not possess clearlydistinguished traits of any of the modern races. Itwas only when human groups spread geo-graphically and settled in definite territories thatracial types evolved. That is why the races ofmodern mankind resemble one another so closely.

I Indus System VI Rajputana-SaurashtraII Ganges System VII Narmada SystemIII Brahmaputra System VIII Tapi SystemIV Mahanadi System IX Godavari Pravara SystemV Chambal System X Bhima SystemXI Karnataka System

Fig. 3. Major Chalcolithic Cultural sites found from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

INDIAChalcolithic Sites

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F BENGAL


Fig. 4. Distribution of Painted Grey Ware (PGW), Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW),Prehistoric and Contemporary Megaliths sites from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

INDIAPGW, NBPW & Megaliths Sites

Bay o

f Ben

gal

Arabian Sea

Distribution of Painted Grey Ware (PGW)Distribution of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW)Prehistoric MegalithsContemporary Megaliths

This resemblance is a sign of their commonorigin, of their emergence in a single region.Darwin more than 100 years ago, ventured topredict- that one day it would be found that manhad originated in Africa.

Mourant (1983) in his book “Blood Relations”stated that it is almost certain that man evolvedfrom his pre-human ancestors and emerged as aunique tool-making animal somewhere in tropicalAfrica and that we are therefore, in a sense, all ofAfrican origin. Using five polymorphic restrictionsites on β gene cluster, Long et al. (1990) workedout, the evolutionary histories and relationshipsamong Africans, Eskimos and Pacific Islandpopulations and reported an African origin formodern Homo sapiens and a phyletic structuringin the major geographical regions. It is probablyrather over a million years ago that man enteredAsia from Africa; bones of the early human

species, Homo erectus have been found in Chinaas well as in Java, which could have reached onlythrough Asia. Moreover, to reach Europe, whichhe probably very soon did, he must have passedthrough south-west Asia. India has served as amajor corridor for the dispersal of modern humansout of Africa (Cann, 2001; Underhill et al., 2001;Cavalli - Sforza and Feldman, 2003; Kivisild et al.,2003; Palanichamy et al., 2004; Cavalli- Sforza,2005). It probably was in Asia that Eurasian man,by now of the modern Homo sapiens species,diverged from African man, and then becamedifferentiated into Caucasoid and Mongoloidtypes. Another differentiation, which probablytook place in Asia, is that of the Australoids,perhaps from a common type before the sepa-ration of the Mongoloids. The Caucasiods andthe Mongoloids almost certainly becamedifferentiated from one another somewhere in

178 M. K. BHASIN

Asia and Caucasoids subsequently spread tothe whole western part of the continent andthence to Europe and north Africa (Mourant,1983). The divergence lines among the threemajor races-Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongo-loid-estimated by Nei and Roychoudhury, (1982)by using a number of genetic markers, reportedthe divergence between the Negroid and theCaucasoid-Mongoloid groups seem to haveoccurred about 110,000 ± 34,000 years ago. Onthe other hand the divergence between theCaucasoid group and the Mongoloid groupseems to have occurred about 41,000 ± 5,000years ago. This corresponds to the time whenclassic Neanderthals were living. These

estimates of divergence lines are much earlierthan Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer’s, (1971) (20,000-50,000 years ago), but they are not unreasonablein view of the fossil records available (Birdsell,1972).

The Mongoloids are the most numerous ofthe three major races of mankind and China in thecentre of the Mongoloid area has the largestpopulation of these than any country in the world,so the Chinese must be taken as the typicalMongoloids. The ancestors of Japanese passedthrough Korea to reach Japanese Islands, wherethey found ancestors of the present Ainu.Through an area to the south of China, extendingfrom the Vietnamese border to the tip of Malaya

Fig. 5. Waves of penetration by alien peoples (after Walter, Danker-Hopfe, Bhasin, 1991)

Mountain ranges

Bayof

BengalArabian

Sea

9

8

4

127

3

6

1 Indo-Aryans 2000 - 1400 BC2 Yüechihs and Sakas 2. Century BC3. Kushanas 1. Century AD4 Huns 5-6 Century5 Huns 8. Century5 Arabs 10-11 Century6 Turko-Afghans 12-13 Century7 Mongols (Timur) before 13. Century8 Ahoms before 13. Century9 Tibeto-Burmans


peninsula, through this there must have passedHomo erectus very long ago on his way to Java1

the ancestors of the Australian aborigines. Thencame the Indonesians, and finally the Mongoloidsin narrower sense, represented by the Mons andthe Khmers, the Tibeto-Burmans and the Thais,all of whom probably entered the region before1000 B.C. (Mourant, 1983).

The populations of Siberia are important insupplying evidence regarding the originalpeopling of the American continent. This tookplace perhaps about thirty thousand years ago, itwas through the Bering Strait which was then dryland owing to the recession of sea level accom-panied by last glaciation. Perhaps about thirtythousand years ago, populations of Mongoloidphysical type moved into north eastern Siberia andthence into America (Mourant, 1983).

The differences between Mongoloids andCaucasoids appear rather sharp as one crossesthe mountains in the northern boundary of theIndian sub-continent. The passage from India toBurma is somewhat more gradual, probablybecause contact here has been present for a longtime and some mixing has taken places, whereasthe Mongoloids north of the mountains wereprobably fully differentiated in the Far East beforethe retreat of the ice allowed them to enter Tibet(Mourant, 1983).

In Asia, Australoid if people now live in Southof India, the deep ocean between India andAustralia means that the direct ancestors of theAustralians could not have set out from there.We must picture both India and south-east Asiaas being at one time inhabited largely byAustraloids who were driven by technologicallymore advanced people from the north, in the oneinstance into southern India and Sri Lanka andin other, across Burma and Malaysia and soultimately through Indonesia and New Guinea toAustralia (Mourant, 1983).

A number of racial classifications of humanpopulations have been reported in the literature,but there seems to be no agreement about theseclassifications among anthropologists. Howeverthe human populations are broadly divided into

three major races: Caucasoid, Negroid andMongoloid. Many anthropologists have consi-dered two more major groups i.e., Amerind andAustraloid or Oceanian (Boyd, 1963). Theseschemes of classification of human populationswere largely based on morphological and anthro-pometric characters. In the last few decades,however, new methods with elaborate statisticsand biometry along with the latest concepts onhuman genetics have added fresh dimension tothe study of human population groups.

To the Indian subcontinent came severalwaves of immigrants at different periods ofhistory and entered into the ethnic compositionof the population at different levels from a veryearly phase of human civilization. The intrusionsof these people with several racial elements haveleft the strains of various developed racestogether with their ethnic and cultural substratain the land, thus representing the elements of allthe main divisions of mankind (Fig. 6).

In India the range of somatic variations indifferent physical traits of its people is remarkablywide. To account for the heterogeneity and tohighlight the underlying pattern of the observedvariations, earlier European anthropologists, likeCharles de Ujfalvy, (1881-82) and Captain Drake-Brockman, Sir T.H. Holland, (1902) and Waddell,(1899) measured groups from various parts of Indiaand attempted various taxonomic classification ofthe Indian peoples. During the early part of thelast century the schemes of classification of Indianpeople were largely based on morphological andanthropometric characters. The list of variousclassifications that have been given on the peopleof 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)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 makesome sense. An attempt has been made toevaluate the distribution of various racial strains/elements present in the peoples of India and thisis represented in figure 7 (This figure has been

1“Sundashelf, a dry land as the route from Asian mainlandto Java is now so well accepted that Shutler and Braches(1987) in their review of the paleoanthropology ofPleistocene island Southeast Asia see it as the route toJava from the Asian mainland for all migrating landmammals” (p. 186) cited from Tumer II (1990). thanperhaps (some- forty thousand years ago.

180 M. K. BHASIN

drawn while taking into consideration theclassifications reported by Guha and others).

Negrito Element

It is generally admitted that the Negritorepresents the oldest surviving type of man and itis possible even that they preceded Neanderthalman by whom, according to Grifth-Taylor, theywere displaced and disposed. In any case Negritoseems to have been first inhabitants of South EastAsia. The traces of the stock are still to be seen insome of the forest tribes of the higher hills of theextreme south of India and similar traces appear inthe inaccessible areas of Assam and Bengal,Burma, where dwarf stature is combined with frizzlyhair which appears to have resulted from recent

admixture of pure Negrito stock of the Andamanswith blood from the main land of India or Burma.

If Negrito was the earliest inhabitants ofSouthern Asia, they must have been displacedor supplanted by the Proto-Australoid. Thisdolichocephalic type appears to have its ownorigin in the west. The view that the Australian isconnected with the Neanderthal man, thoughrepeatedly rejected by authorities, seems to diehard since Hrdlicka apparently regards theNeanderthal as having contributed to existinghuman types, while Sewell appears to revert tothe theory of Australian origin and in his accountof Mohenjodaro skulls he definitely associatesIndian Proto-Australoid type with Australianaborigines on the one hand and with Rhodesianskull on the other.

Fig. 6. Racial migration (after Walter, Danker-Hopfe, Bhasin, 1991)

1 Early Caucasoids (Dravidians)2 Later Caucasoids (Indo-Aryans)3 Early Mongoloids (Various groups)4 Later Mongoloids (Ahom)5 Austro-Asiatics (Various groups)6 Andamanese7 NicobareseDots = Original distribution of the autochthonous Indian tribal populations

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1

2

3

5 4

76

7


So many views on the Negrito problem inIndian ethnology have been reported in theliterature. Guha (1928, 1929) observed thepresence of Negrito racial strain from the solitarycharacter of hair form (frizzly type) which he foundamong the Kadars who live in the interior of thechain of hills running from the Anamalais toTravancore. Guha (1961) wrote to Sharma(personal communication) that frizzly type of hairoccurs not only among Kadars but among Irulasand the Pulayans also. Guha (1961) disagree withthe hypothesis that there had been admixture ofAfrican slaves with the Malabar people, givingthe reason that if it has occurred in that case itshould have been in the coastal areas, where

Zamorins of Calicut imported African slaves butnot in the interior of the hills 100 miles away. Hefurther added that there is no sign of any Africanculture among the Kadars. However v. Eickstedt(1939) stated that genuine Negro frizzly hair neverhas been found in South India. The problemprobably arose because the distinguishingwords, spiral, woolly or frizzly, have been appliedin a vague manner. Sarkar stated that the sporadiccases of frizzly hair may not be Negritoid at all.They may be independent mutations. Whetherthey are genetically related to Negro or Melane-sian frizzly hair group, further genetic researchescan disclose.

Banerjee (1959) reported the presence of

Fig. 7. Distribution of various racial strains present in the people of India (after Bhasin, Walter,Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

INDIA

PAKISTANAFG

HANISTA

N

CHINATIBET

NEPAL

Andam

an a

nd N

icoba

r Is l

ands

(India

)

Racial Groups

BAYOF

BENGAL

BANGLA-DESH

NegritosProto-Austroloids & NegritosPaleo-Mediterrneons, Proto-Austroloids & Alpo-DinaricsAlpo-Dinarics, Orientos and MediterraneonsPaleo-Mediterraneons, Mediterraneons and Alpo-DinaricsMediterraneons, Orientos & Proto-NordicsOrientos and Tibeto-MongoloidsTibeto-Mongoloids and Paleo-MongoloidsPaleo-Mongoloids

182 M. K. BHASIN

intermediate or mixed types of hair among theKadar and accounted its origin as due to admix-ture with Negroid elements.

Rakshit (1965) suggested that the allegedNegrito Dravidian tribes of south India viz., theKadar, Irula, Pulayan etc. are in all probability,the foetalized derivatives of Australian basictype.

From the genetic structure of Kadar of Kerala,Saha et al. (1974) evaluated their findings withthe other (Sarkar et al., 1959) and observed thatthere is a little to support that a proportion ofKadar show Negritoid traits. However they addedthat there is slender evidence which supportsthe possibility of past African Negro admixtureon a small scale. The postulated geneticreconstruction of ancestral Kadar population bythem suggested that they may have been similarto Melanesian and Australian aboriginalpopulations, but their original genetic structurehas been modified through incorporating geneticelements not only from Black Africans but fromsurrounding Dravidian populations.

To study the molecular genetic evidenceMountain et al. (1995) used a small sample of(n=7) of Kadars, without any definite conclusion.

Sarkar, (1954) has discussed the Negritos ofthe Andaman in the light of the process of pygmyformation. Steatopygia, infantlism and dwarfismare probably the effect of endocrine derange-ments and the reproductive physiology of theAndamanese appears to have been affected aswell. The Andamanese appear to have beenfacing extinction long before they came in contactwith civilization. The Andamanese were probablypeopled in the quaternary times during a glacialperiod when the fall of sea-level brought lowerBurma in direct contact with the Islands.

Negrito populations occupy parts of thePhilippines, Northern Malay peninsula, AndamanIslands and New Guinea have a number ofmorphological characters similar to those ofPygmies and Bushmen of Africa. Because of thissimilarity, some anthropologists have hypo-thesized a common origin of the Negrito popula-tions. However, Nei and Roychoudhury (1982)analysed the genetic relationship and reportedthat despite some morphological similaritybetween the Negritos of Southeast Asia and thePygmies and Bushman of Africa the geneticdistance analysis shows them to be geneticallydifferent. This result supports Coon’s (1965)thesis that the Pygmies and Asian Negritos

developed their phenotypic similarity byadapting to similar environmental conditionsindependently rather than by common descent.

Further Nei and Roychoudhury (1993)suggested a southern route of migration fromAfrica to Australia in the Pleistocene period toexplain the similarities among some populationsin Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia and similarobservations have also been made by Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994), Schurr and Wallace (2002).

Murhekar et al. (2001) studied the red cellgenetic abnormalities among Great Andamaneseand observed that they are the survivingrepresentatives of Negrito populations that weredistributed over the entire Southeast Asia inancient times, which were genetically differentfrom other African populations.

Using mtDNA material, Endicott et al. (2003)and Thangaraj et al. (2003) observed that theAndamanese are more closely related to otherAsians than to modern day Africans.

Kashyap et al. (2003) studied the aboriginalgroups (Great Andamanese and Jarawas) ofAndaman and Nicobar Islands and observed thatthe distinct genetic identity of the aboriginalpopulations of the Andaman Islands and otherAsian and African populations deciphered bynuclear and mitochondrial DNA diversitysuggest that (i) either the aboriginals of Andamanare one of the surviving descendents of settlersfrom an early migration out of Africa who remainedin isolation in their habitat in Andaman Islands,or (ii) they are the descendents of one of thefounder populations of modern humans.

Proto-Australoid Element

The earliest stratum of Indian populationswas a long-headed, dark skinned, broad nosedpeople. Their physical features are closely akinto modern aborigines of Chota Nagpur, CentralIndia and the primitive tribes of South India. Theyare original inhabitants, the so called ‘Adi-basis’of India. In the hymns of Rigveda the oldestsacred texts of the Hindus, they are mainlyaddressed 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 withwhom Aryan speaking tribes fought during theiradvent 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 forthe term Pre-Dravidian. Ruggeri (Chakladar, 1921)named it ‘Australoid-Veddaic’, while Chanda(1916) favoured the term ‘Nishada’. v. Eickstedtused the term Weddid for those having closeraffinity with the Veddas of Ceylon. Sewell andGuha (1929) in trying to find out the physicalaffinities of the Nal race, have described Tamilsand the Veddas as descendants of the originalProto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid blend. Theyhave also found the Proto-Australoid typeoccurring among the Mohenjodaro skeletalremains. Hutton (1933) used the term Proto-Australoid exclusively in his census reports. Heeven put Veddas under Proto-Australoid. Theterm Proto-Australoid owes its origin to Dixon(1923). Hooton (1930) introduced changes inDixon’s terminology and replaced term Proto-Australoid as Pseudo-Australoid while hesimilarly renamed Proto-Negroid as Pseudo-Negroid.

The Papuas of New Guinea and the Australianaborigines of Oceania are often calledAustraloids. Guha (1937) used the term ‘Proto-Australoid’ to designate the indigenous peopleof India presumed to have racial affinities withAustralian Aboriginals. It was observed in themorphological traits that there seems to be aregular gradation, the shortest and smallest beingthe Indian tribes, then come Veddas of Ceylon(Sri Lanka) and lastly the Australians. The Indiantribes retaining the more basic characters andthe two extra Indian groups having developedsome of the features in a more marked manner.The most appropriate term to apply to themtherefore is Proto-Australoid which shows bestthe genetic relationships between the three.Sarkar (1954) pointed that so long the Australoidis regarded as one of the basic stems of mankindand its prototype is unknown, the use of theterm Proto-Australoid seems to be unjustified.

Sanghvi (1976) compared allelic variabilityobserved among tribal populations in India andAustralia to study the postulated ancestoralrelations between Indian and AustralianAboriginal people. He concluded that the searchfor appropriate weights for individual alleles tobe considered in genetic distance analysis ofproblems for racial origins has not so far beenrewarding.

Simmons (1976) reported on the basis of theblood group genetic data, presently available,

that the Veddoids, and other aboriginal peoplesof South India relate most closely to the Indianpopulations, and neither they nor the Veddhasrelate in any obvious blood groups genetic make-up to the distant Ainu, or to the even more distantAustralian Aboriginals.

Kirk (1976) reported his investigations 15years ago as he was searching for specificmarkers which might link Australian Aboriginalswith the Veddahs of Ceylon and the “Veddoid”populations of South India and stated that so farno specific markers common to any of these setsof populations have been found. By contrast,the Veddahs of Ceylon do have some geneticmarkers in common with groups of SoutheastAsia, particularly TF CHI and the abnormalhaemoglobin HB*E. The ‘Veddoids’ of SouthIndia, however, have neither of these markersthat possess the abnormal haemoglobin HB*Sand having no transferrin variants in thepopulations which he studied. It is only in thenorth east of India that transferrin allele TF*CHIis found while HB*E is not uncommon amongtribal populations such as Oraons, Konda Reddisand Koya Dora. Roychoudhury (1984) studiedgenetic relations between Indian Tribes (Toda,Irula, Kurumba of South India); Veddah of SriLanka with the Aboriginals of Malay, New Guineaand Australia by genetic distance analysis andfound the tribes of South India and Sri Lankagenetically closer to each other than to theAboriginals of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Heconcluded that despite their morphologicalsimilarity there is no genetic evidence to suggestthat the Indian tribes and Australian Aboriginalsare biologically related.

Pietrusewsky (1990) reported from thecraniofacial variation that Australians representa biologically distinct population, sharingancestral ties with Melanesians but not with therecent populations of Asia and the rest of thePacific. The latter represent a second majorpopulation complex.

Mongoloid Element

The Mongoloids are mainly present in thenorthern and north eastern zones of theHimalayan ranges, valleys and eastern frontiers.Regarding the Mongoloid element, Hutton is ofthe view, that it may be said to fringe upon thearea to Indo-European languages. There is veryconsiderable overlap in the places. In all the

184 M. K. BHASIN

overlapping areas the Indo-European languagesare definitely intrusive and the Mongoloidelement in the population is strong enough toretain its own languages. It is possible that theextension of Mongoloid physical elements hasgone a good deal further than the present rangeof their language would suggest. One of theMohenjodaro skulls has been identified asdefinitely Mongoloid and from the lowest stratumof the excavation have been recovered terracottafigurines with unmistakable Mongoloid featureshaving the typical sloping narrow eyes ofcaricatures of that type.

On the other hand, Eastern Bengal is stronglysuggestive of mixed Mongoloid and Proto-Australoid strain. Buxton suggests that thePareoean element extends to southern India.Burma, of course, is almost completely Mongoloidand though the existence of other strains is notdoubted, they are no longer easy to isolate. Thereare Proto-Australoid elements too. In some of thehill tribes and on the Assam side a Melanesianstrain is to be expected.

Mongolian features have been observedamong the tribes of Central and Eastern India,the tribes occupying the such States as Bihar,Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh,in the latter state in areas adjoining Orissa andMadhya Pradesh. The list includes almostimportant Mundari speaking (Munda Group ofAustro-Asiatic Family) tribes like the Munda,Santal, Ho, Juang, Saora, Gadaba etc. and numberof Central Indian Dravidian speaking tribes likethe Maria, Muria, Kondh, Oraon etc. Theoccasional presence of Mongolian featuresamong the central and eastern Indian tribalgroups foetalized derivative’s of Australian typesas 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 successivewaves. They were closely related with the Proto-Mediterranean or Proto-Egyptian Brown Raceand were long, narrow-headed people, havingmedium to tall stature, possessed relatively long,narrow faces, low orbit, vertical forehead withprotruding occiput and mesorrhine nose. Laterwaves of this race belonged to the more basicstock of the Mediterranean race. Their skeletalremains have been recovered from the Chalco-lithic sites of the Indus Valley (Harappa, 1963,

Mohenjo-daro 1931) etc. and further west fromthe Aeneolithic sites of Iran and Mesopotamia.They now form a dominant element among thepopulations of North India and the upper classes.

The next wave was allied to the so-calledOriental Race of Eugen Fischer (1923). They wererelatively broad-headed, medium in stature, andbroad faced, thus closely related to the brachy-cephalic Alpine and Armenoid racial type ofEurope. Their major concentration was in AsiaMinor, Pamirs or the Iranian plateau, from wherethey are supposed to have infiltrated into Indiaduring the third to second millennium B.C.

The early evidence of these elements wasfound among a few of Chalcolithic crania fromIndus Valley sites and later among Iron Age craniafrom Adittanallur in the Tinnevally District ofSouth India (1963). The origin of the broad-headed strain allied to Alpine and Armenoid liesprimarily among the brachycephalic hordes ofprehistoric Homo alpinus stock of Central Asia.However, the original source of brachycephalyin Western India appears to have come fromScytho-Iranians who had infiltrated from theethnic intrusion of the Sakas, Huns, Kushansand Abhiras. Today the stronghold of this typeis in Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The Dinaric type (mediumly to light pigment-ed, hook nosed, acrocephalic, round heads) findsexpression among the population of Bengal andOrissa and got mixed with varying degrees of theMediterranean element. It is also to be seen inKathiwar, Kannanda and Tamil areas. The latestgreat racial movement into India was associatedwith a long-headed, tall, delicate-nosed, fair-skinned people having a long face with well-marked chin, possessing blue eyes more akin tothe so-called Nordic Race (pure blond or nearblond, long heads) of Europe. During the closeof the third or at the beginning of the secondmillennium B.C. they were supposed to haveentered India across the northwestern frontierfrom the Eurasiatic steppes between south-western Russia and Siberia. On the basis oflinguistic and cultural evidence, they have beendescribed as Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, orAryan people, who were Proto-Nordics. The areaof their civilization was said to be in the Aralo-Caspian Basin.

If the millions of population of India aremembers of some great branch of humanity, yetstrange to say, all or nearly all, who have soughtto explain the differentiation of population of India


into racial types, have sought the solution ofthis problem, outside the peninsula. They havenever attempted to ascertain how far India hasbred her own races. They have proceeded on theassumption that evolution has taken place longago, far too away but not in India, the greatanthropological paradise (Keith, 1936). No doubtIndia has been invaded time and again but it is afact that 85 per cent of the blood in India is nativein the soil. It is necessary that our eyes shouldbe more directly focussed on the possibility ofIndia being an evolutionary field both now andin former times.

Abe and Tamura (1983) and Abe (1985) usedmultivariate analysis to classify the people ofIndia (South) and Sri Lanka. On the basis ofmorphological types, Malhotra (1978) stated thatNegrito, Australoids, Mongoloids and Cauca-soids have contributed to the biological composi-tion of the people of India.

Mourant (1983) classified the peoples of theIndian region broadly into three zones - tribalpeoples of Australoid type, living in pocketschiefly in the south, the Caucasoids of slendertype and with rather dark skin mostly speakingDravidian languages occupying the mainsouthern part of the region and more robustCaucasoids, with paler skins and speaking Indo-European languages, in the north.The people ofthe Himalayan regions, are partly or whollyMongoloid (Mourant, 1983).

In India the range of somatic variations indifferent physical traits of its people is remarkablywide. On the basis of these variations a numberof European and Indian anthropologistsattempted various taxonomic classifications ofthe Indian peoples. Among Indians all the majorracial elements namely Caucasoid, Mongoloid,Australoid and Negritos have been reported. Ingeneral, all the classifications given by differentauthors agree that Himalayan mountain complexregion populations have Caucasoid (Aryan and/or Dravidian) and Mongoloid racial elements inWestern and Central Himalayan region andAustraloid (Pre-Dravidian), Caucasoid (Aryanand/or Dravidian) and Mongoloid racial elementsin Eastern Himalayan region. Whereas in Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra plains region, the peoplefrom north are having predominantly Caucasoid-Aryan and Caucasoid-Dravidian racial elementsand towards western side Caucasoid (Aryans,Dravidians) and Australoid (Pre-Dravidian) racialelements whereas towards East India, from West

Bengal, the racial elements present are similar tothat observed among peoples from EasternHimalayan region, albeit Mongoloid racialelement is present in lesser degree. Amongpopulations from Orissa and Bihar the Caucasoid(Aryan and Dravidian) and Australoid (Pre-Dravidian) racial elements are present. AmongCentral India populations the picture is similar tothat observed from Bihar and Orissa. TowardsSouth India the major racial elements areCaucasoid (Dravidian) and Australoid (Pre-Dravidian), whereas among Andamanese,Negrito-like traits are present and in Nicobarese,Mongoloid affinities are observed.

In general, the Australoid (Pre-Dravidian)racial element is predominant among scheduledtribes, whereas among scheduled castes alsoAustraloid racial element is present, but it variesin degree among regions/zones and as scheduledcaste populations are having admixture withCaucasoids (Aryan and/or Dravidian) in varyingdegrees. Mongoloid racial element, which ispredominant among populations inhabitingEastern Himalayan region is also observed amongpeoples living in inner areas of Western andCentral Himalayan regions.

Apart from this, some more populations withdifferent racial elements entered India and wereassimilated into the local people. The Australoid(Pre-Dravidian) are supposed to be the originalinhabitants of India, while the rest are consideredto have come in successive waves of immigrationof known and sometimes unknown antiquity.

The various classifications given above wereinitially based on geographical regions, linguisticfamilies, caste group and/or religious groups andwere followed by scientifically oriented somato-metry and somatoscopy. Finally few geneticmarkers, like blood groups, were also taken intoaccount. The picture thus emerged wascomplicated and uncomprehensive as India fromthe fourth century B.C. for 2000 years, particularlyin north received wave after wave of immigrants[(Indo-Aryans, Greeks, Parthians and Sakas(Scythians), Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Turko-Afghans, Mongols (from north and north westdirections), Shan (from eastern side)] fromdifferent directions and thus took on the characterof a miniature museum of races commingling inall sorts of permutation and combinations.

From the section of Indian population milieuof this chapter it may be evaluated that migrationfrom different places formed the Caucasoid

186 M. K. BHASIN

(Dravidian, Aryan) and Mongoloid componentsof India’s populations, whereas the originalinhabitants who have been classified as Negritoand/or Proto-Australoids may be referred asNishada (Pre-Dravidians). It is worthwhile tomention here that the racial classifications arecurrently only of academic interest and areseldom used for categorizing populations, as thepopulation composition at any time is influencedby mating patterns, migrations, genetic drift,mutation and selection under differentenvironments. It should not be forgotten thatracial categories are artificial constructs, whichhave not been able to withstand the test of time.Populations have always intermixed, with theconsequence that the pure type (‘race’) wasnothing but a figment of imagination. I dissociatemyself from the old race concepts.

IDENTIFY AND DISTINGUISHTHE PEOPLE

For the study of the people of India, research-ers have generally used the following criteria toidentify and distinguish the people: 1. RegionalGroups, 2. Ethnic Groups, 3. Linguistic Groups,and 4. Religious Groups (Bhasin, 1988; Bhasinet al., 1992, 1994)

It should, however, be kept in mind that theseare the convenient units of study, although thereare significant levels of overlapping betweenthem. For example, an occupational grouppursuing traditional job inhabits a region, sharesreligion with other categories, belongs to one orthe other language group and has an aggregationof ethnic properties (Bhasin, 1988).

In the present study an attempt has beenmade to analyse the above mentioned bio-genetical traits into 1. Regional Groups, 2. EthnicGroups, 3. Traditional Occupational Groups and4. Linguistic Groups. (after Bhasin 1988; Bhasin,et al., 1992, 1994)

1. Regional Groups

These can be divided into the following groups:1. Natural Regions of India2. Climatological Factors and Climatic Regions

of India3. Political Division of India

Each region has its own characteristics and abrief description of each one will give an idea ofwhat it constitutes of.

1.1. Natural Regions of India

The natural regions have broad uniformity intheir characteristics, such as relief, geomor-phological history, drainage, climate, soil, naturalvegetation and wild life. Broadly speaking theIndian sub-continent may be divided in thefollowing natural regions:

1. The Himalayan Mountain Complex2. The Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain3. The Peninsular Plateau and4. The Islands

1.2. Climatological Factors and ClimaticRegions of India

Various climatological factors (Rainfall,Humidity, Temperature) and Altitude have beenconsidered to study correlations with differentbiological traits. The values for the climatologicalfactors are after “Climatological Tables ofObservations in 1931-1960” MeteorologicalDepartment, Government of India, New Delhi.

A climatic region generally possesses a broaduniformity in climatic conditions produced bycombined effects of climatic factors. India can bedivided into the following climatic regions afterKöppen’s method, based on the monthly valuesof temperature and precipitation:

(1) Tropical Savannah Type, (2) MonsoonType with Short Dry Season, (3) Monsoon Typewith Dry Season in High Sun Period, (4) Semiaridand Steppe Climate, (5) Hot Desert Type, (6)Monsoon Type with Dry Winters, (7) Cold HumidWinters Type with Shorter Summer, and (8) PolarType.

1.3. Political Division of India

India is a Union of States. Comprising 29States and 6 Union Territories, according to theCensus 1991, there are 4689 towns and 587,226inhabited and 47,095 uninhabited villages in thecountry. The country had 466 districts in 1991.

India-Political and Ethnic Zones: The 29States and 6 Union Territories (U.T.) have beencategorised as follows (after Bhasin, 1988):

I. North India, II. West India, III. East India,IV. Central India, V. South India, and VI. Islands(Fig. 8). Himalayan Region may be divided intothree divisions, i.e., A) Western Himalaya, B)Central Himalaya, and C) Eastern Himalaya asfollows:


I. North India:(A) Western Himalaya (S. No. 1, 2) and (B)

Central Himalaya (S.No. 8):(1) Jammu and Kashmir, (2) Himachal Pradesh,

(3) Punjab, (4) Chandigarh (U.T.), (5) Haryana,(6) Delhi , (7) Uttar Pradesh, (8) Uttaranchal, and(9) Rajasthan

II. West India:(1) Gujarat, (2) Maharashtra, (3) Goa, (4)

Daman and Diu (U.T.) and (5) Dadra and NagarHaveli (U.T.)

III. East India:C) Eastern Himalaya: (S. No.1 to 8 and

Darjeeling District of West Bengal)(1) Arunachal Pradesh, (2) Assam, (3)

Nagaland, (4) Manipur, (5) Mizoram, (6) Tripura,(7) Meghalaya, (8) Sikkim, (9) West Bengal, (10)Bihar, (11) Jharkhand and (12) Orissa

IV. Central India:(1) Madhya Pradesh (2) ChhatisgarhV. South India:(1) Karnataka, (2) Andhra Pradesh, (3) Tamil

Nadu, (4) Kerala and (5) Pondicherry (U.T.).VI. Islands:(1) Lakshadweep (U.T.) and (2) Andaman and

Nicobar Islands (U.T.).

2. Ethnic Groups

The aggregation of biological and socio-cultural characteristics constitutes an ethnicgroup. Within the category of Ethnic Group, weinclude Castes, Scheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes and Communities (for details see Ghurye1969; Hutton 1981). Biological Anthropologicalstudies of such ethnic groups as well as“Communities” have been reported in India.Community is generally referred to a group ofpeople who may have occupational, linguistic,religious or regional characteristics (Bhasinet al., 1992, 1994; Bhasin and Walter, 2001).

2.1. Castes

The Indian society is highly stratified and isdivided into castes, scheduled castes, scheduledtribes etc. It should be understood at the outsetthat our intention is not to give the detailedaccount of individual castes, their ceremonies,and their machinery for regulating their relationwith other castes, nor of their own internalconduct, but to examine caste in terms ofMendelian population groups.

Hindu caste system is a highly complexinstitution, though social institutions resemblingcaste in one respect or another are not difficultto find elsewhere, but caste as we know it inIndia, is an exclusively Indian phenomenon. Theword ‘caste’ comes from the Portuguese word‘casta’, signifying breed, race or kind. Risley(1915) defines it as “a collection of families orgroups of families bearing a common name;claiming a common descent from a mythicalancestor, human or divine; professing to followthe same hereditary calling; and regarded bythose who are competent to give an opinion asforming a single homogeneous community’ isgenerally associated with a specific occupationand that a caste is invariably endogamous, but isfurther divided as a rule, into a smaller of smallercircles each of which is endogamous (this is calledJati), so that a Brahman is not only restricted tomarrying another Brahman, but to marrying awomen of the same subdivision of Brahmans.”The internal exogamous division of theendogamous caste is ‘Gotra’. There are severalstages of groups and the word ‘caste’ is appliedto groups at any stage. The word ‘caste’ and‘sub-caste’ are not absolute but comparative insignificance. The larger group will be called acaste while the smaller group will be called a sub-caste. These divisions and subdivisions areintroduced on different principles. At theoreticallevel, Gotra or Got is derived either from theGotrakara rishis of early Vedic time or fromGotra of some Brahman priests who ministeredto a non-Brahman caste. In reality, Gotras areexogamous units of various kinds, territorial,occupational, totemistic and so forth.

At organization level considerable variationis found, caste mobility in few castes and incertain areas is a common factor. Theoretically,the caste definition seems to serve the purposebut the word caste, for example, “translates twovernacular terms with different meanings”. InNorthern India, the word ‘Jat’ (breed) and ‘Qaum’(tribe) are synonymously used. The other wordused is ‘Biradari’ or ‘Bhaiband’ (brotherhood).The ‘Jat’ is the caste as a whole, while ‘Biradari’is the group of caste, who lives in a particularneighbourhood and act collectively for castepurposes. Quantitatively the ‘Biradari’ can beconceived as a fraction of caste, but qualitativelyit can be conceived as a ‘Jat’ in action.

Ethnographic and genetic evidence bothsupport that Hindu Castes have been highly

188 M. K. BHASIN

endogamous for a considerable length of time(Karve, 1968; Bhasin et al., 1994; Bamshed et al.,2001; Bhasin and Walter, 2001; Misra, 2001;Wooding et al., 2003). Although level of geneticdifferentiation between castes is relatively small,genetic distances observed suggest that gene flowis limited (Bhasin et al., 1994; Bamshed et al., 1998;2001; Bhattacharya et al., 1999; Bhasin and Walter,2001; Dutta et al., 2002; Lakshmi et al., 2002)

It has been reported that paternally inheritedDNA was overall more similar to Europenas thanto Asians but, unlike in the case of maternalinheritance with no significant variation in affinityacross the castes and this may be due to themigrating Eurasians populations are likely to bemostly males who integrated into the uppercastes and took native women. Inter-castemarriages practices, while generally taboo, areoccasionally allowed, in which women can marryinto an upper caste and move up in the socialhierarchy, whereas, such upward mobility, is notpermissible for men because caste labels of menare permanent, but women, by means of theirlimited mobility, cause a gene flow across caste

barriers (Bamshed et al., 2001; Basu et al., 2003;Kivisild et al., 2003).

2.1.1. The Features of the Castes

The feature of the castes are: hierarchy; endo-gamy and hypergamy (male of higher castemarrying a female of lower caste) occupationalassociation; consciousness of caste membershipand restriction on food, drink and smoking;distinction in dress and speech and confirmationto peculiar customs of particular caste; ritual andother previleges and disabilities; caste organi-zation and caste mobility.

The essence of the caste is the arrangementof socio-economic hereditary groups thanhierarchy. The popular impression of thehierarchy is derived from the idea of Varna withBrahman at the top and scheduled caste at thebottom. Only the two opposite ends of thehierarchy are relatively fixed, in between andespecially in the middle regions, there isconsiderable room for debate regarding mutualpositions. In a dispute over rank each caste would

Fig. 8. India-Ethnic and Political Zones (after Bhasin, 1988)

INDIA

Lakshadweep (India)

AFG

HANISTA

N

BAYOF

BENGAL

Andaman

and

Nic

obar

Isl a

nds

(Ind ia

)

Ethnic & Political Zones

PAKISTAN

WESTERNHIMALAYA

CENTRAL HIMALAYA

CHINATIBET

EASTERN HIMALAYAPUNJAB

UTTAR

PRADESHRAJASTHAN

NEPAL

BIHAR

BHUTAN

SIKKIM

GUJRAT

MAHARASHTRADIUDAMAN

ORISSA

ANDHRAPRADESH


cite as evidence of its superiority the items of itsdiet, the other caste groups from which itaccepted or refused to accept food and water,the ritual it performed and the custom it observed,its traditional privileges and disabilities and themyth of its origin. This fact of mutual positionand arguments regarding it permit social mobilityin certain areas. Mobility is not a recent pheno-menon, but is restricted. All Hindus regardscheduled castes as being at the bottom of theladder, but the category of scheduled castes isnot homogeneous. In each linguistic area thereare a few scheduled castes which form ahierarchy.

It cannot be said for certain when and in whatcircumstances the caste system originated.However, many theories have been put forward,which are as follows:

(1) Based on Colour: It is generally believedthat in the early Vedic period there were no castesin Punjab. Only the fair skinned invaders calledthemselves Aryans and they called the darkskinned aborigines as Dasyus, Dasas or Asuras.

The term Varna (colour) is often confusedwith caste (Jati, Jat), though it is far from havingthe same meaning. The Rigvedic society wasdivided into four classes on the basis of Varna,three categories of twice-born (Dvija)—Brahman,Kshatriya and Vaishya, and fourthly the Sudrabelow whom were the outcastes.

(2) Based on Purushukta: In the Purushuktaof the Rig-Veda, there is a mantra interpreted byscholars as such: “The Brahmans were born fromthe mouth of God, the Kshatriyas from his arms,and the Vaishyas from the thighs and Sudrasfrom his feet.” Some people regard this Mantraas the basis of the caste system.

(3) Based on Division of Occupation: Afterthe Aryan invasion into Ganges valley, thestratification in the Indian society began. Socialmechanisms were built up in order to carry onthe organization of production and supply ofservices. One such well known mechanism wascaste. Caste was not wholly an economicstructure. Yet undeniably, it was built up on thebasis of monopolistic guilds which wereendogamous, each of these guilds grew up intoseparate caste. Exchange of goods and serviceswas a highly stratified affair and each castespecialized in certain type of industry or deliveryof goods. So each unit in the economic structurewas virtually a monopoly of one caste and everytribe if possible was brought into more than one

caste according to their specialization. Each casteor tribe was allowed to preserve its diverse socio-cultural pattern as long as it did not give rise toconflicts with Brahmanical priesthood. Brahmanswere trying for the uniformity of the rites andpractices at a community level, local communitieswere allowed to carry on their modified versionat family level.

Traditionally, each caste was associated withhereditary occupation and had a limitedmonopoly over it e.g. Brahmans (priestly andlearning); Kshatriyas (warrior and aristocracy);Vaishyas (land owners and traders); and Sudras(crafts and service). It is not true to say that everymember of the caste practised the associatedoccupation exclusively. It can only be said trueof castes like Dhobi (washerman) and Kumhar(potter). However, generally speaking mostpractised agriculture along with their traditionaloccupation. Even agriculture as a singleoccupation cannot be associated with castes, asagriculture also means number of things: landownership, tenancy and labour. Often the artisansand servicing castes do not earn enough fromtraditional occupation, so they augment theirincome by working as casual labourers or tenantson land.

An analysis of the occupational statistics for84 selected castes in 1931 showed that only 45per cent of their members were following thetraditional occupation (Census of India, 1931, Vol.1, Part 2, pp. 416-19).

Occupations practiced by high and low castesare considered high and low, respectively.Manual labour is looked down and certainoccupations like swine-herding and butchery areconsidered to be polluting and low.

Castes are governed by their own organi-zation of authority. A greater uniformity has beenretained at the economic level of caste thanperhaps in relation to customs regulating marriagein particular. Though, there is a wide prevalenceof the above model in all parts of non-tribal India,the system of economic inequalities has beenencapsulated so to say, in regional moulds. TheSaryuparis of Avadh (Uttar Pradesh), Nambood-aris of Kerala, Chitpavans of Maharashtra,Chattopadhayas of Bengal and Iyengars of TamilNadu are all Brahman, but these categories areessentially regional. In the same way, the Jats ofHaryana, the Bhumiyars of Bihar, the Reddys ofAndhra and Vakilagas of Karnataka are cultiva-ting castes, but the regional structure imposes

190 M. K. BHASIN

boundaries which are generally recognisedespecially for inter-marriages. The Chamars ofUttar Pradesh, the Balais of Bengal, the Magirsof Gujarat, the Mahars of Maharashtra, the Mallsof Andhra or the Adi-Dravidas of Tamil Nadu areall toiling scheduled castes but they are all highlyconcentrated in specific regions. It is, therefore,clear that, in spite of its wide prevalence, thecaste system is, in many ways, also a regionalphenomenon. The status and position of everycaste group may be determined on an All Indiascale of social hierarchy, but the caste group itself,in many important respects is also a regionalcategory.

2.2. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

In the Indian censuses prior to 1931,information was collected and published for eachcaste or tribe separately. In the 1931 census, datafor individual communities was limited to (i)Exterior Castes (ii) Primitive Castes and (iii) allother castes with the exception of (a) those whosemembers fall short of four thousand of the totalpopulation and (b) those for which separatefigures were deemed to be unnecessary by thelocal government.

In the 1941 census, ‘group totals’ weretabulated for scheduled castes, tribes and Anglo-Indians. For selected individual tribes separatetables were furnished. By 1951 census,community distinctions based on caste werebeing discouraged. It was decided to enumeratepopulation on the basis of race, caste or tribeonly to the extent necessary for providinginformation relating to certain special groups ofthe people who are referred to in the Constitutionof India. The Scheduled Castes and ScheduledTribes were enumerated from 1951 censusonwards. The President by a special order sche-duled particular castes among Hindus and Sikhsin particular areas for special treatment that alsoapplies to tribes irrespective of their religiouspersuasion. The Scheduled Castes and Sche-duled Tribes have been specified by 15 Presi-dential Orders issued under the provisions ofArticles 341 and 342 of the Constitution. Theyare listed in Scheduled Castes and ScheduledTribes Orders (Amendment) Act 1976.

The constitution prescribes protection andsafeguards for the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes, and other weaker sectionseither specially or by way of insisting on their

general rights as citizens with the object ofpromoting their educational and economicinterests and of removing the social disabilities.However, in spite of all Governmental efforts, evenwhen following the same profession as theirneighbours, the Scheduled Castes and Tribesoften have an inferior social status and areruthlessly exploited by their employers and bymoney lenders.

In the Census of India 1991, 16.5 per cent ofthe population was enumerated as belonging to‘Scheduled Castes’ or another 8.1 per cent asbelonging to ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (Table 1). Thusroughly one in every four persons in Indiabelongs to Scheduled Castes or ScheduledTribes. There are, however, vast differences inthe concentration pattern of Scheduled Castesin the different regions of the country. The factthat these castes are associated with agricultureexplains their main concentration in the alluvialand the coastal plains of the country (Fig. 9).The hilly and the forested tracts of the tribal beltof the central and north-eastern India have onlya sparse population of the Scheduled Castes.

The total population of the Scheduled Tribesin the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar,Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and WestBengal together accounts for about 80 per centof the entire tribal population of the country (Fig.10). On the contrary, the States and UnionTerritories with high tribal percentages have afar lesser share in the country’s total tribalpopulation. The tribal population of Mizoram,Lakshadweep, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland andMeghalaya accounts only one twentieth part ofthe total population of India.

Kivisild et al. (2003) reported that tirbes andcastes share considerable Pleistocene heritage,with limited recent gene flow between them,whereas Cordaux et al. (2004) observed that casteand tribes have independent origins.

Ninety per cent of the Scheduled Castes arerural based and provide substantial support toIndian agriculture which is significantly more than

Table 1: Percentages of Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes to total population 1961-91

Year Scheduled Castes Schedueld Tribes

1961 14.67 6.361971 14.60 6.941981 15.75 7.761991 16.48 8.08


that provided by Scheduled Tribes. Theoccupational structure of the Scheduled Castework force is, by and large, made up of thefollowing components:(1) Landless agricultural labourers,(2) Cultivators with small holdings,(3) Small commodity producers or artisans,(4) Services particularly of ‘polluting’ kind, and(5) Industrial workers, mainly in industries

related with their traditional crafts—leathertanning, shoe making etc.

Among the ethnic groups of India, theScheduled Tribes hold a significant position.They belong to different ethnic, linguistic andreligious groups having different economicorganisation and socio-cultural characteristics.

In the census of 1951 the Scheduled Tribeswere 5.35 per cent of the population of India.

In addition, some state governments havealso specified other categories of people knownas ‘Other Backward Classes’ and DenotifiedNomadic and Semi-Nomadic communities.

According to Mandal Commission Report(1980) fifty two percent of the total population

was belonging to Other Backward Classes(OBCs). The total number of identified OBCs thatexist in the Central List is 3743. The states withhigh percentages of total population of OBCsare Uttar Prdesh (38 percent), Rajasthan (28percent), Gujarat (34 percent), Maharashtra (60percent), Madhya Pradesh (50 percent),Karnataka (67 percent), Andhra Pradesh ( (44percent) and Tamil Nadu (67 percent).

The caste system may have given stability tosociety but it is considered as an instrument thatis responsible for the social disharmony, rivalryamong different castes and exploitation with inand outside the castes. Social formation hasemerged as a challenge to the hierarchical castesystem based on Brahminical ideology

2.3. Communities

The population groups which have not beenidentifiable on the basis of caste system or arenot denoted as tribes, have been referred by someauthors on regional basis like Punjabis, Bengaleseetc., by others on religion basis like Hindus,

Fig. 9. India-Scheduled Castes in percent to the Total Population (after Bhasin and Walter, 2001)

INDIA

PAKISTAN

AFGHANIS

TAN

CHINATIBET

NEPAL

Lakshadweep (India)

Scheduled Castes

BANGLA-DESH

0 300 600

kms

(%)

< 1

1 - 5

5 - 10

10 - 15

15 - 20

20 - 25

> 25

Andam

an a

nd N

icoba

r Isl

ands

(India

)

192 M. K. BHASIN

Muslims, Sikhs etc., by others on language basislike Telugus, Tamils etc. These authors have notspecified or defined explicitly their caste and/orspecific groups. All these groups have beenclassified under the category of community.

Confusion may be created if we assume thatthe surname attached to a name is the ‘caste’name. Quite often these may be misspell orsubstituted with occupation, locality or religion.Quite often, as in the case of low castes whooriginally did not have the custom of writing asurname or caste or ‘Gotras’ name, use a highcaste surname to identify themselves. Identi-fication by name is thus fallacious. A caste groupis best identified by tracing its social relationship,especially that of marriage. Endogamy most oftendefines the operational limits of a caste group.However, wider identification is possible with aregion, language or occupation. Even then it isfound that an endogamous group, even where itis cross-cutting geographical boundaries is likelyto be identifiable as a social group in terms ofcaste ranking, social interaction, language, cultureand sometimes even as a political grouping.

2.4. Traditional Occupational Groups

In the traditional society, there wereoccupational guilds. The chatur-varna systemwith its division into Brahman (priestly caste),Kshatriya (warrior caste), Vaishya (land ownersand traders) and Sudra (labouring caste) was infact based on occupational differentiation. Theoccupations are graded - manual labour is lookeddown upon and those dealing with swine-herding, scavenging (removal of night soil)butchery are regarded as polluting. In table 2 isgiven a list of castes based on occupationaldivision.

2.5. Marriage Patterns

People generally marry within a close-knitsocial circle in which many points of likes anddislikes are shared. The size of mating groupsmay be small or large, but if the preferenceoperates over a long period of time, certaincharacteristics segregate and one population ismarked off from another by visible differences.

Fig. 10. India-Scheduled Tribes in percent to the Total Population (after Bhasin and Walter 2001)

INDIA

PAKISTANAFG

HANISTA

N

CHINATIBET

NEPAL

Lakshadweep (India)

Scheduled Tribes

BANGLA-DESH

0 300 600

kms

(%)

< 1

1 - 10

10 - 20

20 - 30

30 - 50

50 - 70

> 70

Andam

an a

nd N

icob

ar Is

land

s (In

dia)


Marriage patterns may be considered fromthe three aspects: the field of selection, the partyto selection, and the criteria of selection. Therestrictions posed among some tribes andcommunities in the field of selection arepreferential and obligatory marriage. There arecertain rules prohibiting marriage with certainrelatives or between groups. The endogamouscharacter of certain groups limits the boundariesor marital circles. Exogamous restrictions aredefined in terms of sib, totem, territorial group,Gotra or Sapinda relationship (for detail seeKapadia, 1982).

The Hindus have both endogamous andexogamous rules limiting the selection of mate.The Hindu society is divided into a number ofendogamous caste groups each of which isfurther divided into endogamous groups basedin terms of locality. This multiplicity of groupsthus restricts the choice of mate within aboundary. Caste exercises a great influence onthe social life of a man. The breach of casteendogamy was a punishable offence till recently.People were excommunicated by castepanchayat. With the advent of industrializationchanges have taken place in the Indian society.One is the freedom in the matter of choice ofoccupation and secondly with the widening ofarea of social intercourse, intercaste marriagesare taking place. The general attitude of themembers of the caste concerned in such a unionis either of non-opposition, tolerance or indiff-erence.

The internal exogamous division of endoga-mous caste is Gotra or Sapinda. The rules of

exogamy prohibit marriage between members ofsame Gotra; marriage between persons relatedto each other within certain generations on thefather’s and the mother’s side. According to somescriptures the restrictions of Sapinda exogamyprimarily implied marriage beyond the family i.e.four generations on the father’s side and threeon the mother’s. The term Sapinda has twomeanings: (1) those who share the particles ofthe same body; and (2) those who are united byoffering balls of cooked rice (Pinda) to the samedead ancestors.

The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 has upheldthe Bombay legislation by removing the endoga-mous restrictions of caste and the exogamousrestriction of Gotra from the condition of a validmarriage. The Act lays down the condition of avalid marriage, that the parties are not Sapindasof each other unless the custom or usagegoverning each other permits of a sacramentalmarriage between the two. The violation of thisrule renders marriage void. According to the Act,marriage between two persons related within fivegenerations on the father’s side and three on themother’s is void unless permitted by localcustoms. Cross-cousin marriage in Southern partsof India is not only a valid marriage but pre-ferential form of mating in that part of the country.In fact, cross-cousin marriage seems to have beena characteristic feature of the Dravidian peoples.In the kinship terminology of all three principallanguages of this family, there is a clear indicationof cross-cousin marriage. Among the Telugus,the Kannadigas and the Tamilians marriage withsister’s daughter was also prevalent. The Hindu

Table 2: Caste based on division of occupation

Social Social Economic activitiesstatus group

Traditional Primaryoccupation occupation

I. High Castes Brahamans Priesthood Priesthod, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce,Armed Forces

Kshatriyas or Rajputs Warfare Agriculture, Trade and CommerceArmed Forces

Vaishyas (Banias) Commerce Trade and Commerce, Agriculture

II. Backward (a) Jats, Reddies, Agriculture Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, (Middle) Kammas, Vokalligas etc. Armed Forces

(b) Ahir, Gollas, Animal Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Trade andGujars Husbandry Commerce(c) Porter, Barber, Artisan Artisan, Agriculture, Agricultural LabourersTeli, Lohar etc.

III. Low Castes Chamar, Dom, Bhangi, Menial Workers Menial Workers, Agricultural LabourersKhatik

194 M. K. BHASIN

Marriage Act of 1955 has allowed cross-cousinmarriage to continue as local custom but hasprohibited marriage between uncle and niece. Insome parts of South India the institution ofdomestic deity (mane deraru, vittu perumal)serves to define the exogamous unit in theabsence of known genealogical links. In NorthIndia, high caste Hindus regard the village as anexogamous unit. Girls born within the village arecalled ‘village daughters’.

In addition to endogamous marriage types,there are hypergamous and hypogamousmarriages. Hypergamous marriage, in which thestatus of the bridegroom is socially higher thanthat of the bride, is known as anuloma i.e. withthe grain; Hypogamous marriage, on the otherhand is pratiloma, against the grain, that is,against what is natural or proper, since the statusof the bride is in this case higher than that of thebridegroom. The significance of marriage patternlies in the fact that the social hierarchy providesthe basis, and the anuloma theory divinesanction for future hypergamy in India.Hypergamy occurs in different parts of India andwas accepted by Brahmanical culture. With thegrowth of endogamous character of caste andsocial hierarchy, it became a more widelydistributed pattern of marriage. It is known toexist among some Brahman castes such as Kulin,Audich, Khedaval and Anavils and among non-Brahman groups such as Marathas, Rajputs, LevaPatidars of Gujarat and Nambudiri Brahman ofMalabar. The Kulin Brahmans are the highestamong the three Jatis (Kulia, Bansaj and Sretriya)of Brahmans. Hypergamous marriages betweendifferent castes of Brahmans of Bengal weretaking place, Leva-Patidar hypergamy of Gujaratis more intricate than Kulin hypergamy. ThePatidar of Charotar are divided into thepeople oftwenty six, twelve and finally, six villagesrespectively. The women of first group may marrymen in the first, second and third group, whilethe women in the second group may marry menin second and third group, and the women in thethird group may marry men in only the third group.

During Vedic period the favoured marriagepattern was monogamy, but polygynous andpolyandrous marriages were also taking place.Polygyny is that form of union in which a manhas more than one wife at a time. Polyandry is aform of union in which a women has more thanone husband at a time, or in which brothers sharea wife or wives in common. This form of union

was once practised by the people of the Cis-Himalayan tract in Northern India and amongsome tribes of the Pre-Dravidian or Dravidiangroups in South India. Though polygyny wasallowed by the Hindu ideal of marriage it wasresorted to only when no male child was born tothe first wife within the first few years of marriage.

Levirate alliances are also prevalent amongthe Ahirs of Haryana, amongst Jats and Gujjarsand several other castes in Uttar Pradesh, theKodague of Mysore and some Muslim castes. Inlevirate marriage a man is obliged to marry thewidow of a brother, and the children born to thenew couple are their own.

Sororate alliances i.e. the marriage of awidower with his wife’s younger sister, occur inSouth India.

A widower is permitted to marry in all religiousgroups, but it is not true for a widow. Widow re-marriage is permitted among Muslims, Christiansand Parsis. Among other groups local customsdetermine the question.

Among Muslims, parallel cousin marriage ispreferential and obligatory. We have already seenthat Muslim castes are also endogamous inpractice though not in theory. The aristocraticMuslim caste Syed are divided into endogamousgroups. Sometime the endogamous group is sosmall that it includes the extended families of man’sparents. Such a group is called a Kufw while themaximal endogamous group is called Biradari.

Generally, among Christians and Muslims, thenuclear family is a exogamous unit. Lineageexogamy also exists among the Muslim Gujjarsof Jammu and Kashmir. Some Muslims sub-castesare also endogamous, but the rules are not asstrict as among Hindus. Hypergamous marriagesdo take place among Muslim converts to Islamsfrom Jats and Rajput castes. Artisan castes whichconsider themselves mutually equal, intermarryamong themselves.

The Sikhs are generally endogamous, thoughhypergamy does occur among them who areconverts from Hindu castes e.g. Jats.

2.6. Inbreeding

In India each of the endogamous castes,tribes and religious communities has distinct andwell-defined cultural norms, which include variedmarriage customs/practices. Generally speaking,most of the Indian communities follow endogamy,but marriage within relatives is not permissible


uptill the seventh generation. However, a fewgroups prefer marriages between related indivi-duals like cross-cousins, parallel cousins, uncle-niece etc. The type of preferential marriages varyacross the country and different communities.For example whereas cross-cousin and parallelcousin marriages are preferred among theMuslims of the Northern India, the caste Hindusof Southern India prefer uncle-niece marriages.

Marriage between two individuals who haveat least one traceable common ancestor is said tobe consanguineous and the offsprings of suchmatings are inbred. There have been a number ofstudies in the recent past focussing attention onvarious aspects of inbreeding. But, it was Sanghvi(et al.) who initiated and stressed this kind ofstudies long back in 1956. After that, Dronamrajuand Meera Khan (1961, 1963), Dronamraju (1963a)and others published extensive data from AndhraPradesh. In 1966, Sanghvi again brought to lightrather high rates of inbreeding in Andhra Pradeshand Maharashtra. Since then a large number ofstudies have been undertaken. With the help ofconsanguinity, Malhotra (1976) has put forwarda generalization from which the following mainfeatures emerge:(i) amongst both castes and tribes of Dravidian

speaking states, (Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) consanguineousmarriages are preferred and prescribed; andthat the coefficient of inbreeding is fairly high;

(ii) the castes in Indo-Aryan speaking areas(most of the Northern states) prohibitconsanguineous marriages, the exceptionbeing Maharashtra, which has Dravidianinfluence on its marriage customs, and partsof Gujarat;

(iii) the position of tribal groups in the Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman (North-East)speaking states is not clear; and probablylow rates of consanguineous marriageswould be discerned;

(iv) The Muslims, Christians of southern states,Delhi, parts of northern states like Jammuand Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh etc., WestBengal, Maharashtra and also Jews, Parseesetc. practice consanguineous marriages,however, their position is yet to be fullyexplored.

Roychoudhury, (1976) noted in his compre-hensive review that coefficient of inbreeding ishighest in Andhra Pradesh. It varies from 0.013to 0.041 depending on the social or religious

communities that are studied within the state, itis highest among fishermen (0.047, Sanghvi, 1966)and tribals (0.041, Veerraju, 1973) followed byHindus (varies from 0.022 to 0.033, Sanghvi, 1966).

However, many other studies (amongothers—Dronamraju and Meera Khan, 1963;Chakravartti, 1968; Murty and Jamil, 1972; Reid,1973; Veerraju, 1973; Pingle, 1975; Rao andMukherjee, 1975; Reddy, 1983) show contra-dictory reports regarding the inbreedingcoefficients of different tribes and castes inAndhra Pradesh. But, it is generally viewed thatHindus have quite high inbreeding coefficientsfollowed by various tribes, Muslims, Christians,etc. (For detail review see Bhasin and Nag, 1994).

From Roychoudhury’s (1976) review, it wasalso possible to have an account of frequent typesof consanguineous marriages in India as well asin Andhra Pradesh and other southern states(having higher rates ofinbreeding). The mostfrequent type of consanguineous marriage isbetween first cousins. There are four kinds offirst cousin marriages, namely, the marriages withmother’s brother’s daughter (MBD), father’ssister’s daughter (FSD), mother’s sister’s daughter(MSD) and father’s brother’s daughter (FBD).The first two are cross-cousin marriages and lasttwo are parallel-cousin marriages. The Hinduspractise cross-cousin marriages and prefer tomarry MBD or FSD, while the Muslims practiseboth. Marriage with elder sister’s daughter oruncle-niece marriage though prevalent amongHindus (but frequency is quite low), is forbiddenamong Christians or Muslims.

The reasons for high frequency and degreeof inbreeding (especially in southern states ofIndia) are believed to be influenced mainly byvarious socio-economic and cultural factors(Reddy, 1983). However the geographical barriersbetween the communities or physically isolatedgroups are very few. This is clear from the factthat even the size of ‘small’ castes or tribes (inmost of the cases) are large enough to permit thechoice of unrelated spouse (Dronamraju andMeera Khan, 1963). Only in some small restrictedisolates, besides preference for consanguineousmarriages, lack of choice accounts for highfrequency of inbreedings.

Dronamraju (1963a), while discussing highrates of inbreeding in Andhra Pradesh, outlinedthe possible reasons. The most important onesseem to be (a) to keep the cultivable land in largerpieces for growing food crops, (b) the parental

196 M. K. BHASIN

domination in arranging the marriage, (c) themutual knowledge of families, (d) the relativesare better suited for economic and other reasons,to fit into the Hindu joint family system etc.

Bhasin and Nag (1994) have attempted to putforward a comprehensive review of incidence ofconsanguinity, viz., fertility, mortality, morbidityin the Indian region and other South Asiancountries-Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

They observed that in Indian region incidenceof consanguineous marriages has not declinedyet. Such types of marriages are preferred notonly in small isolates or geographically restrictedcommunities, but also in numerically large castes,communities and tribes (various caste Hindus,Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews andScheduled Tribes) mainly due to diverse socio-economic and cultural reasons. Regionalappraisal shows that the states of the southernregion of India overwhelmingly prefer andpractice consanguineous marriages across allmajor religious groups and ethnic entities exceptKerala, where comparatively low incidence isobserved, owing perhaps to higher educationalstatus, influence of Christianity and absence ofa major type of consanguineous marriage -(prevalent especially in the southern states), thosebetween uncle-niece. In the western region, themarriage customs of many communities ofMaharashtra, seem to submit to Dravidian influ-ence thereby preferring consanguineous marri-ages fairly frequently. In the other states ofwestern region; and the northern region, easternregion, Islands and other South Asian countries,except among Muslims and certain tribal groups,consanguinity is usually proscribed or preferredoccasionally. They further added that consan-guinity is often positively related with fertility,mortality, morbidity, and sterility. But there alsoexist contradictory evidences leading to ambi-guities and therefore, such generalized notionsmay require future revision.

However, it is apparent today that highereducation, industrialisation and urbanisation etc.are reducing the frequency of consanguineousmarriages as they are negatively correlated.

3. Religious Groups

In the present book, studies have not beencategorised into various religious groups for thestatistical analysis, however to facilitate a com-

parative discussion, a brief text on the differentreligious groups is given below.

In India, several religions have flourishedsince time immemorial. India is the original homeof Hinduism, which constitutes the system ofbeliefs and rituals of the majority of its people.The major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims,Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains and eachaccount for not less than a million populations inthe country as a whole. A total of 183 otherreligions under the head ‘Other Religions andPersuasions’ have been recorded in Census ofIndia 1981 with the strength of 100 and above, atthe country level.

3. 1. Hindus (Hinduism)

Hinduism has developed gradually out of thesynthesis of sacrificial cults brought into India bythe Aryan invaders around 1500 B.C. with religionof various indigenous people. In historic timesthe complexity of religious belief, custom, andpractice has been influenced by Zoroastrianism,Christianity, Islam, the tribal religions of CentralAsian Nomads and perhaps even Chinese Taoism.

The most characteristic feature of Hinduism,however, is the doctrine of an eternal soul and itsrebirth. Even in its classical period (600 B.C. to450 B.C.) Hinduism was characterized by anastonishing variety of doctrines and cultures. Itwas regarded, however, as a retrograde stepwhen these varieties of culture, ritual and mytho-logy became hardened into social strata andcastes. The distribution of Hinduism is wide-spread, throughout the length and the breadthof the country.

Almost the entire country with the exceptionof the extreme North in North Western cornerand the North Eastern corner shows that Hindusform over 80 per cent of the total population.There is a distinct continuous stretch of thecountry constituting the entire Orissa state,adjoining areas of Andhra Pradesh and a largeadjoining tract of Madhya Pradesh, where thepopulation is almost entirely (about 90 per centor more) made up of Hindus. There is anotherdistinct area of Himalayan region (HimachalPradesh and Uttar Pradesh), which is also mostlyHindu in its population composition.

3. 2. Muslims (Islam)

Islam began in Arabia in the beginning of the


7th century. The founder of this religion wasProphet Muhammad who was born in 570 A.D. ina distinguished family of Mecca. After ProphetMuhammad’s death (A.D. 632) the leadershippassed to Calipus or Khalifas who were bothreligious and political heads. Arabs spread Islamfrom the Atlantic to Sind within eighty years ofProphet’s death.

Though Islam proclaimed the idea of equality,but in India it has been characterized by caste.The true Muslims are divided into four largefamilies—Saiyad, Shaikh, Pathan and Moghul.Though they are referred as castes in India, theyare neither castes nor tribes but are merely namesgiven to groups of tribes supposed to be of similarblood (Blunt, 1931: p. 189).

Muslims are divided into two major religious,endogamous sect-Shia and Sunni and severalminor groups like Momins, Domon, Khoja, Bohra,Moplahic.

In addition there are interior and exteriorcastes among Muslims- (a) Ashraf or Sharifmeaning noble or person of high extraction. Itincludes all undoubted descendants of foreignersand converts from higher Hindu castes. (b) AjlafAlrop - meaning “wretches”, embraces all otherMohammedans, including the functional groupsand low ranking converts.

Traditional occupation of Saids is thepriesthood, while the Moghuls and Pathanscorrespond to Kshatriyas of the Hindu regime.All converts are endogamous groups and manyare split into further smaller endogamous groups“amongst the Bhands, Gujjars and Rangrej, Sunisand Shias do not intermarry...; Pathan and Shaikh.Muhammadan Rajputs preserve their Hindu rulesof hypergamy”. “In fact, most of these castes ofHindu converts preserve some trace of their formermarriage system”, (Blunt, 1931: pp. 201-202). CertainMuslim groups also preserve Hindu commensaltaboos and religious rites. The Muslims are apredominantly rural community with markedconcentration in the Kashmir valley and adjacentKargil Tehsil, Mewat, Rohilkhand and upper Doab,Ganga Delta, Malasar and the Lakshadweep.

The States and Union Territories, whereMuslims are predominant, are Lakshadweep(94.84 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (64.19per cent). The States in which the proportion ofMuslims exceeds the national average (11.35 percent) are West Bengal (21.51 per cent), Kerala(21.25 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (15.93 per cent)and Bihar (14.13 per cent).

3. 3. Christians (Christianity)

It is believed that Christianity was introducedin South India in the first century A.D. by St.Thomas, who, according to the Catholic Churchof Edessa, came twice on missions to India.Cosmas of Alexandria, who travelled in SouthIndia (A.D. 522), found two Mestorian Churches- one in Quilon and other in Ceylon. A copperplate grant of A.D. 744 attests to the fact thatmany Indians have become converts toChristianity. The immigrants from Baghdad,Nineveh, Jerusalem and other places added tothe Christian community. Marco Polo (A.D. 1293)mentions the presence of a Christian communityat St. Thomas Mount and narrates a story of themartyrdom of St. Thomas on the mount.

Indian Christians are divided into Catholicsas well as Protestants. The caste restrictions arerigidly observed among Christian community, ahigh caste Catholic will marry a Catholic of highcaste and similarly Protestants will marry amongthemselves. It can be concluded that the wholeIndian society is caste ridden and caste system,in one or the other form, is present in all religions.

Christians constitute the third major religiouscommunity in the country. Christianity appearsmost widespread in the Southern and North-eastern regions of the country. In Kerala, TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh about 60 per cent of theentire country’s Christian population is account-ed for. In North Eastern states like Nagaland,Meghalaya and Mizoram, the composition of thepopulation is predominantly Christian.

3. 4. Sikhs (Sikhism)

The word Sikh is the Punjabi form of theSanskrit word ‘Shishya’ which means disciple.The Sikhs are the followers of Guru Nanak Devand nine other Gurus of whom the last was ShriGuru Govind Singh. Sikhism was based on theteachings of Unity of God; rejection of caste andritualism and brotherhood of man. Though basedon the idiom of equality, Sikhism is as caste riddenas Hinduism. Sikhs are broadly divided intoSardars and Majhabis, the former consisting ofhigh castes and latter of sweepers. The Sardarsinclude Jat and Kamboh (Landowners), Tarkhan(Carpenter), Kumhar (Potter), Mehra (Watercarrier) and Cimbma (Washer man). The first twocastes regard themselves as superior to theothers. Majhabis are later converts. In some parts

198 M. K. BHASIN

of Punjab, Sansi (Shepherd), the members ofcriminal tribe are later converts and are at lowestlevel. There are some other religious sects amongthe Sikhs like Nihangs, Namdharis andRamgarhias. The Sikhs though extremely mobileare concentrated in all districts of Punjab andparts of Haryana.

In Punjab 60.75 per cent and in Chandigarh21.11 per cent of the population is Sikhs. In noother state or Union Territory do they constituteeven 5 per cent of the population except inHaryana (6.21 per cent) and Delhi (6.33 per cent).

3. 5. Buddhists (Buddhism)

Buddhism was evolved as a revolt againstVedic religion or Brahmanism. In the sixth centuryB.C., number of new sects sprang up, andBuddhism was one of them. Buddhism wasfounded by Kshatriya Prince Siddartha and wasbased on the principles of non-violence andsimple living instead of ritualism. Buddhism isfurther divided into two sects:

(i) Hinayan (The Small Vehicle)—Oldfollowers of the old religion who believed inBuddha as a Guru or the Great Master.

(ii) Mahayanas (The Great Vehicle)—Theyraised Buddha to the position of a saviour god.

Taking the country as a whole the largestnumber of Buddhists is found in Maharashtra. Itis well known that the neo-Buddhist movementduring the decade 1951-61 saw a large scaleadoption of Buddhism particularly by theScheduled Castes population in Maharashtra,though this tempo was not maintained in 1961-71; in fact the growth rate recorded appears to beless than even the natural growth rate. It ispossible that certain converts from ScheduledCastes to Buddhism preferred to return theirreligion as “Hindu” finding that as Buddhiststhey were not entitled to certain concessionsavailable to Scheduled Castes.

In North Eastern states the Buddhistsaccount for 28.71 per cent in Sikkim, 13.69 inArunachal Pradesh and 8.19 per cent in Mizoram.

3. 6. Jains (Jainism)

The other sect which evolved againstBrahmanism, was Jainism founded by anotherKshatriya Prince Vardhaman. It also laid stresson right actions and good deeds instead ofsacrifices and prayers. Jains are further dividedinto two sects—

(i) Svetambara - clothed in white(ii) Digambara - clothed in atmosphere,

because their Munis wear no clothes.The Jains are essentially urban dwellers; this

is the only religious community which is morenumerous in urban areas than in rural areas. Theyare spread largely in States of Rajasthan, Mahara-shtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka andUnion Territory of Delhi.

3.7. Parsis

An endogamous group migrated from Iranand settled primarily in West India. They show ahigh frequency of inbreeding. They wereZoroastrian fire worshippers, and came to India[as their name suggests from Fars (Persia)] about8th century A.D. to escape from forcibleconversion to Islam. In 1981, they were only71,630 in India (Census of India, 1981).

3.8. Jews

Indian Jews are divided into: Beni-Israel,Cochin Jews and Baghdadi Jews. Beni-Jews, whoare mostly found in Bombay, are again dividedinto Gora (White) and Kala (Black), the formerbeing considered higher in rank. The CochinJews, found mostly in Cochin, are divided intothree categories—Gora, Kala and Meshurarim(descendants of Cochin Jews and their slaveconcubines). The Baghdadi Jews are found inBombay and Calcutta. They were 5618 in India(Census of India, 1981).

4. Linguistic Groups

The people of India display a high degree ofdiversity in their languages and dialects. It hasbeen acquired through a long process ofpeopling of the sub-continent by heterogeneousethnic groups drawn from the neighbouringregions of Asia. A linguistic group is an entity ofsocial significance. There is a broad socialintegration among all the speakers of a certainlanguage. In the beginning languages anddialects developed in the different regions of thecountry under conditions of more or lessisolation. The language and the dialect thus playa significant role in defining the elements ofregional identity.

In free India the distribution pattern of majorlanguage groups was considered as a satisfactorybasis for the formation of states. This has given


a new political meaning to the geographicalpatterns of the linguistic distribution of thecountry.

According to Grierson (1903-1928), India has179 languages and 544 dialects. Of theselanguages (the separate enumeration of dialectsis irrelevant, since they also come under“languages”), 116 are small tribal speeches ofthe Tibeto-Chinese family; these are found onlyin the northern and north-eastern fringes of Indiaand are present among less than 1per cent of theentire population of the country. Nearly two dozenmore are likewise insignificant speeches of otherlanguage groups; or they are languages not trulybelonging to India (Census Centenary Mono-graph No.10, 1972; Gazetteer of India, 1973).

According to the 1961 Census of India therewere 187 languages spoken by different sectionsof our society. This is, however, not surprising,considering a large number of people inhabitinga vast land. The picture though becomes lessconfusing when it is noted that as many as 94 ofthese 187 languages are spoken by less than10,000 persons each and that 23 languagestogether account for 97 per cent of the total popu-lation of the country. Out of these 23 languages,15 besides English have been specified in theEighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi,Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya,Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.Hindi has been given the status of India’s officiallanguage along with English. Sanskrit includedin the list is no longer a spoken language, thoughit has great importance even today. The EighthSchedule does not recognize any of the langu-ages belonging to the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Chinese families, because of their numerical aswell as cultural insignificance.

4.1. Classification of Indian Languages

The languages spoken by the people of India(Fig. 11) belong to the following four languagefamilies:4.1.1. The Austro-Asiatic Language Family(Nishada),4.1.2. The Tibeto-Chinese Language Family(Kirata),4.1.3. The Dravidian Language Family (Dravida),and4.1.4. The Indo-European Language Family (Aryan).

“It is not known how and when these

language families moved into India. Before theiradvent, there was the language of the Negroidpeoples, who pioneered into India from Africaalong the Asian coastline probably before the6th millennium B.C. But on the mainland of Indianothing has remained of their language, theoriginal Negroid peoples having been killed orabsorbed by subsequent immigrants” (Gazetteerof India, 1965).

Chronological sequence in the matter of theadvent into India of the three groups other thanAryan has not been established. It is not clear asto who came first - the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Chinese or Dravidians. But the fact remains thatall these three groups were in India when theAryans came.

Renfrew (1987, 1989) and Cavalli-Sforza et al.(1994) reported that Indian sub-continent hadexperienced massive gene flow from at least twoNeolithic episodes of migrations. Firstly about 10-15 thousands years ago, when agriculturedeveloped in the fertile cresent region, a part of aneastward wave of human migration entered Indiaand brought Dravidian languages (Renfrew, 1989)mainly, Elamo-Dravidian languages (Ruhlen, 1991),which may have originated in the Elam province(Zagros Mountains, Southwestern Iran) and areconfined to southeastern India and to some isolatedgroups in Pakistan and northern India. The nextwas the arrival of pastoral nomands from the centralAsian steppes to the Iranian plateau about 4000years before present, brought with it the Indo-European language family which eventuallyreplaced Dravidian languages from most ofPakistan and northern India, perhaps by an elite-dominance process (Renfrew 1987, 1989, 1996,Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1988; Quintana-Murci et al.,2001)

Out of these language families, the Aryanfamily is numerically and culturally the mostimportant in India. According to 1961 Census ofIndia over 73.3 per cent of the Indian people spokelanguages belonging to the Aryan family.Dravidian came next representing 24.47 per cent.There are only 1.5 per cent for the Austriclanguages and still less for the Tibeto-Chineselanguages (0.73 per cent).

4.1.1. The Austro-Asiatic Language Family(Nishada)

“Between the Austrics and Dravidians, theformer possibly represent the earlier group.

200 M. K. BHASIN

According to some scholars, the Austrics hadtheir origin in Indo-China and South China; theyspread east into India and south into Malaya, andthen passed into the islands beyond. Anotherview, which is more recent is that the Austrics area very old off-shoot of the Mediterranean peoplewho came into India from the west, probably evenbefore the Dravidians. Austric speech influencedDravidian and Aryan. In the plains, Austric hasbeen very largely suppressed by Dravidian andAryan, but Austric languages survive in the lesseasily accessible hills and forests of Central andEastern India. On the Himalayan slopes, Austriclanguages have deeply modified the Tibeto-Chinese dialects-hese took over some Austricfeatures. In Assam, one Austric language survivedamong the Khasis, who are largely Mongoloid inrace but Austric in speech” (The Gazetteer of India,1965).

The Austro-Asiatic family is represented inIndia by the speakers belonging to the two mainbranches—(i) Mon-Khmer Branch (Mon-KhmerGroup) and, (ii) Munda Branch (Munda Group).

(i) Mon-Khmer Branch: This includes thetwo groups—1. Khasi group of languages ofAssam, and 2. Nicobarese of the Nicobar Islands.

(ii) Munda Branch: This is represented bythe speakers belonging to the Central and Easternregions of India. This is the largest of the Austro-Asiatic family. This includes the people inhabitingmostly the hills and jungles of Bihar, Chota Nagpur,Orissa and Central India. The largest single groupis that of Santhali speakers, who alone accountfor more than half of the total Austro-Asiaticspeakers. The names of the speeches in the branchare given below:

1. Kherwari 2. Santali 3. Mundari 4. Bhumij 5.Birhor 6. Koda/Kora 7. Ho 8. Turi 9. Asuri 10.Agaria 11. Birjia/- Brigia/Binjhia 12. Korwa 13.Korku 14. Kharia 15. Juang 16. Savara 17. Gadabaand Munda - unspecified.

Of the two speeches of Mon-Khmer, Khasi isconfined to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills ofMeghalaya, while Nicobari to the Nicobar Islandin the Bay of Bengal. The Mundari speakers areconcentrated in the tribal districts of SantalParganas, Mayurbhanj, Ranchi, East Nimar, Betuland Baudh Khondmals.

4.1.2. The Tibeto-Chinese Language Family(Kirata)

“The original Sino-Tibetan speakers appear

to have become characterized with their basiclanguage at least 4000 years before Christ in thearea to the west of China, between the sourcesof the Yangtze and the Hwang Rivers. There theydeveloped a language which ultimately becamethe source of Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese andpossibly also Thai, though the geneticconnection of Thai with the Sino-Tibetan familyis now being questioned. The Tibeto-Burmanspeaking Mongoloids with yellow complexioncame to be known among the Vedic Aryans asthe Kiratas. The Kirata influence in the amalgamof Aryo-Dravido-Austric culture, which is Indianculture or Hindu culture, was not very far-reaching. The role of the Sino-Tibetan languagesand their present position also are not verysignificant” (The Gazetteer of India, 1965).

The speakers of Tibeto-Chinese family oflanguages are people of Mongoloid origin, whoare considered to have entered the Indianfrontiers much earlier than the Indo-Aryanspeakers. The area of the speeches stretches rightfrom Baltistan in the west to the north-easternfrontiers of the country and further reaching upto the southern most portions of Assam.

The speakers of Tibeto-Chinese family fallinto two main sub-families—I. Siamese-ChineseSub-Family and, II. Tibeto-Burman Sub-Family.

I. Siamese-Chinese Sub-Family: It includesthe Tai Group of languages which is distinct fromTibeto-Burman, and is represented only by onelanguage i.e. Khamti.

II. Tibeto-Burman Sub-Family: The secondsub-family of Tibeto-Chinese Family is dividedinto three branches—(a) Tibeto-HimalayanBranch; (b) North-Assam Branch; and (c) Assam-Burmese Branch.

(a) Tibeto-Himalayan Branch: This branchconsists of the following groups:

(i) Bhotia Group (Tibetan Group)(ii) Himalayan Group(i) Bhotia Group (Tibetan Group): This

group is represented by a number of importantnumerically strong speeches within Indianborders, namely: Ladakhi, Lahuli, Sikkim Bhotia,Balti and a number of small communitiescombined under the common name of Bhotia.This group includes the following languages:

1. Tibetan 2. Balti 3. Ladakhi 4. Lahauli 5. Spiti6. Jad 7. Sherpa 8. Sikkim Bhotia 9. Bhutani 10.Kagate and Bhotia-Unspecified.

(ii) Himalayan Group (Pronominalized/Non-pronominalized Himalayan Groups): This


Fig. 11. India-Linguistic Groups (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe 1994)

group of speeches is spoken along the tracts tothe south of the Himalayas from HimachalPradesh in the west to the western borders ofBhutan in the east. These are further split intopronominalized and non-pronominalized groupsof speeches. The pronominalized group ofspeeches has given evidence of Austro-Asiatictraits remaining in some of their member speeches.This group includes the following speeches:

1. Lahauli of Chamba 2. Kanashi 3. Kanauri 4.Jangali 5. Dhimal 6. Limbu 7. Khambu 8. Rai 9.Gurung 10. Tamang 11. Sunwar 12. Mangari 13.Newari 14. Lepcha 15. Kami 16. Toto.

(b) North-Assam Branch: A significant groupof languages the Tibeto-Burman sub-familyoccupies the north-eastern frontier and may benamed as ‘North-East Frontier Group’.

North-East Frontier Group: This groupconsists of a number of following languages:

1. Aka/Hrusso 2. Dalfa 3. Abor/Adi 4. Miri 5.Mishmi

(c) Assam-Burmese Branch: This branch ofTibeto-Burman sub-family consists of thefollowing groups:

(i) Bodo Group (Bara or Bodo Group); (ii)Naga Group; (iii) Kachin Group (iv) Kuki-ChinGroup; (v) Burma Group

(i) Bodo Group (Bara or Bodo Group): Thisgroup includes the following languages:

1. Bodo/Boro 2. Lalung 3. Dimasa 4. Garo 5.Koch 6. Rabha 7. Tripuri 8. Deori 9. Mikir.

(ii) Naga Group: This group consists of thefollowing languages:

Munda BranchMon-Khmer Branch

DRAVIDIAN FAMILY

Dravidian

AUSTRO-ASIATIC FAMILY

TIBETO-CHINESE FAMILYTibeto-Himalayan BranchNorth Assam BranchAssam-Burmese Branch

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY

Dardic BranchIranian BranchIndo-Aryan Branch

INDIA

PAKISTANAFG

HANISTA

N

CHINATIBET

NEPAL

Lakshadweep (India)

BAYOF

BENGAL

Andam

an a

nd N

icob

ar Is

land

s (In

dia)

Linguistic Groups

202 M. K. BHASIN

1. Angami 2. Sema 3. Rengma 4. Khezha 5. Ao6. Lotha 7. Tableng 8. Chang-Naga 9. Kacha Naga10. Zemi Naga 11. Kabui 12. Khoirao 13. Mao 14.Maram 15. Tangkhul 16. Maring 17. Konyak 18.Pochury 19. Phom 20. Yimchungre 21.Khiemnungam 22. Nocte 23. Wancho 24.Makware 25. Tangsa and Naga-Unspecified.

(iii) Kachin Group: This group includes thetwo languages:

1. Kawri 2. Singpho.(iv) Kuki-Chin Group: It consists of the

following speeches:1. Manipuri/Meithei 2. Thodo 3. Ralte 4. Paite

5. Tlangtlang 6. Pawi 7. Lakher 8. Lushai/Mizo 9.Rangkhol 10. Halam 11. Langrong 12. Aimol 13.Chiru 14. Kom 15. Hmar 16. Lamgang 17. Chote18. Purum 19. Anal 20. Gangte 21. Vaiphei 22.Khami 23. Khawathlang 24. Simte and Kuki-Unspecified and Chin-Unspecified.

(v) Burma Group: This group includes thespeeches: 1. Mru 2. Arkanese

The languages and the dialects belonging tothe Sino-Tibetan family are spoken by tribalgroups of north-east and of the Himalayan andsub-Himalayan regions of the North and North-West. The speeches of the Tibeto-Himalayanbranch are spoken in Ladakh and parts ofHimachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The Assam-Burmese Branch is concentrated in the states ofNorth-east India along the Indo-Burmese border.Among these, Naga dialects are spoken inNagaland; Lushai is concentrated in Mizo Hills,Garo in Garo Hills and Meithei in Manipur.

4.1.3. The Dravidian Language Family(Dravida)

“The Dravidians are said to have come fromAsia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. Theywere a Mediterranean people, of the same stockas the peoples of Asia Minor and Crete, and thePre-Hellenic people of Greece (The Aegean). TheDravidians of India were thus originally a branchof the same people as the Pre-Hellenic people ofGreece and Asia Minor. The exact affiliation ofDravidian with the language of the EasternMediterranean has not yet been settled. But somecommon lexical elements are noticeable. Certainreligious notions and ideas as well as cults andpractices among the Dravidian people of Indiahave strong West Asian and Mediterraneanaffinities. The city civilization of Sind and Punjaband other parts of India appears to be Dravidian,

and therefore connected with West Asia. TheDravidian languages are now found in solidblocks in the Deccan and in South India, wherethey have their separate existence in spite ofstrong inroads upon them by the Aryan speech.There is an Austric element in the Dravidianlanguages, just as there is a strong Dravidian-cum-Austric substratum in the Aryan speechesof India (The Gazetteer of India, 1965).

The language families have been broadlygrouped geographically and the relative positionof particular language is discussed with referenceto its situation in three broad group areas. Theyare listed below:(i) South Dravidian Group: It consists of the

speeches: 1. Tamil 2. Malayalam 3. Kannada4. Coorgi/Kodagu 5. Tulu 6. Toda 7. Kota 8.Telugu.

(ii) Central Dravidian Group: It includes 1. Kui2. Kolami 3. Gondi 4. Parji 5. Koya 6. Khond/Kondh 7. Konda.

(iii) North Dravidian Group: It includes 1.Kurukh/Oraon and 2. Malto.

Unspecified Dravidian Tongues: A few (6742)persons belong to unspecified DravidianTongues, which are 1. Dravidian, 2. Madrasi, 3.Ladhadi and 4. Bharia.

Languages of the Dravidian family are con-centrated in the plateau region and the adjoiningcoastal plains. Telugu is spoken in Andhra, Tamilin Tamil Nadu, and Kannada in Karnataka andMalayalam in Kerala. The speeches of theDravidian family are also spoken by a largenumber of tribal groups living in the eastern andthe north-eastern parts of the peninsular plateau.These groups include the Gonds of MadhyaPradesh, Central India and the Oraons of ChotaNagpur Plateau.

4.1.4. The Indo-European Language Family(Aryan)

“The Aryan speeches of India, beginningfrom Vedic Sanskrit, their oldest form, have beenthe great intellectual and cultural heritage ofIndia. They form our mental and spiritual linkwith the European world, on the genetic side;and with the world of South-East Asia and EastAsia, on the cultural side, through Buddhism andBrahmanism. The modern Indo-Aryan languagesof India are near or distant cousins of the Indo-European languages outside India, like Persian,Armenian, Russian and other Slav languages;


Greek, Italian, French, Spanish and other Latinlanguages; German, English, Norwegian and otherTeutonic languages; and Welsh and Irish amongCeltic languages. The Indo-European speech-family is today the most important in the world.With the exception of the various languageswithin the orbit of Chinese (the so-called dialectsof Chinese or Han), Japanese, Indonesian orMalay, and Arabic, all the main languages of theworld, and the most important culturally, are Indo-European. And all these languages are descendedfrom a common source-speech, the “PrimitiveIndo-European”, which flourished about 5000years ago” (The Gazetteer of India, 1965).

In India this great family is represented by itssub-family of languages, which covers the widestarea of the country and is spoken by the largestproportion of the Indian population.

I. Aryan Sub-FamilyThe Aryan sub-family is further divided into

3 branches—(a) Iranian Branch (b) Dardic (orPisacha) Branch, and (c) Indo-Aryan Branch.

(a) Iranian Branch: It is represented bylanguages like Persian, Pashto and Balochiconsidered of foreign origin.

(b) Dardic (or Pisasha) Branch: It isrepresented by following groups of languages:

(i) Kafir Group : Wai Ala(ii) Khowar Group: Khowar(iii) Dard Group: 1. Dardi 2. Shina 3. Kashmiri

4. Kohistani. Speakers of Kafir and Khowargroups do not come within the Indianboundaries.

(c) Indo-Aryan Branch: The coverage of thelanguage of the Indo-Aryan Branch being muchtoo wide, it will perhaps be convenient to restrictthe brief description of the main languages anddialects of the branch through enumeration ofbroad groups of languages classified in theirproper circles with reference to commoncharacteristics and socio-linguistic tendencies,often not found in the other groups. The Indo-Aryan Branch can be divided into two sub-branches as follows: 1. Outer Sub-Branch and 2.Mediate Sub-Branch/Inner Sub-Branch

1. Outer Sub-Branch: This consists of thefollowing

(i) North-Western Group: This includes 1.Lahnda or Western Punjabi Dialects and 2. Sindhi.

(ii) Southern Group: This group includes 1.Marathi; 2. Konkani.

(iii) Eastern Group: This includes 1. Oriya;2. Bihari with sub-groups- Bhojpuri, Maghi/

Magadhi, Maithili; 3. Bengali; 4. Assamese.2. Mediate Sub-Branch/Inner Sub-Branch:

This includes the groups—(i) Mediate Group/Central Group and, (ii) Pahari Group.

(i) Mediate Group/Central Group: Thisincludes—1. Hindi; 2. Hindustani; 3. Urdu; 4.Punjabi; 5. Gujarati; 6. Bhili; 7. Khandeshi; 8.Rajasthani.

(ii) Pahari Group: It is divided into—1.Eastern Pahari; 2. Central Pahari; and 3. WesternPahari

Grierson adopted name ‘Pahari Group’ in theIndo-Aryan speeches spread along theHimalayan region from Bhadrawah in the west toNepal in the east.

(1) Eastern Pahari: It consists of Nepali.(2) Central Pahari: It includes 1. Kumauni,

2. Garhwali.(3) Western Pahari: It includes 1. Jaunsari;

2. Sirmauri; 3. Baghati; 4. Kiunthali; 5. Handuri;6. Siraji; 7. Soracholi; 8. Bashahri; 9. Siraji-Inner-Siraji; 10. Sodochi; 11. Kului; 12. Mandi; 13.Mandeali; 14. Suketi; 15. Chameali; 16. Bharmauri/Gaddi; 17. Churahi; 18. Pangwali; 19. Bhalesi; 20.Padari; 21. Pahari-Unspecified.

The unspecified Indo-Aryan tongues, OldMiddle-Indo-Aryan languages and MotherTongue with unspecified family affiliation arelisted below:

II. Unspecified Indo-Aryan Tongues:1. Mahasu Pahari; 2. Tharu; 3. KewatiIII Old Middle-Indo-Aryan Languages:1. Ardhamagadhi; 2. Pali; 3. Prakrit; 4. SanskritIV. Mother Tongue with Unspecified Family

Affiliation:1. Kisan; 2. EnglishLanguages of the Indo-Aryan family are

concentrated in the plains of India. The domainof Indo-Aryan languages, however, extends overthe peninsular plateau also, reaching as far asthe Konkan coast. The central part of this regionhas Hindi as the principal language. It is spokenby the majority of people in India. Hindi is spokenin Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and theUnion Territory of Delhi. Urdu is closely akin toHindi and is widely distributed in this belt. Thespeeches belonging to the north-western groups,such as Sindhi is mainly concentrated in WesternIndia. Marathi is the most important language ofthe southern group of the Indo-Aryan family.The languages of the eastern group, such asOriya, Bengali andAssamese are spoken in the

204 M. K. BHASIN

Eastern India. The languages of the central groupare confined to Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.The Himalayan and the sub-Himalayan areas areinhabited by the speakers of the various formsof Pahari speeches.

4.2. Linguistic Regions

The geographical distribution of the majorlanguages in India nearly fits into a scheme oflinguistic regions. Based on the principle ofnumerical strength about a dozen majorlanguages constitute the principal linguisticregions. However, the tribal languages do not fitinto this scheme of regions as the tribal groupsare concentrated in enclaves in central, easternand north-eastern parts of the country. Theregional mosaic of the tribal languages is highlycomplex and does not lend itself to a simplifiedscheme of regions.

Broadly speaking the principal languages ofIndia constitutes the following linguistic regions:

1. Kashmiri, 2. Punjabi, 3. Hindi/Urdu, 4. Bengali,5. Assamese, 6. Oriya, 7. Gujarati, 8. Marathi, 9.Kannada, 10. Telugu, 11. Tamil and 12. Malayalam.

The tribal languages are so distributed thateither they have their own small clusters or theyoverlap the regions of major languages. In thenorth-east, however, the tribal speeches such asthose of minor groups in Arunachal have almostknife-edged boundaries of their own.

The twelve linguistic regions identifiedabove, generally correspond with the states ofIndian Union. But the state boundaries do notalways correspond with the linguistic boundaries.In fact the linguistic boundary in itself is not aline, it is one of transition over which onelanguage gradually loses its dominance and givesway to the other.

4.3. Languages Specified in Schedule VIII tothe Constitution of India

The Schedule VIII recognizes fifteenlanguages in India; there are 95.37 per centspeakers of these languages in the total Indianpopulation (Part ‘A’). The remaining 4.63 per centis accounted for by others (Part ‘B’). Theidentifiable mother tongues at all India level havebeen grouped under the relevant language (s)(Census of India, 1971) as given below:

Part ‘A’1. Assamese

2. Bengali: Chakma; Haijong/Hajong;Malpaharia; Rajbansi

3. Gujarati: Saurashtra4. Hindi: Awadhi, Baghelkhandi, Bagri-

Rajasthani; Banjari; Bhadrawahi; Bharmauri/Gaddi; Bhojpuri; Braj Bhasha; Budelkhandi;Chambeali; Chattisgarhi; Churahi; Dhundhari;Garhwali; Gojri; Harauti; Haryanvi; Hindustani;Jaipuri; Jaunsari; Kangri; Khairari; Kortha/Khatta; Kulvi; Kumauni; Kurmali; Thar; Lamani/Lambadi; Lodhi; Madhesi; Magadhi/Maghi;Maithili, Malvi; Mandeali; Marwari; Mewari;Mewati; Nagpuria Nimadi; Pahari (It is acombination of various speeches spoken overlong stretches of areas, where the speakerspreferred to give a general name as Pahari);Panchpargania; Pawari/Powari; Rajasthani;Sadan/Sadri; Sirmauri; Sondwari; Surgujia.

5. Kannada: Badaga6. Kashmiri: Kishtwari, Siraji7. Malayalam: Yerava8. Marathi: Karami9. Oriya: Bhatri, Relli10. Punjabi: Bagri, Bilaspuri/Kahluri11. Sanskrit12. Sindhi: Kachchhi13. Tamil: Kaikadi; Yerukala/Yerukula14. Telugu: Vadari15. UrduPart ‘B’Adi: Adi Gallong/Gallong; Adi Minyong/

MinyongAngami: Chakra/ChokriBhili/Bhilodi Barel; Bhilai; Chodhari; Dhodia;

Gamti/Gavit; Garasia; Kokna/Kokni/Kukna;Mawchi; Paradhi; Pawri; Tadavi; Vasava; Varli;Wagdi

Bodo/Boro: Kachari; MechGondi: Dorli; Maria; MuriaKhandeshi: Ahirani; Dangi; Gujari-KhandeshiKhasi: Pnar/Synteng; WarKonda: KodoKorku: MuwasiLahnda: Multani, PunchhiMunda: KolNaga: ZeliangNissi/Dafla: Apatani; Bangni; Nishang;

TaginParil: DhurwaSantali: Karmali; MahiliTripuri: Jamatia; ReangA few studies are available in which resear-

chers have identified and attempted to distinguish


the people of Indian region to study the biologicaldiversity and that are almost similar to thatreported by Bhasin (1988), Bhasin et al. (1992,1994), Bhasin and Walter (2001).

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KEYWORDS Indian. Ethnic Groups. Regional Groups. Religious Groups. Occupational Groups. Linguistic Groups

ABSTRACT South Asia, constituting mainly the Indian sub-continent, is a panorama of social diversities, racialdifferences and rich cultural heritage. However many facets of history, race and culture of this area are still relativelyunexplored. Debates and doubts centering around the autochthonous status of the early settlers continue - it is verydifficult to ascertain how human groups and settlements were formed in the pre-historic times, whether they were theoriginal inhabitants or migrated from some other place and if they migrated, which route did they take. However, theinfiltration and admixture of new racial and cultural elements, from time to time, have made the Indian populationmore diverse and heterogeneous.

© Kamla-Raj Enterprises 2007 Anthropology Today: Trends, Scope and ApplicationsAnthropologist Special Volume No. 3: 167-208 (2007) Veena Bhasin & M.K. Bhasin, Guest Editors

Author’s Address: M. K. Bhasin, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007,IndiaPostal Address: Dr. M.K. Bhasin, B-2 (GF), South City II, Gurgaon 122 018, Haryana, India

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