Genetic Analysis
There have been several DNA studies examining caste and tribal populations of India. These seek to discover, in part, if there are racial origins to the caste system. These studies have so far failed to achieve a consensus, possibly because of the developing nature of genotyping science and technologies.
Several reports published between 1995 and 2005 propose that Indian tribal and caste population samples they studied, have similar genetic origins and have received limited gene input from outside India. These studies imply that racial differences may not have influenced caste system in India.
Other reports, also published between 1995 and 2007 find that there was gene flow from many migratory populations. These studies propose that people migrated into India through northwest as well as northeast. Prior to these waves of human migrations, India had a settled native population. People in northwest India, as well as upper castes in other parts of India, share more genetic material with central Asia, west Asia, and parts of Europe. People in northeast India share more genetic material with southeast Asia and East Asia. These genetic marker studies also find admixing between people and across castes was frequent and endogamy along caste lines may have been far less than what would be expected in a rigid caste system over thousands of years.
A 2009 article published in Nature finds strong evidence for at least two ancient populations in India, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. One, the Ancestral North Indians, who are genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans, whereas the other, the Ancestral South Indians, who are genetically distinct from Ancestral North Indians and East Asians as they are from each other. The study observes that genetic markers suggest endogamy within population clusters was prevalent in various Indian kingdoms over time. The report includes a novel method to estimate ancestry without accurate ancestral populations. With this method, the scientists show that Ancestral North Indians ancestry ranges from 39–71% in most Indian groups, and is higher in traditionally upper caste and Indo-European language speakers. Groups with only Ancestral South Indians ancestry may no longer exist in mainland India due to genetic pool mixing. However, the indigenous Andaman Islanders are unique in being Ancestral South Indians-related groups without Ancestral North Indians ancestry. This study suggests that caste system in India may have some relationship to historical migration of diverse people into Indian subcontinent.
A 2010 review claims that there are at least four population groups in diverse India. Other than Ancestral North Indians and Ancestral South Indians, the population consists of Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic and Andamanese genetic pools suggesting human beings migrated into India from Africa, Eurasia, Tibet and southeast Asia. The caste system in India is possibly a complex intra-group and inter-group admix of interactions between various population groups. The review paper notes that studies so far were based on small sample sets for the diversity in India. With the availability of new genotyping technologies, future diversity studies encompassing a large number of populations, both tribals and castes, at the genome-wide level may help understand patterns of micro-evolution of populations in India.
Read more about this topic: Caste System In India
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