What race are Indians really??

Question

i mean the indians in india...what r our characteristics?...why do some of us have blue/green/grey eyes????

Answer 1

Indians from India are members of the human race, just like the rest of us, of course, but classically speaking they are dark brown Caucasians.  Caucasians are the original "rainbow race"  They can range from the very fair to the very dark, with a whole range of variations in hair, skin, eyes, etc.

Answer 2

native americans our indians,,, india is india they arent native american indians,,and the color of your skin tone and your color of your eyes goes way back into family generations,,

Answer 3

Australopithecines?

Answer 4

There is this theory about Dravidians being the ones that were first settled in India. They are characterized by dark skin color, curly hair generally. Then the Aryans (from Persia) settled in the north of India and then generally spread from there and they are characterized by fair skin color, sharper features.. The same group in Persia from where the Aryans originated, later travelled on to Europe.. And basically this is it, I think. Years of intermarrying and all that and you have modern day Indians. We are generally considered to be a race of our own but I hope this has explained why some Indians are soo fair and some dark and some with light color for eyes and the rest have dark.

Answer 5

the people of india belong to the human race, but also technically belong to the caucasian ethnic stock. the languages of india with the exception of the northern dravidian languages belong to the indo-european family of languages.

Answer 6

Indians are supposed to be a mix of about six to seven races.

its basically because of the people from different races who came to  India long back that explains differences in our physical appearances and habits.

the races that came into India are

negritos----in Andaman and Nicobar(broad headed)

austrics---eastern and central India(wavy hair low forehead)

mongoloids---Assam nagalandetc.,(oblique eyes,high cheekbones)

dravidian---south Indians(similar to people of ancient Crete)

western brachycephals--coorgis and parsis

nordics in Punjab and north west frontiers

Answer 7

Like William H said, Indians belong to the human race - most anthropologists today agree that race has no biological basis and is only a cultural construction. (If you wish to debate this or want more info on why they think this, email me). However, I think the few anthropologists left that *do* categorize biological races would say that there is such a mix of different populations in India that they cannot be put into one race category. Probably most would fall into what Bill Bass describes as the "Caucasoid" category, which includes "white" people like Europeans, based on the structure of the skull.

Actually your question pinpoints one of the fundamental problems with a biological definition of race - there are SO many different characteristics that can be included in the definition of a race, including genetic characteristics not visible on the outside, not just skin color, that it is hard to decide which ones really characterize the race. And there is so much variation even within the so-called races that, well, do races really exist?

Answer 8

i think they are asians Indian is not middle is not middle eastern but they are close to china

Answer 9

My Indian friends call themselves Asian,

while others call themselves Indian.

So.. I don't know really.

Answer 10

What race?

Asian I guess?

Answer 11

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. (The precise definition of the term is the subject of the Native American name controversy.)

According to current scientific knowledge, human beings did not evolve in North or South America but instead arrived by sea or by a land bridge that formerly connected North America with Asia. Most (if not all) of those indigenous peoples descended from peoples living in Siberia. They entered North America by at least 12,000 years ago and diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.

In spite of the lingering controversy about who were the first Americans, anthropologists and archaeologists generally agree that most of the indigenous peoples who lived in the New World right before the European conquest descended from Siberian hunters, who entered North America about 15-20,000 years ago, and then gradually spread to Central and South America.

Native Americans (American Indians) make up less than one percent of the total U.S. population but represent half the languages and cultures in the nation. The term "Native American" includes over 500 different groups and reflects great diversity of geographic location, language, socioeconomic conditions, school experience, and retention of traditional spiritual and cultural practices. However, most of the commercially prepared teaching materials available present a generalized image of Native American people with little or no regard for differences that exist from tribe to tribe.

Mohawk (Iroquois)

The Iroquois League, or Five Nations of the Iroquois, was the most powerful Indian military alliance in the eastern part of North America and probably the most successful alliance of any kind between so many important tribes. There were three principal clans - deer, turtle and wolf - existing within the five nations, and this was probably an important unifying factor in the league. The league was formed in the late sixteenth century at which time the five nations had a combined population of 7000.

Mohican (Mohegan) and/or Mahican

What a confusion of facts. After reading through several texts and visiting many sites on the web, it has become clear as mud that everyone has a differing opinion about the relationships between these three tribes. We will therefore include them all on one page and maybe through your wanderings, you will discover the truth. If you do, please let us in on it.

Creek

The Creek were originally one of the dominant tribes in the mid-south and later became known as one of the Five Civilized Tribes. They were known in their own language as Muskoke or Muskoge, by the Shawnee as Humaskogi, by the Delaware as Masquachki and by the British as the Ochese Creek Indians, hence the present name. Their name has been adapted for that of their linguistic group and for Muskogee, Oklahoma, which was a major city of the Creek Nation in Indian territory.

Cherokee

The Cherokee were one of the largest tribes in the Southeast and were among the earliest to adapt to European civilization. Their name is written Tsalagi in their own language, and they were called Chalakki by the Choctaw, whose language was the language of trade in the Southeast.

Southwest

Navajo (Dineh, Navaho)

TThe Navajo tribe is the largest in the United States, with some 200,000 people occupying the largest and area reserved for Native Americans - 17 million acres in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The word Navajo derives from the Spanish word for 'people with big fields.' At the time of the arrival of the white man they had developed agriculture, though on a smaller scale than the nearby Hopi and Pueblo peoples. The Navajo were less sedentary than the Hopi and Pueblo tribes, but more so than the Apache of the same region.

Zuni

The Zuni, like the Hopi, were linguistically distinct from the Pueblo tribes but related to them culturally. The three groups, Zuni, Hopi and Pueblo, had several important characteristics in common. First of all, they lived in pueblos (Spanish for village), which were a composite of adobe houses, frequently interconnected and occasionally multistoried, much like a modern apartment complex. While each Pueblo tribe was associated with a single pueblo, the Hopi and Zuni were each associated with several, and not all members of these tribes lived in pueblos

Hopi

The Hopi, whose name comes from hopitu meaning 'the peaceful ones,' are traditionally associated culturally with the Zuni and with eht Pueblo Indians. All of these people live in pueblos or cities comprised of a complex of sometimes jultistoried, rectangular houses. The name pueblo drives from the Spanish word for 'people'. The Hopi are descendants of people who migrated into the Southwest prior to 1000 BC. By 700 AD they had developed agriculture and were raising corn, beans, squash and cotton. By 1100 AD they had abandoned their aboriginal pit housed for multi-level adobe houses, and had founded cities at Oraibi and Mesa Verde.

Yavapai

From prehistoric times, the Yavapai lived as hunters and gatherers practicing occasional agriculture on over nine million acres of central and western Arizona. The three primary groups of Yavapai maintained good relationships with each other and are now located at Ft. McDowell, Camp Verde and Prescott. The Yavapai are known for weaving excellent baskets, which are displayed in many museums.

Apache

The Apache (from a Zuni word meaning "enemy") are a North American Indian people of the Southwest. Their name for themselves is Inde, or Nde ("the people"). The major nomadic tribe in the American Southwest, the Apache, was also the last major tribe to surrender to government control in the 1880s.

Plains

Kiowa

The Kiowa name is derived from kai-gwa, meaning 'principal people,' and legend has it that they originated in the Yellowstone River country of central Montana. In the eighteenth century, having obtained horses, they moved onto the plains to hunt buffalo. During this time they made alliances with both the Kiowa-Apache as well as their former enemies, the Comanche. This latter association was the basis for the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation formed in Indian Territory in 1892. The Kiowa are noted for having kept a written history. This historical record was kept in the form of a pictographic calendar painted and updated twice a year, in winter and summer, on buffalo skins.

Pawnee (Pani, Pana, Panana, Panamaha, Panimaha)

The Pawnee name may have derived from Caddoan pariki, meaning 'horn,' a reference to the peculiar manner inwhich the tribe wore the scalplock. The Paunee lived in established villages similar to those of the Mandan. They practiced agriculture but also hunted buffalo on the plains part of the year. They had a complex religion unrelated to other Plains tribes that included offering female captives as a sacrifice to ensure abundant crops.

Comanche

The Comanche are an offshoot of the Shoshone and one of several numanic speaking tribes. They are linguistically related to the Shoshone, Ute and Paiute, whose language is remotely related to Aztec. Their name comes from the Spanish camino ancho, which means "wide trail." They once lived in the Rocky Mountains near the Shoshone, but migrated to the plains to hunt buffalo. Though they became nomadic Plains Indians, they still maintained good relations with the Shoshone.

Osage (Wazhazhe)

Closely related to the Omaha, Kansa, Quopaw and Ponca, the Osage are thought to have once lived in the Ohio River valley, but they were first encountered by the white man in Missouri, where they were recorded as having large cornfields. They usually lived in earth lodges, but when on hunting trips to the northern plains in search of buffalo, they carried and used the plains tipi.

Great Lakes

Miami (Maumee, Twightwee)

The Miami, whose name comes from the Chippewa omaumeg, or 'people who live on the peninsula,' first came into contact with white men in 1658 near Green Bay, Wisonsin, but they soon withdrew to the headwaters of the Fox River and later to the headwaters of the Wabash and Maumee rivers. The Miami had good relations with the French, with whom they were allied. They were also closely associated with the Piankashaw, who were once thought to be part of the Miami tribe.

Huron (Wyandot)

The name Wyandot (or Wendat) is Iroquoian for 'people of the peninsula,' a reference to a peninsula in sourthern Ontario eas of Lake Huron where they originally lived. Their population was estimated at 20,000 in 1615 when first encountered by the French under Samuel de Champlain, who referred to them as Huron ('bristly-headed ruffian'). The first Wyandot groups inthe region probably arrived in the early fourteenth century. In addition to maize, the Wyandot raised beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco.

Ottawa

The name Ottawa is derived from the Algonquian adawe, meaning 'to trade,' an apt name for the tribe, who had an active trading relationship with the related Chippewa and Potawatomi as well as other tribes of the region. Like the Chippewa, they built birch bark canoes and harvested wild rice. Ottawa Chief Pontiac rose by 1755 as one of the most important Indian leaders of the era.

Ojibwa (Chippewa)

To end any confusion, the Ojibwa and Chippewa are not only the same tribe, but the same word pronounced a little differently due to accent. If an "O" is placed in front of Chippewa (O'chippewa), the relationship becomes apparent. Ojibwa is used in Canada, although Ojibwa west of Lake Winnipeg are sometime referred to as the Saulteaux. In United States, Chippewa was used in all treaties and is the official name. The Chippewas were the largest and most powerful tribe in the Great Lakes country, with a range that extended from the edge of Iroquois territory in the Northeast to the Sioux-dominated Great Plains. Both of these major tribes were traditional Chippewa rivals, but neither was powerful enough to threaten the Chippewa heartland, where the Chippewa was master. The tribe used the lakes and rivers of the region like a vast highway network, and developed the birch bark canoe into one of the continent's major means of transportation.

Northwest

Nez Perce

Nez Perce is a misnomer given by the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark expedition team of 1805. The French translate it as "pierced nose." This is untrue as the Nee-me-poo did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments. The "pierced nose" people lived on the lower Columbia River and throughout other parts of the Northwest. The famous indian chief and leader, Chief Joseph, was of the Nez Perce.

Flathead (Salish)

The Flathead, a subgroups of the Spokane tribes, were given their name from a custom common to many Salishan people of practicing head deformation by strapping their infants to hard cradleboards. This flattened the back of the head and made the top appear more round. The Flathead, conversely, did not practice head flattening, and therefore the tops of their heads were flatter than those of the other Salishan people, hence the name.

Blackfoot (Siksika)

The Blackfoot are one of the several numanic-speaking tribes, and were historically allied with the nomadic Atsina. Ther were the archetypal Plains Indians, for whom the buffalo provided nearly all their needs, from food to clothing to leather for their tipis.

Shoshone (Shoshoni)

The Shoshone were the most wide-ranging of the Great Basin tribes, with a habitat that stretched from the eastern Oregon desert to southern Colorado. They were closely related to the Bannock, Gosiute, Paiute and Ute, with whom they shared these lands and with shown there was a good deal of intermarriage.

Kwakiutl

The Kwakiutl were one of the major tribes of the Northwest Coast and once encompassed other nearby tribes such as the Bella Bella, Kitimat, Makah and Nootka, with whom they are linguistically related. Their villages were typical of the Northwest Coast, with large cedar plank houses and intricately carved totem poles, representing the animals with whom a particular family might be religiously associated.

In addition the term Indian is also used by

Argentina

Bolivia

Canada

Chile

Cuba

Costa Rica

Colombia

Dominican Republic  

Guatemala

Ecuador

El Salvador

French Guiana,

Guyana and Suriname

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Puerto Rico  

Venezuela

Uruguay

India was not included deliberately.

India is made up of

Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other nationalities.  

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated onto Indian lands about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

Answer 12

I am half indian from India and i claim Asian or other as my race. the reason we come in many colors is because of race mixing from the orinigal indians and the persians. The light skinned indians are considered either white or middle eastern.