1. THE ETHNIC,
LINGUISTIC AND
RELIGIOUS
COMPOSITION OF INDIA
Atula Ahuja

2. MIGRATION OF FIRST HUMAN
OUT OF AFRICA
The first migration out of East Africa took place
about 85,000 years ago. Researches on the tribes of
Andaman and Nicobar islands using complete
mitochondrial DNA sequences has revealed that
the first humans took the “southern coastal route”
of migration from East Africa to India where they
expanded rapidly along the west coast of India.
(National Geographic, Stephen Oppenheimer, 2006)
Thus India is believed to have acted “as an
incubator of early genetic differentiation of
modern humans moving out of Africa.” (Michel
Danino (2000).

3. JOURNEY OF MANKIND
See, The Peopling of the World:
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey by Bradshaw
Foundation

4. WORLD’S RACES ACCORDING
TO EARLY THEORIES
World’s three major races today are Negroid,
Caucasoid and Mongoloid.
The Australoid or Oceanian race remains only in a
few pockets in South Asia(Boyd, 1963).
Numerous genetic studies of Indian populations
have shown divergent conclusions about roots of
ethnicity and races because the Indian region
happens to be one of the most diverse and
complex in the world, which makes it difficult to
interpret the data.

5. MOST ETHNICALLY
DIVERSE
India can be considered the most ethnically diverse countries
in the world. Nowhere in the world, groups of people are
distributed in such a large number of:
 ethnic groups
 castes
 religious groups
 linguistic groups
Numerous theories have suggested that several
waves of immigrants at different periods of
entered into the ethnic composition of India
since 4th century BC.

6. THE LIST OF VARIOUS
CLASSIFICATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN
GIVEN ON THE PEOPLE OF INDIA BY
DIFFERENT RESEARCHERS IS AS
FOLLOWS
Risley’s Classification (1915)
2. Giuffrida-Ruggari’s
Classification (1921)
3. Haddon’s Classification
(1924)
4. Eickstedt’s Classification
(1934, 1952)
5. Guha’s Classification (1935,
1937)
Roy’s Classification (1934-38)
7. Sarkar’s Classification (1958,
1961)
8. Biasutti’s Classification (1959)
9. Roginskij and Levin’s
Classification (1963)
10. Büchi’s Classification (1968)
11. Bowles’s Classification (1977)

7. ETHNIC GROUPS
Modern anthropologists classify Indians as
belonging to all of the four major ethno-
racial groups of the world: Negritos,
Australoids, Caucasoids, Mongoloids (Basu,
et al 2006).
Many theorists believe that there is no race
such as Dravidians or Aryans. They
categorize Indians as Caucasians, where
Caucasians ≠ "white" people.

8. ETHNIC GROUPS
Of the many ethnic groups found, FIVE categories
emerge as the most unanimously agreed upon:
1. Negroids: The earliest to come to India from Africa.
Their original habitat was in the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands, in which they have survived till
today. They are the Jarawas or the Great Andamanese.
Some hill tribes can be found in south India.
2. Proto Astraloids or Australoids: They were the
original inhabitants of India. Guha (1937), Basu et al
(2006), Bhasin (2012).
Some others say that came next from Myanmar South
East Asian islands. Originally they had spread out
over north and south. Australoid tribals currently live
in pockets in central and south India.

9. ETHNIC GROUPS
3. Dravidians: The 20th century anthropologists
like, Carleton S. Coon classified them as the
slender, dark-skinned Caucasoids who came
before the Aryans from the Paleo-Mediterranean
region and Asia Minor and Crete . They are
reputed to have built up the civilization of the
Indus valley . Some other studies have shown that
Dravidians have an Australoid racial basis as well
as a Caucasoid influence by the admixture with
Aryans.

10. ETHNIC GROUPS
4. Mongoloids: Their origin is from China, Tibet
and Mongolia. They are found in north-eastern
parts of India such as Assam, Nagaland,
Mizoram,
Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and
Tripura, Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim,
and Ladakh.
5. Nordics or the Indo- Aryans: Considered the last
ones to immigrate to India around 2000 to 1500
B.C. Were the robust Caucasoids, with paler skins
and speaking Indo- European languages. They
came from the Plateau of Iran and moved through
the Hindu Kush Mountains into India.

11. HOLT, RINEHART &
WINDSOR
Indo-Aryan Migration into India, c. 1750 B.C.
They were
nomadic
warriors who
came in
through the
Indus Valley
and spread
beyond the
Ganges Valley.

12. DRAVIDIAN AND ARYAN
INVASION THEORY
DISCREDITED
But recent Genetics studies, using large samples of
Indian population and refined methods of analysis
have shown that the Dravidians are in fact the
descendants of the earliest people who migrated
from Africa and reached South India 70,000- 80,000
years ago. These studies have also discredited the
Aryan Invasion theory.

13. RECENT STUDY
A path-breaking study done in 2009 by Harvard
Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health
and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology on
ancestral Indian populations, analyzed 500,000
genetic markers across the genomes of 132
individuals from 25 diverse groups from 13 states.
The individuals were from six-language families.

14. FINDINGS
Key finding, reported by geneticist David Reich of
Harvard Medical School, who led the team, were:
1. Initial settlement – between 85,000- 75,000 years
ago in the Andamans and south India.
2. All non- African people were descendants from
this group.
3. About 45,000- 40,000 years ago, ANIs emerged.
4. 30,000- 25,000 years ago people from the
subcontinent moved to Europe. “That’s the
reason behind the same genetic traits in
Eurasiain regions,” said Dr Thangaraj, senior
scientist, CCMB.

15. FINDINGS
5. The present-day Indian population is a mix of Ancient
North Indians and Ancient South Indians, bearing the
genomic contributions from two distinct ancestral
populations, who mixed about 1,900 to 4,200 years ago.
5.a. Indo- Aryan ethnic group: are mainly Ancestral North
Indians (ANIs), related to the Central Asians, Middle
Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; speaking the
Indo- European languages. Migrated into the
subcontinent 45000 ybp.
5.b. Dravidian ethnic group: are Ancestral South Indians
(ASIs) and native to the region, believed to have entered
the subcontinent 65,000- 70,000ybp. Reputed to have
been the first Vedic people who built the Indus Valley
civilization.
(Reich et al, 2009, The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2013)

16. FINDINGS
5.c.Tibeto- Burman (Sino- Tibetan ethnic
group):Mongoloids
with origin is from China, Tibet and Mongolia. They
inhabit north-eastern territories of India.
(Reich et al, 2009, The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2013)

17. OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS
1. Indo-Scythians: were the Central Asians. Came to
India in 2nd century B.C. Now spread out in
Gujarat, Maharashtra and towards, Mysore and
Deccan.
2. Hepthalites/ White Huns: were nomadic tribes in
Central Asia
3. Gurjara-Pratiharas: They were Caucasians. The
oldest record of these tribes in India date to
around 11th century.
4. Indo-Greeks: descendants of Alexander's armies.
Formed a significant Caucasian family & got
absorbed in the northern castes and tribes. (Bhasin
2006)

18. ETHNIC GROUPS
5. Western Brachycephals: These groups consist of the sub-
groups, (i) Alpinoids (ii) Dinarics and (iii) Armenoids (iv)
Indo Iranian
i. Alpinoids came from the Alpine region, and entered Sind,
Kathiawar Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
ii. Dinarics came from the Alps mountain region on the border of
Bosnia and Croatia, and followed the Ganga-Valley and its delta
as their route to enter India.
iii. Armenoids/Armenian entered India through Chitral, Gilgit,
Kashmir and Nepal. Known as the "true" Caucasians,
Armenoids were relatively tall, usually with medium to dark
brown or black hair, light to medium skin colour.
iv. Indo-Iranian/Zoroastrians migrated to India in 8th centure B.C
after the rise of Islam in Iran. Zarathushtra's followers.
developed and preserved their culture in India.

19. CENSUS OF INDIA 2001
Govt of India census recognizes ethnic three ethnic
groups, the Indo Aryans, the Dravidians and the
Mongloids, of which:
Indo-Aryan 72%
Dravidian 25%
Mongoloid
Other 3%
(CIA World fact Book, 2015)
The rest constitute scheduled tribes. There are 697
tribes in India according to the Article 342 of the
constitution of India. They are spread out in MP,
Guja)rat, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand.
Data on ethnicity was not collected in the census of 2011

20. ETHNIC GROUPS IN INDIA TODAY
Indo- Aryan
Ethno-linguistic
groups
GOI Census 2001
The Eighth Schedule of
India has categorized the
Austro- Asiatic group as
scheduled tribes due to
their numerical
insignificance.

21. LINGUISTIC COMPOSITION

22. LANGUAGE FAMILIES
India displays a high degree of diversity in languages
and dialects.
“Each decade, a national census attempts to record the
languages spoken by every inhabitant, but interpreting
the results has not been easy. The 2001 census recorded
6,661 ‘mother tongues’ many among these could be the
dialects of these languages.” David Graddol, 2010.
In India, schools teach 58 different languages,
newspapers are produced in 87 languages, radio
programs broadcast in 71 languages, and films are
produced in 15 different languages.

23. LANGUAGE FAMILIES
The Indian languages belong to four language families.
(Bhasin, 2006)
Austro- Asiatic: Considered the oldest language family.
Austrics are a very old off-shoot of the Mediterranean
people who came into India from the west.
a. Mon-Khmer Branch
b. Munda Branch
Sino-Tibetan: born at least 4000 years before Christ. It
has 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively and covers 5%
of the Indian population.
a. Tibeto- Himalayan Branch
b. North- Assam Branch
c. Assam- Burmese Branch

24. LANGUAGE FAMILIES
Dravidian: These are spoken in the Deccan and
Southern India.
a. South Dravidian Languages
b. Central Dravidian Languages
c. North Dravidian Languages
Indo- European Languages: With 443 languages, this
is the largest language family in the world. These
languages descended from a common source-speech,
the “Primitive Indo-European”, which flourished
about 5000 years ago” (The Gazetteer of India 1965).

25. LANGUAGE MAP OF INDIA

26. DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES
The Austro- Asiatic Languages
The Mon-Khmer languages: These have survived best
among the Khasis in Assam who are Mongoloid in race but
Austric in speech. They speak mostly Khasi.
Nicobarese: The other language that is still preserved is
Nicobarese spoken by the inhabitants of Nicobar Island in
India.
Munda languages: Belong to largest of the Austro- Asiatic
language families. Mundari speakers are concentrated in the
tribal regions of Chota Nagpur and Central and Eastern
regions of India. These languages are, Khewari, Santhali,
Mundari, Birhor, Kora, Ho, Turi, Asuri, Agaria, Birjia, Korwa,
Korku, Kharia, Munda and others. (Bhasin, 2006)

27. DISTRIBUTION OF
LANGUAGES
The Tibeto- Burman Languages More than 100 languages
exist.
The Tibeto- Himalayan Branch: The area stretches from
Baltistan in the west to the north-eastern.
Languages: Ladakhi, Lahuli, Sikkim Bhotia, Balti.
North- Assam Branch: occupies the north-eastern frontier.
Languages: Aka/Hrusso, Dalfa, Abor/Adi, Miri, Mishmi
Assam- Burmese Branch: Bodo, Lalung, Garo, Tripuri, Agami,
Ao, Naga, Naga unspecified, Manipuri, Arkanese and others.
(Bhasin, 2006)

28. DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES
Dravidian languages- in blocks in the Deccan and South
India, having separate existence.
The South Dravidian Group speaks Tamil, Malayalam,
Kannada, Coorgi, Tulu, Toda, Kota, Telugu
Central Dravidian Group speaks Kui, Kolami, Gondi , Parji
Koya, Khond
North Dravidian Group speaks Kuruk, Malto
Unspecified Dravidian Tongues: About 6742 persons of tribal
groups speak unspecified Dravidian tongues. They live in
the eastern and the north-eastern parts of the peninsular
plateau including Gonds of Madhya Pradesh, Central India
andthe Oraons of Chota Nagpur Plateau.
(Bhasin, 2006)

29. DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES
Indo- European or Indo-Aryan Languages: 700 million
speakers, or 69% of the population)The oldest-known
Indo-Aryan languages are Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali.
Northern Group speaks Punjabi and dialects, Sindhi, Southern
Group: Marathi, Konkani.
Eastern Group speaks Oriya, Bihari, Bhojpuri, Magadhi,
Bengali, Assamese, Maithali.
Central Group speaks Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu, Gujarati,
Rajasthani, Pahari
Dardic languages are spoken in the northernmost parts of
India- Kashmir, Sindh
(Bhasin, 2006)

31. The languages of India according to the proportion of the
population who speak them as a first language (Census
2001)
Hindi 41%; Bengali 8%; Telegu 7%; Marathi 7%
Tamil 6% urdu 5%; Gujarati 4%; Kannada 4%, Non-
Scheduled 3%; Malayalam 3%; Oriya 3%; Punjabi 3%
Assamese 1%; Maithili 1%.
Other 2%- Santali 0.63%; Kashmiri 0.54%; Nepali
0.28%, Sindhi 0.25%; Dogri 0.22%; Manipuri 0.15%
Bodo 0.13%; Sanskrit 0.001%

32. Languages Official Language of Spoken by
Assamese Assam 15 million
Bengali Tripura & West Bengal 67 million
Bodo Assam
Dogri Jammu and Kashmir
Gujarati
Dadra and Nagar Haeli, Daman and Diu
& Gujrat
43 million
Hindi
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar,
Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh & Uttaranchal
180 million
Kannada Karnataka 35 million
Kashmiri
Konkani Goa
Maithili Bihar 22 million
Malayalam Kerala & Lakshadweep 34 million
Manipuri (Meithei) Manipur
Marathi Maharashtra 65 million
Nepali Sikkim
Oriya Orissa 30 million
Punjabi Punjab 26 million
Sanskrit
Santhali
Sindhi
Tamil Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry 66 million
Telugu Andhra Pradesh 70 million
Urdu Jammu and Kashmir 46 million
India has 22 official languages

33. Languages Language of Spoken by
Awadhi (sub-variety of Hindi) 20 million
Bhili Bhil tribals
Bhojpuri (sub-variety of Hindi) Bihar 23 million
Bundeli (sub-variety of Hindi)
Chhattisgarhi (sub-variety of Hindi) Chhattisgarh 11 million
Deccani 11 million
Gondi Gond tribals
Haryanvi (sub-variety of Hindi) Haryana 13 million
Hindustani (mixture of Hindi and Urdu) Northern part of India
Kanauji (sub-variety of Hindi) Uttar Pradesh
Kodava Kodagu (Karnataka)
Kutchi Kutch (Gujarat)
Magahi (sub-variety of Hindi) southern Bihar 11 million
Marwari (sub-variety of Hindi) Rajasthan 12 million
Portuguese
Partly in Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra
and Nagar Haveli
Sikkimese Sikkim
Tibetan Tibet (Kashmir) 6 million
Tulu Tulu people (Karnataka & Kerala)
Other Languages

34. The 1991 census recognizes 1,576 classified
"mother tongues.
According to Census of India of 2001, 30 languages
are spoken by more than a million native speakers,
60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than
10,000 native speakers.
Hindi and English are the official languages.
Other official languages in various states are
Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu and
Gujarati. But there are over 1,000 languages
spoken throughout the country.
English is widely spoken in major cities and tourist
areas.

35. Hindi, in the Devanagari script is the official
language of the Federal government of India.
English is an associate official language.
Sanskrit, the classical language of India, and is
5000 years old and the basis of many modern
Indian languages including Hindi and Urdu.

36. RELIGIONS OF INDIA

37. RELIGIONS OF INDIA
India is a secular country and observance of
various religions and its rituals play a significant
role in every aspect of life in the country.
According to Census 2001:
It is the birth place of Hinduism, Buddhism,
Sikhism and Jainism.
Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Bahaism,
Judaism came from other parts of the world and
have found a home in India

38. RELIGIONS OF INDIA
According to census of India 2011, out of 1028 million
population:
little over 827 million (80.5%) follow Hinduism
138 million (13.4%) follow Islam
24 million (2.3%) are Christians
19 million (1.9%) are Sikh
8 million (0.80%) follow Buddhism
4 million (0.4%) are Jainism
In addition, over 6 million profess ‘other’ religions and
faiths including Judaism, Zoarashtianism, Bahaism,
tribal religions, different from six main religions.

39. TRENDS
Census of India, 1961- 2011

40. DISTRIBUTION
Hindus are most numerous in 27 states/Uts except in
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep,
Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab.
Muslims are in majority in Lakshadweep and Jammu &
Kashmir. Sizeable in Assam (30.9%), West Bengal
(25.2%), Kerala (24.7%), Uttar Pradesh (18.5%) and Bihar
(16.5%).
Christians are a majority in North-eastern states of
Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya- upto 80%. Among
other states/Uts, Manipur (34.0%), Goa (26.7%),
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (21.7%), Kerala (19.0%),
and Arunachal Pradesh (18.7%) have considerable
percentage of Christian population to the total
population of the State/UT.

41. DISTRIBUTION
Sikhs Punjab accounts for more than 75 % of the
total Sikh population in the country. Chandigarh
(16.1%), Haryana (5.5%), Delhi (4.0%), Uttaranchal
(2.5%) and Jammu & Kashmir (2.0%)
Buddhism: Maharashtra largest concentration of
Buddhism (58.3%). 73.4% of the total Buddhists in
India reside here. Karnataka (3.9 lakh), Uttar
Pradesh (3.0 lakh), west Bengal (2.4 lakh) and
Madhya Pradesh (2.0 lakh) are other states having
large Buddhist population. Sikkim (28.1%),
Arunachal Pradesh (13.0%) and Mizoram (7.9 %)

42. DISTRIBUTION
Baha’is: The roots of the Bahai Faith in India go back to
the first days of the Bábí religion in 1844.
Zorashtrianism: A small religious community, which
exists mostly in Mumbai, is Zoroastrianism. The
follower is called Parsi because the religion arrived in
India from Persia. This religion was established by
Zarathustra in 6th or 7th century BC.
Judaism: In 1948, India had a Jewish population of
approximately 30,000. Since then 20,000 have migrated
to Israel and elsewhere, leaving a community of 7 to 8
thousand, according to the official estimates. Most of
Bene' Israel origin, concentrated in Mumbai, Calcutta,
Delhi, Cochin, Poona and a few villages in Maharashton
State.

43. REFERENCES
(2011, 03). People of India. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 03, 2011, from
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Abe, K. and Tamura, H.: An effort at racial classification of the people in South India and Sri Lanka.
Somatometric anylysis on 23 ethnic groups. Juntendo Univ. Bull. Lett. Sci., 26: 37-49 (1983).
Bhasin, M. K., Walter, H. and Danker-Hopfe, H.: People of India: An Investigation of Biological Variability in
Ecological, Ethno-economic and Linguistic Groups. Kamla-Raj Enterprises, Delhi (1994).
Bhasin, M. K. and Walter, H.: Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India. Kamla-Raj Enterprises, Delhi (2001).
Bhasin, M. K, Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Elements in Indian Population, in Indian
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Guha, B.S.: Negrito racial strain in India. Nature (Lond.), 121: 793 (1928).
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Sec. A. Government of India, Simla (1935).
Guha, B.S.: An outline of racial ethnology of India, pp. 125-139. In: An Outline of the Field Sciences in India.
S.L. Hora (Ed.). Calcutta (1937).
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44. REFERENCES
Franz Boas, 1912. Race, Language and Culture, New York: Macmillan.
Census of India. 2001.
Graddol, D. 2010. English Next India, British Council

45. THANK YOU!