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People in India |
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India has been defined as a 'Country of Caravans". The country has seen the arrival of diverse groups, races and religious communities from the very beginning. Aryan, Chines, Turkish, Arabs, Mongols and Europeans came here and merged in great Indian nation. India is the only country of the world where you will experience such a diverse kind of amalgamation of the people. It is very difficult to fine out any single origin of Indian People.
Generally, it is believed that the Ramapithecus species which were found in the Siwalik foothills of north western Himalayas, were the first in the line of hominids (Human Family) lived some 14 million years ago. According to anthropologists, species resembling the Austrapithecus lived in India some two million years ago. Since Ramapithecus, we find an evolutionary gap of 12 million years.
There are sufficient reasons to call India a world in itself. During the last 1000 years, various tribal groups of the world and civilized nations came in India. They absorbed the way India live and also influenced It. Today, around 1,065,070,607 lives in the lap of Mother India. All these Indian people attributes several identities, all of them attractive and worth to be explored. They can be classified on the basis of races, regions, languages and religions.
As per race is concerned, people of India belongs to 6 main ethnic groups: Negrito, Proto - Australoids or Austrics, Mongoloids, Mediterranean or Dravidian, Western Brachycephals, Nordic Aryans.
Negroids
The Negritos also known as the Brachycephalic (broad headed) migrated from Africa in earlier period of India and settled in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Some of them include Jarawas, Sentinelese, Onges and the Great Andamanese.
Pro-Australoids or Austrics
Pro-Australoids or Austrics was the race of unique physical structure. It laid the foundation of Indian civilization. Now, these races are found in some parts of India, Myanmar and the islands of South East Asia. Their language is survived in the Central and Eastern India.
Mongoloids
Mongoloids are people with yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high cheekbones, sparse hair and medium height. They are found Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Ladakh etc and northern part of Bengal.
Dravidians
Founder of the city civilization of the Indus valley, Dravidian consist south Indian people. They came India before the Aryans. They are further classified into sub groups like the Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and the Oriental Mediterranean.
Western Bracycephals
Bracycephals are broad headed people living mainly on the western side of the country such as the Ganga Valley and the delta, parts of Kashmir, Kathiawar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Parsis and Kodavas are also included in this race.
Nordics or the Indo-Aryans
the Indo-Aryans constitute around 72 per cent of the Indian people. It was the last racial group to immigrate to India. They came to India somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C and now they are mainly found in the northern and central part of India.
Religious Stratification of India People
Another classification of the Indian people can be according to their religions. The majority of the Indian people (81.3%) consists of Hindu religion. It is the largest population of Hindu any where in the world. Sikh (1.9%), Buddhist (0.7) and Jains (0.5%) are other religions which have their origin in the soil of India. Islam (12%) and Christian (2.3%) are two other religions which came from out of India and had a very deep impact on the culture and traditions of India. There are some other religions which constitute 0.4% population of India.
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