In my time, they were around a fifth or a quarter, at most, I think. Probably one of the biggest groups on campus, but nowhere near half.

. But AP is the number one state in sending students to IITs.

Those are interesting stats, thanks for the link. Don’t know how the article defines “likely to get admission into various IITs”, but JEE ranks over 6000 people, and admits around 5000, so this comes to a number of around 11% of the total admitted stats – which may not necessarily make them the single largest state (and also discounts per capita). Still significant and impressive, though. Certainly far better than the intake from Tamilnadu (which used to be mostly Chennai in my time, in any case.)

I could have exaggerated a bit. Atleast in IIT Chennai they are more than half the crowd, I think. But AP is the number one state in sending students to IITs.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/05/31/stories/2007053104550600.htm

HYDERABAD: Students from Andhra Pradesh have reaped a rich harvest in the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) this year and more than 600 students are likely to get admission into various IITs.

p.s. i did a survey of IIT academics, tamils were overrepresented (i think like 30% or so).

could you post the link to the publication? or data set?

Telugus dominate the IIT, around half the people who qualify for the IITs are from Andhra Pradesh, I think.

apparently, the advent of coaching classes means that the top jee ranks (and by this i mean less than 500) are dominated by people from the north. even in my time, there were a lot of telugu folks, but it was nowhere near half. probably about a third to a quarter, at most.

razib said in 34: p.s. i did a survey of IIT academics, tamils were overrepresented (i think like 30% or so). i didn’t check which were brahmins.

i am not sure what this (or the other iit stats in 21) proves. there are several social factors that lead to differing interest in iit among different communities. for example, tam brams in tamilnadu who want to get into engg know that state engg colleges are not really an option due to reservation. further, the desirability of an engg career is vastly different among different communities, so without normalizing or keeping other factors similar, i am not sure what these numbers prove. otherwise, it is just like bush’s statement about indian overconsumption of food.

I guess, it’s mostly Tamil Brahmins. But the scenario is changed over the last 10+ years or so. Telugus dominate the IIT, around half the people who qualify for the IITs are from Andhra Pradesh, I think.

Still, cross cousin marriages (or atleast within close relatives) are the norm in rural Tamilnadu.

they have other serious rare diseases. inbreeding has the effect of reducing effective population size, which increases the stochastic aspect of change in gene frequencies, so you basically are cranking a population through a lot of genetic drift. so you have messed up stuff drifting up to fixation (or near). but what messed up stuff crops up is undetermined.

p.s. i did a survey of IIT academics, tamils were overrepresented (i think like 30% or so). i didn’t check which were brahmins.

But aunty fetish is OK.

That’s just it though…..there are many “Hinduisms” so you will always find exceptions if the norm is defined as Brahminical Hinduism. Regarding Gotras, some Tamil/Kannada non-Brahmin castes have equivalents called kootams or kulams and membership is defined paternally. You can’t marry within the same gotra but cross cousins can marry. So the inbreeding still happens but just not on the paternal side of descent.

As far as Tamil Brahmins go, I believe Iyers also allow cross cousin marriage (following the Tamil norm) but I believe Iyengars do not.