Revision summary
Risley used census anthropometry, especially the nasal index. He named seven racial types and linked them to caste rank. Boas showed bodily traits are plastic. Guha and later data show huge overlap among the types. Caste is a marriage-and-rank order, not a race, as Ambedkar also argued.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
H. H. Risley classified Indians as races by anthropometry, above all the nasal index, and tied those races to caste. The method was census science in the service of a stable racial map.
Body
Methods
- As Census Commissioner he used anthropometry: stature, head length and breadth, and especially the nasal index (breadth/height of nose).
- He ranked groups from leptorrhine (narrow nose) to platyrrhine (broad nose) and wrote seven types, including Turko-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian, Aryo-Dravidian, Mongolo-Dravidian, Mongoloid, and Dravidian.
- Caste and tribe lists were treated as breeding populations. A high caste with a narrow nose was read as more Aryan.
Criticisms
- Franz Boas had already shown that head form shifts with environment. A nose is not a frozen race ticket.
- B. S. Guha and later biologists found overlap so large that seven types do not cut nature at the joints.
- Caste is endogamous in rule, not a sealed race. Ambedkar rejected racial origin of caste on political and empirical grounds.
- Irawati Karve used measurement without Risley’s caste-equals-race leap.
- The scheme served colonial ranking and recruitment. It is history of science, not a living taxonomy.
Remainder
- Some regional clines in stature or face exist. They do not rescue Risley’s seven named races or his caste ladder.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD N[Nasal index] --> T[Seven race types] T --> C[Caste as race] C --> X[Boas Guha Ambedkar critique]
Conclusion
Risley measured noses and wrote seven Indian races tied to caste. Overlap, plasticity, and the non-racial nature of caste collapse that classification.
Quick related
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Describe briefly the proto-history of Gujarat. Discuss the significance of Gujarat's proto-history in international trade
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q4(b)). View answer →
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Is the nasal index still used to classify Indians?
Not as a caste-race system. Modern human biology uses genes and clines, not Risley’s seven names.
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Did Risley invent anthropometry?
No. He applied European race methods to the Indian census and to caste lists.
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