Etymology of the Theory?

Of late we all have been hearing terms such as Psy-War and Info-War. These kind of warfare techniques are said to be the new age tactics of fighting against other countries, where a country generates and spreads false narratives and propaganda against its enemy nation in order to tarnish its image in the global diaspora until the nation is outcasted, sidelined and ruined socially, politically and economically.

Even though this type of warfare has come very recently in the limelights but it is shocking to know how old this technique really is and India has been one of the early victims by the hands of first the British enslaving the country for more than 200 hundred years and then their stooges all across the west world trying to wipe out the true origin and identity of Bharat, and strengthen the so called white supremacy.

In the 19th Century, Max Muller a German Scholar conceptualised a theory on the origin of the Aryan race of India, where he said that “an Indo-European tribe called ‘Aryans’ invaded the Indian sub-continent and pushed the Dravidians down to the southern part of the country and reigned north India ever since. This theory seemed to be aimed at cancelling the idea of Indians being an indigenous race, more advanced than the other contemporary civilisations such as Mesopotamians, Greek and Egyptians. Max Muller or any other European in general could not stand to the thought that the ancient Indian civilisation, which was projected as backward, uncivilised and poor could be more advanced and civilised than any other civilisation on the face of earth during the protohistoric era and hence they gave birth to an idea that the Aryans and their culture are foreign to this land of Bharat who came from outside this territory to invade and conquered the land driving poor Dravidians down to the southern part of India.

The word ‘Arya’ is mentioned is mentioned many times in Vedas and other Hindu scriptures and this word was used to address any honourable person or a person of high stature in ancient the ancient times. While analysing the Vedas and other texts, Max Muller confused it with a different race altogether which he thought invaded this land from outside as he supposedly identified many similarities between the Aryans and the people and culture from the other races of the western world. Another blunder which led Max Muller to conclude the Aryan invasion theory was that he had dated the age of Vedas wrong. He dated the Vedas to have been written in 1200 BCE and used this as evidence to corroborate that the Dravidians were the real dwellers of the Indus Valley Civilisation prior to the Aryan invasion and the it was only during 1200 BCE, the Aryans drove the Dravidians down South destroying the Indus Valley civilisation. However, the invasion theory or Max Muller was heavily criticised and debunked by many contemporary historians of his time who challenged his theory on the basis of the faulty and baseless dating techniques he used to place origin of Vedas and its author. Although Max Muller himself apologised later for his random approach for dating the Vedas, his theory got stuck with many pan world, including among some Indians. Joseph Goebbels, Chief Propagandist of Nazi Party once said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself”, and this is exactly what transpired in this case of spreading the false theory of Aryan Invasion.

The Support from Within

It is nearly inevitable to find people from this country who would happily make our nation and its people looked down upon internationally or people who have succumbed to the ideology of white supremacy. It is since at least the medieval time we know that it was our very own people who for some vested interest either gave way or have helped the tyrants from outside to invade, loot and capture our nation. Whether it be the case of the invasion of Islam or the strategic capture and oppression of our nation by the East India Company and then the British government, there always had been some people from within the system or country who helped the invaders succeed in their immoral intentions.

Now, returning to our primary point, similar to the aforementioned examples of insider support provided to the antagonistic elements, the Aryan Invasion theory too gained support of some leftist Indian historians, who somehow seem to blur the true identity of Bharat and its aborigines and impose the idea of western or European supremacy over our race.

One of the most prominent Indian historians of the lot is Romila Thapar, who is regarded as one the elite historians of this country came out with an alternative theory too where she implied that even if there might not have been a violent invasion of Aryans into our land as suggested by Max Muller, the Aryans might have peacefully migrated from outside as pastoral cattle breeders.

Her theory was further supported by few other Indian historians and journalist such as the likes of Prof. R.S. Sharma, Ramachandra Guha, Irfan Habib and Tony Joseph who have been writing their pens dry to establish the Aryan invasion/immigration theory. Basically, the effort is being run by the support of left lobby who are anyway infamous for their usual methodologies of cancelling the original identities of nations and spreading anarchy by peddling false propaganda.

Debunking the Theory

We must now see the contradictions to the invasion/migration theory as there is another set of nationalist historians in India, who on the basis of systematic scientific and archeological methods have successfully debunked the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory.

First of all let’s establish the origin of the oldest of the Vedas – The Rig Veda. We can see in the Vedas that the river Sarasvati has been given special status in the texts, where it is described as a mighty river flowing with a heavy current. River Sarasvati is also been denoted as ‘Nadittame’ which means the best and mightiest of all rivers. It can also be observed by the culture, rituals, geographical regions, flora and fauna mentioned in the Rig Veda corroborates with that of Harappan civilisation. Now, if we look at the bigger picture combining all the factors here, we can see undeniable evidences that the Rig Veda could have been authored during the era of Harappan civilisation and probably could have also been first authored by the sages from the said civilisation at least around 5000-7000 BCE which the time when the early phase of Harappan civilisation came into being. Further, we also know that one of the reasons the Harappan civilisation ended in the region was because the Sarasvati dried completely by 2000 BCE which has been established with the help of hydrology studies conducted on the currently dry river beds. With all these factors combined, it can be asserted with utmost confidence and evidences that Max Muller’s theory is completely false where he states that the Rig Veda was written at around 1200 BCE by Aryans who invaded into the subcontinent.

It is now time to counter an even deeply sown seed of the Aryan Migration theory which is much more convoluted than the idea of invasion as proposed by Max Muller. First let’s review what has been said by the historians supporting the migration theory. After Romila Thapar coined this alternate theory of the Aryans being pastoral cattle breeders migrated to this land and brought along their Aryan culture. To support Romila Thapar with her theory, Prof. R.S. Sharma gave the arguments that the Aryan pastoralists cattle breeders were the original inhabitants of BMAC (Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex) dated to be in existence at around 2700 to 1200 BCE who entered the Indo-Pak subcontinent as immigrants. This conclusion was drawn on the basis of the studies done on their town planning and other architectural remains, their sculptural art forms and their knowledge on metallurgy. However, looking at their elaborate architectural designs, richly carved out human and animal figurines and sculptures and the intricate metal work done in the ‘ceremonial’ silver axe found during the excavations of the BMAC, it can prima facie be deduced that they were not pastoralists or cattle breeders as suggested by the Thapar-Sharma duo.

Contrary to the belief of the Aryans migrating into the Indian subcontinent, the opposite is observed in the objects found through various studies and excavations carried out across the Asian and the regions such as of BMAC and Mesopotamia that there might have been an outward movement of the people and articles from the Aryan/Harappan culture to those regions by the means of trade and other exchanges.

There have also been DNA studies conducted on the samples collected from the 4500 years old skeletons excavated from the Harappans site of Rakhigarhi , in Haryana, which suggests that the Indian people of the modern era have descended from the same population and not from any European ancestry. From all the human and animal skeletons excavated from the various Harappan sites also suggests that there has been no violent massacre or war as suggested by the supporters of Aryan invasion theory. Rather, the graves are seen to be properly laid out containing skeletons which show no signs of death caused by war injuries.

Also, if we briefly look again into one of the arguments made in the invasion theory, it states that the Aryans upon invading the land drove the Dravidians down south who were believed to be the original inhabitants of the Harappan region. This is another baseless and false narrative cooked up by the invasion/migration theorists as we can note the major differences from the excavations of both Northern and Southern regions of India, where we can see that at the period when Harappan civilisation was operating in bronze age, the so called Dravidians in the South were still in the Neolithic stage. If we think, how can the Dravidian people go back to the Neolithic age from an advanced bronze age as naturally, no one goes back in time and progression.   

India Unlearning and Relearning

Indeed it has taken a fairly long time for us Indians to wake up and realise our true origin and identity, but fortunately, through the means of new studies and rigorous researches and excavations, the historians and researchers have managed to unveil what had been deliberately distorted so that they can achieve what could not be done by the violent conquest of their predecessors. All these were a part for the elaborate plan to break us Indian psychologically and keep pressing on our internal fault lines so as to keep us destabilised.

However, we are now stepping into a new age where we can see a tectonic shift in the ideologies of our people and our willingness to learn about our glorious and great past. All of these new findings now are shedding light on how great and advanced our ancient civilisation was. A civilisation of a much higher degree and order functioning with such sophisticated social, political and cultural system which no other contemporary civilisation would dream of being.