Forms of Diversity in India

Meaning of Diversity
Racial Diversity
Linguistic Diversity
Religious Diversity
Caste Diversity

Meaning of Diversity

Diversity usually means differences. For our purposes, however, that means more than just differences. It means collective differences, that is, differences that separate one group of people from another. These differences can be of all kinds: biological, religious, linguistic, etc. Because of biological differences, for example, we have racial diversity. Based on religious differences, we also have religious diversity. The point to note is that diversity refers to collective differences.

The term diversity is opposed to uniformity. By uniformity we mean a sort of similarity that characterizes a people. 'Uni' refers to one; 'form' refers to habitual manners. So if all people have something in common, we say they show unity. When students in a school, members of the police, or members of the military wear the same type of clothing, they are said to be "in uniform." Similar to diversity, uniformity is also a collective concept. When a group of people share a similar trait, be it language or religion or anything else, it shows unity in that regard. But when we have groups of people from different races, religions and cultures, they represent diversity. DN Majumdar has written a book called Races and Cultures of India. He marks the words in the plural: Races (not Race); Cultures (no culture).

So diversity means variety. For all practical purposes, it means variety of groups and cultures. We have such variety in abundance in India. We have here a multitude of races, religions, languages, castes and cultures. For the same reason, India is known for its socio-cultural diversity

Racial Diversity

You may have seen people of different races in India. A race is a group of people with a number of distinctive physical characteristics such as skin color, nose type, hair shape, etc.

Herbert Risley had classified the population of India into seven racial types. These are (i) Turco-Iranian, (ii) Indo-Aryan, (iii) Scytho-Dravidian, (iv) Aryan-Dravidian, (v) Mongol-Dravidian, (vi) Mongoloid, and (vii) Dravidian. These seven racial types can be reduced to three basic types: the Indo-Aryan, the Mongol, and the Dravidian. According to him, the last two types would explain the racial composition of the Indian tribe. He was the head of the census operations conducted in India in 1891 and it was the data from this census that formed the basis of this classification. Since it was mainly based on language types and not physical traits; Risley's classification has been criticized for its shortcomings.

Other administrators and anthropologists, like J.H. Hutton, D.N. Majumdar and B.S. Guha, gave the latest racial classification of Indian people based on new research in this field. Hutton and Guha's classifications are based on the 1931 censuses. BS Guha (1952) identified six racial types
(1) Negrito,
(2) Proto Australoid,
(3) Mongoloid,
(4) Mediterranean,
(5) Western Brachycephalic and
(6) Nordic.

Apart from what the different types mean, we will not go into the details of this subject as this will involve us in technical questions of physical anthropology. Here we just have to be aware of the diversity of breed types in India.

Negritos are the people belonging to the black racial stock found in Africa. They have black skin, frizzy hair, thick lips, etc. In India, some South Indian tribes, such as the Kadar, Irula, and Paniyan, have a distinct Negrito tribe.

The Proto-Australoid races consist of an ethnic group comprising Aboriginal Australians and other South Asian and Pacific Islander peoples. Representatives of this group are the Ainu of Japan, the Vedda of Sri Lanka and the Sakai of Malaysia. In India, the tribes of central India belong to this variety. Some of these tribes are the Ho of Singhbhumi, Bihar and the Bhil of the Vindhya range.

The Mongoloids are a major racial tribe native to Asia, including the peoples of North and East Asia. Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Eskimos and often Indians also belong to this race. In India, the northeastern regions have tribes of the brachycephalic Mongol tribe. A slightly different type of Mongoloid race is found in the Brahmputra Valley. The Mikir-Bodo tribal group and the Angami-Nagas are the best examples of Mongol racial composition in India.

Mediterranean races refer to the Caucasian physical type, ie. H the white race of unity and diversity. It is characterized by medium to short stature, slim build, long head with a head index (the ratio of the maximum width of the head to its maximum length multiplied by 100) of less than 75, and a dark (continental) complexion. .

Western brachycephals are divided into the following three subgroups:
(1) Alpenoids are characterized by a broad head, medium height and fair skin found in Bania castes of Gujarat, Kayasthas of Bengal, etc.
(ii) The Dinarics - They are characterized by the broad head, long nose, tall stature and dark complexion found among the Brahmins of Bengal, the non-Brahmins of Karnataka,
(iii) the Armenoids. They are characterized by features similar to Dinaric. Armenoids have a more pronounced shape of the back of the head, a prominent and narrow nose. The Parsees of Bombay present the typical characteristics of the Armenian race (Das 1988: 223).

Finally, the Nordic races belong to the physical type characterized by tall build, long head, light skin and hair, and blue eyes. They can be found in the Scandinavian countries, Europe. In India they can be found in various parts of the north of the country, especially in Punjab and Rajputana. Kho of Chitral, Red Kaffir, Khatash are some of the representatives of this type. Research suggests that the Norse came from the north, probably from southeastern Russia and southwestern Siberia, through central Asia to India. (Das 1988: 223).

Linguistic Diversity

Do you know how many languages there are in India? In contrast, while the renowned linguist Grierson recorded 179 languages and 544 dialects, the 1971 census reported 1652 native languages in India. However, not all of these languages are equally widespread. Many of them are tribal speech and are spoken by less than one percent of the total population. Here you can see that there is a lot of linguistic diversity in India. Only 18 languages are listed in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Of these 18 languages, Hindi is spoken by 39.85% of the total population; Bengali, Telugu and Marathi by around 8% each; Tamil and Urdu up 6.26 and 5.22%, respectively; and the rest less than 5% each according to the 1991 census report (India 2003).

The constitutionally recognized languages above belong to two language families: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu are the four major Dravidian languages. The languages of the Indo-Aryan family are spoken by 75% of the total population of India, while the languages of the Dravidian family are spoken by 20%. Despite this linguistic diversity, we have always had a sort of connecting language, which however has changed from age to age. In ancient times it was Sanskrit, in the Middle Ages it was Arabic or Persian, and in modern times we have Hindi and English as official languages.

Religious Diversity

India is a country of many religions. Here we find followers of various faiths, especially Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and others. You know that Hinduism is the dominant religion of India. According to the 1981 census, 82.64% of the total population profess it. Next comes Islam, practiced by 11.35%. This is followed by Christianity at 2.43%, Sikhism at 1.96%, Buddhism at 0.71% and Jainism at 0.48%. The religions with least adherents are Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Baha'ism.

While Hinduism saw a slight decline in the percentage of its followers by the year 1991, most of the other religions increased in strength, albeit by a very small margin. According to the 1991 census, Hinduism has 82.41% adherents of the total population. 11.67% followed Islam and 2.32% followed Christianity. Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism followed at 1.99, 0.77 and 0.41%, respectively. And 0.43 reported following other religions. (Census of India 1995 Series 1 Religion Record 1).

Then there are sects within each religion. For example, Hinduism has many sects including Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Added to this are the movements born of sects or religious reform such as Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Ram Krishna Mission. More recently new cults like Radhaswami, Saibaba etc. have seen the day. Similarly, Islam is divided into Shiya and Sunni; Sikhism in Namdhari and Nirankari; Jainism in Digambar and Shvetambar; and Buddhism in Hinayan and Mahayan.

While Hindus and Muslims can be found in almost all parts of India, the remaining minority religions have their nests of concentration. The Christians have their strongholds in the three southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and in the northeastern states such as Nagaland and Meghalaya. Sikhs are largely concentrated in Punjab, Buddhists in Maharashtra and Jains are mainly spread in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat, but also in most urban centers of the country.

Caste Diversity

India, as we know, is a land of castes. The term caste is generally used in two senses: sometimes in the sense of Varna and sometimes in the sense of Jati. (i) Varna refers to a segment of the fourfold division of Hindu society based on functional criteria. The four Varnas are Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra with their specialized functions of learning, defence, trade and manual service. Varna hierarchy is accepted all over India. (ii) Jati refers to a group of hereditary endogamous status who perform a specific traditional occupation. You might be surprised to learn that there are over 3,000 jatis in India. These are arranged hierarchically in different ways in different regions.

It can also be noted that the practice of the caste system is not limited to Hindus alone. We find castes among Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other communities. You may have heard of the Shaikh, Saiyed, Mughal, Pathan hierarchy among Muslims. Also, there are castes like teli (miller), dhobi (washer), darjee (tailor), etc. among Muslims. Similarly, caste consciousness among Christians in India is not unknown. As the vast majority of Christians in India have converted from the Hindu fold, the converts have adopted the caste system into Christianity. Among Sikhs, there are still so many castes including Jat Sikh and Majahabi Sikh (lower castes). Considering this, one can imagine the extent of caste diversity in India.

Forms of Diversity in India

Contents

Meaning of Diversity

Racial Diversity

Linguistic Diversity

Religious Diversity

Caste Diversity

Further Reading

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