West coast Sindhis genetically distinct from Pakistani Sindhis: Study

Hyderabad, Oct 3 (IANS) The Sindhi population on the west coast of India has a unique genetic makeup, which is different from Pakistani Sindhis, according to a study conducted by scientists at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.

According to Dr. Kumarasamy Thangaraj, CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow at the CSIR-CCMB, who conducted the study along with his colleague, Dr. Lomous Kumar, Sindhis on the west coast of India show genetic affinities toward the Burusho or Hazara-like group from Pakistan, as well as recent genetic assimilation with local populations such as the Konkani.

Dr. Kumarasamy added that the existence of a unique East Asian genetic component in Sindhis of the west coast of India, compared to Pakistani Sindhis, can be attributed to minor admixtures occurring either directly through Mongolian migrations or with contacts through Burusho and Hazara-like groups in present-day Pakistan, alternatively.

Burusho and Hazara are population groups with Mongoloid features found in present-day Pakistan.

“Our genetic study also found that the Indian Sindhi group has a small, unique genetic component from East Asia that might have incorporated much earlier in the history, likely reflecting imprints of Iron Age or later migrations, possibly Mongols, in their genomes,” said Dr. Lomous Kumar, one of the authors of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at DST-Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow.

“These findings conclusively demonstrate the demographic changes and population shifts in western India associated with multiple migrations. Some of these happened as early as the Iron or Middle Ages and some as recent as post-independence,” said Dr. Vinay K. Nandicoori, Director, CSIR-CCMB.

The west coast of India is home to diverse human populations. This large region between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats has seen the movement of various West Eurasian groups, including the Portuguese, Middle Easterners, Jews, Parsees, and Christian missionaries.

Recent studies have focused on the genetic affinities of a few groups, such as Parsis, Jews, and Catholics.

However, the origins and genetic relationships of many southwest coast groups, often seen as remnants of later migrations, remain largely unexplored.

One such small community is the Indian Sindhis, who live on the west coast in Maharashtra. Due to the geographical proximity of the Sindh region in Pakistan, they have migrated to western India for centuries, but mass migration occurred during the partition of India, after independence.

Although Pakistani Sindhis have been extensively studied, very limited genetic information is available about the Sindhis living on the west coast of India, who are socio-culturally quite distinct from the Konkan coast.

The first high-throughput genetic study on the Sindhi population living on the west coast of India has now been conducted by CCMB scientists.

They examined the common ancestry, local assimilation, and past migration history Sindhi population.

The results of this study were published on September 30, 2025, in the journal Human Genomics. Researchers have generated genetic data of the Sindhi population using 6 lakh DNA markers and analysed the data using advanced analytical and statistical methods.

--IANS

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