The paper on Indians and the Ancient World gives a broad sweep of history and covers the entire period from the Indus Valley Civilization circa 3,000 BC to the Aztecs and Mayans in the 16th century.  One may ask, what is the importance of history?  It is important because it determines everything about the present and can serve as a guide for future economic activity.  The paper documents the role Indians have played in some of the most important civilizations in history.   

It is a common misconception that Columbus was the first to discover America.  Indians had frequented and populated Central and South America for centuries before Columbus.  Columbus’ error in calling the people he encountered Indians (because he thought he had reached India) and the term indigenous itself have obscured the fact that these people are in fact related  to people from India.   

The difficulty with proving genetic links between Indians and the Greeks are the time scales involved.  Moreover southern Europe is not an isolated population like Australia.  There have been many different peoples who have migrated in and out of the region in the interim.  If each generation is roughly 25 years then 20 generations would occur in approximately 500 years.  The father line is just one lineage in your family tree.  As you go further and further back in time it represents a rapidly diminishing proportion of your total ancestry.  For example, you have 64 great-great-great-great grandparents (i.e. in 6 generations) and a man shares his Y-chromosome with just one of these 64 ancestors.  Moreover 1,500 years encompasses 60 generations and 2,500 years encompasses 100 generations.  Thus one can see the difficulty of documenting ancestry over such long time periods.  

The difficulty with proving genetic links between Indians and the pre-Columbian civilizations of Central and South America is that only a small portion of the original inhabitants survived and those that did intermixed with the European gene pool.  In addition to smallpox the Europeans brought many other Old World diseases to which the Native Americans had no immunity.  It is estimated that within 100-150 years after the 1492 voyage of Columbus upwards of 80-95 percent of the indigenous population was wiped out by disease.   

Of all these civilizations Indians are linked to, the Aztecs are the most recent (i.e. they originated around 1345 AD) and genetic tests would be the easiest to do.  Even many lay people have commented on the similar appearance of Mexicans and Indians.  The genetic link between the Incas and Indians is more difficult to establish since you must go further back in time.  However the religious and cultural links are irrefutable.  Genetic tests are not necessary for Indians in most of Southeast Asia since they are easily recognizable and undisputed.  However genetic tests of darker complexion Polynesians should also show links to Indians from an earlier time point.  

Given that genetic ancestry tests are too expensive for the indigenous poor the Indian government should provide some funding to pay for genetic testing of representative members of each subpopulation in these countries.  People who look Indian would be chosen for the genetic tests since they have a higher probability of showing a genetic link.   Further research needs to be done on all the genes that determine skin color and which ones are shared by Indians and the descendants of these ancient civilizations. 

Photos of Easter Island Moai and Mayan Pyramid