BLOOI)oGI%OUP DISTRIBUTIOIW IN IA~IDIA WIT.El SPECIAL BEF]~I~ENCE TO BENGAL
~BY EILEEN W. EI%LANSON 3,[AC]~AI{LANE ~
(With One Text-figure)
T~E Hirsohfelds discovered during the World War that the highest percentage of blood group B (or i-J) existed among the native ]nclia,n troops. Unfortunately, they lumped together all the data from Gurkha,s, Garowahs, Jars, t(umaons and I{ajputs with that from tow-caste people from all over India who were in the Labour Transport Corps (!\{alone& Lahiri) and called the lot "Indians". Because the sample was ~'aoiallv heterogeneous the ola,ssioaI Hirsohfe]d data, are of little value anthro/o- logically, although they served to di, a,w attention to India as a possible locale of the mutation which prodlleed a.gglutinogen B. Further misa.pprgbension ,'egai~ding the Hh'sohfeld data was caused by 0ttenburg (192.,_'2., 192.5), who republis~aed them as "Hindus" In America and in the continent of }gurope the term Hindu is still used in its older connotation of "Native of Hindustan'. Elsewhere Hindu now signifies a Ieligious gxoup, followers of Bra.}}minism. Undel' mode~'n usage it is as inaccurate to call the Indian. Sepoys Hindus as it would be to oalI ~he American Doughboys P~otestants. Nothing more was published on Indian blood groups for ten years, when a comprehensive study by 3ialone & Lahiri appeared. They ex- amined a large number of people belonging to three of the six Indian racial types of Risley (1915). Over 300 Turko-iranians ~'epresented by Baluehis, Hazaras z and Yadlans were tested ~¥om among ~he Indian troops at Quetta. h-early 500 Indo-Arya,ns from the Punjab belonging to the Jats, Khatris and ~ajputs were selected from the patients at the Pasteur Institute, Kasauli. The data for each of these six ethnic groups were, kept distinct, but it would have been better if the different castes J and sects had also been treated separatelJk. l~ialone & Lahiri also recorded the blood-group distribution hJ a mixed group of 589 aborigines from Chota l~agpur, Behar, belonging to the ~iunda, Santal and Uraon t~Jbes whic]~ they classified as "D:~'avidians" These subjects were pfJsoneJ.'s or tea-garden coolies. Bloods fl~om a J Oo]]abora.tm.in Asiatic I3csea.roh,University of ~lichiga~L U.S.A. z The 1-Ia.zara.s]~avc a. considm'ab]e amount of B:longo]blood. Jonrn. of 61ezm~icsxxxvi ]5 226 BIood-(g'ro~6lJD,fst'rih'~io~~ ~~ I~d~:ct large sample of over two thousand people from the Unfi:ed Prox'inces belonging to various Hindu castes were also tested, it, is to be regretted that the doctors failed to keep d~stJncg the data for different tribes e:nd castes in the l~st two lots, especially after they had m:iti.cized the Hirseh- t%1ds %r lumping ~oged~er data from several races. Hindu society is endogamous in varying degrees within the caste, and miscegenation is rare in. most regions. _Naoh caste is therefore a biological strain differing more or less from the others, iror a true picture of Iudia,n blood-group dist.ribudon adequate tmmixed samples from many of" the numerotls castes and tribes are needed from each provhme. To obviate the eft'eeL of a preponderance of certai~ blood groups within, a family Nalone & Lahiri examined no more than one member from a fami]y. Another record that loses vahs because of heterogeneity is that of Bais& Yerhoef (1928) for Tamil tea-g~rden coolies in Sumatra. These data h~ws been. quoted and republished as "tIindus Southern" (Wiener). The people were natives of various purls of South India and Ceylon and belonged to several low-caste and untouchable strains. Tl~ese an.there call a~tention, to the d~fferenees in blood-group proportions between the Tami] "Dravidians" and the ':Dravidians" of Malone & Lah iri. They believe that the Tamils are more like the Indo-Afghan people sero- logica.lly than any other Dravidians. In t,he past three years there has been greater activity in this field, and dat~ 5ave been obtained from several regions and races. The records to the beginning of 1938 are given in Tables I and II and in the P~efer~ ences, India ofi'ers one of the richest ~elds for anthropological serology, and the data are st-ill meagre.
P~.~ciar, coXn'Amso~~
The biochemical index BA+ +AB AB was proposed, by ths Hirsehfelds as a means of comparing different races with regards to blood-group distribution, tIirschfeld postulated only two genes concerned with isoagglutinogen formation. Subsequently Bernst, ein's hypothesis of three allelomorpbs A, 13 and R has been s~J)stantiated aLd the fre- quencies of these genes, p, cI and r, are now preferred to give a picture of comparative conditions (Wiener), The frequencies of A and B (p and q) have been plotted for twenty of the least heterogeneous Indian records and the figures hawe been arranged roughIy in descending values of B in Fig. l. The highest values for g are shown by the Todas of the Nilgiri tIills (Pandit) and by the ]~]IL[EE-N ]~T ER.LAi\"~ SORT Bf[AOFA.R.LANE 227 lower c~sge Hindus of Bengal (~{acfarlane). The highest pereel~t~age, of group B is found jn the depressed, classes of Bengal wl~ere both Hindus and i~{ohammedans kave 40 %. The vMue 41-:3 o/~ B obtained by the i-lirsehfelds has not been eqrLalled again in any sample of India.~ bloods except in a smatl lot of Belagali depressed class Hind.us which showed s.7 %.
Nep£iS Ted,s 8engall, low c,~st~ 5amah Hazaras ~,Iahr~ttas RajpuU
Khatri~ Paflmns Bengali,
Tamils, somh Syrian Christians ~,']alabar HllI ~'IaIds Tamib, Madras Baluchis Naiars Pre-Draviclim~ tribe.% south Pani)'ars lllm'as
i~ig. ].
i~iatons pointed out, ~hat the arnoun~ of B decreased as one ascends the Ganges. His "Drsvidians" were from several Behari tribes, and his t£indus from the United Provinces were a racially- heterogeneous grollp. Correia (1956b) has suggested that I~[alone's U.P. }Iindus may contain 1~re-Dxavidians (Nisadic tribes), Kolariaus and l%iongoloids. The iYe- quency of 19 in ~he Indo~Aryans and Turk~Ira~Jians of l~alone is about the same in a]t except, the Ba]ueh[s, where q = 15-6 on]y and is eqlml ~o p. 15-_° 228 Bloo&UrO'Ul9Dist.rib~tior~ i~ J'nct~c~ That the higt~ concentration of group B found by IKirsehfeld i~ the Indian troops ~s not due %o the Mongoloid men is indicated by the fact that the Nepa]i cuRi-vators in the Darjeeling District s]~owed only 23.1 °/o of t3 in s. small sample (~/[aofarlane, 1937ct.). Other data ik'om Burmah and Assam show tess than 30 ~ of B. It was noticed that in the few instances where there were data from two related communities in one locality (except in Cochin), the lowe~ caste, or that which probably contai~s more Dl'avidiau admixture, stowed the higher frequency for B. Tllis suggested tint a fr,~itfu] mode of attack upon the b]ood-group distribution problem in India. would be to get data from several castes and tribes in a single locality. Investiga- tions were started in Cochin (lKacfarlane, 19360) and carried out further in District 94 Pa.rgal:las, Bengal (Macfartane, 1938). The oommm~Ries within the i°Ii.nda caste system, and to a great extent all over India, are as effectively isolated from each other in a single region as tribes and peoples elsewhere are isolated geographicaEy. The gypsies in I-Iungary are endogamous and have retained a blood-group distribution typical of northern India. No one wmfld think of" Inmpi~_g their blood-group data toged~er with timt of Slavic Ifungarians, yet they probably h~w more opportunRies of mating with Slavs tlmn their relatives in India have of ~mRing wRh higl>caste Hindus.
]~ENGALI [BLOOD GROUPS Chandh~ri (1936), who worked in 2{[ Pargmms District, near Diamond ]Karbonr, found 34-I % group B among 311 Bengalis of various castes and :32.5 % anaong the high-caste Xayasthas (Table I). My data ]rove all been obtained at Budge Budge, 24 _Pargana.s District, i6 miles south of Oalcutta. This is a rich agricalturaI region with a dense population of lower caste and depressed class peasaEts, Hindus and g![uslems, nmny of whom u-ork part time in the jute mills. A total of over 500 BengaEs ~-ere tested, names and females and mostly adults. The name, age, sex, religion, race and caste of ea.e]l subjee~ were recorded as well as his birthplace and that of his parents. Almost all were native to the im- meJiat.e neighbonrhood. The Mohammedans constitute 25 % of the popula.tiola locally, and those tested were all native Bengalis who resembled physically their Hindu neighbonrs. The blood-group pro- portions and the frequencies of the three genes for eight different groups of Bengalis are listed in Table II. The Mahishya is the largest caste at Budge Budge. Nahisbya,s are non-caste people and were not included a,mong the nine castes Don which ~ ~.~:~~L~ .~, ~'~ ~--~'~ "~" I :.o
8
~:I ~'~ cO ~ LO ~ ~l c':~ c~ ~ ~"~ c~ ~ cI:' ''o ~ ...... "~'~ c~ c~ "-f ~ C) ~" ~'~. °? o
~.~ ,~c~,~ °~~'~- ~ %
N -
.~--~-'= o o'c,'~.~.'~',:'; ~'~'"~'~ ~'~ ~": ~"
~ :-~,-~-~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~- ~ ~. ~ -
= 5;-~ ~ ~'~ ~ 5 ~ ~.~%~ g~.~ ~ :~
~C.~r~,~-~~,'~ -~ ~,-'~,'~ ~. ~.~
".~ .~ L~
r~, '7, ~ ~_ ~ -
-~ ~.. ~-~- ~ ,~;.~...~ ~<~ ~ ~.~ ~ ~ ~ ;~.-~ '.~ ~- ~-" .~ ~, .~ ~ , ~ ,. ,' ,~ ~ ",~ ~ ;~ "~- = ".~ .;d ; ~g .
~. ~-~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~'-~ ~ ~ ~_ ~ ~ .7~.
~-.~ ~..~:: ,-.,: .%....~-g~ ~,~.~ 230 BZood-Gro~ll2 D,2st'r.2b~io~ i~ I'~dia a.n orthodox ]3ra.hmin woa]d receive water. Nost of them are small traders, cultivators and fisherfolk. At the time of the 1.931 census they petitioned the Government to remove th.em from t!~e Depressed[ Qlass category and asked ~:o have the oft:ioia,1 caste ~.~a.n~c changed from KaL bartta to Mahishya, a title not, even listed by t%isley (189]). Some of' th.e poor among the~.n mrs still fisI~ermen, the traditional oecupatim.~ of the caste, and these are called Kaibart-tas, 0tl~er local Hindus say that the two castes are the same and that they still intermarry. The data, from Kaiharttas have been treated with tha.t from ~'Iahishyas here, but when more are obtained tl~e two g~'oups will be analysed separately. Physically this community are very variable and show a high degree of hetero- zygosity with traces of Mongoloid and aboriginal features in some,
TABLE II Blood-9,ro~)~' ~'~ Be.~.ga,l'; cc~.s~es c~,~'~cZsom~ ~eig-/t,boz~'ia 9 2~eo2~e~' Pe'reentage.~ in groups ]~'rcqueneies
Ca~t~e and nee. O A ]3 AB p q r Brahmhus & Xayasthas 100 -~3-0 t 7.0 "~9"0 11"0 1:~5 20.8 65-6 Kaya.st]~as, 154 {C.haudhuri) 3S'9 2(I.8 32"5 7"8 D3"2 22-4 62-4 Mahishyas, 160 :~2-5 20.0 39-4 S-t 15-3 27-7 57-0 Artisans and tra.ders, 85 29-:3 ;25-9 3S-8 5.9 18.8 27-0 5~-t Depressed ela.sses, 75 29-3 22-7 -t~.7 5.:3 16.6 29-',~ 5.'t.-t Bagdis, 80 31.2 22.5 35-0 11.:3 18.0 26.1 55.9 ALl l~on-caste Hindus, 320 30-9 22.~ ~0-0 6.9 16-5 2.7-9 55-6 51oha.mmedans, I?0 ,8"o 23..3 40"0 8"3 18.0 28-8 53-2 Santals, 199 (Sarkar) ,~2.-2 20.6 35.2 12.1 17-0 26-:3 56,7 [~il] 5'IEl@s, 139 (S~t.rkaa') 46"8 15-8 3t-6 5.8 11-0 20-6 68-4 Orya Xhanda.its, 60 45-0 18-3 25.0 11-7 14.~ 18-5 67.1
Caste l~indus are scarce in ]Budge Budge, and t have to thank Mr S. S. Sarkar for data ~¥om a fe.~v of tllese people from near Calcutta to include with mine. The I
have been included among the Artissns~ in particular barbers (Paro- ~anik) and weavers (Tanti). This group also ii~cludes a few each of .milkmen (Ocular), washermen, oihui]]ei's~ porte.re, carpenters, Benga]i Christians and Bengali Banyas or B~ni who are here a low caste. The Bagdis are ~,he lowest caste in Bengal: exclusive of the aboriginal tribes, and are eultiva.tors who possess al~ aborigh~al strain (Risley). The Pods are shnilar to them although they claim a higher eraSus and will not eat food cooked by a Bagdi. These two castes with a doze~? persons fronx other very low castes, Chandal, Mal, Na.masudra and lgajbangshi, have been treated ~ogether as Depressed Classes. Physically all the lower castes rescuable each other superficially, and as none showed particular divergence in blood-group distribution the d.ata from the Nahishyas, Artisans and Depressed Classes 5ave also been lumped together as "non-caste Hindus" to give a better samp]e for the locality (Table II). _4. s~rildng fact about these data ~s that as the Hindu social scale is descended the proportions of both A and B increase while th.at of O decreases. The percentage of group 13 ('[2-75) found among the Depressed Classes is the highest yet reported an) where in India. This cannot be due to inbreeding since people from six castes are included, but a larger sa~ple may s?now less. The actual numbers for 45 Pods were O 14, A S, B 20, AB 3. ]For comparison there are data for 80 Bagdis taken chiefly by Sarkar in loydah and Narbari, villages near Diamond Harbour, 2'~ Parganas. Sixteen Ba.gdis tested by me at Budge Budge were also included in ~his sample (Nacfarlane, 1937b). The actual numbers were: O 25, A 18, B ._°.8, AB 9. The percentages and frequencies are given in Table II. These data show a strong resemblance to the values found for the Santals of the neighbourii?g province of Bihar (Sarkar), and the frequencies differ little from those in the o~her lmrer caste Hindu Ben- ga.Iis, aRhongh p is a little bigger and q slightly smaller in the Bagdis. The Hill Ngl~s of Bihar show a marked difference in blood-group distribution from the Santals and lower caste Bengalis (Table II). They are an aboriginal tribe which inhabit the hills of the Santa] Parganas, Bihar (Sarkar) al~d probably represent the most ancient human stratum in this region. The Nglds have been isolated s~nce early times and have the highest percentage of group O thus far found in north-eastern ]ndia. They also show lower values for p and q than any other community in. the region. Bengal was under the suzerainty of Nohan:n~edan conquerors from the thirteenth century for over five hundred years and. was seized, first by Afghan chieftains and afterwards by the ~'Ioghnls. The country was ruled t,hrongh noble Mohammedan governors and vassal I-lindu princes. Large numbers of the peasants were converted to Islam, but the Ju- ra, tiers did not settle here to any extent. The blood-group data of the l~lohammedans at Budge Budge show deaN y ttJat these people ar~ descended fl'om lower caste Hiudu converts, as held by local tradition, and the proportions remain almost the same as among their present-day !iindu neighbours. Two pieces of evidence iadioate that the 24 Parganas District is ethnologically representative of Bengal and that serological conditions elsewhere are similar. The first is the blood-group distribtttion among the Santals of Bihar (Sarkar), to the west, which follows the general scheme found in lower caste Bengalis. The second is a small sample of bloods tha.t were taken from natives of Orissa, the province just south- west of' Bengal, who work as coolies in Budge Buclge. Sixty Orya caste Inlinclus belonging to the i£handait caste (which is equivalent to the Kayasthas in Bengal) showed a bloc&group distribution similar to that in Bengali Brahmins and Kayasthas bllt with less of B and more of O (Table II). Among twenty non-caste 0rya, s (chiefly barbers, washer- men and sweetmakers) the actual numbers were: O 6, A 3, B S, AB 3. These small samples indicate that, as in Bengal, the amount of A is similar in differenfi castes, and that the percentage of O decreases and that of 13 increases h the lower castes. There seems to be less of B in 0rises, on the whole, than in Kower Bengal.
Discussion OF ]3E-~GALI DATA All the Bengali. communities examined show more of B than of A. This is an essentially Indian condition and holds for all communities so far except the Balnchs (A and B equal), the Nairs. Illuvas and otl~er low castes of Cochin and dm aborigines of the sough-west eoasts.l region. Outside India. a preponderance of q over p of 10 or more has only been found among ~he Gypsies of I-Iungary (who seem to have come originally from India), the Buriate and Kalmuks of Central Asia and some Filipinos (Wiener). The only communities outside of Bongs.1 that have a value for Cl of over 25 are Hazaras, mixed U.P. Hindus, mixed "Dravddians" of Chota-Nagpur, Biha,r, Todas, Buiats, Kalmuks, some Filipinos, some Ainu communities and the Shensi aborigines of western China. tn north-eastern India, only th.e caste t-Iindus of Bengal and the Hill Ngl@ aboriginats show a value for cI of less than 25. There is a marked si.nilarity in blood-group distribution in all the Benga, li groups examined. In Cochin the blood-group distribution in ~EISEEh~ W. EI~LANSON MACFAI~LANE 233 the erstwhile untouchables differs fl'om that in the high caste Entire- Brahmin stock of Nairs and Syrian Christians (Na.efarla,ne, i9,'36). It would seem as though succeeding racial strains have been more inger- mLxed in Bengal than they have on the 1Kalahar coast. The values for p in all Bengali communities show little variation, but both p and ol varyinverse]y with r. If the mutation of IR (group O) to A took place in early times in India as elsewhere (Gates) this seems to have been replaced at some later date by mutations o:f R to B, not eta ~o B. The hypothesis might be put forward that these communities have been genetically separated for millennia and that B mutations have occurred at different rates in each. This does not fit as well, when data from all over India are considered, as the hypothesis that a strain in which ~he mutation rate to B was relatively high l~as diffused upwards and outwards from some particular pre-Aryan people whose descendants now occupy the lower parts of the Ganges basin, Both in Bengal and Keraia there is similarity in the blood-group proportions anaong the aboriginal tribes and the lowest non-casts Hindus. The few data for the Pro-Dravidian Tribes of the Western @hats show a high percentage of O and A and very little B (Aiyappan, ~'Iacfarlane), which is true to a lesser extent of the general population of lower caste and non-caste people in Cochin. In Bengal the frequencies of O, A and B among the lower caste Hindus and ~nslems of Budge Budge resemble closely those in the aboriginal Sa.ntals of Behar to the west. Nalone's mixed group of aborighaal Behari "Dravidians" shows a }Jighsr vahe for p. The coefficients of racial likeness have been %und to be unreliable statistically as a measure of racial difference, but that may still indicate when different communities are random samples of the same population {hahn, 1938). Reduced UR£ values show (Guha, 19.35) that Bengali Brahmins and Kayasthas are intimately associated (CR5=1.49), while these [Brahmins and Pods are distinctly divergent (C'RL=lh-7). The blood-group da~a uphold these evidences of anthropometry. Ou the other hand, there are general resemblances in the blood-group distribu- tion for'"Nairs and I]luvas of Cochin, but the 6'RL vahes show no relationship. The blood-group proportions in the Pods and illuvas are entirely dissimilar, w]Jile ~he CRL=7 which st~ouJd mean a definite raeiai associa,tion. If the Pods and I].hvas are related then they must have separated before the ancestral stock received much B by inter- roam'lags or by mutation, and the mutation rage in the southern, branch has remained extremely low. 234 Bl, ood-(2'rowo Dist'rib:Ltio'~z i'~z t?:dicc
More data are needed from Bengal, but these demonstrate a fel'tile n:cthod of attack on the hlood-group problem. It would be particularly i:±teresdng should blood-group proportions in communities be found to run parallel wRh the Hindu ideas of social b.ierarchy.
DISCUSSTON OF ALL INDIAN DATA
The highest frequency of.'B is found among some of the oldest in- habitants, the Todas of the Nilgiri Itills, the Bengali lower castes and the Santals of Behar. Tl)e racial affinities of the Todas are uncertain and their origi:ml home is unknown. In a recent study Cipriani reports certain Australoid affinities in the Todas, in common with other abori- ginals in India, and he concludes that they are not a pure racial type. Isolation and inbreeding when dominated by a few powerful family stra.[ns sometimes increase the percontage of one Blood group while the frequency of another remains similar to it,at 9: related races (h{[acfarla.ne, 1957 ¢), fro" example, the equivalent, values for q in lower caste ~alayalis and the inbred Black Jews, in the Paniyans and other Pre-Dravidian Tribes of the south, in the Cochin White Jews and Macedonian and Aleppo Jews. Group B in India may have spread from a single source i~ or near north central India. Just as the, presumably, older group A is present in high proportions among the Ainu, Aus~.rallans, Paniyans, Hawaiians, northern Europeans, Japanese and Poles, who are quite distinct racially, so group B appears to be in process of diffusion westward from Asia (gates, 1936). As with A similar incidences of B do not necessarily indicate relationship. If B arose subsequently to A it must have existed in India for millennia to get so widely distributed. The migrations which @uha (I935) describes from the north-wes~ coast to the Xanarese country and thence eastward to the Tamil regions may partly account for the distribution of group B among the ~Iahratta.s and Tamils and for its scarcity in Cochim If the Illuvas left.. Ceylon abont A.D. 300 (Menon) they must have left before much of B reached the island in these racial migrations. On the 3lalabar Cos.st tonally'dons are the reverse of Bengal, for most of B is present in the higher castes who possess Nambudiri Brahmi,a blood. These Brahmins came originally from further north and unfortnnately no data from them are available. Kroe]?er (1934) has plotted the values for the difference A ~vim.~s B agaiust the percentage of O for the blood-groups of tl:e world. If all the Indian data were in.chded in his graph the area of distribution for India. ]t~ILEEN ]?~;. EI{,LANSON ~[AC'.FAI{LANE 235 would include all the values of the Nanchus, part of those %r Indonesia, for ~he Nega'oids, Central Asia. and Nicronesia. Since the ratio of dol~?inants to recessive allelomorphs remains the same in a closed population when selections is absent,, and a high per- eentage of B does not coincide with strong heterozygosity in other racial characteristics, it is difficu]¢ to aecourtt for tl~e rapid spread of g from some Indian source, and perhaps also i¥oma separate Mongolian source. The lowest negative values for AFB (Table III) in India are :found i~ ~he Todas m~d lower caste ]benga]is a.~d lower w~lues have been ibund only in sonde Vilipinos. The value A-B incre~ses in the norther~ a,l~ori-
TABLE ill
i,~ asee.~d.~z9 o~'der
tt.~ce or caste (A-B) R,~oe or ea.s~e (AB) Ted,s -19 Goanese tIind~ls - 7.5 Benga.li lower ea.s&es - 17.8 ~iahr~ttas - 7-2. Hill _~![M6s - 15-8 Khatris - 5 Santals - t4.6 Rajputs - 5 ]Y~zo,ras - I4.0 1%'r~l~yaH Syrian Christians - 2 U~lited P.ro~dnees Ir!i~dus - 12.7 Pa.thfms - 2 Tamils, Madras Presidency - 11-9 Batuehs 0 Bengafi ]{ay~sghas - 11" 7 Nepalis 11 JaCs - 11 Illuvas 12 3{onkhmer Tribes, [Behar 9-3 N-airs 13 Tami!s, southern Indi~ and Ceylon - 8'[~ Pre-Dr~vidia.ns, Cochin 21 Go~nese Ohristi~ns 7"8 Paniyans 52-8 ginal tribes, the J~indns of the United P~ovinces and the I-Iazaras. ]3 is present in equivalent amounts ill the west. coast ~ahra.ttas and southern Tamils. The amount of B in the higher castes of Bengal is about the same as in the mixed Tamil population and more than in the higher castes of 0rises. Therefore social as well as geographical position must be taken into consideration in any attempt to trace tJxe spread of B, The Batuchs of the North West l~rontier have the same ]ow percentage of B as the Nairs of Cochin. They may represent equivalent stages in t]le penetration of B from a singIe centre of distribution. The Nepalis, although closer to the s~pposed cent:re for B, have received relatively little because of their geographiea~ isolation. Least B of all has been received by the lower castes of Cochin and the Pre-Dravidian tribes of the South. t)osi - tire values for A-B are shown only by the Nepalis, Nairs, Illuvas and Pre-Dravidian tribes of the South. The amounts of A and B are equal among the Baluchs. Among the g'IalayalJ Syrian Christians al~d the Pathans ~here is a slight preponderance of ]3. 236 ~lood-grou/p l)isbribz#io~ in lndia The. geographical dis&ribn.tion of the A-t~ values in relation to O also indicates that I~ may have originated in some of the early i~.~habitants whose descendants are the prescott lower castes of Bengal and their relatives and has spread from these people throughout India; also tha~ the l~Ianehu-CentrM Asiatic B is probably of' separate origin, f%r the vMues of q are lower along the Himalayas and NorthAgest -Frontier and increase again iu inner Asia. The mongoloid Hazaras may have received B from both north and south of the Himalayas.
~ U 2,'L",'tA R Y 1. Blood~group work for india is reviewed. Until 193-f nearly all samples were from mixed ethnological groups. 2. New data from lower Bengal show that the percentages of A and B there increase from the ]_tigber to the lower castes and that the highest percentage of O is among She caste Hindus. The Bengali Depressed Classes have She highest percentage of B vet found in India, The l~engali Mohammedans have a blood-group distribution similar to that of their low caste Hindu neighbours. 3. 1'he only peoples of India thus far discovered ~o have more A than B are the Nairs and lower castes of Cochin and the Pre-Dravidians (Veddoids) of the soath-~vest. 4. ]['he present data indicate that B has been in India for millennia and may have originated there in the ancestors of the lower castes of the north-east, where the highest concentrations are found now, whence it has diffused into the higher castes. The amounts of O and B vary inversely; therefore there may be genes for O in these tow caste people with a relatively high mutation rate for B. 5. There is very little of B in Cochin because the Nalabar coast has beel~ missed by the main migratory movements from further north in the past. Here there is more B in the higher castes who have some northern admixture than. among the louver castes who came from the south.
I~EFEI%ENCES A~,~A~ ', A. (]936). ":Blood-groups of the Pre-DraxJdi~ns of the Wyn~d ~P]a,tea,u." Cur.r, Sci. A, 4934, ]3~,~s, W, & Vm~Io~, A- (192S). Compte r~ndu de k¢, tli ~?~ssion de PInst.gb~,t fnt, e'r~aL cfAntTtroi). A.msl,erdam, 1927, i%ris, p. 462. CJ.~avD~Jr~L A~t~ (1936). ":P;'sliminaries to a, study of the r~cl~t probtcm in [~ndia.." ilion in Indic,., 16, ] 6-26~ ]~ILEEN W. ERLANSON 15_~ACFAB,LANE 237
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