7/27/2019 The Story of Our Origin

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Following info was shared by Monica Sethuraman Reddy. Thank you! The read is long so I have only posted some excerpts, rest can be viewed in the link

provided at the end.

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The Story of Our Origins:

The diversity of India is tremendous; it is obvious; it lies on the surface and anybody can see it. It concerns itself with certain mental habits and traits.

There is lit tle in common between the Pathan of the North-West and the Tamil in the far South. Yetthere is no mistaking the impress of India on the

Pathan, as this is obvious on the TamilThe Pathan and the Tamil are two extreme examples; the others lie somewhere in betweenIt is fascinating to

find how the Bengalis, the Marathas, the Gujaratis, the Tamils, the Andhras, the Oriyas, the Assamese, the Canarese, the Malayalis, the Sindhis, the

Punjabis, the Pathans, the Kashmiris, the Rajput, and the great central block comprising the Hindustani-speaking people, have retained their peculiar

characteristics

Every observer of India has always noticedthe tremendous diversity of people in India, not just in terms of customs and culture, but in religion, caste

and appearance. The obvious question has always been: where does this diversity come from? Take, for example, caste: did the system evolve in India,

or did it originate outside and become part of the countrys social structure? Were our different language groups, such as Dravidian and Indo-European,

brought in by different sets of migrants? The questions are endless, and the answer to any one of them lies in the answer to the most basic question of

all: where do we Indians come from? How was the Subcontinent sett led?

Attempts have been made to answer these questions with evidence drawn from fields as varied as linguistics and archaeology. Despite the inroads that

have been made, the question has not even come close to being answered, and even the partial answers that have been on offer have been a source of

contentious debate. For one, the Aryan Invasion theorysuggesting that an invasion of Indo-Europeans displaced the original Dravidian inhabitants of

north India, which found favour at one time and was later rejected and denouncedaddresses only a small part of the Subcontinents diversity as a

theory.

But results from an entirely different area of human study suggest that there may be a satisfactory answer to the question, and it lies in our genes.

For each of us, our physical characteristics are encoded in the DNA that we carry within each cell of our body. A study of our DNA (see The Science of

DNA Testing) allows us to trace our ancestry. In case of men (and for women by testing their brothers or father), we can trace our line of paternal

descent, our fathers fathers fathers father, by studying the Y-chromosome; and in case of both men and women, we can trace our line of maternal

descent, our mothers mothers mothers mother, by studying mitochondrial DNA.

We sent six samples, four men and two women, of people from various parts of India to the National Geographic Project (NGP), and, based on the

results we have obtained (see the case studies listed in the right column), we have attempted to map out a representative history of what can be said

today about the peopling of India. To do so, we have not only sought elaboration from Ramasamy Pitchappan, principal investigator, India, of the NGP, we

have also spoken to a leading Indian geneticist, RNK Bamezai, director of the National Centre of Applied Human Genetics (NCAHG) at Jawaharlal Nehru

University and vice-chancellor of Jammu University.

A key 2009 paper published in the Journal of Human Genetics by Bamezai and his colleagues at JNU argues this point further: Many major rival models

of the origin of the Hindu caste system co-exist despite extensive studies, each with associated genetic evidences. One of the major factors that has stil

kept the origin of the Indian caste system obscure is the unresolved question of the origin of Y-haplogroup R1a1, at times associated with a

male-mediated major genetic influx from Central Asia or Eurasia, which has contributed to the higher castes in India. Y-haplogroup R1a1 has a

widespread distribution and high frequency across Eurasia, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent... To resolve these issues, we screened 621

Y-chromosomes (of Brahmins occupying the upper-most caste position and schedule castes/tribals occupying the lower-most positions)... for

conclusions. A peculiar observation of the highest frequency (up to 72.22%) of Y-haplogroup R1a1 in Brahmins hinted at its presence as a founder

lineage for this caste group. Further, observation of R1a1 in different tribal population groups, existence of Y-haplogroup R1a in ancestors, and extended

phylogenetic analyses of the pooled dataset of 530 Indians, 224 Pakistanis and 276 Central As ians and Eurasians bearing the R1a1 haplogroup supported

the autochthonous [indigenous] origin of R1a1 l ineage in India and a tribal link to Indian Brahmins.

The conclusions bear restatement. The first thing that the evidence suggests is that the origins of Hartoshs R1a1 haplogroup lie in India. Thus, a large

part of Central A sia, Southern Russia, Ukraine onwards to the Czech Republic may well be populated by a 15,000-year-old migration from India. Given

the timeframe of the origins of the R1a1 haplogroup in India, it is important to note that this does not rule out a subsequent re-entry of people from

Central Asia bearing this marker into India at a much later date. As further sub-lineages of Hartoshs R1a1 are studied, it may well be possible to answer

even this question.

The second part of their conclusions rests on the fact that the proportion of R1a1 in some Brahmin groups such as those of West Bengal is as high as 72

per cent. This indicates that the origins of Brahmins as a caste may well lie in the R1a1 haplogroup. But since the antiquity of the Ra1a haplogroup in

tribals such as Central Indias Sahariyas is older than it is among Brahmins, it is reasonable to believe that Brahmins may not be entrants from outsidebut may have originated as a caste from the tribal population of this country.

It is a strong claim, one that hints at possible discoveries that may lie ahead as the genetics of the Indian population is studied in greater detail. The one

conclusion, though, that is unlikely to change is the one Bamezai emphasises over and over: Groups we seem to see as distinct have overlapping

genetic signatures. In fact, two castes that may have great hostility towards each other may carry the same signatures. Caste, tribe and religion in India

do not have any genetic basis. Trite as it may sound, the conclusion is inescapable, there is unity in this diversity.

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/the-story-of-our-origins