Can there be a melting pot in Pakistan? Interprovincial marriage and national integration

The role of Hazarewal populations in the peopling of South Asia: A dental morphology investigation

“…The case is stronger for the introduction of Dravidian languages. Speculatively traced to a proto‐Elamo‐Dravidian ancestral source in southwestern Iran (McAlpin, 1975, 1981; Zvelebil, 1985), some linguists have detected traces of Dravidian influence in place names, names for flora and fauna in west‐central and northwestern India far beyond the current northerly limit of Dravidian‐speakers today apart from Brahui (Fairservis & Southworth, 1989; Southworth, 2006, 2012), and even by sound shifts and word usage in the early Vedic texts (Masica, 1979, 1991; Southworth, 1979; Witzel, 1999). Employing glottochronology, Fairservis and Southworth (1989) estimated the entry of Dravidian languages into the subcontinent to have occurred during the 5th or 6th millennium BC, however a recent (and controversial) reconstruction by Pagel et al (2013) suggests proto‐Dravidian branched off from a macrofamily of six other Eurasiatic languages some 15,000 years ago (but see Heggarty, 2013).…”

“…Likewise the extremely early and controversial date for the entry of Dravidian languages into the subcontinent is eschewed in favor of the more widely held date of entry for Dravidian languages during the mid‐5th millennium BC (Kolipakam et al, 2018). Thus, the results obtained from analysis of archeologically derived and living groups can be assessed for similarities to the Bronze Age sample from Tepe Hissar (as an approximation of the Indo‐European homeland), to living groups of southeast peninsular India (as current speakers of Dravidian languages), as well as to samples from the Indus Valley subsequent to the 6th millennia BC as post‐entry Dravidian speakers who may have influenced the Vedic Sanskrit in which the classic texts were composed (Witzel, 1999).…”

“…Nevertheless, a social distinction is drawn by the people themselves in which claims of descent from the Prophet Mohammad, his family and followers confers higher social status. In Hazarewal this is manifested by: (1) claims of Pathan descent and discouragement of intermarriage with non-Pathans or even Pathans of lower social standing (Barth, 1965;Caroe, 1958); (2) preference for parallel cousin marriage; and (3) hypergamous unions especially in the case of economically successful families (Gilmartin, 1994;Wright, 1994). Such social group mobility is greater in Islamic Pakistan than Hindu India because social status is not bound up with notions of inborn purity (Ahmad, 1962;Mines, 1972).…”

Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

“…Such findings suggest that Yousafzais absorbed a number of local males, perhaps through religious conversion of the most successful landholders 80 , and also integrated local females into their population, either as spouses and daughters of local non-Pathan converts or through hypergamous unions with Yousafzai men 80 . Both avenues of gene flow are well-documented throughout South Asia 55 , 145 , 146 , 172 – 175 , including regions of northern Pakistan such as Gilgit-Baltistan 147 , most likely reflect endogamous practices that involved the assimilation of foreign females into the populations.…”

“…Second, in the political sphere, Pathans are extremely competitive, and Pathan chiefs tend to spend far beyond the revenue generated by their landholdings 144 . Because of these two factors, economic advantage can outweigh inherited social status in arranging marital partners, especially when village leaders are seeking to consolidate their power in the political arena 80,142,[145][146][147][148][149] .…”