Ram:
I think evidence are strong for the Aryan Migration
Theory.
RB
------------------------------------------------------------
Summary
A 2001 examination of male
Y-DNA by Indian and American scientists [which also incidentally includes
Toomas Kivisild as one of the authors] indicated that higher castes
are genetically closer to West Eurasians than are individuals from lower
castes, whose genetic profiles are similar to other Asians. These results
indicate that at some point male West Eurasians provided a significant
genetic input into the higher castes, a result which supports the notion
that the caste system was an attempt by these predominantly male arrivals to
keep themselves separate from the native population. (http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrary/Bamshad_2001a.pdf
)
The genetic studies by Michael
J Bamshad and his team (2001) from University of Utah and Dr. Spencer Wells
(2003) give strong backing to the Aryan invasion/migration theory.
In the study by M.J Bamshad and his
team [4] they wrote, "Our results demonstrate that for biparentally
inherited autosomal markers, genetic distances between upper, middle, and
lower castes are significantly correlated with rank; upper castes are more
similar to Europeans than to Asians; and upper castes are significantly more
similar to Europeans than are lower castes."
(http://jorde-lab.genetics.utah.edu/elibrary/Bamshad_2001a.pdf
)
The genetic study involves the
analysis of genetic material known as the Mitochondrial DNA which is only
passed maternally and so it is used to study female inheritance. The
male-determining Y chromosome, is passed along paternally and is therefore
used to study male inheritance. The evidence implies that few millennia ago
group of males with (Eastern) European affinities invaded the Indian
subcontinent from the Northwest of the sub-continent.
The researchers went on to
state that genetic variations between upper castes and lower castes is the
evidence to the origin of the caste system. The people who were either
migrating or invading the sub-continent had descendants in the male
population largely in the higher castes than in the lower castes. The
researchers state that these invading or migrating people might have
instituted the caste system.
In the abstract to their paper
the researchers stated, "In the most recent of these waves, Indo-European
-speaking people from West Eurasia entered India from the Northwest and
diffused throughout the subcontinent. They purportedly admixed with or
displaced indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations. Subsequently they may
have established the Hindu caste system and placed themselves primarily in
castes of higher rank."
The study also revealed another
classic anthropological observation, that of women being significantly more
mobile in terms of caste and hierarchical class than men, who are almost not
socially mobile at all in terms of caste and hierarchical class. Genetic
evidence reveals that over millennia men have married women from lower
castes but women have rarely married men from lower castes. Thus the
researchers imply that caste and class to a large extent is perpetuated by
women and has also thereby contributed to the minimal mixing of Aryan blood
with the natives.
A study conducted by
Quintana-Murci [2000] present genetic evidence for the occurrence
of two major population movements, supporting a model
of demic diffusion of early farmers from southwestern
Iranand of pastoral nomads from western and central
Asiainto India, associated with Dravidian and
Indo-Europeanlanguage dispersals, respectively.
A study conducted by R Spencer
Wells et al focuses on the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome and
provide an insight into the earliest patterns of settlement of
anatomically modern humans on the Eurasian continent. Central
Asia is revealed to be an important reservoir of genetic
diversity, and the source of at least three major waves of
migration leading into Europe, the Americas, and India. The
genetic results are interpreted in the context of Eurasian
linguistic patterns.
In the 2003 study, Basu et al
provide genomic evidence that (1) there is an underlying unity of
female lineages in India, indicating that the initial number of
female settlers may have been small; (2) the tribal and the caste
populations are highly differentiated; (3) the Austro-Asiatic
tribals are the earliest settlers in India, providing support to
one anthropological hypothesis while refuting some others; (4) a
major wave of humans entered India through the northeast; (5) the
Tibeto-Burman tribals share considerable genetic commonalities
with the Austro-Asiatic tribals, supporting the hypothesis that
they may have shared a common habitat in southern China, but the
two groups of tribals can be differentiated on the basis of
Y-chromosomal haplotypes; (6) the Dravidian tribals were possibly
widespread throughout India before the arrival of the
Indo-European-speaking nomads, but retreated to southern India to
avoid dominance; (7) formation of populations by fission that
resulted in founder and drift effects have left their imprints on
the genetic structures of contemporary populations; (8) the upper
castes show closer genetic affinities with Central Asian
populations, although those of southern India are more distant
than those of northern India; (9) historical gene flow into India
has contributed to a considerable obliteration of genetic
histories of contemporary populations so that there is at present
no clear congruence of genetic and geographical or sociocultural
affinities.
In a recent research paper in
Current Biology, Cordaux et. al. confirms the Bamshad (2001) results and
concludes that the paternal lineages of Indian caste groups are primarily
descendants of Indo-European speakers who migrated from central Asia about
3,500 years ago. [cordaux:2004 ( http://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics/pdf/CordauxCurBiol2004.pdf
)]
Conclusion
The above summary and attached
documents are provided to demonstrate the selective promotion of research
material by the supporters of Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education
Foundation and the suppression of other, more recently available research
that undermines their thesis is reflective of their priorities in promoting
their ideological agendas over a factual, methodical and unbiased study of
history. Further, this desire by VF/HEF supporters to "prove" by any means
that Aryans are "indigenous" people directly relate to their contemporary
political agenda back in India of distinguishing the "indigenous Aryan
Hindus" from "foreign Muslim and Christian invaders" and thereby
characterizing India's Muslim and Christian minorities as "traitors" that
need to be marginalized and persecuted. It is disturbing to witness
how dangerously close these Hindu nationalist groups have come to
whitewashing California's school textbooks with their unsavory political
agendas.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006
7:52 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] US court retains
flawed Hinduism textbooks -HT/Indo-Asian News
Dear Rajiv,
That was an astute observation.
> thougt Aryan Migration is a widely accepted
theory .......Is this controversial? Has it >been debunked? I seem to
completely behing the curve on this topic.
I thought so too. Aparently, there have been several
'theories' being pushed forward these days.
One theory believes that the Aryans did invade India,
and all the knowledge/culture/etc was bestowed upon the Vedic Hindus - ie
basically that the higher caste Hindus (supposedly more
intelligent) were of Aryan stock, while others (non-Brahmins) were not.
The other theory obviously does not believe that. This theory is being
pushed by the some ardent Hindus. They believe that the knowledge/culture
always existed in Vedic times. The Aryans did NOT "invade" but did mingle
around and thus learned the knowledge from the Vedic Hindus.
The above two links, with opposing views, should have us more
confused.
It will be interesting to find out on which side of the asile netters
fall into (if at all).
--Ram da
On 9/5/06, Rajiv
Baruah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
Dear Ramda,
I saw your highlighted
portion ..."textbooks that
presented the debunked Aryan Migration Theory as fact".........
I thougt Aryan
Migration is a widely accepted theory .......Is this controversial? Has it
been debunked? I seem to completely behing the curve on this topic.
best regards
------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 05 Sep
2006 10:21:42 PM SGT
From: "Ram Sarangapani" <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: AssamNet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Assam] US
court retains flawed Hinduism textbooks - HT/Indo-Asian News
|
This is interesting. Highlights are mine.
_______________________
A California court has accepted a Hindu body's contention
that some textbooks with a flawed presentation of Hinduism were
approved improperly, but refused to throw them out of schools for
now.
A flawed approval process had resulted in textbooks
that presented the debunked Aryan Migration Theory as
fact, misrepresented caste as central to
Hinduism and left the impression that Hinduism
devalued the role of women, the Hindu American Foundation
(HAF) said in a press release.
The California Superior Court last week upheld HAF's claim that
the state School Board of Education (SBE) had followed a flawed
and illegal approval process for sixth grade textbooks.
But the court denied its demand that SBE be required to throw
out the currently approved textbooks and revisit the entire
textbook adoption process, it said.
In his ruling, Judge Patrick Marlette wrote the California SBE
has been conducting its textbook approval process under invalid
'underground regulations', but said the rejection of textbooks
would be disruptive not only to affected sixth graders, but
potentially every California public school student using any and
every textbooks.
So while the process followed in adopting the
contentious Hinduism sections, and all recently approved textbooks
in California, was illegal—as HAF had argued—the judge apparently
decided against a sweeping ruling that could open the door to
other lawsuits discarding textbooks in the most populous
state in the US, the release said.
As the immediate goal of revising textbooks was unmet, HAF
attorneys are considering their options for an appeal to force
revisions to the Hinduism section in the contested textbooks, it
said. |
|
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