India, March 4 -- The ongoing war between the US and Israel and Iran has sparked much curiosity and interest about the West Asian country in India and abroad. Recent coverage in traditional and social media has hovered around the rich ancient history and culture of Iran, its differentiation from neighbouring Arab cultures, its Shia ethos and (in India) its civilisational links with India.

That last part - the civilisational links with the Indian subcontinent - is especially important since modern genetic and archaeological studies have proved what linguistics first highlighted: That North Indians (and by extension Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) and Iranian peoples (from Kurds in the west to Tajiks in the east) share similar origins, albeit...