Are Indians (South Asians) racially descndants of Middle-Easterners & Africans?

Answer 1

no Indians have ancestors maybe from the middle east but the Indian civilization started way before middle eastern peaceful invasions

but if you really think about it we are all descendants from Adam and Eve which I'm guessing were middle eastern

Answer 2

If you are the Aryan race (Middle easterners, most North Indians, and many South Indians) then you are a decendent of Europeans.
If you are the Dravidian race (Most South indians, and some north Indians) Dravidians have been in India for too long to count, but essentially, everyone is of african decent because that is where human existence began.

the person above is only HALF right, Dravidians have existed in India long before Middle-Easterners ever existed. but Aryans came from Europe to the Middle East and then India way later. and she is saying all this Adam and Eve stuff, according to Christian/Creationsist beliefs.

Answer 3

There are two theories about the advent of man- one, that the evolution of ape into man has occurred at a single place, at single time and two, it has occurred at many places on the planet independently, probably at different pre historic times.

In the first story, the man has evolved, grew into a group and then, migrated to different parts of the globe, probably on account of food scarcity or for security from other beings.

This is a very time consuming process and no body has ever calculated what is the minimum time that takes for such a worldwide migration to take place.

On the other hand, it is very much possible that independent evolution of ape into man at various places has occurred and with scarcity of food and insecurity, the cross migrations have taken place. If a biological evolution could occur at one place, why not at other place?

As per the second theory, Indians have evolved in India itself. However, there are many different 'races' in India.

The Aryan Invasion theory (AIT), which is popularly taught in schools, indicates that there are two 'Races' in India- Aryans and Non Aryans (Dravidians). While Dravidians are indigenous race, the Aryans have come from Central Europe. However, since this has many objections, it slowly turned into Aryan Immigration theory (AIT). That is, the theory that Aryans have come from outside remains but it says they were not violent invaders, as taught in the school books.

Another school of thought does not agree with such invasion or immigration. It teaches that Aryans are indigenous too and there is not much of difference between Aryans and Dravidians so far as origins are concerned. Interestingly, the DNA tests do not differentiate these two 'races'

As things stand, the debate still continues.

In case you are still interested, you may post the question in the Group
Groups.yahoo.com/group/ancientindia

to obtain better spectrum of answers there.

Kishore Patnaik
[e-mail]

Answer 4

depends on whether you believ in creation or evolution