Indian Jews are genetically more subcontinental than West Asian

Did you know that the first migrant Jew arrived in the Indian sub-continent about 1,500 years ago in Cochin (now Kochi)?

Further, the Indian Jewish population is a unique blend of Indian and West Asian genetic ancestry, with a majority of its genes coming from South Asian ancestors. These findings have been published by an international scientific group led by Indians in Nature’s online journal Scientific Reports.

There are three main distinct Jewish groups living in India – the Jews of Cochin in Kerala, the Bene Israel in Mumbai and the Baghdadi Jews in Kolkata. Each of these communities is socially linked more to their neighbours than one another.

There are several stories about their migration to India – probably from Europe – but the lack of written records and inscriptions have ensured their origin remains shrouded in legends.

Using genetic data, an international team of scientists led by Kumarasamy Thangaraj from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology Hyderabad; and scientists from Estonian Biocentre, Tratu, Estonia; Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, University of Kolkata, India and Genome Foundation, Hyderabad have now traced the founder of the Indian Jewish populations.

The analysis suggests that the Indian Jew possesses traces of West Asian ancestry, together with a more likely unidirectional gene-flow from their contemporary Indian populations. “To trace the origin and mixture of Indian Jewish populations, extensive DNA analysis of Indian Jewish was conducted using high-resolution genetic markers and compared them with native Indian populations and people from rest of the world,” said CCMB’s Director Ch Mohan Rao.

“The expansion of the Indian Jews from West Asia was followed by extensive admixture and assimilation with local populations; nevertheless the rooted ancestry to their ancestral place can be testified because of a higher proportion of genetic lineages of West Asian origin,” Thangaraj told BusinessLine.

Global scenario

Jewish communities are distributed throughout the world. However, of all the Jewish diaspora, Indian Jews are the least studied. Although genetic studies on European Jews have traced their links to West Asia, the exact parental population group and time of dispersal of Indian Jewish has remained disputed.

“The initial admixture with local Indian populations followed by strict endogamy has made the Indian Jewish a unique populations and studying their genomes will be useful in disease mapping,” said Gyaneshwer Chaubey, a member of the research team.

The CCMB has been conducting path-breaking research in unearthing genetic links of several populations under its Population Genetics research programme.

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