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I think by "Hindu" the interviewee referred to religion, not the gene. I think, he tried to tell us that at one point or another each and every Subcontinental Muslims' ancestors were "religiously" Hindus.

Do "all" present-day Subcontinental Muslims have a "Hindu" ancestry?

user366312
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    Hindu precedes Islam by many years. This isn't exactly a revelation if true. –  Aug 20 '20 at 14:15
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    @fredsbend, _Hindu precedes Islam by many years. This isn't exactly a revelation if true._ --- that doesn't prove that all Muslims were Hindus at some point. For instance, ethnic Turkish Muslims were never Hindus. Many ethnic Turkish people migrated to the Subcontinent from Asia minor and central Asia. Many people were Jorastrians who migrated to the Subcontinent. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:16
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    Without evidence of major Muslim migrations (were there any?), *all* might be hyperbolic, but most is probably expected. –  Aug 20 '20 at 14:23
  • @fredsbend, [Exploring the roots of the sheedi community in Pakistan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsGM165dMPo) – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:27
  • I got the answer of my own question from my own research: "all" Muslims of the subcontinent were **not** "religious Hindus" at some point in time. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:50
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    @user366312 If you believe you've found the answer to your question, please consider posting it as an answer. – F1Krazy Aug 20 '20 at 14:54
  • @F1Krazy, it will take some time. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:57
  • @user366312 If there are millions of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent how can they all have the same ancestry? Any group that large is likely to have at least a few members with different origins than the majority.. – M. A. Golding Aug 20 '20 at 15:02
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    Hinduism isn't the only religion on the subcontinent that predates Islam. Buddhism and Jainism do too. – Weather Vane Aug 20 '20 at 17:52
  • @WeatherVane And Christianity. – Acccumulation Aug 22 '20 at 05:07
  • @WeatherVane and Judaism. Yes, there are Jewish Indians. – RedSonja Aug 25 '20 at 10:41
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    @RedSonja and Acccumulation, that was not intended to be an exhaustive list, but to point out that the question is unlikely to be true. – Weather Vane Aug 25 '20 at 10:43

1 Answers1

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The precise claim is still quite vague to me. What exactly is meant by "Hindu ancestry"? It isn't like there is some specific Hindu gene we can test for, as far as I can tell. If the details are spelled out anywhere in the linked resources, I'm not seeing it.

That said, there is some relevant genetic research. In particular I would point to "Traces of sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern lineages in Indian Muslim populations", published in Nature, 2009. The key conclusion:

Overall, our results support a model according to which the spread of Islam in India was predominantly cultural conversion associated with minor but still detectable levels of gene flow from outside, primarily from Iran and Central Asia, rather than directly from the Arabian Peninsula.

Older studies I'm seeing like this of specific Muslim populations within India seem to support the same conclusion.

So all this really tells us is that on the one hand, the population of the Indian subcontinent shares a lot of common ancestry, but on the other, Muslim populations may also share some distinct patterns of ancestry unto themselves. This is relevant context for the claims you are asking about, but I would emphasize that the claim as stated in the question is perhaps more vague than wrong. Just one key question that would need to be clarified is at what point in history do certain genes become "Hindu genes", if any such concept even makes sense at all? The links you provide don't seem to address this.

Brian Z
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  • I think by "Hindu" the interviewee referred to religion, not the gene. I think, he tried to tell us that at one point or another each and every Subcontinental Muslims' ancestors were "religiously" Hindus. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:05
  • I understand, but how else would they prove this without genetic evidence? We don't have ancestral records for all those millions of people's trillions of ancestors. – Brian Z Aug 20 '20 at 14:14
  • ethnic Turkish Muslims were never Hindus. Many ethnic Turkish people migrated to the Subcontinent from Asia minor and central Asia. Many people were Jorastrians who migrated to the Subcontinent from Persia. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:19
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    @user366312 As it says in my answer, there are "detectable levels of gene flow from outside". But there is no evidence to suggest that those outside Muslim communities arrived in the subcontinent and kept themselves separate for generations and generations. Of course there may be a few individuals who came a few generations ago and never intermarried... if so, would that count? This is another example of why the claim so far is too vague to prove or disprove. – Brian Z Aug 20 '20 at 14:24
  • [Exploring the roots of the sheedi community in Pakistan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsGM165dMPo) – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:26
  • That's certainly a relevant case... but [based on the genetic evidence discussed on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddi#Genetics), it doesn't necessarily disprove the claim you are asking about. – Brian Z Aug 20 '20 at 14:32
  • I am not talking about Siddis from the Republic of India. The given video is from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Also, if a Muslim Siddi accepts Hinduism, that is not the same as all Siddis were Hindus at some point in time. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:47
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    That's fine, but does the video provide any evidence to suggest that *all* Muslim Siddis in Pakistan have *no* ancestry which might have been Hindu? If not, it's not very relevant to the claim as it is currently stated. – Brian Z Aug 20 '20 at 14:54
  • If they came from the Horn of Africa in 712AD and continued as Muslims, it is sure that they originated from Muslims and are continuing as Muslims. Most of the Muslims in India are converted from lower-caste Hindus because of **persecution** of the upper caste Hindus. By the way, I will try to find a research paper on Pakistani Siddis. – user366312 Aug 20 '20 at 14:59
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    @Brian Z "Trillions" of ancestors? If there were a billion people each generation, it would take 1000 generations to get a trillion people. At 30 years per generation, that would be 30k years. – Acccumulation Aug 22 '20 at 05:13
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    @Accumulation Regardless, my point stands. – Brian Z Aug 22 '20 at 21:00