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Unit 8: Race and Ethnicity

elements are the earliest inhabitants of India. He expressed the view that a certain submerged Notes
Negrito race had come to India perhaps from Malaysia; this Negrito racial element seems to be
present among the Veddas of Sri Lanka and Kadar, Irula, Kurumba etc. of South India.
Some Proto-Australoid racial features have been noted from the skeletal remains found from
Mohenjodaro. A number of scholars have expressed the view that the Australoid and Proto-
Australoid racial elements are present throughout the Indian population. If the Negrito racial
element had ever dominated the Indian population then some definite and clearly visible Negrito
features should be there in the North Indian populations. The serological studies tell us that the
Negrito features are almost absent even among the most primitive tribal communities of India.
The primitive tribes of India have rarely demonstrated the predominance of B-blood group as is
the case with Negroids. Australoid groups have a predominance of A-blood group; many primitive
tribes of India have predominance of A-blood group. Another interesting and significant point in
this discussion is that though the tribes like Bhil and Munda show a high frequency of B-blood
group like the Negrito but they lack other physical features of the Negritos. Even otherwise no
final conclusion can be drawn on the basis of only serological facts specially under the conditions
when not many serological studies have been conducted in India. There is a lot of scope for
research in this direction. On the basis of the present status of knowledge we can conclude only
that perhaps the proto-Australoids were the earliest inhabitants of India who experienced the
admixture of African or Negrito blood in several parts of the subcontinent. Even this may not be
the final conclusion but till the time some other evidences prove it otherwise it will continue to be
the most acceptable conclusion.

8.3 Ethnic Groups

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members are identified through a common trait. This
can, but does not have to, include an idea of common heritage, a common culture, a shared
language or dialect. The group’s ethos or ideology may also stress common ancestry and religion,
as opposed to an ethnic minority group which refers to race. The process that results in the
emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis. Some ethnic groups are marked by little more
than a common name.
Terminology and Definition
The terms ethnicity and ethnic group are derived from the Greek word ethnos, normally translated
as “nation”. The terms refer currently to people thought to have common ancestry who share a
distinctive culture.
(Greek : homaimon, “of the same blood”), language (Greek : homoglosson, “speaking the same
language”), cults and customs (Greek : homotropon, “of the same habits or life”).
The recent meaning emerged in the mid 19th century and expresses the notion of “a people” or “a
nation”. The term ethnicity is of 20th century coinage, attested from the 1950s. The term nationality
depending on context may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with
citizenship (in a sovereign state).
The modern usage of “ethnic group” further came to reflect the different kinds of encounters
industrialised states have had with external groups, such as immigrants and indigenous peoples;
“ethnic” thus came to stand in opposition to “national”, to refer to people with distinct cultural
identities who, through migration or conquest, had become subject to a state or “nation” with a
different cultural mainstream. — with the first usage of the term ethnic group in 1935, and
entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972.
Writing about the usage of the term “ethnic” in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the
United States, in 1977 Wallman noted that

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