Genetic evidence reveals origin of India's caste system

[rkt.india]

New Delhi, Aug. 9 (ANI): A recent study has revealed that the present caste system persisting in the Indian population is the result of a recent population mixture among divergent demographic groups. Scientists from Harvard Medical School and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad have provided evidence that modern-day India is an admixture of various groups. India has transformed from a country where mixture between different populations was rampant to one where endogamy, marrying within the local community, became the norm. David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, said that the caste system in India has been around for a long time, but it was not there since its inception. Reich's 2009 study, based on an analysis of 25 different Indian population groups, found out that how all populations in India showed evidence of a genetic mixture of two ancestral groups, Ancestral North Indians (ANI), related to Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians (ASI), primarily from the subcontinent. Originally when the ANI and ASI populations mixed, the chromosomal segments would have been extremely long. However, after mixture these segments would have broken up at one or two places per chromosome, per generation, recombining the maternal and paternal genetic material that occurs during the production of egg and sperm. The authors were thus able to obtain precise estimates of the age of population mixture by measuring the lengths of the segments of ANI and ASI ancestry in Indian genomes. They concluded that major ANI-ASI mixture occurred about 1,900-4,200 years ago. The most remarkable aspect of the ANI-ASI mixture is how pervasive it was because it affected not just traditionally upper-caste groups, but also traditionally lower-caste and isolated tribal groups, all of whom seem to be united in their history of mixture in the past few thousand years. Lalji Singh, former researcher in the CSIR- CCMB, said: "The fact that every population in India evolved from randomly mixed populations suggests that social classifications like the caste system are not likely to have existed in the same way before the mixture happened." The researchers also observed that once established, the caste system became genetically effective, and mixture across groups became very rare. Kumarasamy Thangaraj, of the CSIR-CCMB, said: "An important consequence of these results is that the high incidence of genetic and population-specific diseases that is characteristic of present-day India is likely to have increased only in the last few thousand years when groups in India started following strict endogamous marriage." (ANI)

http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail9/story124816/genetic-evidence-reveals-origin-of-india-039-s-caste-system.html

[KFC_Zinger]

One more thread on caste system...

[FischerTal]

on one hand they say, the caste system became genetically effective, but on the other, it says the caste system is responsible for genetic and population-specific diseases :hmmm:

[diga]

on one hand they say' date='[b'] the caste system became genetically effective, but on the other, it says the caste system is responsible for genetic and population-specific diseases :hmmm:

Hmm... Definately thats not true. Have you heard of Haemophilia? Its prevalent mostly among Royals as they intermarry only among themselves. Genetic diversity is always good

[FischerTal]

Hmm... Definately thats not true. Have you heard of Haemophilia? Its prevalent mostly among Royals as they intermarry only among themselves. Genetic diversity is always good

it says that in the article, so maybe its a mistake :dontknow:

[surajmal]

Getting past the wrong definition of ANI, so the "caste" system started taking form during the Buddhist phase of Bharat? Here I thought Tathagat was some sort of saviour.:winky:

[The Outsider]

They are fools wasting their time - ICF experts on the origin of the caste system like Detonator, Raghav, and surajmal had it all figured out in an earlier thread.

[surajmal]

They are fools wasting their time - ICF experts on the origin of the caste system like Detonator' date=' Raghav, and surajmal had it all figured out in an earlier thread.[/quote'] This actually puts a nail in the conventional thinking.

[FischerTal]

Outy v Surajmal..... On one corner, Lucknow ke bhaiyyaji and on another corner, Suryavanshi Rajput... kon jitega ye muqabla

[The Outsider]

This actually puts a nail in the conventional thinking.

The point is that the origin of the caste system is hardly a solved puzzle, not which particular hypothesis this research supports. In any case, I found this to be a poorly written article. Maybe some better article or summary will give a better idea about the research and its conclusions.

[surajmal]

The point is that the origin of the caste system is hardly a solved puzzle' date= not which particular hypothesis this research supports. In any case, I found this to be a poorly written article. Maybe some better article or summary will give a better idea about the research and its conclusions.

Naturally. Half baked theories are acceptable when they support own case but accepting anything less than a smoking gun from the opposition is unacceptable. As I keep saying, work is being done to undo the damage done by Congis and marxist historians. It is only a matter of time... Here is another piece of research that some may find interesting: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929711004885 Part 1 of Reich et al's research: http://genetics.med.harvard.edu/reich/Reich_Lab/Welcome_files/2009_Nature_Reich_India.pdf

[akshayxyz]

Hmm... Definately thats not true. Have you heard of Haemophilia? Its prevalent mostly among Royals as they intermarry only among themselves. Genetic diversity is always good

padosi's are ahead of everyone on that front...(donkeys, goats and stuff)

[SLICKR392]

Another caste thread.