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Genetic evidence on the origins of Indian castes.

M. Bamshad¹, T. Kivisild², W.S. Watkins¹, M.E. Dixon¹, B.B. Rao³, J.M. Naidu³, B.V.R. Prasad³, A. Rasanayagam⁴, S.S. Papiha⁵, R. Villems², L.B. Jorde¹. 1) Eccles Inst Human Genetics, Univ Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; 2) Inst of Mol and Cell Bio, Tartu Univ and Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; 3) Dept of Anthro, Andhra Univ, Andhra Pradesh, India; 4) Lab of Mol Systematics and Evol, Univ of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; 5) Dept of Human Genetics, Univ of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

The origins and affinities of the 1 billion people living on the Indian sub-continent have long been contested. Shared Indo-European languages (i.e., Hindi and most European languages) suggested to linguists that contemporary Indians are descendants of Caucasians who migrated from Western Eurasia (Europe, the Near East, Anatolia, and the Caucasus) 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. However, archaeological evidence of the diffusion of material culture from Western Eurasia into India has been limited. To reconcile the origin of Indian castes, we analyzed mtDNA and Y chromosome markers to estimate the genetic affinities of castes of varied status to world-wide populations. For maternally inherited mtDNA, the majority of Indian mtDNA lineages belong to an Indian-specific haplogroup, all castes show highest similarity with East Asians, and the level of European admixture with Indians is proportionate to caste rank. This is consistent with either the hypothesis that proportionately more West Eurasians became members of the upper castes at the inception of the caste hierarchy or that social stratification preceded the West Eurasian incursion and that West Eurasians tended to insert themselves into higher-ranking positions. In contrast to the mtDNA distances, the Y chromosome data do not demonstrate a closer affinity to East Asians for each caste group. Upper castes are more similar to Europeans than to East Asians. This is consistent with sex-specific differences in levels of admixture, with males with European affinities contributing proportionately more than females to upper castes. We conclude that Indians are largely of proto-Asian origin, and admixture with West Eurasians was recent and limited in scope. Nevertheless this admixture resulted in rank-related and sex-specific differences in the genetic affinities of castes to East Asians and Europeans.

Source:
http://www.faseb.org/genetics/ashg99/f1077.htm

Also:
http://www.raceandhistory.com/catch/GoogleIndianscaste.html

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