Tony Joseph

Tony Joseph leads you along a seemingly complex path with great ease in this very important masterpiece. It's not an understatement to say that this book has significantly enhanced my understanding of India and us Indians. He explains the recent developments in scientific methods pertaining to DNA, compares the results with archeological and linguistic evidence to make his case with conviction. I really liked how he estimates the places where a general reader like me would need additional information or recall something explained previously, and cleverly weaves in this info into a neighboring sentence; I didn't have to use my phone or the dictionary to look up the meaning of a word or learn more about a concept.… (mehr)

A well documented review of the genetic and other evidence for the early migrations into the Indian subcontinent. The author comes down unequivocally on the side of the 'Aryan' in-migration theory (acknowledging that it may not have been a single massive 'invasion'). He draws out the current state of knowledge on the relationship with the Zagros immigrants from southern Iran, followed by the entry of steppe-type people (presumably the Indo-Iranians or Aryans) from the Caspian through the central Asian area. He also throws light on current theories (hypotheses) of the relation of the Harappan language with Dravidian or proto-Dravidian, although he does not seem to have considered the possibility of links to the Elamite language or civilisation of southern Iran.… (mehr)