The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism

Description

There is one remote period of history, or prehistory, which, in spite of its remoteness, has come to acquire a major propaganda-value for communists and their ilk – the period of the so-called ‘Aryan Invasion of India’. A race of people, called the ‘Aryans’, is supposed to have invaded India somewhere around 2000-1500 BC from the north-west. These Aryans, after centuries of warfare and bloodshed, are supposed to have destroyed, or driven south-wards, or subjugated and absorbed (as lower castes) most of the natives in the north of the ‘subcontinent’, and then themselves occupied the northern areas. Originally formulated by European scholars, mainly for imperialistic reasons, this theory has been perfected by Indian Leftists into a powerful weapon to be used against Indian nationalism.

The theory has been accepted on such a scale that any textbook or scholarly book the world over, which deals with, or refers to, India’s early history, mentions the Aryan Invasion of India in the second millennium BC, as if it were a natural and indisputable part of proven history. To the Leftist propagandists, however, the theory means much more. It means that just as the British and the Muslim invaders came from outside, so also the Aryan invaders came from outside. Hence, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism are all equally foreign to India; or, conversely, all three are equally Indian.

Further, it means that just as Christianity and Islam were imposed on Indians by foreign invaders, so was Hinduism imposed on native Indians (Dravidians) by foreign invaders (Aryans). For the Leftist, of course, the matter does not end there. He goes further and propounds that while the Aryans conquered India and reduced its natives to the level of lower castes within their social structure and hierarchy, in the name of Hinduism, the other invaders sought to liberate the natives from this bondage, in the name of Islam and Christianity. Hence these original natives, the ‘Dravidians’, must reject Hinduism and align with Islam and Christianity! Incidentally, the Aryan invasion theory is just one part of a larger scheme which seeks to brand India as a kind of Imperialists’ paradise, into which people of different races and cultures poured in at various points of time; an area, therefore, with no native people of its own, to which no people can lay claim, and which belongs to anyone who has the power to acquire overlordship over it.

The first section of the book deals with the question of Hindu Nationalism in the context of the Aryan invasion theory, and makes it absolutely clear that Hindu Nationalism is identical with Indian Nationalism, irrespective of whether any Aryan invasion from outside took place or not.

The second section examines the evidence presented and the arguments advanced by invasionist scholars. In the third section, the author demolishes the invasion theory, and propounds with plenty of evidence, that India was the Original Homeland of the ‘Aryan’ or Indo-European languages.