Early Indians

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Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From
AuthorTony Joseph
CountryIndia
LanguageEnglish
SubjectHuman population genetics
GenrePopular science
PublisherJuggernaut Books
Publication date
20 December 2018
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages256
ISBN938622898X

Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From is a 2018 nonfiction book written by Indian journalist Tony Joseph,[1][2][3] that focuses on the ancestors of people living in South Asia today.[4][5] Joseph goes 65,000 years into the past[6]—when anatomically modern humans first made their way from Africa into the Indian subcontinent.[7][8][9] The book relies on research findings from six major disciplines: history, archaeology, linguistics, population genetics, philology, and epigraphy, and includes path-breaking ancient DNA research of recent years.[10][11] It also relies on the extensive study titled "The Genomic Formation of Central and South Asia", co-authored by 92 scientists from around the world and co-directed by geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School, in which ancient DNA was used.[12][13][14] The book has been translated into Tamil, Hindi, Odia, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Gujarati, and other languages.[15][16][17]

Description[edit]

The book discusses four prehistoric migrations in India.[18][19] It posits that the Harappans were a mixture of Zagros agriculturists (from the modern-day Iran area) and First Indians,[20] a wave of migrants who came from Africa into Arabia and then reached India around 65,000 years ago.[21][22] Citing recent DNA evidence, the book traces the subsequent large migrations of anatomically modern humans into India—of agriculturalists from Iran between 7000 and 3000 BCE and Indo-European-speaking pastoralists from the Central Asian Steppe (Aryans) between 2000 and 1000 BCE,[23] among others.[24][25] Joseph uses the layers of a pizza as a metaphor to explain the makeup of subcontinental society.[26]

The book also discusses similarities and differences between the Indus Valley civilization and early Vedic civilization.[27][28] It mentions that "Aryan" culture was most likely the result of interaction, adoption, and adaptation among those who brought Indo-European languages to India and those who were already well-settled inhabitants of the region, and that Sanskrit and the Vedas developed in the Indian subcontinent.[29] According to Joseph, Proto-Dravidian is related to the Elamitic language of Iran.[30] The caste system in India is a recent social system, reflected in sharply reduced inter-marriage and genetic mixing after 100 AD. The book also takes into account the path-breaking DNA research and findings by geneticist David Reich.[31]

Reception[edit]

Early Indians was well received by readers and many critics.[32] Sujatha Byravan wrote in The Hindu that the book tells a compelling story of our forefathers based on genetic evidence.[33] Bangladeshi-American writer Razib Khan opined that the book presents a clear understanding of early Indians.[34] Swaminathan Aiyar of The Times of India thought that the book helps us understand how all Indians have African, Harappan, and Steppe Asian genes in different doses.[35] Author Gurcharan Das said that the book helps us understand that Indians are composed of a large number of small populations.[36] Kesavan Veluthat of The Hindu stated that the book shows a firm basis on which the study of Indian history can begin. This is of especial importance in the context of the post-truth conditions of the present, when myth-making seeks to replace authentic knowledge.[37] In June 2019, Indian geneticists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology reviewed Early Indians in the journal Current Science and praised Joseph for synthesizing the chronology of the movement of modern humans into the Indian subcontinent from the first "out-of-Africa" humans to recent migrants, citing new findings from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and genetics.[38] Nobel Prize-winning structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan described the book as a "very readable account".[citation needed]

Awards[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "A Question of Identity". 9 February 2019.
  2. ^ Joseph, Tony (23 December 2018). "The first Indians". The Hindu.
  3. ^ Joseph, Tony (13 September 2019). "New reports clearly confirm 'Arya' migration into India". The Hindu.
  4. ^ "Can the arrival of the Aryans in India explain the disconnect between Harappan and Vedic culture?". 25 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Where Do We Actually Come From? 'Early Indians' Author Explains". 13 April 2019.
  6. ^ "RSS Chief Uses Debunked Myths to Hold Up Dangerous Fantasy of a 'Pure Race'". 20 December 2021.
  7. ^ Byravan, Sujatha (19 January 2019). "'Early Indians' review: Who we are and where do we come from". The Hindu.
  8. ^ "Excerpt: These Rocks in MP Reveal Secrets to Our Origin as Indians". 5 February 2019.
  9. ^ "'We are a multisource civilisation, not unisource': Tony Joseph". 7 September 2019.
  10. ^ "Early Indians on hindsight". 27 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Video The story of our ancestors and where we came from: A masterclass with author Tony Joseph". 7 April 2020.
  12. ^ "1 The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia" (PDF).
  13. ^ "How We, The Indians, Came to Be". April 2018.
  14. ^ "How Science Has Destroyed the Foundation of RSS' Idea of India". 14 May 2019.
  15. ^ "Hindi edition".
  16. ^ Marathi Edition. ASIN 9390085055.
  17. ^ Tamil Kindle edition. Manjul Publishing House Pvt. 10 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Four prehistoric migrations shaped India's population". The Economic Times. 29 December 2018.
  19. ^ "The x, y and gene of pre-historic India". 15 February 2019.
  20. ^ "How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India". BBC News. 30 December 2018.
  21. ^ "The battle over the early Indians".
  22. ^ Zimmer, Carl (17 October 2016). "How the First Farmers Changed History". The New York Times.
  23. ^ "We Are All Migrants, We Are All Mixed: Tony Joseph, Author of 'Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors...'".
  24. ^ "Migrant Nation".
  25. ^ "Horse sense on Harappa: An excerpt from Tony Joseph's book "Early Indians"".
  26. ^ "We are like pizza. Early Indians were just the base: Tony Joseph". The Hindu. 25 January 2019.
  27. ^ "How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate". The Hindu. 16 June 2017.
  28. ^ "Too early to settle the Aryan migration debate?". The Hindu. 12 July 2017.
  29. ^ "Examining the evidence for 'Aryan' migrations into India: The story of our ancestors and where we came from". 28 December 2018.
  30. ^ "Who built the Indus Valley civilisation?". The Hindu. 22 December 2017.
  31. ^ "From the Aryan migration to caste, two books offer fascinating insights into India's ancient past". 30 December 2018.
  32. ^ ""Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From" by Tony Joseph". 10 January 2019.
  33. ^ Byravan, Sujatha (19 January 2019). "'Early Indians' review: Who we are and where do we come from". The Hindu.
  34. ^ "Review: The Indians Before India".
  35. ^ Aiyar, S. A. "So much for Hindu Rashtra". The Economic Times.
  36. ^ Das, Gurcharan. "Who are we Indians? Genetics is bringing bad news for the politics of identity: We are all migrants". The Times of India.
  37. ^ "Of India's genetic roots". 17 July 2019.
  38. ^ "Book Review Current Science Early Indians" (PDF).
  39. ^ "Best non-fiction books of the decade". The Hindu. 28 December 2019.
  40. ^ "Writer Shanta Gokhale Honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award at Tata Literature Live".
  41. ^ "Tony Joseph's Early Indians wins Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2019". 2 December 2019.
  42. ^ "Four authors get Atta Galatta-BLF awards". 10 November 2019.
  43. ^ "10 Best New Prehistory Books to Read in 2020".
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