THE TIMES OF INDIA
Mumbai, Monday,
May 21, 2001
Upper
caste Indian male more European, says study
By Chidanand
Rajghatta
WASHINGTON: The
upper caste Indian male population is genetically closer to Europeans than the
lower castes. Which are more "Asian," according to a potentially
controversial new study being published in the forthcoming issue of the journal
Human Genome.
The authors of the study say their
findings support historical data indicating that last 10,000 years were mostly
male. An analysis of the genetic material also shows that the "ancestors
of India men and women came from different parts of the world," says
Michael Bamstad of the University of Utah, who led the research group.
The researchers say this difference in
gender and genetic makeup may also hold the key to the origin of the caste
system. The migrating of invading male population left descendents in the
higher than lower castes and may have even devised the caste system. Bamstad
said in an interview with this correspondent on Thursday.
Bamstad's study showed that each caste's mitochondrial DNA,
which is derived from the mother only, has a greater similarity to Asians than
to Europeans, but the upper castes show less similarity than do the lower
castes.
Conversely, Y-chromosome data, derived from the
father only, show each caste more similar Europeans, with the upper
castes being most similar, probably because more Eurasian males migrated to
India than did Eurasian females.
Such a finding could also imply that the women
of the sub-continent are more Indian than are men.
To "increase the power of the
study," Bamstad and his associates also examined 40 additional genes that
are inherited from the father and the mother. All of these data strongly
supported the conclusion that upper castes have a higher genetic similarity to
Europeans than do lower castes, the study says.
"These are potentially controversial
results," Bamstad said. "But we are able to demonstrate unequivocally
that the upper castes are more similar to Europeans than lower castes, and that
women are more mobile-mostly upwardly -in the caste system."
The study in fact says the genetic distance is closest
between Europeans and Brahmins (0.10), followed by Kashatrivas (0.12) and
Vaishyas (0.16).
"Assuming that contemporary Europeans
reflect West Eurasian affinities, these data indicate that the amount at West
Eurasian admixture with Indian population may have been proportionate to caste
rank, the study says.
Bamstad’s collaborators in the study
include researchers from the Andhra
University, University of Madras and the Anthropological Survey of India. The
group has done work in this area before. In a previously published paper in
Nature magazine, Bamstad's team said each Indian caste had developed a
distinctive genetic profile, particularly among men, and more so when there was
little intermarriage. But the women's genes suggested greater social mobility.
The discovery suggests that women on
occasion marry men from higher castes producing children that have their
husband's social rank, the researchers said, claiming the stratification of the
Hindu caste system is driven by women."
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