ABSTRACT

Racial differences are emphasized, exaggerated, and stereotyped to the benefit of the in-group that is doing the sorting and to the detriment of the out-groups being sorted. Over the course of history, the various racial groups in India have intermixed. Trying to guess the caste background of Indians by skin color is a dicey proposition. The Islamic scholars also followed the Greek and Roman philosophers in believing that once racial differences were caused by the differing amounts of sunlight, they were inherited. Some attempted to explain the origin of race differences given the knowledge of their time, and at times, even made racial classification a basis of political policy. Greek and Roman depictions and descriptions of the black Africans to their south and the Scythians and Celts to their north provide further evidence that racial classification predated the advent of European colonialism.