How Different Races were Formed
We discussed in our last letter the Neolithic men who used to live chiefly in lake dwellings. We saw that they had made great progress in many ways. They discovered agriculture and knew how to cook and to tame animals for their use. All this was many thousands of years ago and we do not know much about them. But probably most of the races of men we have in the world today have descended from these Neolithic people. We find now, as you know, white men and yellow men and brown and black. But as a matter of fact, it is not easy to divide the races of men into these four divisions. Races have got mixed up and it is difficult to say about many of them to which division they belong. Scientists measure the heads of people and by this measurement they can sometimes find out the race. There are other ways of finding this out also.
How did these different races come into existence? If they are all descended from the same people, why do they differ so much from each other now? You know that a German is very different from a Negro. One is fair and the other is black. The hair of the German is light coloured and long, the Negro’s hair is black and short and curly. The Chinaman again is different from both of these. It is difficult to say how these differences crept in, but we know some of the causes of these differences. I have already told you how animals gradually changed as they adapted themselves to their surroundings. It may be that the German and the Negro are descended from different types of men, but some time or other they must have had the same ancestor. The differences must therefore have come in by the process of adaption to their surroundings, or it may have been that some, like some animals, could adapt themselves more easily than others. Thus a person living in the great cold and ice of the far north would develop the power to bear cold. The Eskimos even now live in the ice fields of the north and they can bear great cold. They would probably die if you brought them to warm countries like ours. And as they are cut off from the rest of the world, and have to live a hard life, they have not learnt as many things as people in other parts of the world.
The people in Africa or those living near the equator where it is very hot, get used to this heat. And the great heat of the sun makes them dark in complexion. You know that if you spend much time in the sun at the seaside or elsewhere, you become tanned, or browner and darker than you otherwise are. If after a few weeks of sunbaths you become darker, how much darker would a man be who always has to live in this sun? And if for hundreds of years people live in very hot countries, fathers and their children and their children's children and so on, they will become darke and darker, till they become almost black. You have seen the Indian peasant working in the fields in the midday sun. He is too poor to have many clothes and has little on. His whole body is exposed to the sun and all his life is spent in this way. He is bound to get dark. So we find that people's complexions are the result of the climate they live in. They have nothing to do with the worthiness or goodness or beauty of a person. A white person living long in a hot country will get dark unless of course he hides himself from the sun and the heat behind tattis and under fans. You know we are Kashmiris and more than 200 years ago our ancestors lived in Kashmir. In Kashmir you find everybody, including the peasants and labourers, very fair of complexion. That is beacause the climate of Kashmir is cold. But these very Kashmiris when they come down to other parts of India, which are hotter, become darker after some generations. Many of our Kashmiri friends are quite fair, others are quite dark. The longer a Kashmiri family has lived in this part of India, the darker it is likely to be.
Climate is thus the chief cause of colour and complexion. Of course, it may be that some people, even though they may live in a hot country, do not work in the open and are rich enough to live in big houses and take care of themselves and their complexions. A rich family may live like this for generations and may thus not be affected by the climate very much. But not to work oneself and to live on the work of others is nothing to be proud of. In India, you find that in the north, in Kashmir and Punjab, people are usually fair. But as you go south they become darker. In Madras and Ceylon, as you saw, they are quite dark. Of course you will say that this is due to the climate for as you go south you go nearer to the equator and it becomes hotter. This is quite true and is the principal reason for the difference of colour in various parts of India. We shall see, however, later that this difference is partly also due to some difference in the original races which came to India. Many races have come to India in past ages and although for long they tried to keep apart, they could not help mixing together. It is difficult now to say that a particular Indian belongs entirely to one original race.
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