India’s human landscape is one of the most diverse in the world, shaped over millennia by waves of migration, cultural assimilation, and environmental adaptation. Much like its climate, soils, and vegetation, the human geography of the subcontinent reflects a complex tapestry woven from numerous threads

Definition of Race

The term “race” traditionally referred to groups of people who share a set of inherited physical traits. Historically, these traits included factors like skin colour, cranial shape, hair form, and facial features. In the context of Indian geography, physical differences often corresponded to the environments in which groups settled—lush coastal plains, mountainous frontiers, dense forests, and fertile river valleys. Over time, however, scientific consensus shifted. Modern anthropology and biology recognize that the concept of race, based solely on physical characteristics, can be overly simplistic and is often socially constructed. Humans are genetically very similar, and regional differences often reflect centuries of adaptation to environment, cultural mixing, and socio-political histories rather than discrete racial “types.”

Concept of Racial Classification

Early anthropologists and colonial-era ethnographers attempted to divide the human population into distinct “races.” In India, such classifications were influenced by the work of scholars like Herbert Risley and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These classifications were partly grounded in then-prevalent theories of racial hierarchies and influenced by colonial ideologies. They often lumped groups together based on physical measurements—craniometry, nasal index, skin tone—and constructed broad categories that obscured cultural complexity and genetic overlap.

By the mid-20th century, anthropology began recognizing the fluidity of such categories. Today, classifications serve more as historical tools than strict biological delineations, reminding us of India’s long history of human migration and intermixing.

Anthropological and Biological Approaches to Race

Modern biology emphasizes genetic diversity over simplistic racial labels. Studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome haplotypes, for example, show that the Indian population is genetically heterogeneous, with complex layers of ancestry interwoven over tens of thousands of years. Anthropologically, cultural traits—language, religion, social structure—often better explain differences between groups than physical traits. Still, traditional racial classifications provide a starting point for understanding how India’s geography influenced ancient population distributions.