AIT, NEW genetic evidence

[Rajarshi Banerjee]

So-- how did the IA languages develop in South Asia/Central Asia/Europe
without any population transfer of significance between them?

Put another way, since the transfer -did- occur, the question is,
extrapolating from these data, what is the maximum number of
"Indo-Aryan"/Caucasian people entering into the South Asian bloodstream
which would account for the figures shown, at various alternative dates?

That number would tell you how many people it took to bring about the IA
language changes.  If it is a small number and relatively recent (a few
thousands of years), then it would seem unlikely, from a social mechanics
point of view, that so vast a group of changes could have come about through
peaceful integration of nomadic herders and farmers. Something more
violently upsetting to the power and cultural framework would be required.

The IAs, despite their small numbers, had a transforming influence on South
Asian culture and languages.  A collision of cultures, perhaps?

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RB> Atleast Large scale genocide without gunpowder and technology is ruled
out by genetics and by common sense.
Maybe the IA speakers had armies of teachers who were hell bent on teaching
the language they spoke to a population which was equally keen to forget
other languages. The class rooms would have student to teacher ratios of a
million to one. I may be exagerating but unfortunately these are the only
kinds of scenarios consistant with the old perspective.

In contrast if we can think of India being multilingual with a small IE
component since the earliest times. Then the language which pevailed would
be that of the group which could matain a sustained population explosion
with the help of agriculture. IA would then evolve from IE under the
influence of other language groups and become the language of the majority.
Other language groups would also be influenced by the IA language due to
sheer size and inertia. Dravidian languages could have spread by a similar
mechanism at a later time into the southern regions of the IVC but would
have less influence in the north with its established linguistic inertia and
also being farther from the center of spread. By the same token IA would
have less influence in the south.

I dont know if the IVC seals indicate whether the society was multilingual
or not.

The horse obsession of vedic society could be explained as signs of the
times when some of the vedas were finalized and it does not rule an earlier
IA presence in India or earlier components of the vedas and other non horse
centric IA speakers.