Well, it's been quite a while sice I last jotted down something on my blog. And the last phase of my post-graduation has already begun, so will be quite absorbed in research and simulations. And since me and my blog have kinda implicit understanding that under normal circumstances, I won't be publishing technological stuff here, the long hiatuses will be a consistent feature of this blog!
Continuing from previous posts - here and here, on the impossibility of the Aryan invasion, here is yet another post. That the AIT does not have any archaeological or literary basis - is now pretty well known in today's academic circles, still some iota of confusion or lack of clarity due to lack of knowledge can always be there - as far as non-experts are concerned.This iota stems from the differences in the skin-color and physical features of the people from the northern and southern parts of the country. This dissimilarity is often used over-zealously to claim that the Northerners are Aryans- outsiders and such crap stories.
And to add some scientific flavor to these theories some people claimed that some genetic study has shown higher degree of genetic closeness between upper caste north Indians and Europeans. Although it does not prove that there was any invasion , the AIT supporters used this to fit it in their story by saying the Aryans are of foreign origin. Why don't they consider the other possibility - that the foreigners have Indian origin !! Well that's another way to look at it indeed, and as I will mention in the following paragraphs, it is in fact proven by some geneticists!.
The genetic analysis do have a lot of importance. But the various genetic studies done have not produced identical results. For example, this particular paper by Bamshad et al(which is sometimes quoted as "proof" of foreign Aryans!) says that mtDNA analysis shows each caste in India is more similar to Asians than to Europeans but the similarity with Europeans increases with caste rank.While the Y-chromosome variation each caste was found to be more similar to Europeans than to Asians.The way this paper indirectly attempts to reach to the AIT conclusion is too sloppy and not only that, the Bamshad paper has remarkable inconsistencies of which I came to know from this article.
In contrast, I found a good number of papers in scientific and historical journals that point to no genetic discontinuity throughout ages and among tribal and caste populations. Most interesting is the fact that the great human migration that started from Africa some 50000 years ago had India as a stop-over point. Europe and Australia were populated by humans coming from India.This is a non-refutable scientific fact. So I guess, even if some study finds similarities between Indians and Europeans - it's pretty much natural, and not due to some imaginary invasion. In fact in current historical research, the "Out of India" theory is also being studied in the light of new linguistic and genetic insights; though nothing conclusive in this regards can be said as of now.
Here are some interesting links to articles and papers from journals that espouse my points mentioned above:
Genetic studies by Stephen Oppenheimer have shown that people moved into India from Africa initially and rest of the world population were descendants of this group. So if there was a
migration, it was from India to Europe and not the other way.
Genetic studies by Kivisild et al: Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene.
Macaulay et al., claim to have found evidence that there was only a single dispersal of modern humans from Africa and that this dispersal was through India. According to this account, several generations of the ancestors of all non-African people would have lived in India. The ancestors of Western Eurasians (including Europeans) would have spent several thousand years in India until the climate improved to allow them to migrate North and West out of India about 45000 years ago.
Studies by scientists in Calcutta with colleagues in other countries.
California School Textbooks Issue
Witzel's Lies
==========================================================
Continuing from previous posts - here and here, on the impossibility of the Aryan invasion, here is yet another post. That the AIT does not have any archaeological or literary basis - is now pretty well known in today's academic circles, still some iota of confusion or lack of clarity due to lack of knowledge can always be there - as far as non-experts are concerned.This iota stems from the differences in the skin-color and physical features of the people from the northern and southern parts of the country. This dissimilarity is often used over-zealously to claim that the Northerners are Aryans- outsiders and such crap stories.
And to add some scientific flavor to these theories some people claimed that some genetic study has shown higher degree of genetic closeness between upper caste north Indians and Europeans. Although it does not prove that there was any invasion , the AIT supporters used this to fit it in their story by saying the Aryans are of foreign origin. Why don't they consider the other possibility - that the foreigners have Indian origin !! Well that's another way to look at it indeed, and as I will mention in the following paragraphs, it is in fact proven by some geneticists!.
The genetic analysis do have a lot of importance. But the various genetic studies done have not produced identical results. For example, this particular paper by Bamshad et al(which is sometimes quoted as "proof" of foreign Aryans!) says that mtDNA analysis shows each caste in India is more similar to Asians than to Europeans but the similarity with Europeans increases with caste rank.While the Y-chromosome variation each caste was found to be more similar to Europeans than to Asians.The way this paper indirectly attempts to reach to the AIT conclusion is too sloppy and not only that, the Bamshad paper has remarkable inconsistencies of which I came to know from this article.
In contrast, I found a good number of papers in scientific and historical journals that point to no genetic discontinuity throughout ages and among tribal and caste populations. Most interesting is the fact that the great human migration that started from Africa some 50000 years ago had India as a stop-over point. Europe and Australia were populated by humans coming from India.This is a non-refutable scientific fact. So I guess, even if some study finds similarities between Indians and Europeans - it's pretty much natural, and not due to some imaginary invasion. In fact in current historical research, the "Out of India" theory is also being studied in the light of new linguistic and genetic insights; though nothing conclusive in this regards can be said as of now.
Here are some interesting links to articles and papers from journals that espouse my points mentioned above:
Genetic studies by Stephen Oppenheimer have shown that people moved into India from Africa initially and rest of the world population were descendants of this group. So if there was a
migration, it was from India to Europe and not the other way.
Genetic studies by Kivisild et al: Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene.
Macaulay et al., claim to have found evidence that there was only a single dispersal of modern humans from Africa and that this dispersal was through India. According to this account, several generations of the ancestors of all non-African people would have lived in India. The ancestors of Western Eurasians (including Europeans) would have spent several thousand years in India until the climate improved to allow them to migrate North and West out of India about 45000 years ago.
Studies by scientists in Calcutta with colleagues in other countries.
California School Textbooks Issue
Witzel's Lies
==========================================================
4 comments:
Nice read Tapas! Keep posting
--Rakesh
thanks Jazzy!
hey !
I had never looked at this side of the coin.
I read the proposition of Dr. Spencer Wells and I found that very convincing. Though I never thought of it as an invasion, but I used to think that there might have been a slight friction before the two settled for peace and started staying together.
but this is a very profound and nicely articulated work by you. I'm motivated to read more about this
@amrendra: yeah...i'hve read a lot on this topic...debunking of the invasion theory now common knowledge and accepted fact in history circles...except some communists and foreigners bent on belittling indians..
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