Different anthropologists conducted different studies to understand the relationship between different tribal groups in India.
(I.) BLAKE et.al (1981):– He studied the geographical proximity Of 11 major tribal populations from South India-Andhra Pradesh, (Chenchus- two groups, Kolam, Savara, Jatap, Koya, Rajgond, Pradhan, Konda Reddi, and Lambadi & Yerukula).He observed consistency of Andhra tribal population with their geographical positioning except for certain aberrations.
(II.) PINGLE (1984):– He reported the analysis of anthropometric and genetic distances between five Gondi speaking populations of central India (Rajgonds, Kolams, Manne, and Koyas & Plains Maria Gonds).
- He concluded that, closer the geographical distance between populations the closer is the morphological similarity between them.
- It is founded more in those populations which adopted a settled agriculture and are less mobile lesser thus mobility results in small marriage distance thus restricting the spatial distribution of genes to a smaller area.
(III.) SAHA et.al. (1988):– He studied the relationship of Oraons (veddoid) of Eastern India with eight Australoid tribes of Central & Southern India (Bhils, Malyalam, Kodar, Kota, Toda, Irula, Kurumba & Chenchus). He concluded that (Oraons and Bhils are nearest to Kurumba & Irula tribes of Nilgiri hills; whereas the Kota of Nilgiri & Chenchus of South India are the most distant tribes).
(IV.) GHOSH et.al (1977):-
He studied the Kota of Nilgiri Hills (South India). He found a closer relationship between Kota & Toda as compared to Kota & any other tribal population in Nilgiri Hills.
(VI.) MAJUMDAR et.al (MtDNA ANALYSIS):-
- Irrespective of their geographical location, or linguistic affinity, the sharing of one or two haplotypes across population groups within India show a harmony of mtDNA lineages in India along with the cultural and linguistic diversity. MtDNA is maternally inherited, hypothesized that female may be the founder of the lineages in India.
- For the purpose of generating the data, many genetical processes have been done using standard molecular genetics protocols (PCR Amplification, restriction digestion, fragment visualization under UV transillumination, DNA sequencing), also raw DNA was also used.
- Segment of the mtDNA, known as the hyper variable segment 1 (HVS1) {fast-evolving, 400 nucleotides} has proved to be useful in the study of short-term evolution. Majumdar carried out DNA sequencing of HVS1 in 115 individuals belonging to various linguistically distinct tribal populations of India.
- Based on mtDNA HVS1 sequence data, we find that the Austro-Asiatic tribals show a higher diversity than Dravidian tribals.
- The tribal groups were (i) Austro-Asiatic (AA) speakers: Santal (SA), Munda (MU), Lodha (LO); (ii) Dravidian (DR) speakers: Muria (MR), Kota (KT), Kurumba (KR), Irula (IR); and (iii) Tibeto-Burman (TB) speakers: Tipperah (TR). These tribal communities inhabit the eastern (SA, MU, LO), southern (KT, KR, IR), central (MR) and northeastern (TR) regions of India. Among the 115 individuals, there were a total of 104 mutations at 94 polymorphic sites.
- Individuals within the same population exhibit maximum number of sharing of sequences than the populations belonging to different language groups.
- On the basis of RSP (Restriction Site Polymorphism) data, they classified individuals into 8 Haplogroup.