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Dravidian
Total population
approx. 250 million  (2006)[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
India            Tamil Nadu            Kerala            Karnataka            Andhra Pradesh  Pakistan            Balochistan  Malaysia  Singapore  United Kingdom  Hong Kong  Fiji  United States  Canada  Sri Lanka  South Africa  Réunion  Seychelles  Bangladesh (some parts where people speak Kurukh)
Language(s)
Dravidian languages
Religion(s)
Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Brahui people · Gondi people · Kannadigas · Kodava · Malayalis · Tamils · Telugus · Tuluvas

Dravidian people refers to a family of related ethnicities and populations that speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers are found mostly in Southern India and some minor populations are found in Brahui^[1]-speaking parts of Pakistan, Kurukh^[2]-speaking parts of Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Contents 1 Concept of the Dravidian people 2 Linguistic classifications 2.1 Prominent Dravidian linguistic subgroups 2.2 Early arrival theory 2.3 Late arrival theory 3 Genetic classifications 4 Political ramification 4.1 India 4.2 Sri Lanka 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

The term Dravidian is taken from the Sanskrit term Dravida. It was adopted following the publication of Robert Caldwell's Comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages (1856); a publication that established the language grouping as one of the major language groups of the world. Robert Caldwell was a Catholic missionary and used the term Dravidian to refer to the people of South India.^[3]

However, over seventy-three languages are presently listed as Dravidian in the ^[4]. Further, the languages are spread out and cover parts of India, Pakistan,South Western Iran, South Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.^[5].

Main article: Dravidian languages

The best-known Dravidian languages are Tamil (தமிழ்),Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Telugu (తెలుగు), and Tulu (ತುಳು). It can be noted that one Dravidian language, Brahui (بروہی), is spoken in Pakistan, and minor tribal languages are used in Nepal and Bangladesh.

There are three subgroups within the Dravidian linguistic family: North Dravidian, Central Dravidian, and South Dravidian, matching for the most part the corresponding regions in the Indian subcontinent.

• Brahui: Brahuis belong to North-Dravidian subgroup. They are found in Balochistan province of Pakistan.
• Gonds: A prominent group of Dravidian speaking Tribal people the Central region of India.
• Kannadiga: These people belong to South-Dravidian subgroup. Mostly found in Karnataka , Tamil nadu and Maharashtra.
• Kurukh: These people belong to North-Dravidian subgroup. Found in India and Bangladesh. It is the only Dravidian language indigenous in Bangladesh.
• Malayali: The people of Kerala belong to South-Dravidian linguistic subgroup.
• Tamil: These people belong to South-Dravidian linguistic subgroup. Mostly found in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.
• Telugu: These people belong to South Dravidian subgroup (formerly classified with the Central Dravidian but now more specifically in the South Dravidian II or South Central Dravidian inner branch of the South Dravidian (Krishnamurti 2003:p19)). Mostly found in Andhra Pradesh also in Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

Kamil V. Zvelebil has suggested that the proto-Dravidians of the Indian subcontinent arrived from the Middle East, and may have been related to the Elamites,^[6] whose language some propose be categorized along with the Dravidian languages as part of a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family. However, S.A. Starostin has disputed the existence of an Elamo-Dravidian language family.

According to a view put forward by geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in the book The History and Geography of Human Genes, the Dravidians were preceded in the subcontinent by an Austro-Asiatic people, and followed by Indo-European-speaking migrants sometime later. The original inhabitants may be identified with the speakers of the Munda languages, which are unrelated to either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages. However, the Munda languages, as a subgroup of the larger Austro-Asiatic language family, are known to have arrived in the Indian subcontinent from the east, possibly from the area that is now southwestern China, so any genetic similarity between the present-day speakers of the Munda languages and the "original inhabitants" of India is likely to be due to assimilation of the natives by Southeast Asian immigrants speaking a proto-Munda language.

Some linguists believe that Dravidian-speaking people were spread throughout the Indian subcontinent before the Aryans settled there. In this view, the early Indus Valley civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo Daro) is often identified as having been Dravidian. ^[7]. According to them, it is now considered likely that the collapse of Indus Valley civilization was caused by environmental change (drought), which then encouraged the migration of the nomadic Indo-Aryans into the area. In that perspective, it is therefore more likely that the Dravidian speakers of South India were already living in the region and were merely one of the groups little affected by the initial Indo-Aryan migration^{[citation needed][original research?]}.

Some scholars like J. Bloch and M. Witzel believe that the Dravidians moved into an already-Indo-Aryan-speaking area after the oldest parts of the Rig Veda were already composed (see Bryant 2001: chapter 5)}^{[page # needed]}

This theory might be supported if a higher antiquity of the Indo-Aryan languages could be established. However, since this theory is mainly a linguistic hypothesis, the Dravidian influence on Aryan languages need not necessarily be equated to a movement of populations.^{[citation needed]}

Main article: Indian genetic studies

The genetic views on race differ in their classification of Dravidians. Most modern anthropologists, however, reject the genetic existence of race,^[8] like Richard Lewontin, who states that "every human genome differs from every other," showing the impossibility of using genetics to define races. (Biology as Ideology, page 68).^[9] According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford, based on work done in the 1980s, almost all Indians are genetically Caucasian, but Lewontin rejects the label Caucasian. Cavalli-Sforza found that Indians are about three times closer to West Europeans than to East Asians.^[10] Dr. Eduardas Valaitis, in 2006, found that India is genetically closest to East and Southeast Asians with about 15% more genetic similarity than to Europeans; he also found that India could be considered very distinct from other regions.^[11] Genetic anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn considered in the 1960s that the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent to be a "race" genetically distinct from other populations.^[12][13] Others, such as Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding, claim South Indians are genetic intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians.^[14][15][16]

Studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome,^[17] microsatellite DNA,^[18] and mitochondrial DNA^[19] in India have cast doubt for a biological Dravidian "race" distinct from non-Dravidians in the Indian subcontinent. This doubtfulness applies to both paternal and maternal descent; however, it does not preclude the possibility of distinctive South Indian ancestries associated with Dravidian languages.^[20]

Main articles: Aryan Invasion Theory (history and controversies) and Dravidian movement

Some Indians believe that the British Raj exaggerated differences between northern and southern Indians beyond linguistic differences to help sustain their control of India. The British Raj ended in 1947, yet all discussion of Aryan or Dravidian "races" remains highly controversial in India. It is now widely believed that the British used this only as their 'Divide and rule' blueprint for taking over the region.^[21]The British also used this "theory" of perceived differences between so-called "Aryans" and "Dravidians" to propagate racist beliefs concerning the inherent "inferiority" of the Dravidians when compared to the "Aryans," thus justifying their colonization of South Asia (since the British identified themselves as "Aryans")^[22]

In Sri Lanka, the current ethnic conflict and the civil war are further complicated by the view that the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils belong to two different ethnic and linguistic families. Sinhalese (like Dhivehi) is an Indo-Aryan language that exists in the southern part of South Asia.

• Racial groups of India
• Dravida
• Kumari Kandam
• British Asians
• Indian American
• Malaysian Indian
• Indians in Fiji
• South Asians in Hong Kong
• Singaporean Indian
• Indo-Canadians

• Krishnamurti, B., The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-77111-0, p19.

• Dolmens, Hero Stones and the Dravidian People
• Harappa.com Glimpses of South Asia before 1947
• Peoples and Languages in pre-Islamic Indus valley
• India and Egypt