Sir Herbert Hope Risley tried to classify the Indian population on the basis of anthropometric measurements. He had developed a clear-cut idea about the racial elements of India when he directed the operation of Census for India in 1901. Later, he took the help of anthropometry to affirm his assumptions and published the results in 1915 under the title ‘The People of India’. He identified three principal racial types in India viz. The Dravidian, the Indo-Aryan and the Mongoloid. These three types were again got mixed in varying degrees in different provinces (States).
On the whole, Risley distinguished seven different ‘physical types’ in the Indian population in the following way:
1. The Dravidian type:
The stature of these people is short or below medium. The complexion is dark, approaching to black. The hair is similarly dark and plentiful with an occasional tendency to curl. The eye colour is also dark. The head is long and the nose is very broad, sometimes depressed at the root.
The people of Dravidian type are distributed in the region from Ceylon to the valley of the Ganges covering the southern part of India, which especially includes the Western Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Central India and Chottanagpur. The best example of this type is the Paniyans of Malabar (South India) and the Santals of the Chottanagpur.
Risley believed these people as original inhabitants of India who are found to be modified at present by the infiltration of the Aryans, the Scythians and the Mongoloids.
2. The Indo-Aryan type:
This type is the most close to the traditional Aryans who colonized India. The people are tall statured with fair complexion, dark eyes, and plentiful hair on face and body. They also possess predominant longhead (dolichocephalic), narrow and long (leptorrhine) nose. The type is confined to Punjab, Rajasthan and Kashmir where the members are known as the Kashmiri Brahmins, Rajputs, Jats and the Khattris.
3. The Mongoloid type :
The most important characteristic features of this type are broad-head, dark complexion with yellowish tinge and scanty hair on face and body. The stature is usually short or below medium. The nose shows a wide range of variation, from fine to broad. The face is typically flat where the eyes are oblique with epicanthic fold. The people of this type are found along the Himalayan region, especially in the regions namely North East Frontier, Nepal and Burma. The best examples are the Kanets of Lahul and Kulu Valleys, Lepchas of Darjeeling and Sikkim, the Limbus, the Murmis and the Gurungs of Nepal and the Bodo of Assam.
4. The Aryo-Dravidian type:
This type is known as the Hindustani type. Generally the heads of the people are long with a tendency towards medium. The complexion varies from light brown to black. The nose is usually medium, although the broad nose is not uncommon.
But in this case, the broad nose is always broader than the nose of Indo-Aryans. In stature, the people are shorter than the Indo-Aryans who usually show a below average height; i.e. the height ranges from 159cm to 166cm. Thus, the Aryo- Dravidians is differentiated from the Indo-Aryans. The type is considered as an intermixture of the Aryans and the Dravidians in varying proportions. The people of this type are found in Uttar Pradesh, in some parts of Rajasthan and in Bihar.
5. The Mongolo-Dravidian type:
This type is known as the Bengali type. The members of this type are characterized by broad and round heads with a tendency towards medium dark complexion and plentiful hair on face. The nose is usually medium with a tendency towards flatness.
The stature is also medium but sometimes short. Such people are found in Bengal and Orissa. The notable representatives of this type are the Bengali Brahmins and Bengali Kayasthas. According to Risley this type is not only an admixture of the Mongolians and the Dravidians, some blood strains of Indo-Aryan type are also mixed with it.
6. The Scytho-Dravidian type:
The people of this type possess medium to broad head, low to medium stature, fair complexion, and a moderately fine nose, which is not conspicuously long. The hair is scanty on face and body. It is held that the type has been evolved by the intermixture of two distinct racial strains—the Scythians and the Dravidians. Typical example of this type is found in Western India comprising the Maratha Brahmins, the Kunbis and the Coorgs, who are distributed in the tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra-Gujrat border region upto the Coorg.
The Scythian element is more prominent in higher social groups of these regions while the Dravidian features predominate among the lower social groups in the region. However, this Scytho-Dravidian type is markedly different from the Turko- Iranians in the traits like larger head, flatter face, and higher profile of nose and shorter stature.
7. The Turko-Iranian type:
This type is characterized by broad heads and fine to medium nose, which is long and prominent. The stature is fairly tall and the average height of the males varies from 162cm to 172cm. Although the eyes are dark in colour, grey eyes are not uncommon. Complexion of the people is generally fair; plentiful hair is found on face and body. The type includes the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier Provinces (now in Pakistan) who are represented by the Balochis, Brahai, Afghans and some other people of NWFP. In the view of Risley, this type has been formed probably by the fusion of Turki and Persian elements in which the former’s features predominate.
Criticism
- Risley’s classification faced a considerable criticism from different authorities, especially in respect of the Dravidians, the Scytho-Dravidians and the Mongolo-Dravidians.
- Besides, the Indo-Aryans is distributed only in Punjab, Rajputana and the Kashmir Valley according to Risley. But the speakers of Aryan languages actually occupy a vast area in Indian subcontinent, which has not been reflected in his classification. If he had measured the people of Kashmir alone, then he should have placed them in a separate group as they possessed absolutely different physical features.
- Further, Risley had given much importance in Scythian elements when he discussed about broad-headed people as the Scytho-Dravidian type. In fact, the Scythian invaders stayed so short that they hardly get any opportunity to spread any remarkable influence among ethnic elements of Bombay Presidency where Risley conducted his study.
- Risley also stated that the broad-headed elements in Bengal have been influenced by the Mongolian people. But it is difficult to confirm that the brachycephalic elements in Bengal and Gujrat have been derived from the Mongolian element. Although all Mongolian people are brachycephals but the epicanthic fold as a typical Mongolian feature is found only among some people living in Darjeeling and neighbouring districts. This feature is totally absent among the people of other parts of Bengal.
- Risley also had mentioned a vast area of South India as the land of the Dravidians, but in reality many of these people do not speak Dravidian language and some of them exhibit such physical features which are quite different from the proper Dravidian characters.
- Deniker criticized Risley for his conception of Dravidians which are found to occur in two forms— one is long headed, medium stature and narrow nose; and the other one is long headed, short stature and broad nose. These two groups are quite different from each other so far as their physical features, culture and origin are concerned. Among these two types of Dravidian, the second type has been described by some scholars as Pre-Dravidian Again,
- Risley did not mention anything about the Negrito element in India.