12-03-2004, 02:20 AM
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From: <b><i>Colonial Indology and identity. Antiquity; 9/1/2000; CHAKRABARTI, DILIP K. </i></b>
[snip]
The race-language-culture framework in colonial India
<b>By the beginning of the 19th century scholars in Europe had already infused a linguistic element into the concept of race. The idea of a masterful race of people coming down from the heights of the Caucasus or other highlands of central Asia and marching towards Europe gained currency during that period (Poliakov 1974: 187-91). </b>Perhaps nobody did more to apply this idea to India than Max Muller in the middle of that century. According to him, there were at least two races of people in India, who were `distinct in mind as well as in body' (1854: 342) -- Aryan settlers and aboriginals. <b>In fact, the idea that the `immigrant Brahmanical races' drove the earlier inhabitants of India into the jungles can be traced much earlier to the French missionary J.A. Dubois in 1806 (Pope 1879). This concept was later augmented in 1849 by Hodgson, who categorized all non-Aryans under the identity of a `Tamulian race' and argued that the unity of this race was demonstrable through linguistic means, as had been the case with the Aryans (1849). In 1856 Caldwell further explored Hodgson's non-Aryan category and identified a `Dravidian physical type' (1857). Ethnological studies began in earnest with scholars such as Campbell who classified the Indian population according to physical appearance, language, laws, manners and moral characteristics (1866). </b> <b>He described three main physical types -- Caucasian, Mongolian and Negrito -- but was not enthusiastic about introducing a separate `Dravidian' group. Indeed, he attributed Caldwell's Dravidian premise to `his amiable enthusiasm for his beloved Dravidians', this being an allusion to the fact that Caldwell was a missionary in Madras (Campbell 1866: 54).</b> Craniological studies, based on cephalic and nasal indices and supplemented by studies of type of hair and skin colour, had come into sharp focus by the 1880s. From the 1880s Risley published extensively on the Indian situation using such criteria (Chakrabarti 1997: 116-29). <b>He established seven main Indian physical types, all with some linguistic implications; Mongoloid, Mongolo-Dravidian, Aryo-Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian, Turco-Iranian and Dravidian (1903). </b>As far as the notions of Indian racial types, their history and the issues of racial links with different aspects of Indian culture are concerned, Risley's publications consolidate the earlier hypotheses. These offered a forceful image of India's racial components and history on the basis of anthropometric measurements and formulated, in fact, an authoritative version of India's past (Chakrabarti 1997: 122). The Risley framework remained the essential framework of Indian racial studies for a long time; the most important attempt to modify and elaborate it was by Guha & Hutton (Hutton 1933). <b>It is also important to mention that, whilst Risley was conducting his ethnological survey, the first detailed linguistic survey of India was undertaken by Grierson (1909) -- repeatedly using such terms as `Dravidian ethnic characteristics'. </b>
[snip]
From: <b><i>Colonial Indology and identity. Antiquity; 9/1/2000; CHAKRABARTI, DILIP K. </i></b>
[snip]
The race-language-culture framework in colonial India
<b>By the beginning of the 19th century scholars in Europe had already infused a linguistic element into the concept of race. The idea of a masterful race of people coming down from the heights of the Caucasus or other highlands of central Asia and marching towards Europe gained currency during that period (Poliakov 1974: 187-91). </b>Perhaps nobody did more to apply this idea to India than Max Muller in the middle of that century. According to him, there were at least two races of people in India, who were `distinct in mind as well as in body' (1854: 342) -- Aryan settlers and aboriginals. <b>In fact, the idea that the `immigrant Brahmanical races' drove the earlier inhabitants of India into the jungles can be traced much earlier to the French missionary J.A. Dubois in 1806 (Pope 1879). This concept was later augmented in 1849 by Hodgson, who categorized all non-Aryans under the identity of a `Tamulian race' and argued that the unity of this race was demonstrable through linguistic means, as had been the case with the Aryans (1849). In 1856 Caldwell further explored Hodgson's non-Aryan category and identified a `Dravidian physical type' (1857). Ethnological studies began in earnest with scholars such as Campbell who classified the Indian population according to physical appearance, language, laws, manners and moral characteristics (1866). </b> <b>He described three main physical types -- Caucasian, Mongolian and Negrito -- but was not enthusiastic about introducing a separate `Dravidian' group. Indeed, he attributed Caldwell's Dravidian premise to `his amiable enthusiasm for his beloved Dravidians', this being an allusion to the fact that Caldwell was a missionary in Madras (Campbell 1866: 54).</b> Craniological studies, based on cephalic and nasal indices and supplemented by studies of type of hair and skin colour, had come into sharp focus by the 1880s. From the 1880s Risley published extensively on the Indian situation using such criteria (Chakrabarti 1997: 116-29). <b>He established seven main Indian physical types, all with some linguistic implications; Mongoloid, Mongolo-Dravidian, Aryo-Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian, Turco-Iranian and Dravidian (1903). </b>As far as the notions of Indian racial types, their history and the issues of racial links with different aspects of Indian culture are concerned, Risley's publications consolidate the earlier hypotheses. These offered a forceful image of India's racial components and history on the basis of anthropometric measurements and formulated, in fact, an authoritative version of India's past (Chakrabarti 1997: 122). The Risley framework remained the essential framework of Indian racial studies for a long time; the most important attempt to modify and elaborate it was by Guha & Hutton (Hutton 1933). <b>It is also important to mention that, whilst Risley was conducting his ethnological survey, the first detailed linguistic survey of India was undertaken by Grierson (1909) -- repeatedly using such terms as `Dravidian ethnic characteristics'. </b>
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