II.A. PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES

THE Indian Empire is (was) the abode of a vast collection of peoples who differ(ed) from one another in physical characteristics, in language, and in culture more widely than the peoples of Europe. Among them the three primary ethnographical divisions of mankind—the Caucasian or white type, with its subdivisions of blonde and dark, the Mongolian or yellow type, and the Ethiopian or black type—are all represented: the first two by various races in the subcontinent itself, and the last by the inhabitants of the Andaman Isles.

Four of the great families of human speech—the Austric, the Tibeto-Chinese, the Dravidian, and the Indo-European—are directly represented among the living languages of India, of which no fewer than two hundred and twenty are recorded in the Census Report for 1911; while a fifth great family, the Semitic, which has been introduced by Muhammadan conquerors in historical times, has, through the medium of Arabic and Persian, greatly modified some of the Indian vernaculars.

The Austric, Tibeto-Chinese, and Indo-European families are widely spread elsewhere over the face of the earth. The Dravidian has not been traced with absolute certainty beyond the limits of the Indian Empire; but there is evidence which seems to indicate that it was introduced into India in prehistoric times.

The drama of Indian history, then, is one in which many people