Question

Outline the positions of Herbert Risley and G.S. Ghurye on the relationship between race and caste in India.

Answer 1

Herbert Risley believed that human beings could be divided into separate races on the basis of their physical characteristics.

Explanation:

• The castes are originated in a race because the different castes belong to different racial types.
• The higher castes were originated from Indo-Aryans while the lower castes were originated from non-Aryan races.
• While Ghurye's viewpoint was Risley's argument was partially correct and the argument regarding the origination of upper castes from Aryans and lower castes from non-Aryan was true only for north India.
• The prohibition of intermixing of different castes was only limited to northern India, and the people of other parts of India had been mixing for a long time.