(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Devdutt Pattanaik, a renowned writer who specialises in mythology and culture, simplifies the complex history of migration of genes and language.) In order to understand culture, we need to understand people. In order to understand India, we need to understand Indians. Where did Indians come from? Did we evolve on Indian soil or did we come from elsewhere? All humans originated in Africa. The First Indians were part of the Out of Africa migration that took place 60,000 years ago. Before that, there were many unsuccessful migrations of human-like creatures, which is why we find 150,000-year-old stone tools in Tamil Nadu. The Narmada skull is even older, from 1.8 million to 200,000 years ago, belonging to those who preceded modern Homo sapiens. But it was 60,000 years ago that modern humans first came to India and travelled along the sea-coast down to Southeast Asia. These early people probably used retroflex sounds (ट ठ ड ढ ण ळ ) while speaking, which we still use in India today. The same sounds can be heard amongst Australian aborigines even today. You do not find these sounds in the rest of the world anymore. Major migrations in India We need to separate migration from travelling — monks, merchants, etc. Migration is related to finding a new home. For example, the Parsi community migrated to India from Iran about a thousand years ago to escape religious persecution. People migrate for economic reasons, seeking job opportunities, or for political reasons, to avoid threats. When there is a shift in population, people change. With marriage, language and culture change. The next major migration into India happened 10,000 years ago with ancestors of the Iranian farmers crossing the Hindu Kush mountains and sparking the agricultural revolution in the Indus Valley. They grew barley and wheat, herded goats and sheep. Locally, people domesticated water buffalo and the humped ‘zebu’ bull. From here, over 4,500 years ago, the Harappan Civilisation flourished. The Harappan people spread in a Z-pattern, first west towards the Ganga river valley, then east along Narmada and then south along the western coast. Genetics and Indo-European migrations From genetic studies we know that a new group entered India around 3,800 years ago — the Indo-Europeans, who originally came from the Steppes, north of the Caspian Sea. These people took domesticated horses with them to Europe and to Central Asia. In Central Asia, this group split up again, one part moving towards India, the other towards Iran. Largely men, they brought in a new technology — chariots — and a new language — Sanskrit. This explains why the Persian of Iran, Sanskrit of India and Latin of Europe have similar words and grammar. This grammar is very different from the grammar of Dravidian languages spoken in South India. South India saw the migration of Harappan people nearly 4,000 years ago. One indication of the presence of the Steppe pastoral gene is the ability to digest milk well into adulthood. Adults in North and West of India have the ability to digest milk. The milk-digesting lactase enzyme found in all children persists into adulthood. But many adults in the East and South of India cannot do so. This indicates the absence of the Steppe pastoral gene. Some refer to the Steppe pastoral gene as the Aryan gene, but this stirs too many emotions. Some other migrations There was also a migration that came from the East — the Austro-Asiatic ‘Munda’ people who brought in wet-rice farming with them from Southeast Asia (Vietnam). Even today, there is a genetic variation between East (Magadha region) and West (Maharashtra region), with more Munda genes in the East and more Steppe genes in the West. The languages, too, are different. For example, in Hindi, verbs are gendered (मैं आता हूँ, मैं आती हूँ). In Bengali and Odia, it isn’t. Many migrations took place after this. From 300 BC to 300 AD, it was the Greeks (Yavanas), the Scythians (Sakas), the Parthians (Pallavas), and the Kushanas. After the 10th century, it was the Turks and Afghans. They were all from people of a similar genetic makeup, so when they migrate we do not find a stark shift in the genetics, but there is a remarkable shift in the culture. Language Around 300 BC, the court language was Prakrit. After 500 AD, the court language became Sanskrit. After 1200 AD, the court language became Persian (Farsi). After 1800, the official language became English. Since 1947, there have been efforts to make Hindi the dominant official language, but every state in India has its own official language. We see a domination of North India, especially Hindi, over the rest of India simply because the fertile Ganga river basin is home to nearly 50% of India’s population. This was the home of Vedic culture, which they migrated out beyond the Vindhyas, about 2000 years ago. But that is another story. Post Read Question What do genetic studies tell us about the migration of Indo-Europeans into India? Migration plays a key role in bringing diversity to language and culture. Comment. In what ways Sanskrit is linked with Persian and Latin? (Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.) 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