Blogger Alcoholicwisdom wrote on this blog:

Are there any studies on IQ differences between indian castes? I am in strong favor of the idea that there are IQ differences between castes, of course we need some studies. In every society there are castes, classes, based on intrinsic abilities and intelligence. Nobody would accept a priest which cannot even understand basic religious subjects. Religion at that time was like philosophy which requires a high intelligence, and the smartest people were probably brahmins. The smartest jews are also from rabbi families (my belief). The priests were like scientists, philosophers of their times. Nowadays, the picture is different, as the religions lost their smartest kids mostly to hardcore sciences.

I would seriously doubt there have been any published studies on IQ and caste in India, but there’s a fabulous expert named rec1man who posted on Steve Sailer’s old blog. rec1man did the following analysis of India’s potential IQ:

25% Dalit and Tribal = 80 IQ

15% Muslim = 85 IQ

40% Backward Caste = 95 IQ

15% Upper Caste = 110 IQ

The only item missing is the 5% brahmins …Making a worst case assumption that

Brahmin IQ is no more than Upper caste IQ , would give a brahmin IQ estimate of 110 My private real numbers are a lot higher, but I wont stir up a controversy , until we reach a consensus on average Indian iQ Average Indian IQ = 0.25*80 + 0.15*85 + 0.40*95 + 0.15*110 + 0.05*110 = 92.75 The upper caste + brahmin segment = 20% of 1.1 billion = 220 million

at near Ashkenazi levels

Note that rec1man is obviously estimating what India’s IQ would be if India had a first-world environment, because India’s actual IQ is 82 not 93. But as I explained in my last post, India, like sub-Saharan Africa, is probably functioning 13 IQ points below its genetic potential because of sub-optimum nutrition, so a genetic IQ in the mid 90s is realistic (just keep in mind that all of rec1man’s numbers are about a dozen points higher than current phenotypes reared in India).

In other words, India’s genetic IQ distribution looks very much like the United States. The U.S. also have an average IQ in the mid-90s (97 to be precise). This may sound confusing to people who are used to reading that America’s IQ is 100 by definition, but rec1man appears to be using the old IQ scale (which has become popular again thanks to scholar Richard Lynn) in-which IQ 100 represents the average of only people’s of Northwestern European ancestry. Since the U.S. is not overwhelmingly Northwestern European, they are 97 on this scale.

The United States also resembles India’s genetic IQ in that the U.S. also has some social groups with IQ’s around 110 and others around 80 in their purest form. For example the New York Times cites research showing Ashkenazi Americans have IQ’s around 110.

The only thing I find strange about rec1man’s numbers is the assertion that Indian Muslims are 8 points lower than the average Indian intelligence. I don’t buy the Islamophobic crap about Islam making people stupid or violent. Not because I’m some liberal, but rather because I believe real intelligence is a biological variable that is virtually insensitive to cultural influences. I could be completely wrong about that, but my belief is based upon research.

If you agree with the New York Times article about some ethnic IQ differences being potentially genetic, you should know that Indians are not exactly one ethnic group. The original Indians were probably proto-Australoids taking the Southern route from sub-Saharan Africa to Australia. Ancient Australoid genes probably drag India’s IQ down because this population branched off the human-evolutionary tree prematurely. According to Richard Lynn Australian aboriginals have an IQ of 62 but in my opinion this is greatly depressed by sub-optimum nutrition.

India’s average IQ got a huge boost when it was invaded by the non-white Caucasoids who genetically mixed with the native proto-Australoids. According to Richard Lynn, non-white Caucasoids have a respectable average IQ of 84 (but even this IQ, high as it is, would be even higher if the Arab world had first-world nutrition which it doesn’t, despite it’s great oil wealth).

India’s IQ might have got yet another boost if there was an Aryan invasion. We don’t know anything about the ethnicity or IQ’s of the ancient Aryans and they probably weren’t exactly white as we define it today, but as stated above, Richard Lynn estimates North-Western Europeans have a mean IQ of 100. If we average all three groups together, we get India’s current IQ of 82.