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Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

Tony Joseph

4.37 · Rating details · 1,365 ratings · 284 reviews

Who are we Indians ? Where did we come from ? Many of us believe our ancestors have lived in South Asia since 'time immemorial'. But, as it turns out, 'time immemorial' may not have been all that long ago. To tell us the story of our ancestry, journalist Tony Joseph goes 65,000 years into the past—when a band of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, first made their way from Afr ...more

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Published December 18th 2018 by Juggernaut Publication (first published December 2018)

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Mar 26, 2019 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it

Indians are a people who are always a bit confused about their identity as “Indians” – maybe because the nation itself is a relatively recent construct (not ignoring the mythical “Bharata”) and the regional and caste identities are more strongly embedded. Ever since the West discovered the mystic East, there have been attempts to create an Indian past which is wholly spiritual – based on the mythical, Vedic “Aryan” – by the proponents of the enlightenment. In colonial times, this “Aryan” became ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Abhinav Gupta rated it it was amazing

India has had a weird relationship with its history prior to Mauryan empire. History by its nature is imprecise but, in this case, confusion is compounded by the fact that Harappan script remains undeciphered and there are very few archaeological remains of Vedic society. The confusion has only been furthered by ideologically motivated or imaginative thinkers who have colored this phase of history with their own agendas. Top example remains forcibly trying to conflate Harrapans with Vedic societ ...more

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Feb 27, 2019 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it it was amazing

Everyone in our subcontinent - Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis - please read EARLY INDIANS by Tony Joseph. Understand where we're coming from, how rich and diverse our roots are and how superficial our divisions are. And it's all based on scientific evidence, not ideological wishful thinking. ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Raghu rated it it was amazing

As India enters the third decade of the twenty-first century, one would presume that modern science would form the focus of an emerging nation of young people, like India. But, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced medical research do not dominate the conversations. Instead, India is bogged down by questions such as 'who is acceptable as an Indian citizen,' and 'how to build a very tall temple in Ayodhya', etc. The ruling elite is busy pushing the idea of 'one nation, one lang ...more

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Mar 23, 2019 Mr. ALC rated it did not like it

Tony Joseph’s new book “Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From” attempts to sell the colonial Aryan Invasion Theory's insidious 21st-century version - the Aryan Migration Myth - on the basis of racist, Hinduphobic Harvard geneticist David Reich’s thoroughly discredited research.

The legendary Russian archaeologist Leo Klejn has thoroughly debunked Reich’s pro-AIT research.

The New York Times has exposed Reich’s dubious, deeply flawed research methodology, alleged unethica ...more

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May 26, 2020 Sajith Kumar rated it liked it

Two terms that refer to linguistic groups are widely misunderstood in India and taken to be racial denominators that split the country into two demographic zones in the north and the south. We know them as ‘Aryan’ and ‘Dravidian’. The former is broadly associated with the north and the latter with the south, more commonly in the state of Tamil Nadu. Scholars are divided on the issue of paternity of the Harappan Civilization (2500 – 1900 BCE) that marked the foundation of later socio-religious de Two terms that refer to linguistic groups are widely misunderstood in India and taken to be racial denominators that split the country into two demographic zones in the north and the south. We know them as ‘Aryan’ and ‘Dravidian’. The former is broadly associated with the north and the latter with the south, more commonly in the state of Tamil Nadu. Scholars are divided on the issue of paternity of the Harappan Civilization (2500 – 1900 BCE) that marked the foundation of later socio-religious development in India. A few scholars argue that Harappa was made possible by Aryan effort and the Vedic literature was composed there. Dravidian scholars indignantly claim that the Harappan culture was a Dravidian one which was destroyed by the Aryans who then set the inhabitants on an exodus to the south. Literary, archeological and epigraphic evidence could not break the stalemate even now. This book comes up with genetic data to finally decide what is what. Tony Joseph is a columnist and contributor to leading newspapers and magazines. He is also a former editor of Businessworld’.No formal training in history or archeology is mentioned in any of the personal introductions of the author found online.

Joseph banks on the recently acquired ability of scientific establishment to successfully extract and analyse DNA from ancient fossils and map its genome. This helps to compare it with modern DNA and find out the era in which they diverged genetically. It has also produced some truly astounding conclusions. It is gratifying to learn that DNA evidence is conclusive that humans originated in Africa and all of them now living outside that continent are descendants of a single population of migrants who moved out of Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago. A group among them reached India too and the author calls them ‘First Indians’. They mixed with later entrants but serve as bedrock of genetic ancestry to all modern Indians. But there are closer direct descendants to them, with little mixing with later societies. The Onge tribe in Little Andamans, numbering about 100 souls, is the closest relative of the First Indians. However, the author suggests to Indians a simple method to physically view the other descendants of the First Indians – look at a mirror. Genetic data brings to light more interesting facts about the ancestry of modern Indians. 70-90 per cent of people in the current Indian population originated from a single woman among the First Indians who arrived 65,000 years ago, while only 10-40 per cent can trace their descent to a single man in that society. This means that most of the later migrations were sexually biased towards the male.

India witnessed further migrations, but the author identifies the influx of Iranian agriculturists from the Zagros Mountains in 7000-3000 BCE as the first notable wave after the event that happened 65,000 years ago. These people (Joseph calls them Dravidians) introduced the art of agriculture in India. The earliest agricultural experiment took place in a 200-hectare area in the remote village of Mehrgarh in Balochistan around 7000-2600 BCE. The next wave occurred in the interval 2000-1000 BCE. Multiple waves of steppe pastoralists calling themselves Aryans from central Asia brought Indo-European languages and new cultural practices to south Asia. If the author is to be believed, these two migrations account for the ancestry of 95 per cent of the modern Indian population. Scientific studies repeatedly show that the genetic imprint of the First Indians is carried by all castes and tribes of the country in all regions and all linguistic groups. This is unique to India in the world. The author is careful not to antagonize powerful public opinion. Instead of using misnomers like Aryan and Dravidian, he uses expressions such as Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI) where in fact he should have plainly stated that we are the result of the admixture of the First Indians and West Eurasians seen in varying percentages among the two groups.

This book upholds the scholarly consensus that Aryans did not destroy the Harappan Civilization. During 1900-1300 BCE, in the Late Harappan period, the civilization declined and eventually disappeared. This was primarily due to unusually long spells of drought probably caused by changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulations. This severely affected other civilizations in Egypt, West Asia and China as well. The prolonged drought ultimately made monsoonal rivers go dry or become seasonal, affecting habitability along their courses. There is no archeological evidence that the Aryans destroyed the Harappan Civilization. On the other hand, there are ample indicators that they merged into it. This is clear from the reducing discrepancy between the Vedic texts and Harappan Civilization over time. The later the Vedic text, there is more likelihood of finding connections to Harappan cultural heritage. The author also lists out a few examples. In another section, he argues that after 2000 BCE, when the Late Harappan Civilization was already in decline, steppe pastoralists who took Indo-European languages to Europe reached India bringing with them an early version of Sanskrit and related cultural concepts and practices such as ritual sacrifices. These newly arrived Indo-European language speakers called themselves Aryans (p.142).

Contrary to the claims of the Dravidian political movement that they are the original inhabitants of India, this book affirms that they too have come to India as migrants, but a few millennia before the Aryans did. Dravidian languages show clear linguistic affinity to the Elamite language spoken in ancient Iran. This book makes a delightful comparison of ten common words in Proto-Elamite and modern Dravidian languages which are strikingly similar. Joseph surmises that a band of herders from southern and central Zagros region migrated to south Asia as speakers of the Proto-Elamite language sometime after 7000 BCE, mixed with the First Indians and this new, mixed population sparked an agricultural revolution in the north-western region of India and then went on to create the Harappan Civilization over the next few millennia (p.136). Hence it is definitely Dravidian.

The author makes a cursory analysis of the caste system and arrives at a year in which it solidified with an exercise that is mostly conjecture. Aryans originated in the Eurasian steppes around 2500 BCE as seen by the presence of haplogroup R1a among the ancient DNA collected from these regions. Many Indians still carry this unique variation in their DNA. This R1a group is reported to be having about twice as high an incidence rate among Brahmins than other lower castes. Genetic studies show extensive admixture between different Indian populations between 2200 BCE and 100 CE. This is indicative of exogamy and absence of endogamous castes. The mixing came to an abrupt end sometime around 100 CE. It is guessed that a new ideology, which had gained ground and power, imposed on the society new social restrictions and a new way of life, possibly in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Mauryan Empire. The caste system had arrived in this way and the author mocks that it cut the country into ‘tukdetukde’ (pieces), borrowing the vocabulary of television news channel discussions in 2018.

The book’s content is very logically argued and pleasing to read. However, it relies too much on genetics research papers that have not yet received wide acceptance. Joseph himself admits that such papers often show contradictory findings (p.11). He also concedes that even in the most professional of settings, personal preferences can play a part in how research findings are interpreted (p.11). Judging from the author’s remarks in the book, it is fairly evident that he has built an edifice that harbours his pre-existing convictions on the genetic development of Indian populations. The research that had gone into the text does not appear to be so deep, as some best seller books such as Harari’s Sapiens are listed as references and material for further reading. All in all, this book is a good effort to buttress the left-liberal outlook of Indian history. It is by no means impartial.

The book is highly recommended.
...more

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Jan 18, 2021 Vivek Kulanthaivelpandian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: anthropology, 2019, history, india

Scientific Fact: We (Indians) are all Immigrants and we are all mutts and not pure. Now that out of my chest, on to the book review.
Book moves in a chronological order of important events in the great human migration (Both Archaic and Modern) such as
1. Out of Africa
2. Migratory path
3. Arrival in the Indian subcontinent
4. Settlement and Establishment
5. Later wave of immigration
It all depends on which part of the journey you are interested in and you can zoom in. Personally, I wanted to learn m ...more

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May 05, 2019 Ajay rated it did not like it

After Rakhigarhi study, this book is very outdated now. In his book. he claimed there is decisive proof that Vedic Aryas were foreigners who entered India from Central Asia around 1500 BC and brought Vedic Sanskrit and Vedic religion with them. In twitter after Rakhigarhi study He says "Harappan genome lacks ancestry from Iranian farmers". But in his book published a few months ago, Tony completely contradicts himself and claims Harappan Genome is a "mixture of Iranian farmers and First Indians" ...more

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Nov 15, 2020 Apoorva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, history, indian

Review to come!

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Nov 20, 2019 Sravan Devathi rated it did not like it

The whole book was based on the Aryan Invasion theory. It is good to note that there is some evidence which debunks this theory-Rakhigarhi DNA study questions Aryan invasion theory, claims the author
The findings are based on the study of the ancient genome in the skeletons excavated from Rakhigarhi.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articles...

In the later parts of the book, the author claimed there was a shred of archaeological evidence that the native people of Indus valley worshipped The whole book was based on the Aryan Invasion theory. It is good to note that there is some evidence which debunks this theory-Rakhigarhi DNA study questions Aryan invasion theory, claims the author
The findings are based on the study of the ancient genome in the skeletons excavated from Rakhigarhi.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articles...

In the later parts of the book, the author claimed there was a shred of archaeological evidence that the native people of Indus valley worshipped a tall pillar-like structure probably Lingam- which is considered as phallus worship then Aryans dismantled the indigenous beliefs and points out the denouncing of SHISHNA-DEVA- literally phallus worship. I was fortunate enough to be doing a course on Vedas and Upanishads in Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies Online and asked a scholar about the above claim.
Daniel Simpson who is one of the teachers replied to me:
As far as I am aware, the Rig Veda only makes a couple of references to shishnadeva (a compound formed from śiśna, meaning "tail" or "penis", and deva, a term for a "deity", related to the English word "divine"). It can be understood as "one whose god is the phallus", but might just mean "lustful".

One of these references (in a hymn to Indra - Rig Veda 7.21.5) was translated in the 19th century as "let not the lewd approach our holy worship." A more recent translation by the scholars Joel Brereton and Stephanie Jamison says: "Sorcerers do not incite us, Indra, nor sycophants with their knowing wiles, o most powerful one. He [=Indra?] will vaunt himself over the stranger, over the race contrary (to our ways). Let the phallus-worshipers not penetrate our truth."

They explain this as follows: "Here various threats to the 'truth' of our people are rendered helpless by our resistance and Indra’s power: threats internal to the community, namely sorcerers and flatterers, and the 'stranger' (an Ārya but an enemy), people who deviate from our ways, and phallus-worshipers (presumably non-Āryas) outside it."

It is not at all clear what this means. There is no mention of lingam worship in the Rig Veda as it is understood today (i.e. involving a symbol linked to Shiva). It seems more likely that this line just distinguishes the Vedic religion from pre-existing folk traditions, perhaps including what scholars call "fertility cults".

The other reference (again in a hymn to Indra - Rig Veda 10.99.3) is even more obscure. It includes a line about someone, perhaps Indra, "smashing the phallus-worshipers" (in the latest translation), or saying he "slew the lustful demons" (in the 19th century version). However, there is plenty of war-like language in the text, and it's not reserved for shishnadeva. The nomadic tribes of early Vedic times were apparently asking gods for help in battles.

We know very little about earlier traditions because they left few records. The free-standing columns found in the Indus Valley don't really tell us much about the place of what Tony Joseph calls "phallus worship", so it seems a bit far-fetched to conclude that the Vedas sought to stamp it out based on these verses and some damaged archeological relics. ...more

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Jul 17, 2019 Munjal Dalwadi rated it it was ok

First of all it’s good read and will increase your knowledge. Very good flow of the book and simplest possible explanation of complicated scientific/ Genetic terminology. As your read the book some questions generated in your mind and you will get answer very next moment or paragraph. Vey thought fully composed book and never bored you any time.
But I find few problems with book or author’s mind set or his intentions. Vey first thing he has problem identifying Yogi Mudra seal of harrappan as Pash First of all it’s good read and will increase your knowledge. Very good flow of the book and simplest possible explanation of complicated scientific/ Genetic terminology. As your read the book some questions generated in your mind and you will get answer very next moment or paragraph. Vey thought fully composed book and never bored you any time.
But I find few problems with book or author’s mind set or his intentions. Vey first thing he has problem identifying Yogi Mudra seal of harrappan as Pashupati Siva. Another impossible argument about ancient DNA finding. He said they find some skeletal or DNA evidence in peripheral area of harrapns which are outlier from DNA finding of same area and this outlier has fist Indian genes so they can be consider as harrapans. This argument I can’t digest. There Swastika symbols finding at harrappa which he doesn’t mentioned and swastika related to Vedic people or Aryans. There so many points when I feel, author is selective to give you some information from journal or research paper and willfully hide contrary information. He also took support of south Indian myths and tries to make it as fact to support his arguments but if he can consider south Indian myths then he has to consider north Indian Myths (Aryans Myths) too. If I consider north Indian myth then I can correlate them with lot finding he points out in the book.
He just talks about Harrapans which is western most part of subcontinent but what about peninsular and gangetic plains during that time? There has to be some kind of culture developed there as well. He just left those parts blank by saying they got early farming experiment in Lahuradewa. That means there has be some kind of farming developed which could lead to some other kind civilization but as that are never abandoned and highly occupied for centuries we can’t get any evidence. And Vedic people or people from steppe with R1a1 gene mixed with them and created parallel civilization and constantly in conflict with Harrapan people and when extensive drought followed harrapa they took it over than become dominant. There could so many possibilities with finding we got today but he just highlights what his agenda is.
At last I would like to highlight, he made joke for “Tukde Tukde” thing which is final blow to believe he has some agenda with book. And for author’s intentions behind book, I would like to show, Harrapan Symbol (Fishy).
...more

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Mar 23, 2019 Vivek Bhageria rated it did not like it

Seriously guys?? Giving this book 4-5 stars? Tony uses discredited claims as the base of this book. He tries to re-establish the Aryan Invasion Theory which has been a proven false theory. The Aryan Invasion Theory was a myth created to break the bond that Indians had with their land. That theory helped Britishers tighten their hold on India. What is the Author trying to do?

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Feb 14, 2019 Suman rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, indian-history

There is an image of the famous dancing girl of Harappa on the cover of this book as a nod perhaps to common knowledge that "Early Indians" for most of us refers to the Harappan Civilization. Then, we are told, came the Aryans who somehow settled peacefully (or not) with the Harappans.

Think of it - have you ever asked yourself where did the Harappans come from?

The author tries to answer this rather grand question in 230 pages. Starting almost 300,000 years ago with the evolution of man - this There is an image of the famous dancing girl of Harappa on the cover of this book as a nod perhaps to common knowledge that "Early Indians" for most of us refers to the Harappan Civilization. Then, we are told, came the Aryans who somehow settled peacefully (or not) with the Harappans.

Think of it - have you ever asked yourself where did the Harappans come from?

The author tries to answer this rather grand question in 230 pages. Starting almost 300,000 years ago with the evolution of man - this breathless book attempts to combine everything that is happening in the world of ancient DNA, archaeology and linguistics to answer the question - who were the Early Indians and where or how the hell did they get here? That the book is up-to-date is an understatement. There are references to papers from 2018 (conjuring in me the image of Tony Joseph running to the press with yet another update as the exasperated printer looks annoyed.) But happily for us readers, every scrap of development included seems important. We are just not used to history working this way and this is exciting: the field of Ancient DNA is answering important questions about history at a pace that makes historians look like astronauts. It tells us that the first humans out of Africa came to India some 65,000 years ago (This, of course makes Harappans look positively modern.) and then goes on to tell the story of Early Indians in a rather comprehensive manner for such a slim book. Constantly digressing to provide primers on subjects such as mitochondrial DNA and Linguistic archaeology this ambitious book, though not exactly a romping read, nevertheless constructs an edifice that adds to the history of sub-continent. I suspect this is not the end of the line for such books - and we will see many more that will tackle the same subject, but this is the first I've read. My only criticism of the book is just that - it isn't a romping enough read. I wish Tony Joseph had brought to the writing of this book the same ability to tell a story he so brilliantly possesses in book discussions. That gap, for a book that could be classified as popular history, might alas reduce its audience. Besides this one observation I totally recommend this book to anyone who reads Indian history. ...more

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Jul 24, 2020 Madhulika Liddle rated it it was amazing

Where did the first Indians come from? Who were the Harappans, really? Who were the ‘Aryans’ who wrote the Rigveda and are supposed to have fostered the ‘Brahminical culture’ that has been so integral a part of Indian life for so many centuries?

In Early Indians, Tony Joseph sets out to explore these questions, and some more. Using inferences drawn from a combination of genetics, archaeology, and linguistics (plus some other fields of research), Joseph shows where the First Indian came from (and ...more

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Aug 18, 2019 Saty rated it did not like it

A few things: 1) the book appeared 5-6 months before the 2019 Indian elections. 2) The author is neither an academic, nor a researcher. He is a lifelong journalist and TV reporter. 3) Look at who has praised and reviewed the book. People who were all opposed to the current government. 4) If you google the author, he led a company that produced paid content for white papers, blogs and case studies. Feel free to draw your own conclusions on the veracity of his claims and those of his sources. For ...more

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Jan 14, 2021 Manu added it

Shelves: review

Before I get to how wonderfully interesting this book is, I have to say I am surprised it hasn't been banned yet! It easily, and scientifically I would add, dismantles all of the Indigenous Aryans and Out of India Aryan migration theories that have been doing its rounds on not just WhatsApp but larger forms of media, and encouraged by the current powers that be!
Tony Joseph starts right from the beginning to answer the questions, "Who are we Indians? Where did we come from?" The beginning is abo Before I get to how wonderfully interesting this book is, I have to say I am surprised it hasn't been banned yet! It easily, and scientifically I would add, dismantles all of the Indigenous Aryans and Out of India Aryan migration theories that have been doing its rounds on not just WhatsApp but larger forms of media, and encouraged by the current powers that be!
Tony Joseph starts right from the beginning to answer the questions, "Who are we Indians? Where did we come from?" The beginning is about 65ooo years ago, when Homo sapiens decided to venture out of Africa, and subsequently entered the Indian subcontinent. Although if you ask an archaeologist, the answer would be 120000 years! They are referring to the first group of modern humans who left behind archaeological evidence. The 65000 comes from the geneticists who are talking of humans who left behind a lineage that is still around.
The author uses the metaphor of a pizza to show how we got here. The First Indians, from the previous paragraph, forms the base. The story of the next layer - the sauce- begins in the Levant (West Asia), where approximately 20000 years ago, hunter-gatherers were being stressed by the glacial period that turned many areas uninhabitable. Many centuries of experiments on gathering and processing food later, when plant and animal domestication began to see success, some Zagrosian (region of Iran) herders reached Balochistan, around 7000 BCE, mixed with First Indians and formed the basis of the Harappan Civilisation.
I don't think we appreciate the Harappans enough. They were really advanced for their time, in their unique practices and outlook, across multiple facets of what we call civilisation. Public infrastructure, weight standardisation, jewellery and pottery, they excelled at many things. They were around for over 6000 years, created the Dravidian languages and were the ancestors of all Indians. There are some word examples that show the connection between Elamite - an extinct language spoken in a region that is part of present day Iran - and Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu. The occurrence of places ending with vali/oli in Western and Southern India is because of the Proto-Dravidian language connection as (some of) the Harappans started moving southwards when their civilisation collapsed. Fascinating stuff!
Back to the pizza. The Aryans were the "cheese" who arrived from the Steppe around 2000 BCE. It was the Aryans who brought in the Indo-European languages. They originated in the Kazakh Steppe and moved across Southern Central Asia and then South Asia. And yes, the earliest Vedas postdates the Harappan civilisation. So it's not as if the Harappans were the Aryans! The present day Indian population is a product of the intermingling of two sets. ANI [Ancestral North Indians - made up of Harappans (First Indians + Zagros agriculturalists) + Steppe pastoralists] and ASI [Ancestral South Indians - Harappans + First Indians (south)] In addition we have toppings in the form of Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman language speakers as well as Greeks, Huns, Sakas, Parsis, Mughals etc.
There are three distinct areas of science that have contributed to our understanding (even if it is not complete) of the answers to the two questions. Archaeology, genetics and linguistics. They have their "little" differences, but collectively, they have provided substantial scientific proof.
And now, after everything that happened from then until the present day, if we ask who is the best representation of Indians at this point, the answer is a tribal woman, because she carries the deepest rooted lineage. Adivasi (first inhabitant). How ironical given the way we treat them! Civilisation and progress!
A must-read if you are even remotely interested in history. ...more

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May 12, 2019 A Man Called Ove rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

First Things First - The Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory has been controversial in India for sometime now. Originally, Max Mueller put forward this theory in the mid 19th century on basis of linguistics. Mind well that the Harappan/Indus-Saraswati valley civilisation had not been discovered till then and surprisingly no written records of that civilisation remain !
" ઇતિહાસ શું લખવાની ચીજ છે ? સાધારણ બે કોડીની રોજીંદી ઘટનાઓનું નામ ઈતિહાસ છે. જે આજ તોફાનની જેમ ઉઠે છે, પણ આવતીકાલે જેનું કોઈ નામોનિ First Things First - The Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory has been controversial in India for sometime now. Originally, Max Mueller put forward this theory in the mid 19th century on basis of linguistics. Mind well that the Harappan/Indus-Saraswati valley civilisation had not been discovered till then and surprisingly no written records of that civilisation remain !
" ઇતિહાસ શું લખવાની ચીજ છે ? સાધારણ બે કોડીની રોજીંદી ઘટનાઓનું નામ ઈતિહાસ છે. જે આજ તોફાનની જેમ ઉઠે છે, પણ આવતીકાલે જેનું કોઈ નામોનિશાન રહેતું નથી. ઈતિહાસ તો ધૂળની ડમરી છે. ભારતે ઈતિહાસ નથી લખ્યો. " - Jay Vasavada
(History is not worth writing.)
The discovery of the Harappan civilisation in the 1920s added a new chapter - Who were the Harappans ? Were they also "Indians" or were they too migrants ?
And what were the links between Harappan and Aryan/Vedic civilisation ? Did the Harappan civilisation metamorph into the Aryan/Vedic civilisation or did the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory still hold ?
The author looks at genetics, archaeology and linguistics to convincingly answer all the questions. Starting with the Out-of-Africa migration 65000 years ago who he calls the "First Indians", and the subsequent waves of migration mixing with the "First Indians" to give the birth of the first farming communities, eventually leading to Harappan civilisation and he demonstrates how the Aryan migration theory is true. Each migration kept adding to our gene pool and culture.
In doing so, the author also acknowledges the The Lost River: On The Trails of Saraswati indirectly and shows how the book's thesis that the Vedic Saraswati is the same as Ghaggar-Hakra is wrong. But, he agrees that the Aryan civilisation resulted from the mingling of the Aryan migrants and the Harappans.
Moving on, a no. of topics such as the caste system, the Harappan civilisation, the science behind genetics have been discussed wonderfully well and the book is very readable compared to other pre-history books that I have read earlier. And I await the next book from the other camp that has stalwarts like Amish Tripathi and Sanjeev Sanyal that repudiates the arguments of this book :) ...more

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Apr 24, 2020 Manav Swami rated it it was ok

Book for those who want reading , but not understanding. Writer has failed to identify Pashupati seal and many more object as symbol of pagan Hinduism.

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May 01, 2020 Nikhil Anandikar rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Stumbled upon this by chance. This is a very tedious book to read. Also trying to prove the Aryan invasion theory which after recent discoveries has become redundant, seems like a waste of time.

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Jan 18, 2021 Rishab Katoch rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-technology, 2021, history, religion, india-nonfiction

In this fascinating book Tony Joseph explores some of the most hotly debated questions about the prehistory of Indian subcontinent. Who exactly were our ancestors? Who started the Harappan civilization? How did it end? Who were the Aryans? Why do three fourth of the population of India speak a language of Indo-European family? These questions are often answered in the absence of concrete evidence by using mythical sources, which a lot of times are heavily biased to suit a particular narrative. W In this fascinating book Tony Joseph explores some of the most hotly debated questions about the prehistory of Indian subcontinent. Who exactly were our ancestors? Who started the Harappan civilization? How did it end? Who were the Aryans? Why do three fourth of the population of India speak a language of Indo-European family? These questions are often answered in the absence of concrete evidence by using mythical sources, which a lot of times are heavily biased to suit a particular narrative. With the latest scientific discoveries in the field of genetics, archaeology and linguistics the picture is becoming a lot more clearer.

Tony Joseph uses the metaphor of a pizza to summarize the findings mentioned in the book with substantial evidence. According to this metaphor, the base of the Indian pizza was laid by the first Indians who were the out of Africa migrants about 65,000 years ago. The Zagrosian herders reached Balochistan after 7000 years ago and mixed with the First indians, and they together went on to build the Harappan civilization. Then came the Aryans (Steppe pastoralists) after 2000 BCE. Around the same time two other migrations took place - the Austroasiatic speakers from south east asia and Tibeto-Burman speakers from east asia. All the other groups who came after them had a very small impact.

The latest research by the likes of David Reich shows that Indians today are a mix of ANI [Harappans (First Indians + Zagros agriculturists) + Steppe pastoralists] and ASI (Harappans + first indians). These two groups were formed after the migration of steppe pastoralists into the subcontinent. Eventually the ANI (ancestral north Indians) and ASI (ancestral south Indians) mixed together to make the present day population. The first Indians form 50-60 per cent of the ancestry of Indian populations in all castes, all linguistic groups and almost all regions. Thus the base is omnipresent although it thickens in some regions like the south and thins out towards north-west and north-east.

The arrival of Aryans or steppe pastoralists has been supported with multiple evidences and their arrival has been dated to around 2000 BCE, around the same time the Harappan civilization was in a decline. But the latest research rules out an "Aryan invasion" that was responsible for the fall of harappan civilization and shows that a mega drought at the beginning of meghalayan age seems to be the likely cause. The steppe pastoralists did eventually come to dominate the region imposing their culture, religion and language but simultaneously adopting cultural practices of the inhabitants of the harappan civilization who migrated towards the east and the south after the fall of the harappan civilization.

One of the most fascinating findings mentioned, is the study that shows that between 2200 BCE and 100 CE, there was extensive mixing between all the different populations with the result that all Indians had acquired First Indian, harappan and steppe ancestry, although to varying degrees. But then there's a sudden shift towards endogamy.

"What is surprising, because it is counter-intuitive, is that the mixing came to and end sometime around 100 CE. One can imagine two separate groups who had maintained their genetic distance for a long time suddenly deciding that enough was enough and starting to mix. But it is more difficult to visualize groups that had already been mixing waking up one day and deciding to put a stop to it, and creating barriers to continued intermixing. It was as if around 100 CE a new ideology, which had gained ground and power, imposed on the society new social restrictions and a new way of life. It was social engineering on a scale never attempted before or after, and it succeeded wildly, going by the results of genetic research."

On this basis it follows that caste system began much later than the arrival of the Aryans, almost two millennia later. Hence, unlike the Han Chinese who are large population (as they mixed freely for thousands of years), there are very few Indian groups, if any that can be considered very large. As David Reich puts it

"the degree of differentiation among Indian jati groups living side by side in the village is typically two or three times higher than the genetic differentiation between northern and southern Europeans. The truth is that India is composed of a large number of small populations."

The complexity is further added by later migrants who have a very small impact on the populations. But its safe to say that we're all migrants. ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Sahil Pradhan rated it it was amazing

Who are we Indians ? Where did we come from ? Many of us believe our ancestors have lived in South Asia since ‘time immemorial’. But, as it turns out, ‘time immemorial’ may not have been all that long ago. To tell us the story of our ancestry, journalist Tony Joseph goes 65,000 years into the past—when a band of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, first made their way from Africa into the Indian subcontinent.

Citing recent DNA evidence, he traces the subsequent large migrations of modern humans into ...more

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Sep 14, 2020 M rated it did not like it

The DNA vs Archeology model on which this book is based, may work for dead civilizations like Egyptian, Mayan etc. but not for living breathing cultures like Hindu or Australian Indigenous. The authors complete disregard in referring to the Hindu scriptures like Puranas, Mahabharata for astrological/astronomical citing completely baffles me. Furthermore, the linguistic correlations between Pahlavi used in Zend Avesta and Harappan has not even been mentioned.

To add to this, terms of the Rigveda h ...more

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Nov 03, 2019 Swarna Deepika rated it it was amazing

All those who wanted to see India as a homeland of hindu religion/Vedas etc. Are going to get disappointed with this (i don't remember Harappan or keezhadi excavation having any religious identity) The author has beautifully connected the threads of archeology, genetics, linguistics etc. to put forth an argument.
If you don't have an open mind this is not for you.
But if you are constantly learning and genuinely curious about our origins , this is something you shouldn't miss! ...more

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May 19, 2020 Shailja rated it did not like it

An evangelical propaganda book just to denigrate the Indian and Hindu history and civilisation.

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Feb 09, 2020 Yuvi Panda rated it it was amazing

Thoroughly researched book laying out archeological and genetic evidence for the origins of people who live in India.

The epilogue about the caste system is the most important part of the book.

I grew up in Tamil Nadu, so wasn't really exposed to a lot of this Aryan heritage stuff. I guess that makes sense - people here did consider themselves quite different from North Indians. This book practically confirms that, so that is nice? I guess it is debunking myths I didn't know about.

I'm more inform ...more

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Jun 16, 2020 Muhammad Juneem rated it really liked it

The controversy over the Aryan Migration theory is now settled with the new science of ancient DNA analysis. The Hindutwa brigade's long standing claim that the Aryans are the original inhabitants of India stands invalid. Read this simple, well written book to know the genetic history of Indians ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Gourab Kar rated it did not like it

I just read the scholarly debates, went through their papers and listened to expert linguists and read reports of Archeological Survey of India and it seems that this book is absolutely bullshit.

Dravidians and Aryans are the same Indians with the exact same genetic footprint that doesn't match with any other race.

This author is as racists as Max Muller who intend to divide India as North India and South India for Political agenda. Reads be-adviced, you will find a lot of myth spread by missionar ...more

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Dec 11, 2019 Anoop rated it really liked it

An extremely interesting read.
Tony Joseph in his book somewhat clears the air on who we Indians are and where we came from.
The first Out of Africa migrants reached the subcontinent around 65000 years ago.
These were the first Indians. Every Indian has upto 40-50 % of the First Indians genetic makeup in him.
The Harappans- the people who were part of the earliest known civilisation in India, sometime between 7000- 2000 BC, were a part mixture of First Indians and Iranian agriculturists, from the Za ...more

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Oct 07, 2020 Aman Desai rated it did not like it

Shelves: history

The book is an effort to reintroduce the largely disapproved “Aryan Invasion Theory” by repackaging and renaming it as “Aryan Migration Theory”. As an author of a non-fiction work, one should only talk about things which are proved and have widely accepted evidence across all quarters; and should refrain from talk about things that do not have any evidence or archeological or other kind of evidence. However, Mr. Joseph goes on injecting his conjectures wherever the matter lacks of evidence or is ...more

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Oct 31, 2019 Pramod Biligiri rated it really liked it

“The Early Indians” is one of the most informative and engaging books I’ve read. In a brief couple of hundred pages journalist and author Tony Joseph explains how the Indian subcontinent came to be populated by humans (homo sapiens to be precise) over tens of thousands of years and how civilization took root here. What make this book stand out are its reliance on recent academic research (esp. DNA analyses of humans both living and dead) and Joseph’s painstaking effort to convey the essence of t ...more

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“The DNA evidence has been conclusive that modern humans outside of Africa are all descendants of a single population of Out of Africa (OoA) migrants who moved into Asia sometime after 70,000 years ago and then spread around the world, perhaps replacing their genetic cousins such as Homo neanderthalensis along the way. All recent discoveries have gone on to reaffirm the African origins of all modern humans.” — 0 likes

“Introduction How We, the Indians, Came to Be” — 0 likes

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