Genetics Deliver Another Blow to Battered Aryan-Dravidian Theory
Source: Times of India
HYDERABAD, INDIA, September 25, 2009: The great Indian divide along
north-south lines now stands even more blurred. A pathbreaking study by
Harvard and indigenous researchers on ancestral Indian populations says
there is a genetic relationship between all Indians and more importantly,
the hitherto believed theory that Aryans and Dravidians signify the ancestry
of north and south Indians might after all, be a myth.
“This paper rewrites history… there is no north-south divide,” said Lalji
Singh, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology
(CCMB) and a co-author of the study.
Senior CCMB scientist Kumarasamy Thangarajan said there was no truth to the
Aryan-Dravidian theory as they came hundreds or thousands of years after the
ancestral north and south Indians had settled in India.
The study analysed 500,000 genetic markers across the genomes of 132
individuals from 25 diverse groups from 13 states. All the individuals were
from six-language families and traditionally diverse castes and tribal
groups. “The genetics proves that castes grew directly out of tribe-like
organizations during the formation of the Indian society,” said Thangarajan,
who noted that it was impossible to distinguish between castes and tribes
since their genetics proved they were not systematically different.
The study was conducted by CCMB scientists in collaboration with researchers
at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad
Institute of Harvard and MIT. It reveals that the present-day Indian
population is a mix of ancient north and south bearing the genomic
contributions from two distinct ancestral populations - the Ancestral North
Indian (ANI) and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) — both indigenous to the
sucontinent.
“The initial settlement took place 65,000 years ago in the Andamans and in
ancient south India around the same time, which led to population growth in
this part,” said Thangarajan. He added, “At a later stage, 40,000 years ago,
the ancient north Indians emerged which in turn led to rise in numbers here.
But at some point of time, the ancient north and the ancient south mixed,
giving birth to a different set of population. And that is the population
which exists now.”
This finding could challenge the prevailing view of a northern route of
migration of man out of Africa via Middle East, Europe, south-east Asia,
Australia and then to India.