Review Article

If you go with science, the tribes in Andaman Islands

are the first Indians!!!

A. Biju Kumar

___________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Genetic studies employing Y-chromosome and mitochondrial genome analysis have provided significant

missionary who illegally trespassed on a secluded island to preach to the locals about Christianity, has created a

lot of discussion for and against the tribes, including the human cry for bringing tribes to justice! Who cares

about the human rights and right of tribes to live on their land? For the tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands,

it is the real story of our own (human) migration to explore the new pastures across the world, often driven by

the innate ability to survive on changing environment!

Before we argue for or against the tribes in Andamans, who are also Indians, probably without Aadhar card and

passport, it is always better to know their history told by science (especially in the light of recent developments

in genomics) and look at the history of origin of extant humans of Indian mainland! Yet we continue to discuss

organism’s complete set of its genetic material, Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, including all of its genes) or

more precisely the genetic markers in DNA (Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA).

The migration eventually helped the descendants of a small group of Africans to occupy even the farthest

reaches of the Earth. Though the origin of modern man has happened in Africa and they have spent most of their

life on earth in that piece of land, their journey outside Africa almost 60,000 -70,000 years ago, might have been

triggered by major climatic shifts – may be a sudden cooling in the Earth’s climate during the last Ice Age.

There is also an argument that the East African mega droughts during the time when the water volume of the

lake Malawi was reduced by at least 95% could have been the reason for their migration out of Africa.

The earliest people to colonize the Eurasian landmass likely did so across the Bab-al-Mandab Strait separating

present-day Yemen from Djibouti. These early beachcombers expanded rapidly along the coast to India and

hominids who lived tens and even hundreds of thousands of years ago - our human cousins like the

Neanderthals in Europe and Asia. This means that you may find in you a small percentage (between 0 to 2

percent) of Neanderthal ancestry, even though those ancient species have long since gone extinct.

The genomics research suggested that mainland India's current population largely descended from Indo-

European or Aryans (North India- Ancestral North Indians), Dravidians (South India-Ancestal South Indians)

groups, Tibeto-Burman (North-East India) and Austro-Asiatic (fragmented in East and Central India) groups.

whereas the other, the ‘Ancestral South Indians’ (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are from

each other.[1] As far as the tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are concerned, the Andaman tribes are

mitochondrial genome (DNA in mitochondria) which is inherited maternally. The scientists compared the

mitochondrial DNA sequences with that of the world population to arrive at conclusions. The studies proved the

southern coastal route migration of African tribes to India. Earlier belief was that the tribes migrated to India

through the northern route via Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia.[3]

According to a recent study by an Indo-Spanish group, the Onges and Jarawas were believed to have descended

from an unknown hominid (ancestor of all great apes and human) that went extinct. However, there is no fossil

record yet to prove this argument. In short, the tribes living in the Andaman Islands have been recognized as

belonging to the Negrito stock with dark copper colour complexion and woolly short hair growing in tufts. They

are however completely distinct from the African tribes. The Nicobar Islands, on the other hand, are the abode

Gene exchange was widespread among the four ancestral groups of the present-day Indians, though the caste

was enhanced through endogamy (marriages limited within the caste system). With negligible proportion of

marriages taking place between individuals belonging to different social groups, the four populations became

genetically distinct.

A new paper authored by 92 scientists from around the globe shows that some sort of migration did indeed take

There is another, important population with South Asian connections that sits somewhere amidst these three: the

Indus Valley population. The mixing of Iranian agriculturists and South Asian hunter-gatherers first created the

Indus Valley population. Then around the 2nd millennium BCE, Steppe pastoralists moved south towards the

subcontinent encountering the Indus Valley population in a manner that was likely to have caused some amount

of upheaval.

What appears to have happened afterwards is that some of the Indus Valley population moved further south,

mixing more with South Asian hunter-gatherers to create the Ancestral South Indian population. Meanwhile, in

in the Nicobar Islands and the Jarawa, Onge, Great Andamanese and Sentinelese in the Andaman Islands.

Andamanese are the descendants of the first modern human migrated out of Africa through Southern Coastal

rout via India about 65,000 – 70,000 years ago; whereas the Nicobarese are the recent migrants from the

Southeast Asia about 18,000 years ago.[5]

The tribes of Andaman belong to the Negrito ethnicity, significant populations of which are spread across the

Pacific Ocean in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands to name a few. They are physically

characterised by short stature, dark skin and peppercorn hair, largely resembling the African Pygmies.

Thought to be the descendants of the Africans, they are known to have migrated out of Africa around 60,000

years ago. They are pygmies, divided into ten major tribes. Among the four tribes of the Andaman Islands, the

Andamanese paid the heaviest toll of their lives on account of their contact with the early settlers of these

islands. In 1858, their number was conservatively estimated near about 3500. In 1901 their strength dropped to

625. They are now limited to a population of around 44. Much of their diet includes Indian food although they

still go fishing, hunting, and food gathering. [6,7] They also have farms now to practice agriculture and a little bit

Jarawa have stayed totally out of contact of the outside world till 1998. They are believed to be the ascendants

of the now extinct Jangil tribe (Figure 2).

They are presently concentrated in settlement namely the Dugong Creek in the Little Andaman Island. Being

semi-nomadic, they hunted for food instead of farming. The Onges also suffered grievously at the hands of the

colonisers and early settlers. After the tsunami, only 101 of the Onge individuals are left who have taken shelter

on the highland of the island (Figure 3).

Based on information received from the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar (A&N)

Administration, Nicobarese follow Islam and Christianity.

However, genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated

from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic, which ended 30,000 years ago. Since that time, the

Andamanese have diversified into linguistically and culturally distinct, territorial groups.

Genome-wide signatures of male-mediated migration shaping the Indian gene pool. J Hum Genet. 2015