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We are a band of all male migrants from Central Asia. Don't ask why we left our women behind.
Image: The Hindu
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The colonial history writers were fascinated by
the ancient Indian literature, especially the Rigveda. Translations were done
and they realised that the text speaks of non-existent rivers and strange fire
sacrifices, which people no longer performed. It also laid out elaborate
procedures, including complex geometrical altars, to carry out the fire
rituals. All this seemed too sophisticated for the uncivilised Indians to have
mastered. Then came the chance discovery of remains of an ancient civilisation
in Harappa, now in Pakistan. The discovery, in 1856, of burnt brick wells and
brick walls was made by following the leads from local folklore. The engineers
laying the East India Railway Company’s tracks from Karachi to Lahore used the
four thousand year old bricks to lay ballast along the track.
It was not until 1921 that a proper excavation
of Harappa began. The missionary zeal to civilize the Indians and the concept
of racial superiority together with justifying colonial occupation of India
gave birth to the Aryan invasion theory of the old civilisation excavated in
Harappa. The Aryans were said to be “fair skinned warriors” who came on horses
and destroyed the Indus civilisation. With them they brought Sanskrit and the
Vedas. The Aryan Invasion theory was based on a finding of a little over forty
skeletons on the streets of Mohenjo-Daro. The rest of historiography followed
the Aryan Dravidian discourse and in mid twentieth century we even saw a
“Dravidian political movement”. Almost all political parties of Tamil Nadu
today have “Dravid” in their name.
Then came the genetic and DNA studies and the
absence of any form of weapons at the IVC sites that destroyed the Aryan
Invasion theory. The Aryan Invasion Theory became the Aryan Migration Theory.
Mitochondrial DNA study suggested there was no evidence of any intermixing of
genes from outside India (or the subcontinent). The debate seemed to have
settled for good, until now. A recent paper published in the BMC Evolutionary
Biology, titled “A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points
to heavily sex-biased dispersals” has once again
opened the debate. The study now claims to have settled the question beyond any
doubt, as this article in The Hindu
claims. According to this new study the Y-Chromosome data was studied together
with Ancient DNA on a worldwide canvas. The study concludes that there was a
strong, male-driven genetic influx from Central Asia into India during the
Bronze Age.
The Study establishes that there was an influx from
Central Asia and it coincides with the decline of Indus Valley Civilization and
rise of the Vedic civilization, based on a strict caste system. The study puts
the overall prevalence of haplogroup R1a at 17.5% in the Indian population, up
to 50% in Indo-European speakers and 14% in South India. The study however
leaves many unanswered questions. The most important one being, why was there a
“male-driven” migration? There is plenty of evidence of sex-biased migration in
animals and birds. But humans are a different story altogether. Evidence
suggest that human migration has always been in small bands of 20 – 50 or 50 –
100. These numbers were minimum requirements for either hunting large game or
for pastoral activities. We also know that the family was always the smallest
unit of the band. Why would a large band of men migrate from Central Asian
Steppes to plains of India? And how could they pass on their genes to 17.5% of
the Indian population and 50% to the Indo-European speakers?
Long distance migrations usually do not happen the
way we see them today. The migration process must have been a very slow one.
The Central Asian migrants moving from one place to the next and passing on
their genes to the local population, could not have happened in a span of few
years. The population of Bronze Age Central Asia would not have been larger
than the Indus Valley’s. To populate 50% of the population would have been a
difficult task and would have required a lot of men.
The idea here is not to negate the scientific findings
of the paper. Science definitely comes up with more powerful evidence than
ideology. The study itself refrains from deriving conclusions based on
linguistic groups. But what explains the high concentration of the Haplogroup
R1a in northern and northwestern India? Did the incoming “Aryans” bring
Sanskrit and Veda with them? We can only speculate.
It is likely that there was a high prevalence of
endogamy, post the alleged migration, among the Indo-European speakers that led
to concentration of the R1a haplogroup. On account of the “Aryans” and their
language being an import is highly unlikely. For starters, a sophisticated
civilization like that of Indus Valley is unlikely to be influenced by a band
of Central Asian Nomads. The geography, flora and fauna described in Rigveda
are exclusively of Sub-continental origin, implying that either the Rigveda
existed before the “Aryans” arrived on their horses in the Indus plains or it
was written by the “Aryans” many centuries after they arrived on their horses.
Both these assumptions upset a lot of other established beliefs. In case the
Rigveda existed before the Central Asian influx then Sanskrit was a language in
use already. So there goes the belief of an Indo-European root from Central
Asia. In case the Rigveda was composed centuries later (once the “Aryans” got
used to the geography and gave up their barbaric lifestyle and got exposed to
concepts of contemplation, philosophy and rituals), the description of Vedic
geography does not hold good. It is now accepted that the Saraswati (mentioned
extensively in Rigveda) started drying up in third millennium BCE and
completely dried up towards the end of second millennium BCE. Much before the
horse riding Aryans arrived.
The article in The Hindu puts a seal of finality on
the conclusion. But the research itself puts in a disclaimer saying the
Y-chromosome studies are in a nascent stage, unlike the mitochondrial DNA
studies. Whatever the truth be, it is definitely far from known.
