Human migration into India
new genetics data

Dr. Santosh Helekar

Here are the tentative conclusions drawn from the latest human genetics  findings.  They are taken mostly from the following three papers:

1) Basu et al. (2003) Ethnic India: A genomic view, with special reference to peopling and structure, Genome Research, 13, 2277-2290.

2) Bamshad et al. (2001) Genetic evidence on the origins of the Indian caste populations, Genome Research, 11, 994-1004.

3)Cann, R. (2001) Genetic clues to dispersal in human populations: Retracing the past from the present, Science, 291, 1742-1748.

When exactly the Indian subcontinent was first populated by modern humans  is not known with any degree of certainty.  However, genomic studies  indicate that India was settled very soon after humans emerged out of  Africa. These studies provide the mean upper and lower limits for this event -  63,000 years and 32,000 years before the present (B.P.), respectively.

The first tribe to enter India was one that belonged to the Austro-Asiatic  linguistic group. These folk entered from the northwest, and presumably branching off south of the Himalayas from those that moved into Tibet and China north of those mountains. Between 50,000 and 20,000 years B.P. most  parts of India became habitats for humanity.

There are a small number of matrilineages among Indians, suggesting either that we are the descendents of a few founding females that entered India with the initial settlers or that our matrilinear descent is from a fairly homogeneous ancestral mitochondrial gene pool.

Many hitherto speculative ideas have been supported by the new genetic data. Tribes are more ancient than castes. There was considerable cross-breeding between the non-Indo-European speaking earlier inhabitants  and Central/West Asians (Indo-European speaking groups) during the  formation of the caste system.

The Indo-European speakers introduced several new matrilineages. The  Austro-Asiatic speaking tribals are the original inhabitants of India. The  Dravidian speaking tribals who may have branched off from the  Austro-Asiatic speaking tribals were widespread throughout India before the  arrival of the Indo-European speaking tribals. After initial mixing and acceptance of the caste system and the Indo-European language, around 3500 years B.P., these Dravidian speakers may have retreated to the south to  avoid what has been termed as "Elite Dominance", the taking over of the  system by a small but well-organized group of Indo- European speakers who  advanced into the Indo-Gangetic plain. The latest study has also confirmed the finding that the upper castes are genetically closer to Eurasians compared to middle and lower castes.

As regards the Tibeto-Burman tribals, the northeastern corridor served as a major path of entry for these people beginning around 30,000 years B.P.  This passage also served as an entry point for some Austro-Asiatic speaking tribals.

Taken together, these new findings appear to be supporting the old Aryan  invasion theory, and also strongly pointing towards a role for Indo-European  genetic proximity in the emergence of casteist hierarchy.

Santosh Helekar
Jan 11, 2004 11:34 am

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