I was talking to my father about why my mother’s family has much lighter skin than my father’s family and he mentioned something called the Aryan migration.
Upon further research, I found out that the Aryan migration theory says that around 2000 BC – 1500 BC, a group of Indo-Europeans traveled into India from the North West. They brought with them Sanskrit, their culture, and their genes (The Wire, 2021).
For years, the validity of the Aryan migration theory has been contested. Now, new genetic information provides convincing evidence for the theory. Previously, only the mtDNA, which is passed from mother to daughter, was tested and found few examples of external infusion over the past 12,000 years into the Indian gene pool. This made people believe that there was little Aryan migration to North India. Yet when the Y-DNA, which is passed down from father to son, was tested, strong evidence of external infusion was found. This makes perfect sense when you consider the fact that most of the migrators were male (A Genetic Chronology for the Indian Subcontinent Points to Heavily Sex-Biased Dispersals, 2017).
Indians with more Aryan ancestry have lighter skin because their Aryan ancestors came from Western and Central Asia. Since my mom’s family comes from Punjab, a region that is near the Northern tip of India, their skin is lighter. This is primarily because Punjab is a region with heavy influence from the Aryans, who came migrated from the North via the Khyber pass. My father’s family, while North Indian, is from Madhya Pradesh, which is south of Punjab. They have darker skin and, presumably, less Aryan DNA.
“The Nationalists Try – but India Remains among the World’s Oldest Melting Pots.” The Wire, https://thewire.in/history/india-melting-pot-aryan-migration-theory-books.
Silva, Marina, et al. “A Genetic Chronology for the Indian Subcontinent Points to Heavily Sex-Biased Dispersals.” BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 17, no. 1, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-017-0936-9.
Evolutionary Anthropology 