India's ethnic history is extremely complex and it is not easy to determine distinct racial divisions between peoples. Negroid, Australoid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid stocks are discernible, however,. The first three are represented mainly by tribal peoples in the southern hills, the plateau, the Brahmaputra Valley, the Himalayas, and the Andaman Islands. These people represent about 3% of the population. The main Caucasoid elements are the Mediterranean, including groups dominant in much of the north, and the Nordic or Indo-Aryan, a taller, fairer-skinned strain dominant in the northwest that represents about 72% of the population. The dark-complexioned Dravidians of the south have a mixture of Mediterranean and Australoid features and represent about 25% of the population.

The 1961 census recorded 1,652 different languages and dialects in India. One state alone, Madhya Pradesh, had 377. There are officially 211 separate, distinct languages, of which Hindi, English, and 15 regional languages are officially recognized by the constitution. Twenty-four languages are each spoken by a million or more persons.