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The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers, but also practice plant cultivation. They are designated as a Scheduled Tribe of India.
The Onge were semi-nomadic and fully dependent on Hunter-gatherer for food.
The Onge are one of the aboriginal peoples (adivasi) of India. Together with the other Andamanese tribes and a few other isolated groups elsewhere in Oceania, they comprise the Negrito peoples.
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A major cause of the decline in Onge population is the changes in their food habits brought about by their contact with the outside world.Devi, L. Dilly (1987). "Sociological Aspects of Food and Nutrition among the Onges of the Little Andaman Island". Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delhi, Delhi Infant and child mortality is in the range of 40%. The Onge's net reproductive index is 0.91.A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands, page 64. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi. The net reproductive index among the Great Andamanese is 1.40.A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands, page 72. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.
In 1901, there were 672 Onge; 631 in 1911, 346 in 1921, 250 in 1931, and 150 in 1951.
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With their population estimated at only around 100 before the incident, the director of Survival International described the mass poisoning as a "calamity for the Onge", and warned that any more deaths could "put the survival of the entire tribe in serious danger". Bhopinder Singh, the Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman Islands, ordered an inquiry into the incident. The Onge have been rather vulnerable toward any option for radical change, they deserve close, careful attention to ward off any untoward impact of change-initiatives. (2026). 9781032151274, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781032151274
The Ongan languages, to which Onge belongs, have been proposed by Juliette Blevins to be related to Mainland Asian languages, such as Austronesian.Blevins, Juliette (2007), "A Long Lost Sister of Proto-Austronesian? Proto-Ongan, Mother of Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 46 (1): 154–198, doi:10.1353/ol.2007.0015, S2CID 143141296 However, this proposal has not been well received by other linguists, such as Robert Blust, who concludes that the hypothesis is not supported by the comparative method (used in linguistics), and also cites non-linguistic (such as cultural, archaeological, and biological) evidence against Blevins' hypothesis.Blust, Robert (2014). "Some Recent Proposals Concerning the Classification of the Austronesian Languages", Oceanic Linguistics 53:2:300–391. "To put it bluntly, the AON hypothesis is a castle built on sand, an elaborate illusion fostered by the misplaced hope that a major discovery has been made that somehow eluded the investigations of all other scholars."
The Onge's physical similarities with indigenous Africans groups are also reflective of adaptation to tropical rainforests and convergent evolution rather than shared ancestry.
The Onge population is consistently declining and infant mortality rate is very high. Several physiological parameters such as ABO, Rh blood group, blood pressure, SGOT, SGPT and total protein level, Hepatitis B surface antigen, VDRL and some genetic markers have been conducted. The results of blood pressure, cholesterol level and liver enzyme test do not show any abnormality. However, the incidence of HbsAg is found to be very high that might have affected their fertility.
Analysis of paternal lineages indicates that all Onge carry the Y-DNA Haplogroup D, widespread in East Asia and less in Central Asia.Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Lalji Singh, Alla G. Reddy, V.Raghavendra Rao, Subhash C. Sehgal, Peter A. Underhill, Melanie Pierson, Ian G. Frame, Erika Hagelberg（2003）； Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population ；Current Biology Volume 13, Issue 2, 21 January 2003, Pages 86–93 doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(02)01336-2 Maternally, the Onge also exclusively belong to the M clade, bearing the M2 and M4 subclades, commonly found in Asia.
The immunoglobulin levels (G,M and A) have been studied and found to be quite high compare to other Indian and world populations. The increase level of immunoglobulins in the Onge might have resulted to frequent exposure to different kind of infections and diseases.
/ref> George van Driem (2011) considers Blevins' evidence as "not compelling", although he leaves the possibility open that some resemblances could be the result of contact/borrowing, a position also held by Hoogervorst (2012).
Genetics
Genetically, the Onge, as well as other Andamanese people, are distantly related to East Asian people. The Andamanese Onge show the highest affinity towards some Southeast Asian Negrito ethnic groups, such as the Aeta people, but also ancient remains of , which are all characterized by Basal-East Asian ancestry. It was found that Andamanese (Onge) split from the common ancestor of modern day East Asians between 50,000 BC and 25,000 BC, before becoming isolated on the Andaman Islands. The Andamanese (Onge) as well as East Asians, are also distantly related to Ancient Ancestral South Indians, a proposed ancient indigenous lineage of South Asia. Recent genetic evidence suggest that a Basal-East Asian population (close or ancestral to Andamanese and East Asians) was widespread in Asia. Onge are also closely related to Papuans and Aboriginal Australians although they lack the additional Denisovan ancestry found in the latter two, however, other studies detected Denisovan and Neanderthal affinities. Overall, despite their affinities, there was a simultaneous split between the Onge, Asian (including Han, Indigenous Taiwanese and Thai) and Near Oceanian (including Aboriginal Australians and Melanesians) lineages after the initial eastward migration of an ancient eastern lineage from the Iranian Plateau.
A study by Reich et al. (2009) found that while the Onge are distantly related to modern South Asians, they have none of the admixture from Neolithic Iranian farmers or Yamnaya culture which is widespread on the mainland. From this, they conclude that the Onge are solely descended from one of the ancient populations which contributed to the genetics of modern Indians. According to Chaubey and Endicott (2013), overall, the Andamanese are more closely related to Southeast Asians and East Asians than they are to present-day South Asians. According to Yelmen et al. 2019, the non-West Eurasian part extracted from South Asian samples, especially from certain South Indian tribal groups, are a better proxy for Ancient Ancestral South Asian (AASI) ancestry than the Andamanese Onge are. There is also evidence of deep divergence between the AASI lineage and the ancestry found in present Onge. According to a 2023 study, Great Andamanese are found to be ancestral to the Onge and Jarawa groups.
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