Although this is a discussion I enter into with great hesitancy, I highly recommend Asko Parpola's recent work, The Roots of Hinduism, for those wishing to delve deeply into these issues. Parpola's remarkable synthesis of the archaeological record with millennia of cultural evidence anticipates Reich's DNA work  -- as cited in the BBC article. However, Parpola's analysis focuses not on divisiveness (between Indus and Vedic, etc.) in Indian culture ... but rather on the fact that India today still reflects a cultural patrimony of great variety (likely drawn from genetic and cultural connections stretching from India to the steppes and to western Asia). This trend to see cultural continuity is not unknown in recent scholarship (Biardeau; Hiltebeitel, etc.); Parpola's work, however, carries it very far forward.

(By way of full disclosure; I recently reviewed Parpola's book.)

Herman Tull
Lafayette College

On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 5:00 AM Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Jarrod,

     Thanks for posting the link for this interesting article.  Research and politics will both continue unhindered.  Not to worry.  I am curious as to how the politics in Pakistan responds to such new findings about the Indus Valley.  With best wishes,

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus
Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan
[Residence: Campbell, California]


On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 6:20 AM Whitaker, Jarrod L. via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
BBC.com article (with link to academic article) on the topic of ancient
Indian migration and DNA:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46616574

Hopefully it won't start the New Year off with an Indological bang.

JW

--

Jarrod Whitaker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Graduate Program Director,
Department for the Study of Religions.

Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 7212
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
whitakjl@wfu.edu
p 336.758.4162


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Herman Tull
Princeton, NJ