page_title: Ethnic groups in Kerala
section_title: Religion and Community
hierarchical_section_title: Ethnic groups in Kerala / Religion and Community
caption_attribution_description: English: Valia Palli Church inside in Kottayam, Kerala, India
context_page_description: The population of Kerala, India is a heterogenous group that comprises many ethnic groups that originated in other parts of India as well as the world, with distinctive cultural and religious traditions. While the majority of Keralans speak the Malayalam language, various ethnic groups may speak other languages as well.
  The racial and ethnic history of Kerala is highly controversial and disputed among the cultural anthropologists, historians and other scholars. The people of Kerala, known as Malayali, are polygenetic and belong to different ethnic groups and religions. The Census of India does not recognise racial or ethnic groups within India. According to a 2009 study published by David Reich et al., the modern Indian population is composed of two genetically divergent and heterogeneous populations which mixed in ancient times, known as Ancestral North Indians and Ancestral South Indians.
  Negrito element: the earliest racial strain in the population of Kerala as of South India in general. These people still live in forests of Kerala state. Most of these tribes' have curly hair, black skin, round head and broad nose.
context_section_description: According to the 2001 census the breakdown of ethnic groups by religion is:
caption: Inside a Knanaya Church in Thazhathangadi, Kottayam
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-P72", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:12:26 12:30:42", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "6940", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "200", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "150", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "205", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6595", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:12:26 12:30:42", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:12:26 12:30:42", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7258", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}