Early Indians- Tony Joseph

An extremely interesting read.

Tony Joseph in his book somewhat clears the air on who we Indians are and where we came from.

The first Out of Africa migrants reached the subcontinent around 65000 years ago.

These were the first Indians. Every Indian has  upto 40-50 % of the First Indians genetic makeup in him.

The Harappans- the people who were part of the earliest known civilisation in India, sometime between 7000- 2000 BC, were a part mixture of First Indians and Iranian agriculturists, from the Zargos region of Iran.

The Aryans- from the Steppe- Caucasian region- came to India sometime beginning 2000 BC.

There was a lot of intermingling that happened between 2000 to 500 BC which sort of set the base for us Indians.

As per the author, two different Indians with different genetic composition came into existence during this period, dubbed as Ancestral North Indians(ANI) and Ancestral South Indians(ASI).

The ASI are essentially the result of intermingling of Harappans who went down South beginning 2000, with the Early Indians. 

The ANI are the people who are the result of intermingling of Steppe people with the Harappans.

And that is essentially who the Indians are.

This should somewhat clear the air on the Aryan migration/invasion theory. 

One strong reason why the theory finds credence is that there are no First Indians genetic components in present day European genes.

However the ANI has a European/Steppe gene component.

Of course this is in addition to other archaeological and linguistic evidences that the author cites in the book for the Aryan invasion/migration theory.

Other interesting postulate in the book is that the caste system became stratified only around 100 BCE.

So even though the Aryans came to India around 2000 BCE and brought with them the Vedic/Hindu religion with allusions to Varna system beginning 1800 BCE, the intermingling of Aryans with the locals continued till about 100 BCE.

It is only around this period that the caste system sort of drew lines between communities and prevented further intermingling.

Really mystifying. 

 How does a race allow intermingling for more than a 1000 years and then suddenly decide that enough is enough and no more? 

And this is evident in that the genetic make up of a Brahmin or a Shudra or a Vaishya or a Dalit is different.

In contrast the genetic composition of Han Chinese who constitutes 90% of China are similar. India  on the other hand have various groups of populations with different genetic make up primarily on account of the caste system which prevented intermingling.

A must read.