BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 94 of 143

Correct — D, Mongoloid. In the classical racial classification still printed in school geography and anthropology syllabi, the peoples of East and North-East Asia — China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea and Siberia — are grouped as the Mongoloid stock, and the group is named after Mongolia itself, which makes the stem almost self-answering once you notice it. The physical traits the older texts list for the group are the epicanthic fold that gives the eye its oblique set, high and prominent cheekbones, a flat facial profile, straight coarse black hair, sparse body and facial hair, yellowish-brown skin and medium stature. UPSC asked the same group from the description rather than the geography in 1997, offering the sentence 'they are people of yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high cheek bones, sparse hair and medium height' and keying Mongoloids. Two riders matter for how you use this. First, the classification is a nineteenth-century construct — Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's five varieties of 1795 named the 'Mongolian' among them — and modern population genetics does not support discrete biological races; human variation is continuous and most genetic diversity sits within any so-called race rather than between races. Second, examinations continue to test the vocabulary, so learn it as the history of a classification rather than as biology. Note also that the booklet prints 'inhabitates' and 'Mangolia'; both are the Commission's own spellings and are reproduced here as the student saw them.

• (a)Negro — The Negroid stock of the classical scheme belongs to sub-Saharan Africa, with the related Negrito element found in the Andaman Islands, the Malay peninsula and the Philippines. UPSC's 1997 prelims keyed exactly this group for the tribal population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Nothing in the East Asian population history connects to it.
• (b)Australoid — The Australoid stock covers the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia, and in the Indian classification the Proto-Australoid element identified among many tribal populations of central and peninsular India. It lies to the south of the Asian landmass, not in China, Mongolia or Japan.
• (c)Nordic — Nordic is not a parallel unit at all — it is a sub-type of the Caucasoid stock, associated with Scandinavia and north-western Europe and described in the older texts as tall, long-headed, fair-skinned and light-eyed. In B. S. Guha's classification of the Indian population the Nordic element is placed in the north-west of the subcontinent, nowhere near East Asia.

Physical anthropology of the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries tried to sort humanity into a small number of 'races' by visible traits — skin colour, hair form, nasal index, cephalic index and stature. Blumenbach's 1795 scheme named five varieties (Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malayan); later writers compressed these into the threefold Caucasoid–Mongoloid–Negroid division, with Australoid often added as a fourth. Indian syllabi carry a national version of the same exercise: B. S. Guha, working with the 1931 Census of India, distinguished six racial elements in the Indian population — Negrito, Proto-Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean, Western Brachycephals and Nordic. The Mongoloid element in Guha's scheme is placed in the Himalayan belt and the North-East, in Palae-Mongoloid and Tibeto-Mongoloid forms. Contemporary genetics has abandoned the framework as a biological account of human variation, but the terminology persists in examination syllabi and in older textbooks.

The question can be answered from the name alone: 'Mongoloid' is derived from Mongolia, and Mongolia is one of the three countries named in the stem. If that shortcut feels unsafe, eliminate instead — Nordic is European and belongs inside the Caucasoid group rather than beside it, Negro/Negroid is African with a Negrito offshoot in the Andamans and South-East Asia, and Australoid is Australian and Melanesian with a Proto-Australoid element in tribal India. Each of the three wrong options is a real category from the same scheme, which is what makes the question a vocabulary test rather than a guess: it is checking whether you can attach each name to a continent. The single discriminating fact is that East Asia — China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea — is the core area of the Mongoloid group.

• Classical fourfold scheme: Caucasoid (Europe, West Asia, North Africa), Mongoloid (East and North-East Asia, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas), Negroid (sub-Saharan Africa), Australoid (Australia and Melanesia)
• Johann Friedrich Blumenbach set out five varieties in 1795 — Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malayan — and the term 'Mongolian' for the East Asian group dates from that tradition
• Traits listed for the Mongoloid group in the older texts: epicanthic eye fold, high cheekbones, flat facial profile, straight coarse black hair, sparse body hair, yellowish-brown skin
• B. S. Guha's classification from the 1931 Census identified six racial elements in India — Negrito, Proto-Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean, Western Brachycephals and Nordic
• Nordic is a sub-type of the Caucasoid stock, not an independent race; in India that element is placed in the north-west
• Modern genetics rejects discrete biological races: variation is clinal, and most human genetic diversity occurs within any named group rather than between groups

• Treating Nordic as a fourth 'race' parallel to the others — it is a European sub-type within the Caucasoid stock
• Confusing Negroid (sub-Saharan Africa) with Negrito (Andamans, Malay peninsula, Philippines): related in the old scheme but not the same label
• Assuming these categories have current scientific standing; they are examinable vocabulary from an abandoned framework

BPSC asks the classification geographically — name the race of a listed set of countries, or the region of a named race — and expects a one-word recall. UPSC has historically asked it descriptively, quoting a list of physical traits and asking which group is being described, or attaching the label to a specific Indian population such as the Andaman tribes; it has not returned to the topic in recent years.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the classification of the Indian population associated with B. S. Guha, the Negrito racial element is chiefly associated with which of the following ?

  • (a)The tribes of the Andaman Islands
  • (b)The tribes of the North-Eastern hills
  • (c)The population of the north-western plains
  • (d)The population of coastal Gujarat

  Answer(a) The tribes of the Andaman Islands — the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese are the classic Negrito populations of India; the North-Eastern hills carry the Mongoloid element.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nordic racial type of the classical anthropological scheme is a sub-division of which larger group ?

  • (a)Mongoloid
  • (b)Caucasoid
  • (c)Negroid
  • (d)Australoid

  Answer(b) Caucasoid — Nordic denotes the tall, long-headed, fair-skinned north-west European sub-type within the Caucasoid stock.