(a) Discuss the palaeoanthropological significance of Siwaliks of India giving its subdivisions, fossil primate fauna and major…

(a) Palaeoanthropological Significance of the Siwaliks

The Siwaliks are a belt of fluvial sediments, derived from the rising Himalaya, that runs along the foothills from Pakistan through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to Nepal. Continuous deposition from about 18 million to 0.6 million years ago, fossil-rich mammal faunas and palaeomagnetic dating make them one of the best records of Miocene–Pleistocene life in Asia.

Subdivisions (Pilgrim's classic scheme):

1. Lower Siwaliks (Middle Miocene, about 18–11 Ma): Kamlial and Chinji formations.
2. Middle Siwaliks (Late Miocene, about 11–5 Ma): Nagri and Dhok Pathan formations.
3. Upper Siwaliks (Pliocene–Early Pleistocene, about 5–0.6 Ma): Tatrot and Pinjor formations and the Boulder Conglomerate.

Fossil primate fauna:

1. Sivapithecus (Chinji to Dhok Pathan levels, about 12.5–8.5 Ma): a large ape with thick molar enamel and robust jaws. Ramapithecus, named by G.E. Lewis (1934) from Haritalyangar material and promoted by Simons and Pilbeam as the earliest hominid, is now included in Sivapithecus; the GSP 15000 face (Pakistan, 1982) showed orangutan-like features, so Sivapithecus is placed on the orangutan (pongine) lineage.
2. Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis (Indopithecus), from the Middle Siwaliks of Haritalyangar (about 8.6 Ma), an ancestor or relative of the huge Pleistocene G. blacki of China.
3. Kapi ramnagarensis (Ramnagar, about 13 Ma, described in 2020), the oldest known fossil lesser ape (gibbon lineage).
4. Small primates such as Sivaladapis and Indraloris (adapiform and lorisid strepsirrhines) and, in the Upper Siwaliks, Old World monkeys (Macaca, Procynocephalus).

Major Indian localities: Ramnagar (Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir), Haritalyangar (Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh), and Upper Siwalik sites around Chandigarh such as Pinjor and Masol, besides Potwar plateau localities in Pakistan. Important Indian workers include S.R.K. Chopra and Ashok Sahni.

Significance: the Siwaliks document the Miocene radiation of hominoids in Asia, the origin of the orangutan and gibbon lineages, and migrations of apes between Africa and Eurasia; the Ramapithecus debate showed the danger of inferring hominid status from teeth alone and helped shift the search for the ape–human split to Africa at about 7–6 Ma. The Upper Siwaliks record the arrival of Pleistocene faunas and, at Masol, claimed cut-marked bones about 2.6 million years old, a claim of very early hominin presence that remains disputed. The Siwaliks do not challenge the African origin of Homo sapiens; their importance lies in ape evolution and the palaeoenvironmental background of later human dispersal into South Asia.

(b) S.S. Sarkar's Classification of Indian Populations and Comparison with Risley

H.H. Risley (The People of India, 1908; based on the 1901 Census) divided Indians into seven racial types: Turko-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian, Aryo-Dravidian, Mongolo-Dravidian, Mongoloid and Dravidian. He relied heavily on the nasal and cephalic indices and argued that social rank of castes varied inversely with nasal index, treating caste as a racial hierarchy.

S.S. Sarkar (The Aboriginal Races of India, 1954, and later writings) identified six racial elements: Australoid, Indo-Aryan, Irano-Scythian, Munda-speaking, Far Eastern and Mongoloid. His main features were:

1. He denied any Negrito element on the Indian mainland (Negritos are confined to the Andaman Islands), against B.S. Guha, and treated groups such as the Kadar as Australoid.
2. He regarded the Australoid (Veddid) element as the oldest substratum of India's tribal population.
3. He combined several anthropometric traits (stature, head form, nose, face) with observations of hair and skin and, where available, blood-group data, instead of one index.
4. He linked physical elements with language groups (for example, the Munda speakers) and with historical movements.

Was it better than Risley? In several respects, yes: it rested on the author's own measurements with better sampling, used multiple traits, rejected the dubious Negrito layer on the mainland and avoided equating caste rank with nasal index, so it was less driven by colonial administrative purposes. However, it was still typological: it assumed discrete \"racial elements\", mixed biological, linguistic and cultural criteria (for example \"Munda-speaking\" and \"Indo-Aryan\"), and lacked genetic data. Modern population genetics shows continuous and clinal variation and ancient admixture (for example, the Ancestral North Indian and Ancestral South Indian components), so both classifications are now of historical interest only; Sarkar's is better regarded as a step away from Risley's racial hierarchy.

(c) Impact of Christianity on Scheduled Tribe Societies of North-East India

Christianity reached the hills of North-East India through 19th-century missions: Welsh Calvinistic Methodist (Presbyterian) missionaries among the Khasi (Thomas Jones, 1841) and Mizo (from the 1890s, after the pioneering work of J.H. Lorrain and F.W. Savidge), American Baptists among the Nagas (E.W. Clark at Molungkimong, 1872) and later Catholic orders. By the 2011 Census, Christians formed about 88% of the population of Nagaland, 87% of Mizoram and 75% of Meghalaya.

Positive changes:

1. Education and literacy: missionaries gave the Khasi, Mizo and several Naga languages the Roman script, grammars, dictionaries and printed literature; Mizoram (91.3%) and Nagaland (79.6%) had literacy well above the national average (73%) in 2011.
2. Health: dispensaries, hospitals and nursing services; decline of some epidemic diseases.
3. Social reform: end of headhunting, decline of costly feasts of merit and inter-village warfare, and new church-based welfare networks.
4. Leadership and identity: the church trained an educated elite, created pan-tribal networks and gave a common identity across dialect groups.

Negative or contested changes:

1. Decline of traditional institutions and practices: the bachelors' dormitories (morung), many festivals, dances, songs and animist rituals were discouraged or lost, and indigenous knowledge tied to ritual declined.
2. Social divisions between converts and non-converts, and among denominations.
3. Tension with indigenous faith revival movements, such as Seng Khasi (1899) in Meghalaya and Donyi-Polo in Arunachal Pradesh, which reassert tribal religion.
4. Christian identity became part of ethnic and political identity in some areas; church bodies have also acted as mediators and advocates of peace (for example, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, formed in 2008).

Evaluation: the impact has been one of selective adaptation rather than simple replacement. Clan, village and customary institutions (the Khasi dorbar, Naga village councils, Mizo customary law) continue alongside the church, and many traditional festivals have been revived in new forms. Anthropologists therefore see Christianity in the North-East as both an agent of modernisation and a new medium through which tribal identity is expressed.