Sir Herbert Hope Risley

Sir Herbert Hope Risley KCIE CSI FRAI (4 January 1851 - 30 September 1911) was a British ethnographer and colonial administrator who became the pre-eminent anthropologist in British India. As a member of the Indian Civil Service from 1873 to 1910, he conducted pioneering studies on the tribes and castes of India, developing systematic anthropometric methods to classify the Indian population.

Early Life and Education

Risley was born at Akeley, Buckinghamshire, where his father served as rector. He belonged to one of the “Founder’s Kin” families of Winchester College, where he had a distinguished career, winning the Goddard Scholarship, the Moore Stevens Divinity Prize, and the King’s Gold Medal for the Latin Essay. He entered New College, Oxford in 1869, taking a Second Class in Law and Modern History before being selected for the Indian Civil Service.

Career in India

Risley arrived in India in 1873, beginning his service in the district of Midnapur, which bordered the plateau of Chota Nagpur with its forest-dwelling tribes. This early exposure sparked his lifelong interest in anthropology and the peoples of India. His knowledge of rural life and clear literary style led to his appointment on W.W. Hunter’s Statistical Survey of India.

In 1885, he was charged with overseeing the Ethnographic Survey of Bengal, employing a large staff of administrators, missionaries, and local Indians to gather information. The results were published in 1891 as The Tribes and Castes of Bengal in four volumes, representing the first systematic application of anthropometric methods to Indian populations.

The 1901 Census

Risley’s most influential work came as Census Commissioner for India in 1899. He organized and directed the 1901 Census, developing an elaborate system for recording caste and religious identities that would shape colonial and post-colonial understanding of Indian society. His classification of Indians into seven racial types based on anthropometric data, while controversial, remained influential for decades.

Later Career and Honours

Risley served as Home Secretary in Lord Curzon’s administration and played a key role in the Morley-Minto constitutional reforms. His services were recognized with the Companion of the Star of India (1904) and Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (1907). He was elected Officier d’Académie (France) and corresponding member of the Anthropological Societies of Berlin and Rome.

After retiring from the Indian Civil Service in 1910, he was appointed Permanent Secretary at the India Office. He was elected President of the Royal Anthropological Institute but illness prevented him from delivering his presidential address. He died at Wimbledon on 30 September 1911.

Legacy and Criticism

Risley’s work was pioneering in applying scientific methods to the study of Indian society, but his racial classifications and their use in colonial administration have been subject to significant criticism. Modern scholars have challenged his assumptions about the correlation between physical characteristics and caste status, and his role in formalizing caste categories in the census has been seen as contributing to the rigidification of caste identities.

Despite these controversies, his ethnographic works remain valuable historical documents for understanding how Indian society was studied and categorized during the British period, and his detailed observations of customs, practices, and social organization provide important primary source material for historians.