According to the census of 1901 the population of India (including Burma) was 294,361,056. But this vast mass of people does not constitute a single nationality, neither is it divided into a number of different nations of distinct blood and distinct language. They are drawn, indeed, from four well-marked elements: the non-Aryan tribes or aborigines of the country; the Aryan or Sanskrit-speaking race; the great mixed population which has grown out of a fusion of the two previous elements; and the Mahommedan invaders from the north-west. These four elements, however, have become inextricably mixed together, some predominating in one portion of the country, some in another, while all are found in every province and native state. The chief modern divisions of the population, therefore, do not follow the lines of blood and language, but of religion and caste.
Of the four elements already enumerated the oldest are the wild tribes of central India, such as the Bhils and Gonds, who probably represent the original inhabitants of the country. These number some 11,000,000. Second come the Dravidians of the south, amounting to about 54,000,000. Thirdly come the Aryans, inhabiting mainly that portion of India north of the Nerbudda which is known as Hindustan proper. Of these only the Brahmans and Rajputs, about 20,000,000, are of pure Aryan blood. The remaining 135,000,000 Hindus represent the fusion of Aryan and non-Aryan elements. Fourthly come the Mahommedans, numbering some 62,000,000. Many of them are the descendents of Arab, Afghan, Mogul and Persian invaders, and the remainder are converts made to Islam in the course of the centuries of Mahommedan rule.
The census report of 1901 divided the population of India into seven distinct racial types: the Turko-Iranian type, represented by the Baluch, Brahui and Afghans of the Baluchistan Agency and the North-West Frontier Province; the Indo-Aryan type, occupying the Punjab, Rajputana and Kashmir, and having as its characteristic members the Rajputs, Khatris and Jats; the Scytho-Dravidian type of western India, comprising the Mahrattas; the Kunbis, and the Coorgs, probably formed by a mixture of Scythian and Dravidian elements; the Aryo-Dravidian type found in the United Provinces, in parts of Rajputana, and in Behar, represented in its upper strata by the Hindustani Brahman, and in its lower by the Chamar. This type is probably the result of the intermixture, in varying proportions, of the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian types, the former element predominating in the higher groups and the latter in the lower. The fifth type is the Mongolo-Dravidian of Bengal and Orissa, comprising the Bengal Brahmans and Kayasths, the Mahommedans of Eastern Bengal, and other groups peculiar to this part of India. It is probably a blend of Dravidian and Mongoloid elements with a strain of Indo-Aryan blood in the higher groups. The sixth type is the Mongoloid of the Himalayas, Nepal, Assam and Burma, represented by the Kanets of Lahoul and Kulu, the Lepchas of Darjeeling, the Limbus, Murmis and Gurungs of Nepal, the Bodo of Assam, and the Burmese. Seventh and last comes the Dravidian type, extending from Ceylon to the valley of the Ganges, and pervading the whole of Madras and Mysore and most of Hyderabad, the Central Provinces, Central India and Chota Nagpur. Its most characteristic representatives are the Paniyans of the south Indian hills and the Santals of Chota Nagpur. This is probably the original type of the population of India, now modified to a varying extent by the admixture of Aryan, Scythian and Mongoloid elements.