Decades ago-well before the gene era,
some wise man mathematically calculated that each human will disperse
at least one of his genes to all humans living in the world
in 500 years.
jksw
The
Duke of Cambridge, heir to the throne, is an Anglo-Indian
By Hannah Strange, The Telegraph.
Prince William with
Kate in January this year. Photo: PA
A geneticist at Edinburgh University has
confirmed that DNA tests from members of his family have proved he has an
Indian descent on his mother’s side.
Six generations
before him, Eliza Kewark,
had a relationship with one of his mother Princess Diana’s
ancestors, Thoedore Forbes, and bore him several children,
including a daughter, Katherine, in 1812.
Ms Kewark has, until
now, always been thought to have been an Armenian living in India, where she met Theodore Forbes,
a Scottish noble working for the East India Company which then ruled much of
India.
But DNA testing on
saliva samples from William’s relatives by Jim
Wilson, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh, and the company Britain’s
DNA have established beyond doubt that she was in fact an Indian.
The clinching
evidence is a rare type of DNA, R30b, found so far in only 14 others, all
Indian except for one person, from neighbouring Nepal.
Their discovery makes
William one of the world’s dwindling number of Anglo-Indians, who are now
thought to number less than 350,000.
Anglo-Indians were
discriminated against by the British during the Raj because of racism and many
were consigned to work on India’s railways where they
continued to work after independence. Their number include the singer Engelburt
Humperdink, the actor Ben Kingsley, and, according to some, Sir Cliff Richard.
Many were the result
of secret affairs between tea planters and Indian pickers on their estates or
relationships between British soldiers and local girls. Because of this they
were also discriminated against by many Indians. Their women were referred to
in derogatory terms as ‘Chutney Marys.’
Now, according to the
findings of Britain’s DNA, this marginalised community which has lived in
the overlap between British and Indian society now has a new royal patron.
According to the
researchers, Eliza Kewark’s daughter Katherine
returned to Scotland where she exchanged letters with her mother back in India
in Gujarati, and later married a James Crombie in Aberdeen. Their
great-grand-daughter married Maurice Burke Roche, the fourth Baron Fermoy,
which took her Anglo-Indian into the aristocracy and eventually, through their
granddaughter the Princess of Wales, into the DNA of Britain’s future king.
Leading Indian
commentator Swapan Dasgupta said the discovery of Indian DNA in the prince had
righted an historical wrong. Most of India’s invaders and occupiers, including the Aryans and the
Mughals, had eventually become Indian, except the British.
“They came as foreigners but got absorbed. I’m
happy the Indian strain remains in the British monarchy. India may have been
lost [to Britain], but an Indian remains,” he said
