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

The positions of Herbert Risley and G.S. Ghurye on the relationship between race and caste in India is being discussed below –

Herbert Risley believed that

• The human beings could be divided into separate races on the basis of their physical characteristics.

• The castes are originated in 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.

• The Indian conditions were suitable laboratory for studying racial evolution because caste system strictly prohibits inter-marriage among different groups in India and this custom is being followed from centuries.

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 the northern India, and the people of other parts of India had been mixing for a long time.

• Preservation of racial purity was done only in North India while other parts of India were quite open towards the practice of endogamy only after variations had occurred in racial groups.