CHAPTER 16 Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India: Indian Population Milieu

M. K. Bhasin

INTRODUCTION not only at the level of the concerned culture but also at the global level. Anthropology is the study of man in time 3. Biological (Physical) Anthropology: It and space. The focus of anthropological research can be defined as the scientific study of inter- is on human population(s) living in an ecological and intra-population variations. niche. It was in 1951 that S.L. Washburn laid down a Anthropology can be categorized under the distinction between the pre-1951 and post-1951 following main heads: physical anthropology referred as Old Physical 1. Palaeoanthropology Anthropology and New Physical Anthropology, 2. Social/Cultural Anthropology respectively. Before 1951 physical anthropology 3. Biological Anthropology was considered to be a descriptive study of 1. Palaeoanthropology: The research and biological parameters to an understanding of their training in Palaeoanthropology is divided in two causes. From 1951 onwards mathematical models distinct areas. One emphasizes the metho- formulated for population biology have become dological training in Prehistoric Archaeology and popular for understanding the causes of the other in Palaeontology variation and co-existence of genetic traits. Thus Prehistoric Archaeology: The prehistoric the orientation of physical anthropology has archaeology includes a total introduction to the changed from description to causes to models. study of geo-chronology through the analysis In the descriptive type of physical anthro- of such variables as alluvial deposits as also pology, G.W. Lasker has identified five major areas faunal and floral characteristics associated with of interest according to which relevant techniques such deposits on a world-wide basis. Antiquity for investigation were devised. analysis in terms of the techniques of manufacture 1. The form of bones and teeth as well as their morphology is included as 2. Determination of age and sex and ethnic standard components of prehistoric culture. group from bones and teeth Finally, on the ground of these basics, a thorough 3. Human growth and development study of the various stages of Palaeolithic, 4. Composition of the body and its variation Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures 5. Body build and its application to human for the entire Old World is undertaken. engineering. Palaeontology: Palaeontological includes Although in Lasker’s formulation, dermato- the detailed study of the character and glyphics did not figure, it occupied an important distribution of fossil primates. Primate behaviour place in physical anthropology preceding 1951. with specific attention to adaptational attributes Therefore, for completing the list of the old are also included within this scheme. Adapta- interests, the inclusion of dermatoglyphics is tional radiation in both hominoid and hominid imperative. Since 1951, the various dermato- evolution forms another important aspect of this glyphic traits occupied an important place in course. biological anthropology. But it should not be 2. Social/Cultural Anthropology: Social/ forgotten that these interests listed by Lasker cultural anthropology is the study of social are instrumental in generating a wealth of data, institutions and human behaviour in a cross- still valuable for accomplishing newer interests. cultural perspective. It attempts to unravel the These fields have not been discarded by underlying designs of human existence with a biological (physical) anthropologists when the view to arrive at generalizations having validity New Physical Anthropology, the result of the consanguinity between evolutionary and Address of Correspondence: Dr. M. K. Bhasin adaptational theory on the one hand and genetics B-2(GF), South City II, Gurgaon 122 002, Haryana, India on the other, had gained ground. With the “New 168 M. K. BHASIN

Physical Anthropology”, the interests which nowhere in the world people in a small geographic have come to stay are: area are distributed as such a large number of 1. Serological studies ethnic, castes, religious and linguistic groups as 2. Biochemical genetics especially of various in India and other South Asian countries. All these polymorphic systems. groups are not entirely independent; people 3. Studies of evolutionary factors such as belong concurrently to two or more of these mutation, natural selection and gene flow. groups. People of different groups living side by 4. Primatological studies, of their biology and side for hundreds or even thousands of year try behaviour. to retain their separate entities by practicing 5. Demographic studies, especially of factors endogamy. that affect inbreeding and genetic drift and India is a multicultural country. Anthropolo- the biological consequences of formal kinship gists are committed to grasping the dynamics of and alliance systems. communities and populations. As anthropology 6. Anthropometric and anthroposcopic studies, combines the premises of a biological as well as with reference to nutritional factors and well as socio-cultural study, it looks at the diverse ensuing demographic characters. sections of human beings with dual perspective, 7. Ecological studies dealing with biological and one derived from its branch called biological cultural adaptations. anthropology, and the other from social/cultural Physical anthropology has achieved new anthropology. How communities and populations strides after Washburn’s 1951 statement. For continue to retain their identity, in social and grasping the laws and processes of human evolu- cultural terms on one hand and biological on the tion, molecular evidences have been marshalled, other, and how they acquire the characteristics leading to the advent of microscopic work in the of the others because of cultural borrowing or area. Human cytogenetics has made an out- interbreeding are the questions anthropologists standing contribution towards the knowledge of systematically investigate. adaptation and evolution. Evolution at the genic India with about 1000 million people has the (elemental) level is that which is being sought second largest population in the world and it is through DNA analysis using recombinant one of the world’s top twelve megadiversity techniques. Thus, we have come a long way countries and has vast diversity of human beings, from morphological studies (morphological, fauna, flora and environmental regimes. Its behavioural, anthropometric, and dermatoglyphic present population includes stone-age food- traits - the mode of inheritance of all these gatherers, hunters, fisher-folk, shifting culti- characters is still rather unclear) to those of vators, peasant communities, subsistence genetic or classical markers (blood groups and agriculturists, nomadic herders, entertainers, as protein markers), and to the newly discovered well as those engaged in mechanized and molecular techniques which have provided a new chemicalized agriculture, mechanized fishing, direction and a whole battery of powerful tapping offshore oil and natural gas, running polymorphic systems to study genetic diversity atomic power plants and producing computer (Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, 2003; Jorde and software. India has been peopled by human Wooding, 2004). The question, what happens to groups carrying a diversity of genes and cultural genes with degradation in biotic environment, traits. We have almost all the primary ethnic acquires a primary place. With these newer and strains Proto-Australoid, Mediterranean, still newer interests, different kinds of techniques Mongoloid, Negrito and a number of composite have been enunciated to understand nature- strains. It is homeland of over 4000 Mendelian nurture relationship in a better fashion. More- populations, of which 3700 endogamous groups over, there has been a concomitant advancement are structured in the Hindu caste system as ‘jatis’. in statistical methods and we are now in a position Outside the preview of caste system there are a to make use of many parameters (Collins et al., thousand odd Mendelian populations which are 2003; Bamshad et al., 2004; Tishkoff and Kidd, tribal autochthones and religious communities. 2004; Cavalli-Sforza, 2005). Like any other plural society, India offers a The populations of India and other South cauldron where the processes of unification as Asian countries offer great opportunities to study well as of fragmentalisation are unceasingly taking socio-cultural and genetic variability. Perhaps, place. This presents a situation of cultural, GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 169 biological and environmental richness and p. 180). A number of fossil specimens have been diversity, and one where the constant interactions recorded from India, but most of the write-ups between communities are aiding the formation of totally overlook the aspects of ethnic or racial bridges, thus creating a sense of unity. It is in affinities of the specimens. these terms that India offers an ideal case for An attempt has been made in cataloguing the examining unity in diversity both biological and various skeletal (hominoid/human) remains of socio-cultural perspectives. (Bhasin et al., 1994; India by Kennedy and Caldwell (1984). The Lahr and Foley, 1998; Bhasin and Walter, 2001; research work is mainly confined to the number Cann, 2001; Bamshad et al., 2004). of specimens, primary dating and archaeological In the present paper an attempt has been made reference and descriptions of burial circum- to give an outline of Indian population milieu. stances and practices apart from giving an account on ageing and sexing. The write-up SKELETAL REMAINS (HOMINOID/HUMAN) totally overlooks the aspects of ethnic or racial affinities of the recorded specimens. Earlier, in Earlier it was pointed out that the first real 1972, Sarkar, who was actively working on the “ancestor” of man is Ramapithecus (name after study of the ancient races of India, came out the Indian god Rama) who lived about 14 million with some ethnic description of the various years ago (Fig. 1). Now Ramapithecus is no human skeletal remains. In his earlier work, longer considered a hominid ancestor by Ancient Races of Baluchistan, Punjab and Sind palaeontologists. From Central India, Narmada (1964), he tried to throw some light on the Indo- Man skull was found in 1982 by Arun Sonakia Aryan problem and suggested the builders of (Sonakia, 1982). With regard to both its antiquity Harappa culture as Indo-Caspians. In his later and phylogenic position, a good deal of exhaustive work on the Ancient Races of the controversy is still going on. It is believed by Deccan, on the basis of examination of human several to be an ante-Neanderthal or Homo skeletal remains from Langhnaj, Lothal, Nevasa, erectus (Lumley H and Sonakia, 1985; Lumley Chandoli, Hyderabad, Megaliths, Yelleswaram, MA and Sonakia, 1985). Kennedy et al. (1991) Piklihal and other sites of the Deccan he further identified and concluded on the basis of postulated that the Dravidian speaking people metric and comparative investigations that evolved from the Veddids or Australoids. Even “Narmada Man” is appropriately a Homo sapiens. as early as in 1935, Keith also pointed out the They added, however, that given its broad suite evolution of Dravidians from Veddids or of Homo sapiens morphometric characters it is Australoids. It is believed that the complexities not appropriate to assign Narmada man to a new and variations as one observes in today’s taxon beyond the trinomial designation of Homo population were the results of environmental sapiens narmadensis. In a more recent publication changes and hybridization. Keith also published Kennedy writes: “In the context of current (1972) the original reports on skeletal remains debates about Homo erectus as a valid taxon (is from Brahamgiri, where he mentioned of yet it a species, an evolutionary grade, a paleo- another stock: Scytho-Iranian. Other than this, species, or just a collection of specimens certain Sastri (1966) also supposed to have come across investigators decide belong together?) and the a fossil pygmy skeleton (although its hominoid relationship of middle Pleistocene hominids to status and antiquity is not clear as there were no anatomically modern sapiens (regional continuity further references to it). He attributed this to the [or multiregional] hypothesis versus the earliest representative of Negrito in India. mitochondrial Eve-displacement hypothesis), Nevertheless, it remains a fact that there is Narmada has a critical role to play. At present it always the problem of disputes arising while appears that Narmada is a late middle-pleistocene identifying the specimens correctly and hybridi- representative of early Homo sapiens with an zation or environmental effects which are often impressive suite of anatomical characteristics used as alternative causes for marked changes shared with other early sapiens populations from are no longer taken for granted. Moreover, the Eurasia and Africa but possessing certain unique repeated allegations that most of archaeologists features of cranial morphology that may have and other investigators seem to be more evolved in India. It does not seem appropriate to preoccupied with the artifacts and other material assign Narmada to a new taxon” (Kennedy, 2000: evidences and do not show much interest in the 170 M. K. BHASIN

INDIA Sites-Skeletal Specimens

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0 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.) Fig. 1. Prehistoric sites from where skeletal specimens found from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994) skeletal remains is also mostly true. Therefore, together form the background material towards quite a number of studies (may be of the same unfolding the pages of emergence of cultures. specimens excavated earlier) are needed today The problem of terminology in Indian prehistory which may come out with a meaningful fossil is well known. This arises naturaly due to the study of the Indian sub-continent. And it is hoped difficulty in coinciding the Indian prehistoric ages that when the number of collections of fossils or cultures (which is based on the material presumed to belong to our ancestral stock would evidence or tool types and assemblages) with be sufficiently large, it would permit some the European culture items. Many anthro- population studies and the specimens can also pologists/ archaeologists (Cammiade and Burkitt, be used as acceptable population samples. 1930; Subbarao and Allchin, 1960; Misra, 1961) have attempted to solve this problem but still PREHISTORY AND HISTORY different terms are in vogue. During the long stone age estimated to cover over 5,00,000 years Ancient Age and forming part of the last geological period namely Pleistocene, and was believed to have Both prehistory and history of a country been a savage-having no fixed habitation hunting GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 171 and gathering. It is noted that the great climatic dually disappeared (presumably due to marked changes of the last glaciation undoubtedly climatic changes ) man turned to other sources exerted new environmental pressure altering like water sources, birds or exploitation of plant man’s number and habitat through changes in products as suggested by tool assemblages. But the biota stimulating enforced migrations into overall, this was a preparatory stage during which new environmental niches and changing the life- man was mostly dependent upon natural resour- styles. Changing in the environment and circum- ces. In other words, in this period the concen- stances gradually brought about changes in tools tration of population began along river valleys and artefacts, which are the main, and sometimes marking the start of a transition to settled living the only source to reconstruct the physcial in which food-gathering turned into food- environment, customs, practices and social life producing. It was argued that the people who of a period. However, with further excavations of camped in rock shelters, the mouths of caves other associated materials like mammal bones, and in open settlement sites could not have ornaments etc. terms like stone age became more numbered more than a couple of hundred or less irrelevant. individuals. Human occupation in the Indian subconti- Kivisild et al. (2000) have studied Indian nent began with a series of stone-tool industries mitochondrial DNA variants in the global network (Fig. 2). The stage in man’s progress that are of maternal lineages and the peopling of the Old then put forward by Sankalia et al. (1973) are: World. They summarized their results as follows: 1. Primitive Food Collecting Stage or Early and “Both western and eastern Eurasian-specific Middle Stone Age mtDNA haplotypes can be found in India 2. Advanced Food Collecting Stage or Late together with strictly Indian-specific ones. Stone Age/Mesolithic However, in India the structure of the haplo- 3. Transition to Incipient Food Production or groups shared either with western or eastern Early Neolithic Eurasian populations is profoundly different. 4. Settled Village Communities or Advanced This indicates a local independent development Neolithic/Chalcolithic over a very long time period. Minor overlaps with 5. Urbanization or Bronze Age lineages in other Eurasian populations clearly demonstrate that recent immigrations have had The Earliest Human Settlements very little impact on the innate structure of the maternal gene pool of Indians. Despite the The evidence of stone tools in Indian variations found within India, these populations Palaeolithic and certain caves and rockshelters stem from a limited number of founder lineages. helps only in a very small way to visualize the life These lineages were most likely introduced to of their makers (for the sites see Fig. 2). It is more the Indian subcontinent during the Middle or less clear that they were ignorant of agriculture Palaeolithic, before the peopling of Europe and and house building and had no domesticated perhaps the Old World in general. Our animals. The caves and rockshelters might have demographic analysis reveals at least two major served as seasonal camps for human being (?). expansion phases that have influenced the wide In the Palaeolithic Age the communities must assortment of the Indian mtDNA lineages. The have been very small and perhaps semi-nomadic. more recent phase, which according to our Piggot, (1952) also mentioned that dating is estimation started around 20,000-30,000 years uncertain but earlier man was living in scattered ago, seems to correspond to the transition from hunting and gathering communities on the the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. The first alluvial plains and in the marshlands and open expansion phase may reflect a demographic burst parklands of the major river valleys (as suggested immediately after the initial peopling of India by the location and type of tool assemblages). around 50-60 thousand years ago. This wave of The epiglacial phase from 10,000 to 50,000 expansion brought forward also those maternal B.C. following the end of pleistocene more or lineages that can rightfully claim the name of less coincided with the transitional Mesolothic Eurasian Eves” (p. 150). cultural dispersals. Hunting and gathering Roychoudhury et al. (2000) reported remained the main sources of making a living but mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profile of 23 ethnic as vegetation shrank and the bigger game gra- groups of India, which have been drawn from 172 M. K. BHASIN

INDIA Major Cultural Sites

L A G N E B F O Y BA

Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Upper Palaeolithic Mesolithic Sites Neolithic Sites Fig. 2. Major cultural sites found from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994) different cultural, linguistic and geographical appear and metals came into use around 4000 to backgrounds. They observed that Indian popu- 3000 B.C. lations were founded by a small number of The full Neolithic which began in different females, possibly arriving on one of the early communities between the seventh and sixth waves of out-of-Africa migration of modern millennium B.C. was not characterized by a humans; ethnic differentiation occurred subse- uniform step-by-step technological sequence quently through demographic expansion and from one type of artefact to another or in the geographic dispersal. Further they have found presence of types of ceramic ware or even in that South-east Asia was peopled by two waves house types and settlement patterns, rather it of migration, one originating in India and the other was an adjustment of separate small communities originating in Southern China. to the ecological resources and advantages of The Neolithic Age of the Ancient Orient is local environments. approximately dated from 6000 to 4000 B.C. The In other words, the Neolithic does not always chief characteristics of this period are the imply the universal presence of specified domes- exclusive use of non-metal implements, domesti- ticated plants and animals, pottery, polished cation of animals, and a knowledge of agriculture stone tools and sterotyped settlment patterns. (for the sites see Fig. 2) Corollary to agriculture is The biological consequences to man were also the development of village life. Towns also not the same throughout India. started appearing during the Neolithic phase. Bowles (1977) put forth the interpretation that Towards the end of Neolithic pottery began to the ability to control production and storage of GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 173 life’s essentials encouraged the growth of larger source is documented from numerous sites in permanent settlements and these in turn led to the arid regions along the foothill rim of the Indus technical innovation, division of labour, the valley, the second is still largely covered with formation of social classes and ultimately the dense vegetation and is only beginning to be superimposition of a system of administrative understood (Bowles, 1977). controls. Biologically such developments meant Until recently, it had been thought that the an increase in the demographic dimensions of Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization sites were alimited number of populations (gene pools)- actually scattered mesolithic hunting and these possessing the knowledge of food produc- gathering communities transformed into more tion-at the expense of other who retained the concentrated permanent Neolithic and Copper- earlier type of natural economy and who could Bronze Age Settlements. But the discovery of a not expand numerically beyond the limits set by number of wall-enclosed complex urbanized nature. mound-based Neolithic settlements in the now As urban centres developed, they attracted dried-up Saraswati river bed in Rajasthan in a large number of traders, artisans and labourers Kathiawar and parts of southern Gujarat have from ever-increasing distances, a process accen- changed this view. tuated during the metal age with the emergence The distinctive features of Harappan Civiliza- and expansion of Empires and commencement of tion with uniform assemblages of tools, unique the historic period about 3000 B.C. After the first methods of water supply, drainage, hypocaust population explosion Asia remained, for a system for heating grand central bath, remarkable millennium or more, the most favoured quarters individual feature including the ceramic techni- and thus by the end of this period, Indus valley ques, the systems of weights and measures and developed a comparable neolithic nexus. the differentiation between the citadel and slave Permanent settlements of substantial size quarters all point to the existence of a complex with populations ranging from a few hundreds society with considerable social stratification and to two or three thousands began to emerge at complex administrative machinary. such sites as Brahmagiri, Nevasa, Chandoli, The Indus Valley Civilization extended Pandu-Rajar Dhibi (in East Indian Neolithic) etc. throughout the entire river basin from the With complexity in society, trade flourished. Himalayan foothills and the Doab or Ganges The development of trade became an important watershed to coastal Gujarat with an estnarine factor in knitting together the social fabric of local dock at Lothal and an outpost at Thane near communities into village units and regional Bombay. societies. However it may prove impossible to About the origin of the Harappan Civilization determine how many clusters there were. practically nothing definite is known. Different Although a negligible number of hominid versions are put forward-right from Sumerian or remains have been found, it is actually thousands a Semitic origin, to the Dravidian and Mundari are of artefacts from a large number of sites which often mentioned. Even origins from Baluchistan point to probable contact and migration either and Iranian uplands were suggested1. west ward or east ward or both during all major Sastri and Srinivasachari (1980) proposed that periods. Microliths for example, were found at about 3000 B.C., Baluchistan which as less concentrated in the western half which seems to arid than now was inhabited by small groups of imply introduction from that direction. people from the Iranian uplands. These migrants It has been commented that so much is known brought with themthe knowledge of agriculture about the mesolithic, neolithic and chalcolithic and the organisation of small self-sufficient periods of Western Asia than of the southern village communities. In the course of about 500 Peninsula that it is easy to overlook the impor- years, after they had settled in Baluchistan, they tance of these areas. India apparently derived much of its Neolithic 1Excavations at Harappa were resumed in 1986 under as well as its Metal age civilization from two the direction of Dr. George F. Dales of the University of California, Berkeley, and are countinuing each year at sources—one along the Makran Coast and that site. Some 100 skeletons have been removed from Baluchistan in the west, the other from south- site (Mature Harappan cemetery of R-37) by Drs. Nancy C. east Asia by way of the Arakan coast and Assam Lovell, John R. Lukacs, Brain E. Hemphill and Kenneth (Fairservis, 1971). The knowledge of the first A.R. Kennedy. 174 M. K. BHASIN migrated in big or small group into the Indus yielded earlier palaeolithic artefacts which are valley. more allied to those of North India, so it might be But the sudden emergence of the urban civili- conjectured that the builders of Burzahom zation still baffles the interpreters of Harappan (Kashmir) crossed the Hindukush by 2000 B.C. cultures. Some believe that urban civilization was or thereabouts. superimposed on the people suddenly by For the rest of Greater India - the scenario is a strangers coming from outside at some time in follows during the ancient age. About the Ganges the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. It is quite Basin, the Deccan and the Peninsular and coastal impossible to say when Harappan civilization south is far less known but it is assumed that grew up’. The civilization is unique in a sense nothing like the civilization developments had that it was almost a fully classified state as early taken place at comparable levels of antiquity. It as 3000 B.C. It is said that it may well have been was not until after the entry of the Aryans that evolved by the natives of the soil and foreign the urban civilization extended into the middle settlers induced new ideas which Harappans Ganges and parts of the Deccan synchronised absorbed and evolved into a distinct mature with the entry of Aryans. The so-called Chalcoli- culture. thic, Pre-Harappan and Harappan periods in the The Indus Valley Civilization has spread from Indus valley, Gujarat and western Maharashtra it southern bases to the Himalayan foothills, up are generally contemporary with the so-called the the valley of Kashmir, around 1800 B.C. Neolithic of the Deccan and Eastern India. The next culture in the chronology which is Towards the end of the stone tool phase, the known as the Chalcolithic is dated roughly from first evidence of agricultural settlement appeared 4000 to 3000 B.C. This is called so because the in Baluchistan in the northwest. This culture main tool types representing this culture were spread across the northwest corner of the country made of copper along with stone (for the sites during the next 2000 years, giving rise eventually see Fig. 3), although there was no proper Bronze to the highly developed Indus Civilization, which Age in India as in Europe. However, bronze was came to an abrupt end around 1750 B.C. Whether not unknown and many bronze materials were directly related or not, the decline of the Indus found. Here, it should be mentioned that there civilization coincided with the movement into are hundreds of diverse findings which suggest India from the Iranian plateau and the Caucasus that there are still many problems to be solved. of Aryan peoples speaking an Indo-European It is also noted that early Neolithic and Bronze language. Age migrations into India have not been clearly defined and skeletal evidence from Baluchistan Culture Phase and Tools Types is far from satisfactory. Sen (1967) argued that leaving aside the The contemporary culture phase with the tool questions of ordered sequence of migrations and types and areas of reign may be a follow: demographic fluctuations, there was no skeletal 1. Neolithic - Polished celts, Pottery limited to evidence to show that a biologically new element hand-made jars, in the east (Assam, Bihar, could be held accountable for the development Bengal and parts of the adjacent Deccan). of Indus Valley Civilization. Estimations of total 2. Neolithic - Chalcolithic with polished celts population have varied widely and the rationales and blade tools, hand-made pottery and for the differences climate, food supply, diseases wattle and daub houses in Central India, and technology—and their analyses also vary Karnatak, Gujarat, Baluchistan. significantly. According to Sarkar (1972), the 3. Chalcolithic- Bronze with Stone blade and population of Mohenjodaro and Harappa had copper-bronze tools wheel-made pottery in been estimated variously between 35,000 and the north-west (Sind, Saurashtra and 40,000 with a very high density of population per Punjab). acre. 4. Chalcolithic-Bronze- with copper or bronze It is proved that the valley of Kashmir was but no stone tools, wheel-made pottery in known earlier to the settled people and mesolithic north-west-Sind, Saurashtra and Punjab. artefacts have been found. Excavations in Kash- To sum up, during the second millennium B.C., mir also give evidence of earlier proto-urban settlements associated with copper and bronze settlements. Apart from the above, Kashmir also GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 175 tools spread rapidly down the Ganges valley. 4), also associated with Aryan cultural levels in Within a matter of centuries the entire basin had the Ganges valley. been largely cleared of forests and was suppor- These Aryan penetrations into the Deccan ting a relatively dense population which at least put into contact, by the end of the first millennium in its biological aspects, is probably reflected in B.C., with other types as revealed by the presence the majority of the present day inhabitants. of megalithic burial sites, which were widespread Meanwhile, it is believed that there was a spread in southern Indian by about 300 B.C. Whether of south-east Asian culture complex and a possi- the megalithic builders came from outside India ble minimal immigration via Assam and Burma or represented a local development is still not into Bengal and Central India. clear.

Main Tools Types HISTORY

The terms attributed to different cultures are From the fourth century B.C. onwards for 2000 based on the tool assemblages and types. For years, India, particularly in the north, was example the chalcolithic age has come to be subjected to repeated waves of penetration by known as an age where the tool assemblages alien peoples. History testifies that Greeks, were mainly composed of copper artefacts. Parthians, Sakas (Scythians) and Pahlavas Though there are scores of tool assemblages including the Kushans were the first to come in reported and analysed and some are still being after the Indo-Aryan civilization entered its excavated—it is impossible to give a description settled course (Fig. 5). The Huns came in of all these tool types here. Therefore, the somewhat larger numbers at the close of the following is a simplified and short version of the Gupta epoch. These succession of peoples from dominant/main tool types found from the Indian outside India were assimilated into Hindu society. sub-continent (for the sites see Figs. 2 and 3). On the west coast, Jews and Parsis came after A detailed and extensive account on the fleeing from their own homelands. Arabian prehistory and protohistory of Indian subconti- Muslims, Persian Muslims, Turks and Afghans, nent can be studied from Sankalia (1962, 1979) whose total number was very large came to India and Allchin and Allchin (1983). from time to time. The Muslim immigration into India began even before the Arab invasions of the Sind quite early in the eighth century A.D. Geological Tool Types Culture and ended with the establishment of the Mughal Age Terms Empire in the sixteenth century. This was the last (European) major movement which produced some Copper Chalcolithic Holocene Polished Celts Neolithic perceptible changes in the composition and Microliths Mesolithic culture of the indigenous population. The Palaeolithic Muslims did not accept the Hindu religion but Pleistocene Bone Points, Harpoons Upper they made converts to their religion. The Euro- Blades, Burins, Art objects peans—Portuguese, Dutch, French and British Flakes with Levalosians Middle Techniques started their intrusions from 15th century A.D. Core Bifaces Lower onwards and the Indo-European community grew from these infusions. In the east Shan peoples from Southeast Asia the entered eastern part of The Aryans India (Assam).

The Aryans were initially localized to the west RACIAL CLASSIFICATION of Indus river, but gradually their influence, observed by the presence of Painted Grey Ware Anthropologists distinguish groups of pottery extended further east into the western people on the basis of common origin, living, or Ganges valley. Aryan influence also appears to having lived, in certain defined regions and have moved south to the Deccan plateau, possessing differing characteristic features in indicated by the introduction of iron and later of their appearance. But one should remember that the Northern Black Polished pottery type (Fig. there are no strict lines of demarcation between 176 M. K. BHASIN

INDIA Chalcolithic Sites

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I Indus System VI Rajputana-Saurashtra II Ganges System VII Narmada System III Brahmaputra System VIII Tapi System IV Mahanadi System IX Godavari Pravara System V Chambal System X Bhima System XI Karnataka System

Fig. 3. Major Chalcolithic Cultural sites found from India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994) races. All these groups blend imperceptibly into (Franz Weidenreich, U.S.A.) claims that modern one another with intermediate types possessing man evolved in several regions relatively various combinations of physical characteristics. independent of one another and that peoples Modern man is biologically uniform in basic developed at different rates. This theory claims features (for example upright posture, well- that modern man evolved from the “oldest” and developed hand and feet, prominent chin, “old” people in each region and that this gave absence of bony eye brow, an intricately struc- rise to the formation of the major races—Europoid, tured brain encased in a big skull with a straight Negroid, Australoid, Mongoloid, etc. On the other high forehead and 46 number of chromosomes) hand monocentrists (for example Henri-Victor and polymorphous as regards many secondary Vallois and G. Olivier in France, Francis Howell in features. Scientists consider all human beings as the U.S.A., Kenneth Oakley in Britain, Vsevolod belonging to a single species, Homo sapiens. P. Yakimov, U.S.S.R.) consider modern man to have The variations found in groups living in different evolved in a single region. The ancient Homo geographical areas reflect only a differentiation sapiens who evolved there did not possess clearly within the single species due to host of biological, distinguished traits of any of the modern races. It social and other factors. In anthropology there was only when human groups spread geo- are two schools of thought on the origins of man graphically and settled in definite territories that and the major races—the polycentric and the racial types evolved. That is why the races of monocentric schools. The polycentric theory modern mankind resemble one another so closely. GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 177

INDIA PGW, NBPW & Megaliths Sites

l a g n e B f o A y r a a b B ia n S e a

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

This resemblance is a sign of their common species, Homo erectus have been found in China origin, of their emergence in a single region. as well as in Java, which could have reached only Darwin more than 100 years ago, ventured to through Asia. Moreover, to reach Europe, which predict- that one day it would be found that man he probably very soon did, he must have passed had originated in Africa. through south-west Asia. India has served as a Mourant (1983) in his book “Blood Relations” major corridor for the dispersal of modern humans stated that it is almost certain that man evolved out of Africa (Cann, 2001; Underhill et al., 2001; from his pre-human ancestors and emerged as a Cavalli - Sforza and Feldman, 2003; Kivisild et al., unique tool-making animal somewhere in tropical 2003; Palanichamy et al., 2004; Cavalli- Sforza, Africa and that we are therefore, in a sense, all of 2005). It probably was in Asia that Eurasian man, African origin. Using five polymorphic restriction by now of the modern Homo sapiens species, sites on β gene cluster, Long et al. (1990) worked diverged from African man, and then became out, the evolutionary histories and relationships differentiated into Caucasoid and Mongoloid among Africans, Eskimos and Pacific Island types. Another differentiation, which probably populations and reported an African origin for took place in Asia, is that of the Australoids, modern Homo sapiens and a phyletic structuring perhaps from a common type before the sepa- in the major geographical regions. It is probably ration of the Mongoloids. The Caucasiods and rather over a million years ago that man entered the Mongoloids almost certainly became Asia from Africa; bones of the early human differentiated from one another somewhere in 178 M. K. BHASIN

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Mountain ranges 1 Indo-Aryans 2000 - 1400 BC 2 Yüechihs and Sakas 2. Century BC 3. Kushanas 1. Century AD 4 Huns 5-6 Century 5 Huns 8. Century 5 Arabs 10-11 Century 6 Turko-Afghans 12-13 Century 7 Mongols (Timur) before 13. Century 8 Ahoms before 13. Century 9 Tibeto-Burmans Fig. 5. Waves of penetration by alien peoples (after Walter, Danker-Hopfe, Bhasin, 1991) Asia and Caucasoids subsequently spread to estimates of divergence lines are much earlier the whole western part of the continent and than Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer’s, (1971) (20,000- thence to Europe and north Africa (Mourant, 50,000 years ago), but they are not unreasonable 1983). The divergence lines among the three in view of the fossil records available (Birdsell, major races-Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongo- 1972). loid-estimated by Nei and Roychoudhury, (1982) The Mongoloids are the most numerous of by using a number of genetic markers, reported the three major races of mankind and China in the the divergence between the Negroid and the centre of the Mongoloid area has the largest Caucasoid-Mongoloid groups seem to have population of these than any country in the world, occurred about 110,000 ± 34,000 years ago. On so the Chinese must be taken as the typical the other hand the divergence between the Mongoloids. The ancestors of Japanese passed Caucasoid group and the Mongoloid group through Korea to reach Japanese Islands, where seems to have occurred about 41,000 ± 5,000 they found ancestors of the present Ainu. years ago. This corresponds to the time when Through an area to the south of China, extending classic Neanderthals were living. These from the Vietnamese border to the tip of Malaya GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 179 peninsula, through this there must have passed three major races: Caucasoid, Negroid and Homo erectus very long ago on his way to Java1 Mongoloid. Many anthropologists have consi- the ancestors of the Australian aborigines. Then dered two more major groups i.e., Amerind and came the Indonesians, and finally the Mongoloids Australoid or Oceanian (Boyd, 1963). These in narrower sense, represented by the Mons and schemes of classification of human populations the Khmers, the Tibeto-Burmans and the Thais, were largely based on morphological and anthro- all of whom probably entered the region before pometric characters. In the last few decades, 1000 B.C. (Mourant, 1983). however, new methods with elaborate statistics The populations of Siberia are important in and biometry along with the latest concepts on supplying evidence regarding the original human genetics have added fresh dimension to peopling of the American continent. This took the study of human population groups. place perhaps about thirty thousand years ago, it To the Indian subcontinent came several was through the Bering Strait which was then dry waves of immigrants at different periods of land owing to the recession of sea level accom- history and entered into the ethnic composition panied by last glaciation. Perhaps about thirty of the population at different levels from a very thousand years ago, populations of Mongoloid early phase of human civilization. The intrusions physical type moved into north eastern Siberia and of these people with several racial elements have thence into America (Mourant, 1983). left the strains of various developed races The differences between Mongoloids and together with their ethnic and cultural substrata Caucasoids appear rather sharp as one crosses in the land, thus representing the elements of all the mountains in the northern boundary of the the main divisions of mankind (Fig. 6). Indian sub-continent. The passage from India to In India the range of somatic variations in Burma is somewhat more gradual, probably different physical traits of its people is remarkably because contact here has been present for a long wide. To account for the heterogeneity and to time and some mixing has taken places, whereas highlight the underlying pattern of the observed the Mongoloids north of the mountains were variations, earlier European anthropologists, like probably fully differentiated in the Far East before Charles de Ujfalvy, (1881-82) and Captain Drake- the retreat of the ice allowed them to enter Tibet Brockman, Sir T.H. Holland, (1902) and Waddell, (Mourant, 1983). (1899) measured groups from various parts of India In Asia, Australoid if people now live in South and attempted various taxonomic classification of of India, the deep ocean between India and the Indian peoples. During the early part of the Australia means that the direct ancestors of the last century the schemes of classification of Indian Australians could not have set out from there. people were largely based on morphological and We must picture both India and south-east Asia anthropometric characters. The list of various as being at one time inhabited largely by classifications that have been given on the people Australoids who were driven by technologically of India by different authors is as follows: more advanced people from the north, in the one 1. Risley’s Classification (1915) instance into southern India and Sri Lanka and 2. Giuffrida-Ruggari’s Classification (1921) in other, across Burma and Malaysia and so 3. Haddon’s Classification (1924) ultimately through Indonesia and New Guinea to 4. v. Eickstedt’s Classification (1934, 1952) Australia (Mourant, 1983). 5. Guha’s Classification (1935, 1937) A number of racial classifications of human 6. Roy’s Classification (1934-38) populations have been reported in the literature, 7. Sarkar’s Classification (1958) but there seems to be no agreement about these 8. Biasutti’s Classification (1959) classifications among anthropologists. However 9. Roginskij and Levin’s Classification (1963) the human populations are broadly divided into 10. Büchi’s Classification (1968) 11. Bowles’s Classification (1977) 1“Sundashelf, a dry land as the route from Asian mainland So many classifications on the people of India to Java is now so well accepted that Shutler and Braches have been reported and almost all seem to make (1987) in their review of the paleoanthropology of Pleistocene island Southeast Asia see it as the route to some sense. An attempt has been made to Java from the Asian mainland for all migrating land evaluate the distribution of various racial strains/ mammals” (p. 186) cited from Tumer II (1990). than elements present in the peoples of India and this perhaps (some- forty thousand years ago. is represented in figure 7 (This figure has been 180 M. K. BHASIN

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1 Early Caucasoids (Dravidians) 2 Later Caucasoids (Indo-Aryans) 3 Early Mongoloids (Various groups) 4 Later Mongoloids (Ahom) 5 Austro-Asiatics (Various groups) 6 Andamanese 7 Nicobarese Dots = Original distribution of the autochthonous Indian tribal populations

Fig. 6. Racial migration (after Walter, Danker-Hopfe, Bhasin, 1991) drawn while taking into consideration the admixture of pure Negrito stock of the Andamans classifications reported by Guha and others). with blood from the main land of India or Burma. If Negrito was the earliest inhabitants of Negrito Element Southern Asia, they must have been displaced or supplanted by the Proto-Australoid. This It is generally admitted that the Negrito dolichocephalic type appears to have its own represents the oldest surviving type of man and it origin in the west. The view that the Australian is is possible even that they preceded Neanderthal connected with the Neanderthal man, though man by whom, according to Grifth-Taylor, they repeatedly rejected by authorities, seems to die were displaced and disposed. In any case Negrito hard since Hrdlicka apparently regards the seems to have been first inhabitants of South East Neanderthal as having contributed to existing Asia. The traces of the stock are still to be seen in human types, while Sewell appears to revert to some of the forest tribes of the higher hills of the the theory of Australian origin and in his account extreme south of India and similar traces appear in of Mohenjodaro skulls he definitely associates the inaccessible areas of Assam and Bengal, Indian Proto-Australoid type with Australian Burma, where dwarf stature is combined with frizzly aborigines on the one hand and with Rhodesian hair which appears to have resulted from recent skull on the other. GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 181

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Negritos Proto-Austroloids & Negritos Paleo-Mediterrneons, Proto-Austroloids & Alpo-Dinarics Alpo-Dinarics, Orientos and Mediterraneons Paleo-Mediterraneons, Mediterraneons and Alpo-Dinarics Mediterraneons, Orientos & Proto-Nordics Orientos and Tibeto-Mongoloids Tibeto-Mongoloids and Paleo-Mongoloids Paleo-Mongoloids Fig. 7. Distribution of various racial strains present in the people of India (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe, 1994)

So many views on the Negrito problem in Zamorins of Calicut imported African slaves but Indian ethnology have been reported in the not in the interior of the hills 100 miles away. He literature. Guha (1928, 1929) observed the further added that there is no sign of any African presence of Negrito racial strain from the solitary culture among the Kadars. However v. Eickstedt character of hair form (frizzly type) which he found (1939) stated that genuine Negro frizzly hair never among the Kadars who live in the interior of the has been found in South India. The problem chain of hills running from the Anamalais to probably arose because the distinguishing Travancore. Guha (1961) wrote to Sharma words, spiral, woolly or frizzly, have been applied (personal communication) that frizzly type of hair in a vague manner. Sarkar stated that the sporadic occurs not only among Kadars but among Irulas cases of frizzly hair may not be Negritoid at all. and the Pulayans also. Guha (1961) disagree with They may be independent mutations. Whether the hypothesis that there had been admixture of they are genetically related to Negro or Melane- African slaves with the Malabar people, giving sian frizzly hair group, further genetic researches the reason that if it has occurred in that case it can disclose. should have been in the coastal areas, where Banerjee (1959) reported the presence of 182 M. K. BHASIN intermediate or mixed types of hair among the developed their phenotypic similarity by Kadar and accounted its origin as due to admix- adapting to similar environmental conditions ture with Negroid elements. independently rather than by common descent. Rakshit (1965) suggested that the alleged Further Nei and Roychoudhury (1993) Negrito Dravidian tribes of south India viz., the suggested a southern route of migration from Kadar, Irula, Pulayan etc. are in all probability, Africa to Australia in the Pleistocene period to the foetalized derivatives of Australian basic explain the similarities among some populations type. in Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia and similar From the genetic structure of Kadar of Kerala, observations have also been made by Cavalli- Saha et al. (1974) evaluated their findings with Sforza et al. (1994), Schurr and Wallace (2002). the other (Sarkar et al., 1959) and observed that Murhekar et al. (2001) studied the red cell there is a little to support that a proportion of genetic abnormalities among Great Andamanese Kadar show Negritoid traits. However they added and observed that they are the surviving that there is slender evidence which supports representatives of Negrito populations that were the possibility of past African Negro admixture distributed over the entire Southeast Asia in on a small scale. The postulated genetic ancient times, which were genetically different reconstruction of ancestral Kadar population by from other African populations. them suggested that they may have been similar Using mtDNA material, Endicott et al. (2003) to Melanesian and Australian aboriginal and Thangaraj et al. (2003) observed that the populations, but their original genetic structure Andamanese are more closely related to other has been modified through incorporating genetic Asians than to modern day Africans. elements not only from Black Africans but from Kashyap et al. (2003) studied the aboriginal surrounding Dravidian populations. groups (Great Andamanese and Jarawas) of To study the molecular genetic evidence Andaman and Nicobar Islands and observed that Mountain et al. (1995) used a small sample of the distinct genetic identity of the aboriginal (n=7) of Kadars, without any definite conclusion. populations of the Andaman Islands and other Sarkar, (1954) has discussed the Negritos of Asian and African populations deciphered by the Andaman in the light of the process of pygmy nuclear and mitochondrial DNA diversity formation. Steatopygia, infantlism and dwarfism suggest that (i) either the aboriginals of Andaman are probably the effect of endocrine derange- are one of the surviving descendents of settlers ments and the reproductive physiology of the from an early migration out of Africa who remained Andamanese appears to have been affected as in isolation in their habitat in Andaman Islands, well. The Andamanese appear to have been or (ii) they are the descendents of one of the facing extinction long before they came in contact founder populations of modern humans. with civilization. The Andamanese were probably peopled in the quaternary times during a glacial Proto-Australoid Element period when the fall of sea-level brought lower Burma in direct contact with the Islands. The earliest stratum of Indian populations Negrito populations occupy parts of the was a long-headed, dark skinned, broad nosed Philippines, Northern Malay peninsula, Andaman people. Their physical features are closely akin Islands and New Guinea have a number of to modern aborigines of Chota Nagpur, Central morphological characters similar to those of India and the primitive tribes of South India. They Pygmies and Bushmen of Africa. Because of this are original inhabitants, the so called ‘Adi-basis’ similarity, some anthropologists have hypo- of India. In the hymns of Rigveda the oldest thesized a common origin of the Negrito popula- sacred texts of the Hindus, they are mainly tions. However, Nei and Roychoudhury (1982) addressed as ‘Dasa’ (Barbarians) or ‘Dasyu’ analysed the genetic relationship and reported (ugly, sub-human) described as ‘Anas’ (‘a-nas’ = that despite some morphological similarity noseless or ‘an-as’ = without a mouth), between the Negritos of Southeast Asia and the Krishnagarba (Dark skinned), ‘Mridhravak’ Pygmies and Bushman of Africa the genetic (Hostile speech) not worshiping Vedic gods with distance analysis shows them to be genetically whom Aryan speaking tribes fought during their different. This result supports Coon’s (1965) advent into India from Transcapia. thesis that the Pygmies and Asian Negritos They have been classified by various authors GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 183 and so far there has been no agreement on this. that the Veddoids, and other aboriginal peoples Lapicque (1920) was probably responsible for of South India relate most closely to the Indian the term Pre-Dravidian. Ruggeri (Chakladar, 1921) populations, and neither they nor the Veddhas named it ‘Australoid-Veddaic’, while Chanda relate in any obvious blood groups genetic make- (1916) favoured the term ‘Nishada’. v. Eickstedt up to the distant Ainu, or to the even more distant used the term Weddid for those having closer Australian Aboriginals. affinity with the Veddas of Ceylon. Sewell and Kirk (1976) reported his investigations 15 Guha (1929) in trying to find out the physical years ago as he was searching for specific affinities of the Nal race, have described Tamils markers which might link Australian Aboriginals and the Veddas as descendants of the original with the Veddahs of Ceylon and the “Veddoid” Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid blend. They populations of South India and stated that so far have also found the Proto-Australoid type no specific markers common to any of these sets occurring among the Mohenjodaro skeletal of populations have been found. By contrast, remains. Hutton (1933) used the term Proto- the Veddahs of Ceylon do have some genetic Australoid exclusively in his census reports. He markers in common with groups of Southeast even put Veddas under Proto-Australoid. The Asia, particularly TF CHI and the abnormal term Proto-Australoid owes its origin to Dixon haemoglobin HB*E. The ‘Veddoids’ of South (1923). Hooton (1930) introduced changes in India, however, have neither of these markers Dixon’s terminology and replaced term Proto- that possess the abnormal haemoglobin HB*S Australoid as Pseudo-Australoid while he and having no transferrin variants in the similarly renamed Proto-Negroid as Pseudo- populations which he studied. It is only in the Negroid. north east of India that transferrin allele TF*CHI The Papuas of New Guinea and the Australian is found while HB*E is not uncommon among aborigines of Oceania are often called tribal populations such as Oraons, Konda Reddis Australoids. Guha (1937) used the term ‘Proto- and Koya Dora. Roychoudhury (1984) studied Australoid’ to designate the indigenous people genetic relations between Indian Tribes (Toda, of India presumed to have racial affinities with Irula, Kurumba of South India); Veddah of Sri Australian Aboriginals. It was observed in the Lanka with the Aboriginals of Malay, New Guinea morphological traits that there seems to be a and Australia by genetic distance analysis and regular gradation, the shortest and smallest being found the tribes of South India and Sri Lanka the Indian tribes, then come Veddas of Ceylon genetically closer to each other than to the (Sri Lanka) and lastly the Australians. The Indian Aboriginals of Southeast Asia and Oceania. He tribes retaining the more basic characters and concluded that despite their morphological the two extra Indian groups having developed similarity there is no genetic evidence to suggest some of the features in a more marked manner. that the Indian tribes and Australian Aboriginals The most appropriate term to apply to them are biologically related. therefore is Proto-Australoid which shows best Pietrusewsky (1990) reported from the the genetic relationships between the three. craniofacial variation that Australians represent Sarkar (1954) pointed that so long the Australoid a biologically distinct population, sharing is regarded as one of the basic stems of mankind ancestral ties with Melanesians but not with the and its prototype is unknown, the use of the recent populations of Asia and the rest of the term Proto-Australoid seems to be unjustified. Pacific. The latter represent a second major Sanghvi (1976) compared allelic variability population complex. observed among tribal populations in India and Australia to study the postulated ancestoral Mongoloid Element relations between Indian and Australian Aboriginal people. He concluded that the search The Mongoloids are mainly present in the for appropriate weights for individual alleles to northern and north eastern zones of the be considered in genetic distance analysis of Himalayan ranges, valleys and eastern frontiers. problems for racial origins has not so far been Regarding the Mongoloid element, Hutton is of rewarding. the view, that it may be said to fringe upon the Simmons (1976) reported on the basis of the area to Indo-European languages. There is very blood group genetic data, presently available, considerable overlap in the places. In all the 184 M. K. BHASIN overlapping areas the Indo-European languages Mohenjo-daro 1931) etc. and further west from are definitely intrusive and the Mongoloid the Aeneolithic sites of Iran and Mesopotamia. element in the population is strong enough to They now form a dominant element among the retain its own languages. It is possible that the populations of North India and the upper classes. extension of Mongoloid physical elements has The next wave was allied to the so-called gone a good deal further than the present range Oriental Race of Eugen Fischer (1923). They were of their language would suggest. One of the relatively broad-headed, medium in stature, and Mohenjodaro skulls has been identified as broad faced, thus closely related to the brachy- definitely Mongoloid and from the lowest stratum cephalic Alpine and Armenoid racial type of of the excavation have been recovered terracotta Europe. Their major concentration was in Asia figurines with unmistakable Mongoloid features Minor, Pamirs or the Iranian plateau, from where having the typical sloping narrow eyes of they are supposed to have infiltrated into India caricatures of that type. during the third to second millennium B.C. On the other hand, Eastern Bengal is strongly The early evidence of these elements was suggestive of mixed Mongoloid and Proto- found among a few of Chalcolithic crania from Australoid strain. Buxton suggests that the Indus Valley sites and later among Iron Age crania Pareoean element extends to southern India. from Adittanallur in the Tinnevally District of Burma, of course, is almost completely Mongoloid South India (1963). The origin of the broad- and though the existence of other strains is not headed strain allied to Alpine and Armenoid lies doubted, they are no longer easy to isolate. There primarily among the brachycephalic hordes of are Proto-Australoid elements too. In some of the prehistoric Homo alpinus stock of Central Asia. hill tribes and on the Assam side a Melanesian However, the original source of brachycephaly strain is to be expected. in Western India appears to have come from Mongolian features have been observed Scytho-Iranians who had infiltrated from the among the tribes of Central and Eastern India, ethnic intrusion of the Sakas, Huns, Kushans the tribes occupying the such States as Bihar, and Abhiras. Today the stronghold of this type Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, in the latter state in areas adjoining Orissa and is in Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh. The list includes almost The Dinaric type (mediumly to light pigment- important Mundari speaking (Munda Group of ed, hook nosed, acrocephalic, round heads) finds Austro-Asiatic Family) tribes like the Munda, expression among the population of Bengal and Santal, Ho, Juang, Saora, Gadaba etc. and number Orissa and got mixed with varying degrees of the of Central Indian Dravidian speaking tribes like Mediterranean element. It is also to be seen in the Maria, Muria, Kondh, Oraon etc. The Kathiwar, Kannanda and Tamil areas. The latest occasional presence of Mongolian features great racial movement into India was associated among the central and eastern Indian tribal with a long-headed, tall, delicate-nosed, fair- groups foetalized derivative’s of Australian types skinned people having a long face with well- as suggested by Rakshit, (1965). marked chin, possessing blue eyes more akin to the so-called Nordic Race (pure blond or near Other Racial Elements blond, long heads) of Europe. During the close of the third or at the beginning of the second Amongst the earliest arrivals into Indian sub- millennium B.C. they were supposed to have continent were long-headed people of Palaeo- entered India across the northwestern frontier Mediterranean stock, who came in successive from the Eurasiatic steppes between south- waves. They were closely related with the Proto- western Russia and Siberia. On the basis of Mediterranean or Proto-Egyptian Brown Race linguistic and cultural evidence, they have been and were long, narrow-headed people, having described as Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, or medium to tall stature, possessed relatively long, Aryan people, who were Proto-Nordics. The area narrow faces, low orbit, vertical forehead with of their civilization was said to be in the Aralo- protruding occiput and mesorrhine nose. Later Caspian Basin. waves of this race belonged to the more basic If the millions of population of India are stock of the Mediterranean race. Their skeletal members of some great branch of humanity, yet remains have been recovered from the Chalco- strange to say, all or nearly all, who have sought lithic sites of the Indus Valley (Harappa, 1963, to explain the differentiation of population of India GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 185 into racial types, have sought the solution of Bengal, the racial elements present are similar to this problem, outside the peninsula. They have that observed among peoples from Eastern never attempted to ascertain how far India has Himalayan region, albeit Mongoloid racial bred her own races. They have proceeded on the element is present in lesser degree. Among assumption that evolution has taken place long populations from Orissa and Bihar the Caucasoid ago, far too away but not in India, the great (Aryan and Dravidian) and Australoid (Pre- anthropological paradise (Keith, 1936). No doubt Dravidian) racial elements are present. Among India has been invaded time and again but it is a Central India populations the picture is similar to fact that 85 per cent of the blood in India is native that observed from Bihar and Orissa. Towards in the soil. It is necessary that our eyes should South India the major racial elements are be more directly focussed on the possibility of Caucasoid (Dravidian) and Australoid (Pre- India being an evolutionary field both now and Dravidian), whereas among Andamanese, in former times. Negrito-like traits are present and in Nicobarese, Abe and Tamura (1983) and Abe (1985) used Mongoloid affinities are observed. multivariate analysis to classify the people of In general, the Australoid (Pre-Dravidian) India (South) and Sri Lanka. On the basis of racial element is predominant among scheduled morphological types, Malhotra (1978) stated that tribes, whereas among scheduled castes also Negrito, Australoids, Mongoloids and Cauca- Australoid racial element is present, but it varies soids have contributed to the biological composi- in degree among regions/zones and as scheduled tion of the people of India. caste populations are having admixture with Mourant (1983) classified the peoples of the Caucasoids (Aryan and/or Dravidian) in varying Indian region broadly into three zones - tribal degrees. Mongoloid racial element, which is peoples of Australoid type, living in pockets predominant among populations inhabiting chiefly in the south, the Caucasoids of slender Eastern Himalayan region is also observed among type and with rather dark skin mostly speaking peoples living in inner areas of Western and Dravidian languages occupying the main Central Himalayan regions. southern part of the region and more robust Apart from this, some more populations with Caucasoids, with paler skins and speaking Indo- different racial elements entered India and were European languages, in the north.The people of assimilated into the local people. The Australoid the Himalayan regions, are partly or wholly (Pre-Dravidian) are supposed to be the original Mongoloid (Mourant, 1983). inhabitants of India, while the rest are considered In India the range of somatic variations in to have come in successive waves of immigration different physical traits of its people is remarkably of known and sometimes unknown antiquity. wide. On the basis of these variations a number The various classifications given above were of European and Indian anthropologists initially based on geographical regions, linguistic attempted various taxonomic classifications of families, caste group and/or religious groups and the Indian peoples. Among Indians all the major were followed by scientifically oriented somato- racial elements namely Caucasoid, Mongoloid, metry and somatoscopy. Finally few genetic Australoid and Negritos have been reported. In markers, like blood groups, were also taken into general, all the classifications given by different account. The picture thus emerged was authors agree that Himalayan mountain complex complicated and uncomprehensive as India from region populations have Caucasoid (Aryan and/ the fourth century B.C. for 2000 years, particularly or Dravidian) and Mongoloid racial elements in in north received wave after wave of immigrants Western and Central Himalayan region and [(Indo-Aryans, Greeks, Parthians and Sakas Australoid (Pre-Dravidian), Caucasoid (Aryan (Scythians), Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Turko- and/or Dravidian) and Mongoloid racial elements Afghans, Mongols (from north and north west in Eastern Himalayan region. Whereas in Indus- directions), Shan (from eastern side)] from Ganga-Brahmaputra plains region, the people different directions and thus took on the character from north are having predominantly Caucasoid- of a miniature museum of races commingling in Aryan and Caucasoid-Dravidian racial elements all sorts of permutation and combinations. and towards western side Caucasoid (Aryans, From the section of Indian population milieu Dravidians) and Australoid (Pre-Dravidian) racial of this chapter it may be evaluated that migration elements whereas towards East India, from West from different places formed the Caucasoid 186 M. K. BHASIN

(Dravidian, Aryan) and Mongoloid components 1.1. Natural Regions of India of India’s populations, whereas the original inhabitants who have been classified as Negrito The natural regions have broad uniformity in and/or Proto-Australoids may be referred as their characteristics, such as relief, geomor- Nishada (Pre-Dravidians). It is worthwhile to phological history, drainage, climate, soil, natural mention here that the racial classifications are vegetation and wild life. Broadly speaking the currently only of academic interest and are Indian sub-continent may be divided in the seldom used for categorizing populations, as the following natural regions: population composition at any time is influenced 1. The Himalayan Mountain Complex by mating patterns, migrations, genetic drift, 2. The Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plain mutation and selection under different 3. The Peninsular Plateau and environments. It should not be forgotten that 4. The Islands racial categories are artificial constructs, which have not been able to withstand the test of time. 1.2. Climatological Factors and Climatic Populations have always intermixed, with the Regions of India consequence that the pure type (‘race’) was nothing but a figment of imagination. I dissociate Various climatological factors (Rainfall, myself from the old race concepts. Humidity, Temperature) and Altitude have been considered to study correlations with different IDENTIFY AND DISTINGUISH biological traits. The values for the climatological THE PEOPLE factors are after “Climatological Tables of Observations in 1931-1960” Meteorological For the study of the people of India, research- Department, Government of India, New Delhi. ers have generally used the following criteria to A climatic region generally possesses a broad identify and distinguish the people: 1. Regional uniformity in climatic conditions produced by Groups, 2. Ethnic Groups, 3. Linguistic Groups, combined effects of climatic factors. India can be and 4. Religious Groups (Bhasin, 1988; Bhasin divided into the following climatic regions after et al., 1992, 1994) Köppen’s method, based on the monthly values It should, however, be kept in mind that these of temperature and precipitation: are the convenient units of study, although there (1) Tropical Savannah Type, (2) Monsoon are significant levels of overlapping between Type with Short Dry Season, (3) Monsoon Type them. For example, an occupational group with Dry Season in High Sun Period, (4) Semiarid pursuing traditional job inhabits a region, shares and Steppe Climate, (5) Hot Desert Type, (6) religion with other categories, belongs to one or Monsoon Type with Dry Winters, (7) Cold Humid the other language group and has an aggregation Winters Type with Shorter Summer, and (8) Polar of ethnic properties (Bhasin, 1988). Type. In the present study an attempt has been made to analyse the above mentioned bio- 1.3. Political Division of India genetical traits into 1. Regional Groups, 2. Ethnic Groups, 3. Traditional Occupational Groups and India is a Union of States. Comprising 29 4. Linguistic Groups. (after Bhasin 1988; Bhasin, States and 6 Union Territories, according to the et al., 1992, 1994) Census 1991, there are 4689 towns and 587,226 inhabited and 47,095 uninhabited villages in the 1. Regional Groups country. The country had 466 districts in 1991. India-Political and Ethnic Zones: The 29 These can be divided into the following groups: States and 6 Union Territories (U.T.) have been 1. Natural Regions of India categorised as follows (after Bhasin, 1988): 2. Climatological Factors and Climatic Regions I. North India, II. West India, III. East India, of India IV. Central India, V. South India, and VI. Islands 3. Political Division of India (Fig. 8). Himalayan Region may be divided into Each region has its own characteristics and a three divisions, i.e., A) Western Himalaya, B) brief description of each one will give an idea of Central Himalaya, and C) Eastern Himalaya as what it constitutes of. follows: GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 187

I. North India: Hindu caste system is a highly complex (A) Western Himalaya (S. No. 1, 2) and (B) institution, though social institutions resembling Central Himalaya (S.No. 8): caste in one respect or another are not difficult (1) Jammu and Kashmir, (2) Himachal Pradesh, to find elsewhere, but caste as we know it in (3) Punjab, (4) Chandigarh (U.T.), (5) Haryana, India, is an exclusively Indian phenomenon. The (6) Delhi , (7) Uttar Pradesh, (8) Uttaranchal, and word ‘caste’ comes from the Portuguese word (9) Rajasthan ‘casta’, signifying breed, race or kind. Risley II. West India: (1915) defines it as “a collection of families or (1) Gujarat, (2) Maharashtra, (3) Goa, (4) groups of families bearing a common name; Daman and Diu (U.T.) and (5) Dadra and Nagar claiming a common descent from a mythical Haveli (U.T.) ancestor, human or divine; professing to follow III. East India: the same hereditary calling; and regarded by C) Eastern Himalaya: (S. No.1 to 8 and those who are competent to give an opinion as Darjeeling District of West Bengal) forming a single homogeneous community’ is (1) Arunachal Pradesh, (2) Assam, (3) generally associated with a specific occupation Nagaland, (4) Manipur, (5) Mizoram, (6) Tripura, and that a caste is invariably endogamous, but is (7) Meghalaya, (8) Sikkim, (9) West Bengal, (10) further divided as a rule, into a smaller of smaller Bihar, (11) Jharkhand and (12) Orissa circles each of which is endogamous (this is called IV. Central India: Jati), so that a Brahman is not only restricted to (1) Madhya Pradesh (2) Chhatisgarh marrying another Brahman, but to marrying a V. South India: women of the same subdivision of Brahmans.” (1) Karnataka, (2) Andhra Pradesh, (3) Tamil The internal exogamous division of the Nadu, (4) Kerala and (5) Pondicherry (U.T.). endogamous caste is ‘Gotra’. There are several VI. Islands: stages of groups and the word ‘caste’ is applied (1) Lakshadweep (U.T.) and (2) Andaman and to groups at any stage. The word ‘caste’ and Nicobar Islands (U.T.). ‘sub-caste’ are not absolute but comparative in significance. The larger group will be called a 2. Ethnic Groups caste while the smaller group will be called a sub- caste. These divisions and subdivisions are The aggregation of biological and socio- introduced on different principles. At theoretical cultural characteristics constitutes an ethnic level, Gotra or Got is derived either from the group. Within the category of Ethnic Group, we Gotrakara rishis of early Vedic time or from include Castes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Gotra of some Brahman priests who ministered Tribes and Communities (for details see Ghurye to a non-Brahman caste. In reality, Gotras are 1969; Hutton 1981). Biological Anthropological exogamous units of various kinds, territorial, studies of such ethnic groups as well as occupational, totemistic and so forth. “Communities” have been reported in India. At organization level considerable variation Community is generally referred to a group of is found, caste mobility in few castes and in people who may have occupational, linguistic, certain areas is a common factor. Theoretically, religious or regional characteristics (Bhasin the caste definition seems to serve the purpose et al., 1992, 1994; Bhasin and Walter, 2001). but the word caste, for example, “translates two vernacular terms with different meanings”. In 2.1. Castes Northern India, the word ‘Jat’ (breed) and ‘Qaum’ (tribe) are synonymously used. The other word The Indian society is highly stratified and is used is ‘Biradari’ or ‘Bhaiband’ (brotherhood). divided into castes, scheduled castes, scheduled The ‘Jat’ is the caste as a whole, while ‘Biradari’ tribes etc. It should be understood at the outset is the group of caste, who lives in a particular that our intention is not to give the detailed neighbourhood and act collectively for caste account of individual castes, their ceremonies, purposes. Quantitatively the ‘Biradari’ can be and their machinery for regulating their relation conceived as a fraction of caste, but qualitatively with other castes, nor of their own internal it can be conceived as a ‘Jat’ in action. conduct, but to examine caste in terms of Ethnographic and genetic evidence both Mendelian population groups. support that Hindu Castes have been highly 188 M. K. BHASIN

WESTERN N INDIA A HIMALAY T A IS N Ethnic & Political Zones A H G F A CHINA CE TIBET NT PAKISTAN R EASTERN HIM AL ALAYA PUNJAB HI MA LA YA

NEPAL SIKKIM UTTAR BHUTAN

RAJASTHAN PRADESH BIHAR

GUJRAT

DIU MAHARASHTRA ORISSA DAMAN

BAY OF BENGAL ANDHRA PRADESH

) ia d n I (

s d n

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I

r

a

b

o

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i

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d

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n A

Fig. 8. India-Ethnic and Political Zones (after Bhasin, 1988) endogamous for a considerable length of time barriers (Bamshed et al., 2001; Basu et al., 2003; (Karve, 1968; Bhasin et al., 1994; Bamshed et al., Kivisild et al., 2003). 2001; Bhasin and Walter, 2001; Misra, 2001; Wooding et al., 2003). Although level of genetic 2.1.1. The Features of the Castes differentiation between castes is relatively small, genetic distances observed suggest that gene flow The feature of the castes are: hierarchy; endo- is limited (Bhasin et al., 1994; Bamshed et al., 1998; gamy and hypergamy (male of higher caste 2001; Bhattacharya et al., 1999; Bhasin and Walter, marrying a female of lower caste) occupational 2001; Dutta et al., 2002; Lakshmi et al., 2002) association; consciousness of caste membership It has been reported that paternally inherited and restriction on food, drink and smoking; DNA was overall more similar to Europenas than distinction in dress and speech and confirmation to Asians but, unlike in the case of maternal to peculiar customs of particular caste; ritual and inheritance with no significant variation in affinity other previleges and disabilities; caste organi- across the castes and this may be due to the zation and caste mobility. migrating Eurasians populations are likely to be The essence of the caste is the arrangement mostly males who integrated into the upper of socio-economic hereditary groups than castes and took native women. Inter-caste hierarchy. The popular impression of the marriages practices, while generally taboo, are hierarchy is derived from the idea of Varna with occasionally allowed, in which women can marry Brahman at the top and scheduled caste at the into an upper caste and move up in the social bottom. Only the two opposite ends of the hierarchy, whereas, such upward mobility, is not hierarchy are relatively fixed, in between and permissible for men because caste labels of men especially in the middle regions, there is are permanent, but women, by means of their considerable room for debate regarding mutual limited mobility, cause a gene flow across caste positions. In a dispute over rank each caste would GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 189 cite as evidence of its superiority the items of its caste according to their specialization. Each caste diet, the other caste groups from which it or tribe was allowed to preserve its diverse socio- accepted or refused to accept food and water, cultural pattern as long as it did not give rise to the ritual it performed and the custom it observed, conflicts with Brahmanical priesthood. Brahmans its traditional privileges and disabilities and the were trying for the uniformity of the rites and myth of its origin. This fact of mutual position practices at a community level, local communities and arguments regarding it permit social mobility were allowed to carry on their modified version in certain areas. Mobility is not a recent pheno- at family level. menon, but is restricted. All Hindus regard Traditionally, each caste was associated with scheduled castes as being at the bottom of the hereditary occupation and had a limited ladder, but the category of scheduled castes is monopoly over it e.g. Brahmans (priestly and not homogeneous. In each linguistic area there learning); Kshatriyas (warrior and aristocracy); are a few scheduled castes which form a Vaishyas (land owners and traders); and Sudras hierarchy. (crafts and service). It is not true to say that every It cannot be said for certain when and in what member of the caste practised the associated circumstances the caste system originated. occupation exclusively. It can only be said true However, many theories have been put forward, of castes like Dhobi (washerman) and Kumhar which are as follows: (potter). However, generally speaking most (1) Based on Colour: It is generally believed practised agriculture along with their traditional that in the early Vedic period there were no castes occupation. Even agriculture as a single in Punjab. Only the fair skinned invaders called occupation cannot be associated with castes, as themselves Aryans and they called the dark agriculture also means number of things: land skinned aborigines as Dasyus, Dasas or Asuras. ownership, tenancy and labour. Often the artisans The term Varna (colour) is often confused and servicing castes do not earn enough from with caste (Jati, Jat), though it is far from having traditional occupation, so they augment their the same meaning. The Rigvedic society was income by working as casual labourers or tenants divided into four classes on the basis of Varna, on land. three categories of twice-born (Dvija)—Brahman, An analysis of the occupational statistics for Kshatriya and Vaishya, and fourthly the Sudra 84 selected castes in 1931 showed that only 45 below whom were the outcastes. per cent of their members were following the (2) Based on Purushukta: In the Purushukta traditional occupation (Census of India, 1931, Vol. of the Rig-Veda, there is a mantra interpreted by 1, Part 2, pp. 416-19). scholars as such: “The Brahmans were born from Occupations practiced by high and low castes the mouth of God, the Kshatriyas from his arms, are considered high and low, respectively. and the Vaishyas from the thighs and Sudras Manual labour is looked down and certain from his feet.” Some people regard this Mantra occupations like swine-herding and butchery are as the basis of the caste system. considered to be polluting and low. (3) Based on Division of Occupation: After Castes are governed by their own organi- the Aryan invasion into Ganges valley, the zation of authority. A greater uniformity has been stratification in the Indian society began. Social retained at the economic level of caste than mechanisms were built up in order to carry on perhaps in relation to customs regulating marriage the organization of production and supply of in particular. Though, there is a wide prevalence services. One such well known mechanism was of the above model in all parts of non-tribal India, caste. Caste was not wholly an economic the system of economic inequalities has been structure. Yet undeniably, it was built up on the encapsulated so to say, in regional moulds. The basis of monopolistic guilds which were Saryuparis of Avadh (Uttar Pradesh), Nambood- endogamous, each of these guilds grew up into aris of Kerala, Chitpavans of Maharashtra, separate caste. Exchange of goods and services Chattopadhayas of Bengal and Iyengars of Tamil was a highly stratified affair and each caste Nadu are all Brahman, but these categories are specialized in certain type of industry or delivery essentially regional. In the same way, the Jats of of goods. So each unit in the economic structure Haryana, the Bhumiyars of Bihar, the Reddys of was virtually a monopoly of one caste and every Andhra and Vakilagas of Karnataka are cultiva- tribe if possible was brought into more than one ting castes, but the regional structure imposes 190 M. K. BHASIN boundaries which are generally recognised general rights as citizens with the object of especially for inter-marriages. The Chamars of promoting their educational and economic Uttar Pradesh, the Balais of Bengal, the Magirs interests and of removing the social disabilities. of Gujarat, the Mahars of Maharashtra, the Malls However, in spite of all Governmental efforts, even of Andhra or the Adi-Dravidas of Tamil Nadu are when following the same profession as their all toiling scheduled castes but they are all highly neighbours, the Scheduled Castes and Tribes concentrated in specific regions. It is, therefore, often have an inferior social status and are clear that, in spite of its wide prevalence, the ruthlessly exploited by their employers and by caste system is, in many ways, also a regional money lenders. phenomenon. The status and position of every In the Census of India 1991, 16.5 per cent of caste group may be determined on an All India the population was enumerated as belonging to scale of social hierarchy, but the caste group itself, ‘Scheduled Castes’ or another 8.1 per cent as in many important respects is also a regional belonging to ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (Table 1). Thus category. roughly one in every four persons in India belongs to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled 2.2. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Tribes. There are, however, vast differences in the concentration pattern of Scheduled Castes In the Indian censuses prior to 1931, in the different regions of the country. The fact information was collected and published for each that these castes are associated with agriculture caste or tribe separately. In the 1931 census, data explains their main concentration in the alluvial for individual communities was limited to (i) and the coastal plains of the country (Fig. 9). Exterior Castes (ii) Primitive Castes and (iii) all The hilly and the forested tracts of the tribal belt other castes with the exception of (a) those whose of the central and north-eastern India have only members fall short of four thousand of the total a sparse population of the Scheduled Castes. population and (b) those for which separate The total population of the Scheduled Tribes figures were deemed to be unnecessary by the in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, local government. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and West In the 1941 census, ‘group totals’ were Bengal together accounts for about 80 per cent tabulated for scheduled castes, tribes and Anglo- of the entire tribal population of the country (Fig. Indians. For selected individual tribes separate 10). On the contrary, the States and Union tables were furnished. By 1951 census, Territories with high tribal percentages have a community distinctions based on caste were far lesser share in the country’s total tribal being discouraged. It was decided to enumerate population. The tribal population of Mizoram, population on the basis of race, caste or tribe Lakshadweep, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and only to the extent necessary for providing Meghalaya accounts only one twentieth part of information relating to certain special groups of the total population of India. the people who are referred to in the Constitution Kivisild et al. (2003) reported that tirbes and of India. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled castes share considerable Pleistocene heritage, Tribes were enumerated from 1951 census with limited recent gene flow between them, onwards. The President by a special order sche- whereas Cordaux et al. (2004) observed that caste duled particular castes among Hindus and Sikhs and tribes have independent origins. in particular areas for special treatment that also Ninety per cent of the Scheduled Castes are applies to tribes irrespective of their religious rural based and provide substantial support to persuasion. The Scheduled Castes and Sche- Indian agriculture which is significantly more than duled Tribes have been specified by 15 Presi- dential Orders issued under the provisions of Table 1: Percentages of Scheduled Castes and Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution. They Scheduled Tribes to total population 1961-91 are listed in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Year Scheduled Castes Schedueld Tribes Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act 1976. The constitution prescribes protection and 1961 14.67 6.36 safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and 1971 14.60 6.94 Scheduled Tribes, and other weaker sections 1981 15.75 7.76 either specially or by way of insisting on their 1991 16.48 8.08 GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 191

N A INDIA T IS N A Scheduled Castes H G F A

CHINA PAKISTAN TIBET

N EPAL

BANGLA- DESH

(%) < 1

) ia 1 - 5 d n I ( 5 - 10 s d

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Fig. 9. India-Scheduled Castes in percent to the Total Population (after Bhasin and Walter, 2001) that provided by Scheduled Tribes. The was belonging to Other Backward Classes occupational structure of the Scheduled Caste (OBCs). The total number of identified OBCs that work force is, by and large, made up of the exist in the Central List is 3743. The states with following components: high percentages of total population of OBCs (1) Landless agricultural labourers, are Uttar Prdesh (38 percent), Rajasthan (28 (2) Cultivators with small holdings, percent), Gujarat (34 percent), Maharashtra (60 (3) Small commodity producers or artisans, percent), Madhya Pradesh (50 percent), (4) Services particularly of ‘polluting’ kind, and Karnataka (67 percent), Andhra Pradesh ( (44 (5) Industrial workers, mainly in industries percent) and Tamil Nadu (67 percent). related with their traditional crafts—leather The caste system may have given stability to tanning, shoe making etc. society but it is considered as an instrument that Among the ethnic groups of India, the is responsible for the social disharmony, rivalry Scheduled Tribes hold a significant position. among different castes and exploitation with in They belong to different ethnic, linguistic and and outside the castes. Social formation has religious groups having different economic emerged as a challenge to the hierarchical caste organisation and socio-cultural characteristics. system based on Brahminical ideology In the census of 1951 the Scheduled Tribes were 5.35 per cent of the population of India. 2.3. Communities In addition, some state governments have also specified other categories of people known The population groups which have not been as ‘Other Backward Classes’ and Denotified identifiable on the basis of caste system or are Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic communities. not denoted as tribes, have been referred by some According to Mandal Commission Report authors on regional basis like Punjabis, Bengalese (1980) fifty two percent of the total population etc., by others on religion basis like Hindus, 192 M. K. BHASIN

N A INDIA T IS N A Scheduled Tribes H G F A

CHINA PAKISTAN TIBET

N EPAL

BANGLA- DESH

(%)

< 1 ) ia d n 1 - 10 I (

s d 10 - 20 n a l

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

Muslims, Sikhs etc., by others on language basis 2.4. Traditional Occupational Groups like Telugus, Tamils etc. These authors have not specified or defined explicitly their caste and/or In the traditional society, there were specific groups. All these groups have been occupational guilds. The chatur-varna system classified under the category of community. with its division into Brahman (priestly caste), Confusion may be created if we assume that Kshatriya (warrior caste), Vaishya (land owners the surname attached to a name is the ‘caste’ and traders) and Sudra (labouring caste) was in name. Quite often these may be misspell or fact based on occupational differentiation. The substituted with occupation, locality or religion. occupations are graded - manual labour is looked Quite often, as in the case of low castes who down upon and those dealing with swine- originally did not have the custom of writing a herding, scavenging (removal of night soil) surname or caste or ‘Gotras’ name, use a high butchery are regarded as polluting. In table 2 is caste surname to identify themselves. Identi- given a list of castes based on occupational fication by name is thus fallacious. A caste group division. is best identified by tracing its social relationship, especially that of marriage. Endogamy most often 2.5. Marriage Patterns defines the operational limits of a caste group. However, wider identification is possible with a People generally marry within a close-knit region, language or occupation. Even then it is social circle in which many points of likes and found that an endogamous group, even where it dislikes are shared. The size of mating groups is cross-cutting geographical boundaries is likely may be small or large, but if the preference to be identifiable as a social group in terms of operates over a long period of time, certain caste ranking, social interaction, language, culture characteristics segregate and one population is and sometimes even as a political grouping. marked off from another by visible differences. GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 193

Marriage patterns may be considered from exogamy prohibit marriage between members of the three aspects: the field of selection, the party same Gotra; marriage between persons related to selection, and the criteria of selection. The to each other within certain generations on the restrictions posed among some tribes and father’s and the mother’s side. According to some communities in the field of selection are scriptures the restrictions of Sapinda exogamy preferential and obligatory marriage. There are primarily implied marriage beyond the family i.e. certain rules prohibiting marriage with certain four generations on the father’s side and three relatives or between groups. The endogamous on the mother’s. The term Sapinda has two character of certain groups limits the boundaries meanings: (1) those who share the particles of or marital circles. Exogamous restrictions are the same body; and (2) those who are united by defined in terms of sib, totem, territorial group, offering balls of cooked rice (Pinda) to the same Gotra or Sapinda relationship (for detail see dead ancestors. Kapadia, 1982). The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 has upheld The Hindus have both endogamous and the Bombay legislation by removing the endoga- exogamous rules limiting the selection of mate. mous restrictions of caste and the exogamous The Hindu society is divided into a number of restriction of Gotra from the condition of a valid endogamous caste groups each of which is marriage. The Act lays down the condition of a further divided into endogamous groups based valid marriage, that the parties are not Sapindas in terms of locality. This multiplicity of groups of each other unless the custom or usage thus restricts the choice of mate within a governing each other permits of a sacramental boundary. Caste exercises a great influence on marriage between the two. The violation of this the social life of a man. The breach of caste rule renders marriage void. According to the Act, endogamy was a punishable offence till recently. marriage between two persons related within five People were excommunicated by caste generations on the father’s side and three on the panchayat. With the advent of industrialization mother’s is void unless permitted by local changes have taken place in the Indian society. customs. Cross-cousin marriage in Southern parts One is the freedom in the matter of choice of of India is not only a valid marriage but pre- occupation and secondly with the widening of ferential form of mating in that part of the country. area of social intercourse, intercaste marriages In fact, cross-cousin marriage seems to have been are taking place. The general attitude of the a characteristic feature of the Dravidian peoples. members of the caste concerned in such a union In the kinship terminology of all three principal is either of non-opposition, tolerance or indiff- languages of this family, there is a clear indication erence. of cross-cousin marriage. Among the Telugus, The internal exogamous division of endoga- the Kannadigas and the Tamilians marriage with mous caste is Gotra or Sapinda. The rules of sister’s daughter was also prevalent. The Hindu

Table 2: Caste based on division of occupation Social Social Economic activities status group Traditional Primary occupation occupation I. High Castes Brahamans Priesthood Priesthod, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, Armed Forces Kshatriyas or Rajputs Warfare Agriculture, Trade and Commerce Armed 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 and Gujars Husbandry Commerce (c) Porter, Barber, Artisan Artisan, Agriculture, Agricultural Labourers Teli, Lohar etc. III. Low Castes Chamar, Dom, Bhangi, Menial Workers Menial Workers, Agricultural Labourers Khatik 194 M. K. BHASIN

Marriage Act of 1955 has allowed cross-cousin was once practised by the people of the Cis- marriage to continue as local custom but has Himalayan tract in Northern India and among prohibited marriage between uncle and niece. In some tribes of the Pre-Dravidian or Dravidian some parts of South India the institution of groups in South India. Though polygyny was domestic deity (mane deraru, vittu perumal) allowed by the Hindu ideal of marriage it was serves to define the exogamous unit in the resorted to only when no male child was born to absence of known genealogical links. In North the first wife within the first few years of marriage. India, high caste Hindus regard the village as an Levirate alliances are also prevalent among exogamous unit. Girls born within the village are the Ahirs of Haryana, amongst Jats and Gujjars called ‘village daughters’. and several other castes in Uttar Pradesh, the In addition to endogamous marriage types, Kodague of Mysore and some Muslim castes. In there are hypergamous and hypogamous levirate marriage a man is obliged to marry the marriages. Hypergamous marriage, in which the widow of a brother, and the children born to the status of the bridegroom is socially higher than new couple are their own. that of the bride, is known as anuloma i.e. with Sororate alliances i.e. the marriage of a the grain; Hypogamous marriage, on the other widower with his wife’s younger sister, occur in hand is pratiloma, against the grain, that is, South India. against what is natural or proper, since the status A widower is permitted to marry in all religious of the bride is in this case higher than that of the groups, but it is not true for a widow. Widow re- bridegroom. The significance of marriage pattern marriage is permitted among Muslims, Christians lies in the fact that the social hierarchy provides and Parsis. Among other groups local customs the basis, and the anuloma theory divine determine the question. sanction for future hypergamy in India. Among Muslims, parallel cousin marriage is Hypergamy occurs in different parts of India and preferential and obligatory. We have already seen was accepted by Brahmanical culture. With the that Muslim castes are also endogamous in growth of endogamous character of caste and practice though not in theory. The aristocratic social hierarchy, it became a more widely Muslim caste Syed are divided into endogamous distributed pattern of marriage. It is known to groups. Sometime the endogamous group is so exist among some Brahman castes such as Kulin, small that it includes the extended families of man’s Audich, Khedaval and Anavils and among non- parents. Such a group is called a Kufw while the Brahman groups such as Marathas, Rajputs, Leva maximal endogamous group is called Biradari. Patidars of Gujarat and Nambudiri Brahman of Generally, among Christians and Muslims, the Malabar. The Kulin Brahmans are the highest nuclear family is a exogamous unit. Lineage among the three Jatis (Kulia, Bansaj and Sretriya) exogamy also exists among the Muslim Gujjars of Brahmans. Hypergamous marriages between of Jammu and Kashmir. Some Muslims sub-castes different castes of Brahmans of Bengal were are also endogamous, but the rules are not as taking place, Leva-Patidar hypergamy of Gujarat strict as among Hindus. Hypergamous marriages is more intricate than Kulin hypergamy. The do take place among Muslim converts to Islams Patidar of Charotar are divided into thepeople of from Jats and Rajput castes. Artisan castes which twenty six, twelve and finally, six villages consider themselves mutually equal, intermarry respectively. The women of first group may marry among themselves. men in the first, second and third group, while The Sikhs are generally endogamous, though the women in the second group may marry men hypergamy does occur among them who are in second and third group, and the women in the converts from Hindu castes e.g. Jats. third group may marry men in only the third group. During Vedic period the favoured marriage 2.6. Inbreeding pattern was monogamy, but polygynous and polyandrous marriages were also taking place. In India each of the endogamous castes, Polygyny is that form of union in which a man tribes and religious communities has distinct and has more than one wife at a time. Polyandry is a well-defined cultural norms, which include varied form of union in which a women has more than marriage customs/practices. Generally speaking, one husband at a time, or in which brothers share most of the Indian communities follow endogamy, a wife or wives in common. This form of union but marriage within relatives is not permissible GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 195 uptill the seventh generation. However, a few communities that are studied within the state, it groups prefer marriages between related indivi- is highest among fishermen (0.047, Sanghvi, 1966) duals like cross-cousins, parallel cousins, uncle- and tribals (0.041, Veerraju, 1973) followed by niece etc. The type of preferential marriages vary Hindus (varies from 0.022 to 0.033, Sanghvi, 1966). across the country and different communities. However, many other studies (among For example whereas cross-cousin and parallel others—Dronamraju and Meera Khan, 1963; cousin marriages are preferred among the Chakravartti, 1968; Murty and Jamil, 1972; Reid, Muslims of the Northern India, the caste Hindus 1973; Veerraju, 1973; Pingle, 1975; Rao and of Southern India prefer uncle-niece marriages. Mukherjee, 1975; Reddy, 1983) show contra- Marriage between two individuals who have dictory reports regarding the inbreeding at least one traceable common ancestor is said to coefficients of different tribes and castes in be consanguineous and the offsprings of such Andhra Pradesh. But, it is generally viewed that matings are inbred. There have been a number of Hindus have quite high inbreeding coefficients studies in the recent past focussing attention on followed by various tribes, Muslims, Christians, various aspects of inbreeding. But, it was Sanghvi etc. (For detail review see Bhasin and Nag, 1994). (et al.) who initiated and stressed this kind of From Roychoudhury’s (1976) review, it was studies long back in 1956. After that, Dronamraju also possible to have an account of frequent types and Meera Khan (1961, 1963), Dronamraju (1963a) of consanguineous marriages in India as well as and others published extensive data from Andhra in Andhra Pradesh and other southern states Pradesh. In 1966, Sanghvi again brought to light (having higher rates ofinbreeding). The most rather high rates of inbreeding in Andhra Pradesh frequent type of consanguineous marriage is and Maharashtra. Since then a large number of between first cousins. There are four kinds of studies have been undertaken. With the help of first cousin marriages, namely, the marriages with consanguinity, Malhotra (1976) has put forward mother’s brother’s daughter (MBD), father’s a generalization from which the following main sister’s daughter (FSD), mother’s sister’s daughter features emerge: (MSD) and father’s brother’s daughter (FBD). (i) amongst both castes and tribes of Dravidian The first two are cross-cousin marriages and last speaking states, (Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, two are parallel-cousin marriages. The Hindus Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) consanguineous practise cross-cousin marriages and prefer to marriages are preferred and prescribed; and marry MBD or FSD, while the Muslims practise that the coefficient of inbreeding is fairly high; both. Marriage with elder sister’s daughter or (ii) the castes in Indo-Aryan speaking areas uncle-niece marriage though prevalent among (most of the Northern states) prohibit Hindus (but frequency is quite low), is forbidden consanguineous marriages, the exception among Christians or Muslims. being Maharashtra, which has Dravidian The reasons for high frequency and degree influence on its marriage customs, and parts of inbreeding (especially in southern states of of Gujarat; India) are believed to be influenced mainly by (iii) the position of tribal groups in the Indo- various socio-economic and cultural factors Aryan and Tibeto-Burman (North-East) (Reddy, 1983). However the geographical barriers speaking states is not clear; and probably between the communities or physically isolated low rates of consanguineous marriages groups are very few. This is clear from the fact would be discerned; that even the size of ‘small’ castes or tribes (in (iv) The Muslims, Christians of southern states, most of the cases) are large enough to permit the Delhi, parts of northern states like Jammu choice of unrelated spouse (Dronamraju and and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh etc., West Meera Khan, 1963). Only in some small restricted Bengal, Maharashtra and also Jews, Parsees isolates, besides preference for consanguineous etc. practice consanguineous marriages, marriages, lack of choice accounts for high however, their position is yet to be fully frequency of inbreedings. explored. Dronamraju (1963a), while discussing high Roychoudhury, (1976) noted in his compre- rates of inbreeding in Andhra Pradesh, outlined hensive review that coefficient of inbreeding is the possible reasons. The most important ones highest in Andhra Pradesh. It varies from 0.013 seem to be (a) to keep the cultivable land in larger to 0.041 depending on the social or religious pieces for growing food crops, (b) the parental 196 M. K. BHASIN domination in arranging the marriage, (c) the parative discussion, a brief text on the different mutual knowledge of families, (d) the relatives religious groups is given below. are better suited for economic and other reasons, In India, several religions have flourished to fit into the Hindu joint family system etc. since time immemorial. India is the original home Bhasin and Nag (1994) have attempted to put of Hinduism, which constitutes the system of forward a comprehensive review of incidence of beliefs and rituals of the majority of its people. consanguinity, viz., fertility, mortality, morbidity The major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims, in the Indian region and other South Asian Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains and each countries-Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, account for not less than a million populations in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. the country as a whole. A total of 183 other They observed that in Indian region incidence religions under the head ‘Other Religions and of consanguineous marriages has not declined Persuasions’ have been recorded in Census of yet. Such types of marriages are preferred not India 1981 with the strength of 100 and above, at only in small isolates or geographically restricted the country level. communities, but also in numerically large castes, communities and tribes (various caste Hindus, 3. 1. Hindus (Hinduism) Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews and Scheduled Tribes) mainly due to diverse socio- Hinduism has developed gradually out of the economic and cultural reasons. Regional synthesis of sacrificial cults brought into India by appraisal shows that the states of the southern the Aryan invaders around 1500 B.C. with religion region of India overwhelmingly prefer and of various indigenous people. In historic times practice consanguineous marriages across all the complexity of religious belief, custom, and major religious groups and ethnic entities except practice has been influenced by Zoroastrianism, Kerala, where comparatively low incidence is Christianity, Islam, the tribal religions of Central observed, owing perhaps to higher educational Asian Nomads and perhaps even Chinese Taoism. status, influence of Christianity and absence of The most characteristic feature of Hinduism, a major type of consanguineous marriage - however, is the doctrine of an eternal soul and its (prevalent especially in the southern states), those rebirth. Even in its classical period (600 B.C. to between uncle-niece. In the western region, the 450 B.C.) Hinduism was characterized by an marriage customs of many communities of astonishing variety of doctrines and cultures. It Maharashtra, seem to submit to Dravidian influ- was regarded, however, as a retrograde step ence thereby preferring consanguineous marri- when these varieties of culture, ritual and mytho- ages fairly frequently. In the other states of logy became hardened into social strata and western region; and the northern region, eastern castes. The distribution of Hinduism is wide- region, Islands and other South Asian countries, spread, throughout the length and the breadth except among Muslims and certain tribal groups, of the country. consanguinity is usually proscribed or preferred Almost the entire country with the exception occasionally. They further added that consan- of the extreme North in North Western corner guinity is often positively related with fertility, and the North Eastern corner shows that Hindus mortality, morbidity, and sterility. But there also form over 80 per cent of the total population. exist contradictory evidences leading to ambi- There is a distinct continuous stretch of the guities and therefore, such generalized notions country constituting the entire Orissa state, may require future revision. adjoining areas of Andhra Pradesh and a large However, it is apparent today that higher adjoining tract of Madhya Pradesh, where the education, industrialisation and urbanisation etc. population is almost entirely (about 90 per cent are reducing the frequency of consanguineous or more) made up of Hindus. There is another marriages as they are negatively correlated. distinct area of Himalayan region (Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), which is also mostly 3. Religious Groups Hindu in its population composition.

In the present book, studies have not been 3. 2. Muslims (Islam) categorised into various religious groups for the statistical analysis, however to facilitate a com- Islam began in Arabia in the beginning of the GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 197

7th century. The founder of this religion was 3. 3. Christians (Christianity) Prophet Muhammad who was born in 570 A.D. in a distinguished family of Mecca. After Prophet It is believed that Christianity was introduced Muhammad’s death (A.D. 632) the leadership in South India in the first century A.D. by St. passed to Calipus or Khalifas who were both Thomas, who, according to the Catholic Church religious and political heads. Arabs spread Islam of Edessa, came twice on missions to India. from the Atlantic to Sind within eighty years of Cosmas of Alexandria, who travelled in South Prophet’s death. India (A.D. 522), found two Mestorian Churches Though Islam proclaimed the idea of equality, - one in Quilon and other in Ceylon. A copper but in India it has been characterized by caste. plate grant of A.D. 744 attests to the fact that The true Muslims are divided into four large many Indians have become converts to families—Saiyad, Shaikh, Pathan and Moghul. Christianity. The immigrants from Baghdad, Though they are referred as castes in India, they Nineveh, Jerusalem and other places added to are neither castes nor tribes but are merely names the Christian community. Marco Polo (A.D. 1293) given to groups of tribes supposed to be of similar mentions the presence of a Christian community blood (Blunt, 1931: p. 189). at St. Thomas Mount and narrates a story of the Muslims are divided into two major religious, martyrdom of St. Thomas on the mount. endogamous sect-Shia and Sunni and several Indian Christians are divided into Catholics minor groups like Momins, Domon, Khoja, Bohra, as well as Protestants. The caste restrictions are Moplahic. rigidly observed among Christian community, a In addition there are interior and exterior high caste Catholic will marry a Catholic of high castes among Muslims- (a) Ashraf or Sharif caste and similarly Protestants will marry among meaning noble or person of high extraction. It themselves. It can be concluded that the whole includes all undoubted descendants of foreigners Indian society is caste ridden and caste system, and converts from higher Hindu castes. (b) Ajlaf in one or the other form, is present in all religions. Alrop - meaning “wretches”, embraces all other Christians constitute the third major religious Mohammedans, including the functional groups community in the country. Christianity appears and low ranking converts. most widespread in the Southern and North- Traditional occupation of Saids is the eastern regions of the country. In Kerala, Tamil priesthood, while the Moghuls and Pathans Nadu, Andhra Pradesh about 60 per cent of the correspond to Kshatriyas of the Hindu regime. entire country’s Christian population is account- All converts are endogamous groups and many ed for. In North Eastern states like Nagaland, are split into further smaller endogamous groups Meghalaya and Mizoram, the composition of the “amongst the Bhands, Gujjars and Rangrej, Sunis population is predominantly Christian. and Shias do not intermarry...; Pathan and Shaikh. Muhammadan Rajputs preserve their Hindu rules 3. 4. Sikhs (Sikhism) of hypergamy”. “In fact, most of these castes of Hindu converts preserve some trace of their former The word Sikh is the Punjabi form of the marriage system”, (Blunt, 1931: pp. 201-202). Certain Sanskrit word ‘Shishya’ which means disciple. Muslim groups also preserve Hindu commensal The Sikhs are the followers of Guru Nanak Dev taboos and religious rites. The Muslims are a and nine other Gurus of whom the last was Shri predominantly rural community with marked Guru Govind Singh. Sikhism was based on the concentration in the Kashmir valley and adjacent teachings of Unity of God; rejection of caste and Kargil Tehsil, Mewat, Rohilkhand and upper Doab, ritualism and brotherhood of man. Though based Ganga Delta, Malasar and the Lakshadweep. on the idiom of equality, Sikhism is as caste ridden The States and Union Territories, where as Hinduism. Sikhs are broadly divided into Muslims are predominant, are Lakshadweep Sardars and Majhabis, the former consisting of (94.84 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (64.19 high castes and latter of sweepers. The Sardars per cent). The States in which the proportion of include Jat and Kamboh (Landowners), Tarkhan Muslims exceeds the national average (11.35 per (Carpenter), Kumhar (Potter), Mehra (Water cent) are West Bengal (21.51 per cent), Kerala carrier) and Cimbma (Washer man). The first two (21.25 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (15.93 per cent) castes regard themselves as superior to the and Bihar (14.13 per cent). others. Majhabis are later converts. In some parts 198 M. K. BHASIN of Punjab, Sansi (Shepherd), the members of (i) Svetambara - clothed in white criminal tribe are later converts and are at lowest (ii) Digambara - clothed in atmosphere, level. There are some other religious sects among because their Munis wear no clothes. the Sikhs like Nihangs, Namdharis and The Jains are essentially urban dwellers; this Ramgarhias. The Sikhs though extremely mobile is the only religious community which is more are concentrated in all districts of Punjab and numerous in urban areas than in rural areas. They parts of Haryana. are spread largely in States of Rajasthan, Mahara- In Punjab 60.75 per cent and in Chandigarh shtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and 21.11 per cent of the population is Sikhs. In no Union Territory of Delhi. other state or Union Territory do they constitute even 5 per cent of the population except in 3.7. Parsis Haryana (6.21 per cent) and Delhi (6.33 per cent). An endogamous group migrated from Iran and settled primarily in West India. They show a 3. 5. Buddhists (Buddhism) high frequency of inbreeding. They were Zoroastrian fire worshippers, and came to India Buddhism was evolved as a revolt against [as their name suggests from Fars (Persia)] about Vedic religion or Brahmanism. In the sixth century 8th century A.D. to escape from forcible B.C., number of new sects sprang up, and conversion to Islam. In 1981, they were only Buddhism was one of them. Buddhism was 71,630 in India (Census of India, 1981). founded by Kshatriya Prince Siddartha and was based on the principles of non-violence and 3.8. Jews simple living instead of ritualism. Buddhism is further divided into two sects: Indian Jews are divided into: Beni-Israel, (i) Hinayan (The Small Vehicle)—Old Cochin Jews and Baghdadi Jews. Beni-Jews, who followers of the old religion who believed in are mostly found in Bombay, are again divided Buddha as a Guru or the Great Master. into Gora (White) and Kala (Black), the former (ii) Mahayanas (The Great Vehicle)—They being considered higher in rank. The Cochin raised Buddha to the position of a saviour god. Jews, found mostly in Cochin, are divided into Taking the country as a whole the largest three categories—Gora, Kala and Meshurarim number of Buddhists is found in Maharashtra. It (descendants of Cochin Jews and their slave is well known that the neo-Buddhist movement concubines). The Baghdadi Jews are found in during the decade 1951-61 saw a large scale Bombay and Calcutta. They were 5618 in India adoption of Buddhism particularly by the Scheduled Castes population in Maharashtra, (Census of India, 1981). though this tempo was not maintained in 1961- 71; in fact the growth rate recorded appears to be 4. Linguistic Groups less than even the natural growth rate. It is possible that certain converts from Scheduled The people of India display a high degree of Castes to Buddhism preferred to return their diversity in their languages and dialects. It has religion as “Hindu” finding that as Buddhists been acquired through a long process of they were not entitled to certain concessions peopling of the sub-continent by heterogeneous available to Scheduled Castes. ethnic groups drawn from the neighbouring In North Eastern states the Buddhists regions of Asia. A linguistic group is an entity of account for 28.71 per cent in Sikkim, 13.69 in social significance. There is a broad social Arunachal Pradesh and 8.19 per cent in Mizoram. integration among all the speakers of a certain language. In the beginning languages and 3. 6. Jains (Jainism) dialects developed in the different regions of the country under conditions of more or less The other sect which evolved against isolation. The language and the dialect thus play Brahmanism, was Jainism founded by another a significant role in defining the elements of Kshatriya Prince Vardhaman. It also laid stress regional identity. on right actions and good deeds instead of In free India the distribution pattern of major sacrifices and prayers. Jains are further divided language groups was considered as a satisfactory into two sects— basis for the formation of states. This has given GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 199 a new political meaning to the geographical language families moved into India. Before their patterns of the linguistic distribution of the advent, there was the language of the Negroid country. peoples, who pioneered into India from Africa According to Grierson (1903-1928), India has along the Asian coastline probably before the 179 languages and 544 dialects. Of these 6th millennium B.C. But on the mainland of India languages (the separate enumeration of dialects nothing has remained of their language, the is irrelevant, since they also come under original Negroid peoples having been killed or “languages”), 116 are small tribal speeches of absorbed by subsequent immigrants” (Gazetteer the Tibeto-Chinese family; these are found only of India, 1965). in the northern and north-eastern fringes of India Chronological sequence in the matter of the and are present among less than 1per cent of the advent into India of the three groups other than entire population of the country. Nearly two dozen Aryan has not been established. It is not clear as more are likewise insignificant speeches of other to who came first - the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto- language groups; or they are languages not truly Chinese or Dravidians. But the fact remains that belonging to India (Census Centenary Mono- all these three groups were in India when the graph No.10, 1972; Gazetteer of India, 1973). Aryans came. According to the 1961 Census of India there Renfrew (1987, 1989) and Cavalli-Sforza et al. were 187 languages spoken by different sections (1994) reported that Indian sub-continent had of our society. This is, however, not surprising, experienced massive gene flow from at least two considering a large number of people inhabiting Neolithic episodes of migrations. Firstly about 10- a vast land. The picture though becomes less 15 thousands years ago, when agriculture confusing when it is noted that as many as 94 of developed in the fertile cresent region, a part of an these 187 languages are spoken by less than eastward wave of human migration entered India 10,000 persons each and that 23 languages and brought Dravidian languages (Renfrew, 1989) together account for 97 per cent of the total popu- mainly, Elamo-Dravidian languages (Ruhlen, 1991), lation of the country. Out of these 23 languages, which may have originated in the Elam province 15 besides English have been specified in the (Zagros Mountains, Southwestern Iran) and are Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. confined to southeastern India and to some isolated These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, groups in Pakistan and northern India. The next Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, was the arrival of pastoral nomands from the central Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Asian steppes to the Iranian plateau about 4000 Hindi has been given the status of India’s official years before present, brought with it the Indo- language along with English. Sanskrit included European language family which eventually in the list is no longer a spoken language, though replaced Dravidian languages from most of it has great importance even today. The Eighth Pakistan and northern India, perhaps by an elite- Schedule does not recognize any of the langu- dominance process (Renfrew 1987, 1989, 1996, ages belonging to the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto- Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1988; Quintana-Murci et al., Chinese families, because of their numerical as 2001) well as cultural insignificance. Out of these language families, the Aryan family is numerically and culturally the most 4.1. Classification of Indian Languages important in India. According to 1961 Census of India over 73.3 per cent of the Indian people spoke The languages spoken by the people of India languages belonging to the Aryan family. (Fig. 11) belong to the following four language Dravidian came next representing 24.47 per cent. families: There are only 1.5 per cent for the Austric 4.1.1. The Austro-Asiatic Language Family languages and still less for the Tibeto-Chinese (Nishada), languages (0.73 per cent). 4.1.2. The Tibeto-Chinese Language Family (Kirata), 4.1.1. The Austro-Asiatic Language Family 4.1.3. The Dravidian Language Family (Dravida), (Nishada) and 4.1.4. The Indo-European Language Family (Aryan). “Between the Austrics and Dravidians, the “It is not known how and when these former possibly represent the earlier group. 200 M. K. BHASIN

According to some scholars, the Austrics had to have become characterized with their basic their origin in Indo-China and South China; they language at least 4000 years before Christ in the spread east into India and south into Malaya, and area to the west of China, between the sources then passed into the islands beyond. Another of the Yangtze and the Hwang Rivers. There they view, which is more recent is that the Austrics are developed a language which ultimately became a very old off-shoot of the Mediterranean people the source of Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese and who came into India from the west, probably even possibly also Thai, though the genetic before the Dravidians. Austric speech influenced connection of Thai with the Sino-Tibetan family Dravidian and Aryan. In the plains, Austric has is now being questioned. The Tibeto-Burman been very largely suppressed by Dravidian and speaking Mongoloids with yellow complexion Aryan, but Austric languages survive in the less came to be known among the Vedic Aryans as easily accessible hills and forests of Central and the Kiratas. The Kirata influence in the amalgam Eastern India. On the Himalayan slopes, Austric of Aryo-Dravido-Austric culture, which is Indian languages have deeply modified the Tibeto- culture or Hindu culture, was not very far- Chinese dialects-hese took over some Austric reaching. The role of the Sino-Tibetan languages features. In Assam, one Austric language survived and their present position also are not very among the Khasis, who are largely Mongoloid in significant” (The Gazetteer of India, 1965). race but Austric in speech” (The Gazetteer of India, The speakers of Tibeto-Chinese family of 1965). languages are people of Mongoloid origin, who The Austro-Asiatic family is represented in are considered to have entered the Indian India by the speakers belonging to the two main frontiers much earlier than the Indo-Aryan branches—(i) Mon-Khmer Branch (Mon-Khmer speakers. The area of the speeches stretches right Group) and, (ii) Munda Branch (Munda Group). from Baltistan in the west to the north-eastern (i) Mon-Khmer Branch: This includes the frontiers of the country and further reaching up two groups—1. Khasi group of languages of to the southern most portions of Assam. Assam, and 2. Nicobarese of the Nicobar Islands. The speakers of Tibeto-Chinese family fall (ii) Munda Branch: This is represented by into two main sub-families—I. Siamese-Chinese the speakers belonging to the Central and Eastern Sub-Family and, II. Tibeto-Burman Sub-Family. regions of India. This is the largest of the Austro- I. Siamese-Chinese Sub-Family: It includes Asiatic family. This includes the people inhabiting the Tai Group of languages which is distinct from mostly the hills and jungles of Bihar, Chota Nagpur, Tibeto-Burman, and is represented only by one Orissa and Central India. The largest single group language i.e. Khamti. is that of Santhali speakers, who alone account II. Tibeto-Burman Sub-Family: The second for more than half of the total Austro-Asiatic sub-family of Tibeto-Chinese Family is divided speakers. The names of the speeches in the branch into three branches—(a) Tibeto-Himalayan are given below: Branch; (b) North-Assam Branch; and (c) Assam- 1. Kherwari 2. Santali 3. Mundari 4. Bhumij 5. Burmese Branch. Birhor 6. Koda/Kora 7. Ho 8. Turi 9. Asuri 10. (a) Tibeto-Himalayan Branch: This branch Agaria 11. Birjia/- Brigia/Binjhia 12. Korwa 13. consists of the following groups: Korku 14. Kharia 15. Juang 16. Savara 17. Gadaba (i) Bhotia Group (Tibetan Group) and Munda - unspecified. (ii) Himalayan Group Of the two speeches of Mon-Khmer, Khasi is (i) Bhotia Group (Tibetan Group): This confined to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of group is represented by a number of important Meghalaya, while Nicobari to the Nicobar Island numerically strong speeches within Indian in the Bay of Bengal. The Mundari speakers are borders, namely: Ladakhi, Lahuli, Sikkim Bhotia, concentrated in the tribal districts of Santal Balti and a number of small communities Parganas, Mayurbhanj, Ranchi, East Nimar, Betul combined under the common name of Bhotia. and Baudh Khondmals. This group includes the following languages: 1. Tibetan 2. Balti 3. Ladakhi 4. Lahauli 5. Spiti 4.1.2. The Tibeto-Chinese Language Family 6. Jad 7. Sherpa 8. Sikkim Bhotia 9. Bhutani 10. (Kirata) Kagate and Bhotia-Unspecified. (ii) Himalayan Group (Pronominalized/ “The original Sino-Tibetan speakers appear Non-pronominalized Himalayan Groups): This GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 201

N A T IS N INDIA A H G F A Linguistic Groups

PAKISTAN CHINA TIBET

NEPAL

BAY OF BENGAL

) ia d n I (

s d

n

a l

s

I

r

a

b

o

c

i

N

Lakshadweep

d

n

(India) a

n

a

m

a

d

n A

AUSTRO-ASIATIC FAMILY DRAVIDIAN FAMILY Munda Branch Dravidian Mon-Khmer Branch

TIBETO-CHINESE FAMILY INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY Tibeto-Himalayan Branch Dardic Branch North Assam Branch Iranian Branch Assam-Burmese Branch Indo-Aryan Branch

Fig. 11. India-Linguistic Groups (after Bhasin, Walter, Danker-Hopfe 1994) group of speeches is spoken along the tracts to North-East Frontier Group: This group the south of the Himalayas from Himachal consists of a number of following languages: Pradesh in the west to the western borders of 1. Aka/Hrusso 2. Dalfa 3. Abor/Adi 4. Miri 5. Bhutan in the east. These are further split into Mishmi pronominalized and non-pronominalized groups (c) Assam-Burmese Branch: This branch of of speeches. The pronominalized group of Tibeto-Burman sub-family consists of the speeches has given evidence of Austro-Asiatic following groups: traits remaining in some of their member speeches. (i) Bodo Group (Bara or Bodo Group); (ii) This group includes the following speeches: Naga Group; (iii) Kachin Group (iv) Kuki-Chin 1. Lahauli of Chamba 2. Kanashi 3. Kanauri 4. Group; (v) Burma Group Jangali 5. Dhimal 6. Limbu 7. Khambu 8. Rai 9. Gurung 10. Tamang 11. Sunwar 12. Mangari 13. (i) Bodo Group (Bara or Bodo Group): This Newari 14. Lepcha 15. Kami 16. Toto. group includes the following languages: (b) North-Assam Branch: A significant group 1. Bodo/Boro 2. Lalung 3. Dimasa 4. Garo 5. of languages the Tibeto-Burman sub-family Koch 6. Rabha 7. Tripuri 8. Deori 9. Mikir. occupies the north-eastern frontier and may be (ii) Naga Group: This group consists of the named as ‘North-East Frontier Group’. following languages: 202 M. K. BHASIN

1. Angami 2. Sema 3. Rengma 4. Khezha 5. Ao and therefore connected with West Asia. The 6. Lotha 7. Tableng 8. Chang-Naga 9. Kacha Naga Dravidian languages are now found in solid 10. Zemi Naga 11. Kabui 12. Khoirao 13. Mao 14. blocks in the Deccan and in South India, where Maram 15. Tangkhul 16. Maring 17. Konyak 18. they have their separate existence in spite of Pochury 19. Phom 20. Yimchungre 21. strong inroads upon them by the Aryan speech. Khiemnungam 22. Nocte 23. Wancho 24. There is an Austric element in the Dravidian Makware 25. Tangsa and Naga-Unspecified. languages, just as there is a strong Dravidian- (iii) Kachin Group: This group includes the cum-Austric substratum in the Aryan speeches two languages: of India (The Gazetteer of India, 1965). 1. Kawri 2. Singpho. The language families have been broadly (iv) Kuki-Chin Group: It consists of the grouped geographically and the relative position following speeches: of particular language is discussed with reference 1. Manipuri/Meithei 2. Thodo 3. Ralte 4. Paite to its situation in three broad group areas. They 5. Tlangtlang 6. Pawi 7. Lakher 8. Lushai/Mizo 9. are listed below: Rangkhol 10. Halam 11. Langrong 12. Aimol 13. (i) South Dravidian Group: It consists of the Chiru 14. Kom 15. Hmar 16. Lamgang 17. Chote speeches: 1. Tamil 2. Malayalam 3. Kannada 18. Purum 19. Anal 20. Gangte 21. Vaiphei 22. 4. Coorgi/Kodagu 5. Tulu 6. Toda 7. Kota 8. Khami 23. Khawathlang 24. Simte and Kuki- Telugu. Unspecified and Chin-Unspecified. (ii) Central Dravidian Group: It includes 1. Kui (v) Burma Group: This group includes the 2. Kolami 3. Gondi 4. Parji 5. Koya 6. Khond/ speeches: 1. Mru 2. Arkanese Kondh 7. Konda. The languages and the dialects belonging to (iii)North Dravidian Group: It includes 1. the Sino-Tibetan family are spoken by tribal Kurukh/Oraon and 2. Malto. groups of north-east and of the Himalayan and Unspecified Dravidian Tongues: A few (6742) sub-Himalayan regions of the North and North- persons belong to unspecified Dravidian West. The speeches of the Tibeto-Himalayan Tongues, which are 1. Dravidian, 2. Madrasi, 3. branch are spoken in Ladakh and parts of Ladhadi and 4. Bharia. Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The Assam- Languages of the Dravidian family are con- Burmese Branch is concentrated in the states of centrated in the plateau region and the adjoining North-east India along the Indo-Burmese border. coastal plains. Telugu is spoken in Andhra, Tamil Among these, Naga dialects are spoken in in Tamil Nadu, and Kannada in Karnataka and Nagaland; Lushai is concentrated in Mizo Hills, Malayalam in Kerala. The speeches of the Garo in Garo Hills and Meithei in Manipur. Dravidian family are also spoken by a large number of tribal groups living in the eastern and 4.1.3. The Dravidian Language Family the north-eastern parts of the peninsular plateau. (Dravida) These groups include the Gonds of Madhya Pradesh, Central India and the Oraons of Chota “The Dravidians are said to have come from Nagpur Plateau. Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. They were a Mediterranean people, of the same stock 4.1.4. The Indo-European Language Family as the peoples of Asia Minor and Crete, and the (Aryan) Pre-Hellenic people of Greece (The Aegean). The Dravidians of India were thus originally a branch “The Aryan speeches of India, beginning of the same people as the Pre-Hellenic people of from Vedic Sanskrit, their oldest form, have been Greece and Asia Minor. The exact affiliation of the great intellectual and cultural heritage of Dravidian with the language of the Eastern India. They form our mental and spiritual link Mediterranean has not yet been settled. But some with the European world, on the genetic side; common lexical elements are noticeable. Certain and with the world of South-East Asia and East religious notions and ideas as well as cults and Asia, on the cultural side, through Buddhism and practices among the Dravidian people of India Brahmanism. The modern Indo-Aryan languages have strong West Asian and Mediterranean of India are near or distant cousins of the Indo- affinities. The city civilization of Sind and Punjab European languages outside India, like Persian, and other parts of India appears to be Dravidian, Armenian, Russian and other Slav languages; GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 203

Greek, Italian, French, Spanish and other Latin Magadhi, Maithili; 3. Bengali; 4. Assamese. languages; German, English, Norwegian and other 2. Mediate Sub-Branch/Inner Sub-Branch: Teutonic languages; and Welsh and Irish among This includes the groups—(i) Mediate Group/ Celtic languages. The Indo-European speech- Central Group and, (ii) Pahari Group. family is today the most important in the world. (i) Mediate Group/Central Group: This With the exception of the various languages includes—1. Hindi; 2. Hindustani; 3. Urdu; 4. within the orbit of Chinese (the so-called dialects Punjabi; 5. Gujarati; 6. Bhili; 7. Khandeshi; 8. of Chinese or Han), Japanese, Indonesian or Rajasthani. Malay, and Arabic, all the main languages of the (ii) Pahari Group: It is divided into—1. world, and the most important culturally, are Indo- Eastern Pahari; 2. Central Pahari; and 3. Western European. And all these languages are descended Pahari from a common source-speech, the “Primitive Grierson adopted name ‘Pahari Group’ in the Indo-European”, which flourished about 5000 Indo-Aryan speeches spread along the years ago” (The Gazetteer of India, 1965). Himalayan region from Bhadrawah in the west to In India this great family is represented by its Nepal in the east. sub-family of languages, which covers the widest (1) Eastern Pahari: It consists of Nepali. area of the country and is spoken by the largest (2) Central Pahari: It includes 1. Kumauni, proportion of the Indian population. 2. Garhwali. I. Aryan Sub-Family (3) Western Pahari: It includes 1. Jaunsari; The Aryan sub-family is further divided into 2. Sirmauri; 3. Baghati; 4. Kiunthali; 5. Handuri; 3 branches—(a) Iranian Branch (b) Dardic (or 6. Siraji; 7. Soracholi; 8. Bashahri; 9. Siraji-Inner- Pisacha) Branch, and (c) Indo-Aryan Branch. Siraji; 10. Sodochi; 11. Kului; 12. Mandi; 13. (a) Iranian Branch: It is represented by Mandeali; 14. Suketi; 15. Chameali; 16. Bharmauri/ languages like Persian, Pashto and Balochi Gaddi; 17. Churahi; 18. Pangwali; 19. Bhalesi; 20. considered of foreign origin. Padari; 21. Pahari-Unspecified. (b) Dardic (or Pisasha) Branch: It is The unspecified Indo-Aryan tongues, Old represented by following groups of languages: Middle-Indo-Aryan languages and Mother (i) Kafir Group : Wai Ala Tongue with unspecified family affiliation are (ii) Khowar Group: Khowar listed below: (iii) Dard Group: 1. Dardi 2. Shina 3. Kashmiri II. Unspecified Indo-Aryan Tongues: 4. Kohistani. Speakers of Kafir and Khowar 1. Mahasu Pahari; 2. Tharu; 3. Kewati groups do not come within the Indian III Old Middle-Indo-Aryan Languages: boundaries. 1. Ardhamagadhi; 2. Pali; 3. Prakrit; 4. Sanskrit (c) Indo-Aryan Branch: The coverage of the IV. Mother Tongue with Unspecified Family language of the Indo-Aryan Branch being much Affiliation: too wide, it will perhaps be convenient to restrict 1. Kisan; 2. English the brief description of the main languages and Languages of the Indo-Aryan family are dialects of the branch through enumeration of concentrated in the plains of India. The domain broad groups of languages classified in their of Indo-Aryan languages, however, extends over proper circles with reference to common the peninsular plateau also, reaching as far as characteristics and socio-linguistic tendencies, the Konkan coast. The central part of this region often not found in the other groups. The Indo- has Hindi as the principal language. It is spoken Aryan Branch can be divided into two sub- by the majority of people in India. Hindi is spoken branches as follows: 1. Outer Sub-Branch and 2. in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Mediate Sub-Branch/Inner Sub-Branch Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the 1. Outer Sub-Branch: This consists of the Union Territory of Delhi. Urdu is closely akin to following Hindi and is widely distributed in this belt. The (i) North-Western Group: This includes 1. speeches belonging to the north-western groups, Lahnda or Western Punjabi Dialects and 2. Sindhi. such as Sindhi is mainly concentrated in Western (ii) Southern Group: This group includes 1. India. Marathi is the most important language of Marathi; 2. Konkani. the southern group of the Indo-Aryan family. (iii) Eastern Group: This includes 1. Oriya; The languages of the eastern group, such as 2. Bihari with sub-groups- Bhojpuri, Maghi/ Oriya, Bengali andAssamese are spoken in the 204 M. K. BHASIN

Eastern India. The languages of the central group 2. Bengali: Chakma; Haijong/Hajong; are confined to Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Malpaharia; Rajbansi The Himalayan and the sub-Himalayan areas are 3. Gujarati: Saurashtra inhabited by the speakers of the various forms 4. Hindi: Awadhi, Baghelkhandi, Bagri- of Pahari speeches. Rajasthani; Banjari; Bhadrawahi; Bharmauri/ Gaddi; Bhojpuri; Braj Bhasha; Budelkhandi; 4.2. Linguistic Regions Chambeali; Chattisgarhi; Churahi; Dhundhari; Garhwali; Gojri; Harauti; Haryanvi; Hindustani; The geographical distribution of the major Jaipuri; Jaunsari; Kangri; Khairari; Kortha/ languages in India nearly fits into a scheme of Khatta; Kulvi; Kumauni; Kurmali; Thar; Lamani/ linguistic regions. Based on the principle of Lambadi; Lodhi; Madhesi; Magadhi/Maghi; numerical strength about a dozen major Maithili, Malvi; Mandeali; Marwari; Mewari; languages constitute the principal linguistic Mewati; Nagpuria Nimadi; Pahari (It is a regions. However, the tribal languages do not fit combination of various speeches spoken over into this scheme of regions as the tribal groups long stretches of areas, where the speakers are concentrated in enclaves in central, eastern preferred to give a general name as Pahari); and north-eastern parts of the country. The Panchpargania; Pawari/Powari; Rajasthani; regional mosaic of the tribal languages is highly Sadan/Sadri; Sirmauri; Sondwari; Surgujia. complex and does not lend itself to a simplified 5. Kannada: Badaga scheme of regions. 6. Kashmiri: Kishtwari, Siraji Broadly speaking the principal languages of 7. Malayalam: Yerava India constitutes the following linguistic regions: 8. Marathi: Karami 1. Kashmiri, 2. Punjabi, 3. Hindi/Urdu, 4. Bengali, 9. Oriya: Bhatri, Relli 5. Assamese, 6. Oriya, 7. Gujarati, 8. Marathi, 9. 10. Punjabi: Bagri, Bilaspuri/Kahluri Kannada, 10. Telugu, 11. Tamil and 12. Malayalam. 11. Sanskrit The tribal languages are so distributed that 12. Sindhi: Kachchhi either they have their own small clusters or they 13. Tamil: Kaikadi; Yerukala/Yerukula overlap the regions of major languages. In the 14. Telugu: Vadari north-east, however, the tribal speeches such as 15. Urdu those of minor groups in Arunachal have almost Part ‘B’ knife-edged boundaries of their own. Adi: Adi Gallong/Gallong; Adi Minyong/ The twelve linguistic regions identified Minyong above, generally correspond with the states of Angami: Chakra/Chokri Indian Union. But the state boundaries do not Bhili/Bhilodi Barel; Bhilai; Chodhari; Dhodia; always correspond with the linguistic boundaries. Gamti/Gavit; Garasia; Kokna/Kokni/Kukna; In fact the linguistic boundary in itself is not a Mawchi; Paradhi; Pawri; Tadavi; Vasava; Varli; line, it is one of transition over which one Wagdi language gradually loses its dominance and gives Bodo/Boro: Kachari; Mech way to the other. Gondi: Dorli; Maria; Muria Khandeshi: Ahirani; Dangi; Gujari-Khandeshi 4.3. Languages Specified in Schedule VIII to Khasi: Pnar/Synteng; War the Constitution of India Konda: Kodo Korku: Muwasi The Schedule VIII recognizes fifteen Lahnda: Multani, Punchhi languages in India; there are 95.37 per cent Munda: Kol speakers of these languages in the total Indian Naga: Zeliang population (Part ‘A’). The remaining 4.63 per cent Nissi/Dafla: Apatani; Bangni; Nishang; is accounted for by others (Part ‘B’). The Tagin identifiable mother tongues at all India level have Paril: Dhurwa been grouped under the relevant language (s) Santali: Karmali; Mahili (Census of India, 1971) as given below: Tripuri: Jamatia; Reang Part ‘A’ A few studies are available in which resear- 1. Assamese chers have identified and attempted to distinguish GENETICS OF CASTES AND TRIBES OF INDIA: INDIAN POPULATION MILIEU 205

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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, racial differences and rich cultural heritage. However many facets of history, race and culture of this area are still relatively unexplored. Debates and doubts centering around the autochthonous status of the early settlers continue - it is very difficult to ascertain how human groups and settlements were formed in the pre-historic times, whether they were the original inhabitants or migrated from some other place and if they migrated, which route did they take. However, the infiltration and admixture of new racial and cultural elements, from time to time, have made the Indian population more diverse and heterogeneous.

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

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