Razib Khan on Genetic landscape of the Indian-subcontinent - Urban Chatterati

Geneticist Razib Khan talks about the genetic landscape of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and also touches upon recent developments in American politics.

[patmclaughlin]

Very knowledgeable person. I learned a lot. Thank you, Razib and Abhinav.

[xgysbbe]

For people commenting here, please note that Dr. Khan is commenting on the genetic landscape of India, and not Aryan Invasion (even though he commented on this frankly when asked) . AIT/AMT is largely a linguistic issue, as is OIT, and not a genetic one. However, we need to take a multi-disciplinary approach to learning about our ancient history.
I appeal to people to be more precise when commenting or you risk inadvertently supporting views you don't mean to support! Also, be open and read more on the subject vs just watching videos if you are truly interested, no matter what position you take.

[akshatvishal]

Kashmiris are genetically more closer to the UP people... Mind blowing revelation

[sudhanshusharan]

Wonderful interview. Razib is brilliant

[ppchowdhury]

If there is 30 % steppe ancestry in the Northern part of India, how that necessarily mean that people came to India from steppes and introduced the gene? Why it cannot be the case that somebody from India went to steppes and populated the area resulting in what we know as Steppe gene? Can gene study alone determine the direction?

[ppchowdhury]

The fact is that Indic civilization is not based on some racial/ ethnic or religious homogeneity. It's mainly Western concept. The basis of Indic/ Sanatan civilization is based on certain sense of looking at life in a very fundamental way. That itself is an embodiment of a number of cultures, languages, foods, facial feature but connected/related by a very fundamental spiritual aspect. Also the spread of Indic civilization was much wider than the modern day country of India. For example, Afghanistan was a very much part of Indic civilization as say Madhya Pradesh. Even the pre Islamic Arabs use to worship idols (Al Lat, Al Urza, Manat etc). The concept of religious homogeneity as a basis of civilization became more prominent over the years with Christianity and Islam

[zulu]

Abhinav brother, wonderful questions, such insightful interview, what a gem, thanks mate for all the info and effort

[zulu]

So technically indians are different races categorised within castes, as much as I enjoy the revival of Hinduism and Hindu culture, tall claims by not so genetically literate people regarding continuum of genetic signature in all of india by way of common people never made sense to me, this is much more nuanced approach, probably quite dangerous in the hands of southern regionalists groups but it is what it is

[anuragsharma]

I think steepe people were already quite mixed before further mixing amd then stopped mixing!

[mandy]

India was cosmopolitan 2000 years ago and caste became dominant about 1500 years ago

[bindruk]

Hey isnt this the same guy who built or was building a South Asian genetic database called the Harappa Project ?

Oh my god ! I have been following his work since 2000 s . This is an amazing add to the chanel. Wonderful to get this guy on board. He is an out and out expert in his subject.

[danteify]

Around 10:11, Razib is talking about vysya (or Komati Chettiars) of Andhra who are a mercantile group

[hdthor]

The rapid admixture in ancient North India from both the Steppe (north) and ASI (south) could indicate that its ancient society was economically advanced and therefore had many immigrants from all directions, not unlike how the USA attracts immigrants from all directions. And they were likely open to newcomers, again not unlike the USA.

Were these newcomers just on the Y haplogroups, or on mtDNA as well?

[GauravKumar-xeoi]

I think rice regions of India (Bengal, Odisha, North East) have some South east Asian ancestry. Also hindi itself become more tonal when you move east wards. That's why hindi spoken in North west is called Khari boli. We know that East Asian languages are known for tonal features. When we typically visualize how India was peopled we think of various people coming from western asia in various migratory waves resulting broadly in ANI, ASI. Then lately some tibetan genes came from Himalayan tops. Razib rightly emphasized South east asian genes coming from east and penetrating deeply into India and not just in frontiers areas.

[schaudhurikol]

A lot of Bangladeshis like Razib mentioned and East Bengalis in India have East Asian ancestry as their ancestors came from Myanmar, Thailand and South East China. Even today it is visible in some of their facial features.

[RajKGajjela]

interesting discussion.. Perhaps the timing matches with drying up of saraswati river and people were forced to migrate to inland india
What abt kalash people? It would be better if you have a discussion panel with the likes of raj vedam, dr.indu viswanathan, shrikanth talegiri who have somewhat differing take on Indian genetic pool. Nonetheless, great video

[sarahmughal]

18:51- some city hindu groups on the west coast? Which coast and which groups exactly?

[pranavkumar]

Very fascinating ! Please do more such shows !

[akashsinghal]

What about factoring in how much diversity r1a has in indian population vis-vis european-west asian population?
That data as brought out by Dr Neeraj Rai indicates much diversity in indian subcontinent as compared to outside- which then again strengthens the out of india theory.
Also segregation of populations among the ancestral south indian and ancestral north indian could be attributed to human civilisations being mostly drawn towards soil fertility. Which in north india is based around the ancient sapt sindhu and ganga-yamuna belt and in down south pretty much most of it being deeper black soil area. So the segregation could be a result of a lot of central india being non-agrarian forrest dwelling. Which also matches with geographical descriptions in texts of ramayana and mahabharata- which are now proven to be atleast geographically accurate.

[Drganguli]

Endogamy is not a good thing from a medical perspective