The four prehistoric migrations that shaped Indian demography and population structure

Recent advances in population genetics, especially in sequencing DNA
from people who lived thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, have
brought much clarity to how populations were formed in many parts of
the world. This lecture will combine evidence from these ancient DNA
studies, along with findings from other disciplines including archaeology and linguistics, to try
to paint a cohesive picture of the way Indian population was formed out of four major migrations: the out-of-Africa migrants who reached India around 65,000 years ago; the West Asian
migrants from the Zagros region of today’s Iran, who arrived around 9000 years ago; the East
Asian migrants who brought Austro-Asiatic languages to India around 4000 years ago; and
the migrants from the central Asian Steppes who brought Indo-European languages to India
between 4000 and 3000 years ago. The speaker will touch upon the questions that are yet to be
answered relating to Indian demography and population structure.