INTRODUCTION :

“He who controls the past, controls the future”

- Joseph Goebbels
The ruling power treats the above statement as its guiding principle. It has streamlined the

process of manipulation by manufacturing poisonous narratives. Standing in a vulnerable

situation when the concepts of “Aryans” as a racial group, “superiority” are constantly being

re-injected in the hearts and minds of the common masses, should re-navigate the

findings of certain important genetic research projects which deal with our origin. The

scientific analysis of ancient DNA extracted from the skeletal remains excavated from

various archaeological sites shed light on a crucial aspect which has the potential to smash

down the established narratives of “immigrants”, “outsiders”, “purity of blood”. Thus, the

government attempts to manipulate the scientific conclusions of these analyses. The Hindutva

forces claim that the people of the Vedic Age are the direct descendants of the of the Indus

Valley Civilization and the present-day Hindus are native to this sub-continent. However, the

genetic analysis has proved the veracity of such claims. Thus, genetic debate of the Indo-

Aryans continue to be a “politically sensitive” issue.

 THE HISTORY OF ASSIMILATION AND CONVERGENCE

For about ten thousand years, humans have been migrating across the globe. Gradually, they

evolved from hunter-gatherers to farmers. The time of these simultaneous events in West and

South Asia have not yet been precisely determined or proposed. Due to a lack of proper

dating and other such limitations, a layer of ambiguity remains in this context. Prof. David

Reich of Harvard Medical School had shed light on the movement of people in West and

South Asia.1 He argued that the current population of the region is mainly a mixture of three

major ancestral populations who arrived in this sub-continent over the past 50,000 years,

crossing mountains and the vast plains of Central Asia to enter South Asia and led to genetic

assimilation.2

Around 70,000 years ago, a group of modern day humans successfully migrated from Africa

and gradually spread across the globe. All the present day human beings are successors of

this group of people who migrated out of Africa. Around 65,000 years ago, a branch of this

larger group migrated towards India and gradually settled down in this sub-continent. This

sub-group came to be known as Andaman Hunter Gatherers (AHG). Towards the initial
phase of the Holocene age, around 12,000 years ago, another group migrated from Iran to this
sub-continent. They were also hunter-gatherers and came to be known as “Ancient Iran-
related Hunter Gatherers. This group intermixed with Andaman Hunter Gatherers and gave
birth to another group of population. 3Around 4,600 years ago this mixed group laid to the
foundations of Indus Valley Civilization. Thorough analysis of ancient DNA extracted from
Rakhigarhi and the neighbouring archaeological sites provide evidence to this argument. 4
Around 3,900 years ago, this mixed group of Indus Valley Civilization spread all over India.
In southern part of India, the people of IVC5 interacted with the erstwhile AHG. This
interaction gavebirth to another group of population termed as “Ancestral South Indians”.
6
Around 3,500 to 4,000 years ago, the Eurasian Steppe pastoralists migrated from the Central

1
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
2
Ibid
3
Ibid
4
Ibid
5
Indus Valley Civilization
6
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
Asian Steppes towards north-western part of India. These people interacted with the Indus
Valley Civilization’s people and this consequently led to the emergence of “Ancestral North
Indians”.7

FURTHER GENETIC EVIDENCE :

If the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup of present day Indians are analyzed, then it would
become evident that most of the Indians have inherited this haplogroup from the Andaman
Hunter Gatherers. In other words, they are matrilineally linked to AHS. However, the genetic

patrilineal lineage is varied in this context. An analysis of Indian males Y- chromosome DNA

shows that, according to the paternal lineage, they have come from different regions. 8This

difference in the intensity of variation of mitochondrial DNA and Y- chromosome sheds light

on another important aspect. Ancient Iran Related Hunter Gatherer” and “Eurasian steppe
pastoralists” – these two groups (which migrated to India) consisted of less females.9

Consequently, the males of these two groups mixed with the females of “Andaman Hunter

Gatherers”. This variation in the mitochondrial DNA and Y- chromosomal DNA of Indian

males point towards male- dominated migrations in this sub-continent.

The R1a1a - Z93 Y - chromosome DNA is found among Indians, especially among the

Brahmins of northern India.10 This DNA is also found extensively in Central Asia . Based on

various archaeological and geological evidence, it can be said that the R1a1a - Z93 DNA
entered the Indian subcontinent from the Steppes of Central Asia approximately 3,500 to

4,000 years ago. 11This occurred as a result of the interaction of the Central Asian Steppes

population with the people of Eastern and Southern Asia. The crucial point is that no other
genetic traces (Poltavka sample 104329) of that Central Asian population or the DNA of the
“Andaman Hunter-Gatherer” and “Ancient Iranian related Hunter-gatherer “ populations are
found in the ancient remains of South Asia. Thus, on comparing all the DNA found so far, it

7
Ibid
8
Ranabir Chakraborty, Exploring Early India upto C. AD 1300 (New Delhi : Primus Books, 2016).
9
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
10
Ibid
11
Richard Klein and Blake Edgar, The Dawn of Human Culture (New York : John Wiley & Sons, 2002)
appears that the people (especially males who carry this DNA marker (R1a1a- Z93) primarily
came to India from Central Asia about 4,000 years ago and established themselves here.12
The opposite hypothesis is not rational. In other words, it cannot be said that “Indian culture
spread to Central Asia through the migration of people from South Asia, or that the DNA of
Southern Indian people spread there”. If that were the case, the DNA of the “Andaman
Hunter Gatherer and “ Ancient Iranian Related Hunter Gatherer would have been found in the
“Poltavka Sample 10432” ancestral remains.

The R haplogroup and its sub-branches which are widespread in ancient Europe and South

Asia is not found in the ancient remains of Europe. They are found there after the arrival of

the Yamnaya people in Europe.13 In case of India, the R haplogroup came with the distant

Indo-European lineage associated with the Yamnaya population. The autosomal DNA

analysis of the woman from Rakhigarhi did not contain any trace of the Eurasian Steppe

pastoralists. This is because when the Harappan civilisation was at its height, the Indo-

Europeans had not yet entered India.14However, just one thousand years after the Harappan

civilization, the region near Swat valley , has been analysed and studied based on

archaeological evidence. The ancient DNA excavated from these neighbouring

archaeological sites indicate the presence of Indo-European haplogroup.15

The Indo-Europeans entered this sub-continent about 4,000 years ago marking the beginning

of the Vedic and Sanskrit- speaking group of people. They were mainly a group of men and

the ratio of women in this group was negligible. It should be noted here that, the marker

R1a1aZ93 is a specific Y- chromosome marker from Central Asia.16 This marker or its related
markers are predominantly observed in the Y-DNA of the upper caste Indians.17

The people of Indus valley civilization had by then spread to the south and there they

intermixed with the original inhabitants of ancient India. This mixed population created the

12
Richard Klein and Blake Edgar, The Dawn of Human Culture (New York : John Wiley & Sons, 2002)
13
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
14
Ibid
15
Ibid
16
Richard Klein and Blake Edgar, The Dawn of Human Culture (New York : John Wiley & Sons, 2002
17
Ibid
“Ancient South Mixed Population”.18 Similarly, in the north, the Harappan people intermixed

with the pastoralists from the Steppes. This mixed population formed the “Ancient North

Indian Mixed Population”.19 Later on, the descendants of the original inhabitants of South

India also mixed with this “Ancient North Indian” population. This was not entirely

consistent. The proportional extent of this mixing varied across different regions, languages

and populations of the country.

18
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
19
Ibid
 THE DEBATE STILL GOES ON…….

The Hindutva forces were trying hard to preach about the indigenity of the Hindus, but were
unable to grab adequate evidence to solidify this false narrative. However, they saw such an
opportunity in 2012-2016 by distorting and misinterpreting the findings of the Rakhigarhi
project. During this period, a team from Deccan College of Post-Graduate and Research
Institute, Pune , under the supervision of Dr. Vasant Shinde, carried out excavations at this
important Harappan site.20 56 skeletons were excavated from Mound 7 of Rakhigarhi.21
Among these a 4,600 years old woman’s skeleton attracted the attention of scholars and later
on became the centre of “political sensitivity”. These findings were published in the journal
“Cell”. It sated that DNA analysis of this skeleton revealed that “the individual we sequenced
fits as a mixture of people related to ancient Iranians (the largest component) and Southeast
Asian hunter-gatherers.”22 This paper even stated that there was no Steppe Pastoral gene
(from people in Central Asia) in the Rakhigarhi woman. Within a few days of such
excavation, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was
ordered to incorporate certain misinterpretations in the next year’s Class 12 History textbook
Themes in India History Part I under the chapter ‘Bricks, Beads and Bones- The Harappan
civilization’. The aim behind such hurried changes was to incorporate within young minds
that Harappan and Vedic cultures were both indigenous to this sub-continent. There was no
break in their genetic continuity. This further invalidated the theory of immigration of the
‘Aryans’. Niraj Rai and Dr. Vasant Shinde justified such false propaganda in various press
conferences and seminars. Niraj Rai, who mainly authored summary of the article published
in “Cell” asserted that – “these individuals (the Harappans) had little, if any, Steppe
pastoralist related ancestry, showing that it was not ubiquitous in north-west South Asia
during the Indus Valley Civilization as it is today”.23 He further claimed that Rakhigarhi
excavations show a “cultural continuity of over 5,000 years” although there were some
genetic infusion after 1500 BCE. Such false propaganda was vehemently countered by
Romila Thapar, Michael Witzzel and others. They put forth linguistic and such other cultural

20
Sreeparna Chakrobarty, “The 4,600-year-old woman from Rakhigarhi”, The Hindu, May 7, 2024.
[Link]
3Ny/RV=2/RE=1764558178/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%[Link]%2fnews%2fnational%2fthe-
4600-year-old-woman-from-rakhigarhi%[Link]/RK=2/RS=kL45yNTutX6x3sbbk5LSfdK9Smk-
21
Ibid
22
Vasant Shinde et al, “An ancient Harappan genome lacks ancestry from Steppe pastoralists or Iranian
Farmers”, Cell 179, no. 1-7 (2019).
23
Ibid
evidences to counter such misinterpretations. Such travestifications have become a trend in
the political history of India.

In 2007-2008, a study was undertaken by Harvard Medical School under the guidance of
Prof. David Reich. This research aimed to study the population genetics of South Asians
including that of Indians. This project was collaborated by molecular biologist Lalji Singh
and Kumaraswamy Thangaraj from Hyderabad’s Centre For Cellular And Molecular
Biology. Later on Prof. David Reich shared his awkward experience encountered during this
collaborative project –

“Singh and Thangaraj seemed to be threatening to nix the whole project....They also implied
that the suggestion of a migration from West Eurasia would be politically explosive. They did
not explicitly say this but it had obvious overtones of the idea that migration from outside
India had a transformative effect on the sub-continent.....We came to a standstill. At that time
I felt that we were being prevented by political considerations from revealing what we had
found.”

Ultimately, this paper got published only after the term “West Eurasian” was replaced by the
term, “Ancestral North Indians”. The claims of indigeinty of “Aryans” to this sub-continent
can also be countered by honestly analysing certain earlier studies on this aspect.

Earlier, Michael Bamshad argued that Indians inherited about 70% of mitochondrial
haplotype from Asian population. While about 30% of mitochondrial haplotype has been
inherited from West Eurasian population. A significant portion of this 30% is moreover,
found among the upper castes.24 Conversely, a comparison of the paternally inherited Y
chromosome shows that all populations within the caste system are much more closely
related to European populations than to Asian populations in terms of paternal lineage.
25
Among these, the genetic similarity is highest among the upper castes and lowest among the
lower castes.

In 2009, Prof. David Reich and his project colleagues’ analysis was published in the journal
“Nature”. This paper delved into a comparative study of the whole genome sequencing of

24
Michael Bamshad et al, “Genetic evidence on the origins of Indian Caste Populations”, Genome Research,
2001
[Link]
3Ny/RV=2/RE=1764558539/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%[Link]%2f11381027%2f/RK=2/
RS=CQ.Mepe5mULQGXLbtIlkJr_E2rs-
25
Ibid
different populations in India. This further revealed that majority of people of today’s Indian
population show a mixture of two ancestral genetic components- Ancestral North Indians
(ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI). 26The latter is primarily linked to the original local
ancestral population while ANI is genetically connected with populations from Central Asia,
the Middle East, the Caucasus and Europe.

26
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
 DECONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF “PURITY OF BLOOD” :

The malice of caste (which still continues to rule large over India) derives its origin from the
jati- varna system embedded in Hinduism. A major section of India’s educated population
follow the rules and restrictions of the Varna system in order to maintain the sanctity of their
blood. Recent scientific studies have proved the veracity of such beliefs. In 2010, researchers
from Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Priya Moorjani and others, and Prof.
David Reich from the Government’s Centre for Genomic Science published research paper in
this context.27 They worked on about 30 ethnic groups (24 Indian and 6 Pakistani groups)
dating from [Link] groups were selected on the basis of their language and geographical
distribution. They concluded that there was diverse intermixing among these groups
(Ancestral North Indians, Ancestral South Indians, Indus River Ancestral group and later on
the Indo-Europeans ).

The genetic profiles of people from South India and North India have underwent various
phases of assimilations and convergences. This admixture is visible in the DNA of Indian
populations from the far South, including the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes such as
the Bhil, Chamar and various other such groups.28 These analyses indicate that 40% of the
DNA profile of the Dalits of Tamil Nadu are of “Ancient North Indian Mixed Ancestry”
while the remaining are found to resemble the “Ancient South Indian Ancestry”. This proves
that at a particular phase, there was an intermixing between the Dalits of South India and the
Indo-Europeans.

A separate team led by Partha P. Majumdar from the National Institute of Biomedical
Genomics analyzed DNA samples from about 559 people across 20 ethnic groups across
India. They listed down these groups under the following categories –

Indo-Europeans- Kshatriya, Gujarati, Baniya, Bengali Brahmin, Maratha

Dravidian- South Indian Iyer, Paniya

Austro-Asiatic- Santal, Ho, Birhor

27
Chris Clarkston et al, “Human occupation of norther India spans the Toba super-imposition 74,000 years
ago”, Nature Communications 961, no. 11 (2020)
28
Madhusree Bandopadhyay, Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan (Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022).
Tibeto- Burman- Manipuri, Tripuri, Jamatia

There is a slight disagreement regarding the time of these intermixing. The team led by Prof.
Reich estimates this to be around 4,200 years ago while the team led by Partha P. Majumdar
estimates this to be around 4,200 to 2,200 years ago. 29

This further proves that inter-caste marriage was indeed practised at a particular period of
time and at that phase caste was based on occupations rather than birth. Consequently, the
concepts of untouchability and “pollution” are absolutely devoid of scientific basis.

29
Chris Stringer, “The origin and evolution of Homo Sapiens”, Phil Trans( 2016)
[Link]
A3Ny/RV=2/RE=1764558935/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%[Link]%2fpublication
%2f303949439_The_origin_and_evolution_of_Homo_sapiens/RK=2/RS=S6GnlumzHAWsmc16uykG9TFuGYA-
 CONCLUSION :

“We shall make the people see what we wish them to see, hear what we wish them to hear
and believe what we wish them to believe.”

- Joseph Goebbels

Standing in this vulnerable scenario where we are made to think in a particular pattern
formulated by the ruling forces, where mediums of acquiring knowledge are systematically
being contaminated by false propaganda we need to re- navigate our past, our origins. If we
honestly explore various twists and turns of History, it would become evident how the
exploiters have distorted this discipline to create dissensions among the common masses. It
incites clashes among the common masses using travestified religious sentiments . It rallies
them against each other with swords in their hands, killing a person practising a different
religious faith makes them enthusiastic, burning and destroying their enemies’ villages makes
them feel enlightened. The school textbooks are used to inject hatred among the tender
minds, these teach them exclusive fraternity and makes them intolerant of diversity. These are
actually the ground preparations for introducing various inhumane policies such as
Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. The Hindutva forces manufacture brutal images of
Muslims and portray them as immigrants. However, an honest analysis of genetic researches
in this context proves that the upper caste Hindus who claim themselves to be the ‘sons of
Bharat Mata are also immigrants and not at all indigenous to this subcontinent. This sub-
continent has passed through various phases of intermixing among different population
groups which further hinders any particular religious and caste group to claim superiority
over the “others”.

[Word count (excluding footnotes) : 2000]

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1. Bandyopadhyay, Madhusree. Pragitihas Bharatbarshe Parijan O Jatigosthi Gathan.

Kolkata : Gangchil, 2022.

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