Statement by Concerned Historians and Scholars on” Aryan Invasion/Aryan Migration/Aryan Race theory” taught in NCERT & Tamil Nadu (SCERT) Textbooks

The continued inclusion of the colonial era “Aryan Invasion/Aryan Migration/ Aryan Race theory” in school textbooks is a matter of deep concern, because the theory is being used as a hate tool against one region of India, Indians of that region and Indians of all parts of India belonging to certain castes/jaatis. The Aryan Race theory was originally used by the colonial rulers to justify their colonisation of India. Following are some points to be highlighted in this context. Each of these points are elaborated with primary source evidence in Annexure A (attached at the end of the statement) for ready reference.

I) NCERT as an institution and many eminent historians themselves were aware of the dangers of ‘cultivation of hate’ in the minds of young school students.(as per reference in Annexure A point 1) Despite that, NCERT continued to propagate the Aryan Race/Invasion/Migration theory.

II) The word Invasion in the name Aryan Invasion was replaced with Migration with proofs emerging for the impossibility of invasion but the idea of Indians of certain region and Indians of all regions belonging to certain castes/jaatis being outsiders continued to get peddled through the theory.

III) Riks (Verses) from the sacred Rig Veda were selectively(mis-) quoted to manufacture a fake race narrative. Verses which suggest any evidence to the contrary (as per their own translation) were ignored.

IV)Verse from Artha Shastra (verse 3.13.1) explicitly mentioning Shudras as Aryas was ignored.

V) Linguistic Evidence contrary to the narrative of ‘Aryan Race/Invasion/Migration’ theory was not considered. The scientific study of languages and the basis for Language Evolution has evolved since the early hypotheses made a few centuries ago. Students are not allowed to be aware of the scrutiny of Aryan and Dravidian as language categories.

VI) Students are not helped to know that many scholars including Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar have categorically dismissed the assertions of “Dasas and Dasyus were the same as the Shudras’ as merely a wild guess.

VII) Students are not informed that there exists other alternative theories like the Out of India theory, also known as OIT which has been/continues to be researched by some scholars.

Hence, it is a matter of pedagogic concern that such 19th century hypotheses and wild guesses are taught to young, impressionable students. Apart from sowing the seeds for divisiveness in society, such assertions in school textbooks based on hypotheses and wild guesses does not lead to any other productive outcome.

Therefore, such assertions need to be categorically rejected and they should not find any place in the academic curricula of young students.

Annexure A

I) It appears that NCERT as an institution and many eminent historians themselves were aware of the dangers of “cultivation of hate” in the minds of young school students.

Below are excerpts (relevant to Aryan theory) from a document authored by the Delhi historians group with the title ” Communalization of Education – The History textbooks controversy.” [1] In this document, there is acknowledgement of the ‘Aryan race’ theory being already discarded in academic discourse. However, while the Textbooks are propagating a fake narrative about ‘Aryans Invaders,’ ‘indigenous Dravidian races’ as native inhabitants, the Delhi Historians group document presents a false alarm of non-Hindus being called as ‘foreigners.’ based on the Aryan theory.

“The CBSE has now taken on a new role of doctoring the contents of prescribed books…“[1]
“Those who are at the policy-making levels of NCERT echo the politicians…” [1]
“The ‘race’ theory has long since been discarded and no one in academic discourse speaks of an Aryan race…” [1]
“There is here a gravely divisive campaign, which has all the potential for exacerbating hostility between the proponents of ‘Aryan’ chauvinism and the ‘Dravidianists’… ” [1]
“They will teach that the Hindus are the descendants of the Aryans who were the indigenous inhabitants in India and all the others are foreigners…” [1]

II.)The word Invasion in the name Aryan Invasion was replaced with Migration with proofs emerging for the impossibility of invasion but the idea of Indians of certain region and Indians of all regions belonging to certain castes/jaatis being outsiders continued to get peddled through the theory.

In this context, some key assertions are as follows.

a)“The Aryans came from outside India, from north-eastern Iran and the region around the Caspian Sea. Those that came to India are called the Indo-Aryans to distinguish them from the other Aryans who went to various parts of western Asia and Europe…” [2]

“The Aryans and the Dasyus: When the Aryans first arrived in India, they had to fight for land with the people already living in India. These people they called the Dasyus or Dasas. The Aryans were fair-skinned and Dasyus are described as being dark-skinned with flat noses. The Dasyus did not worship the same gods as Aryans. They spoke a language which the Aryans did not understand, because the latter spoke Sanskrit. The Aryans who fought and defeated the Dasyus did not treat them kindly and enslaved many of them. The Dasyus had to work for the Aryans and were made to do the most difficult and lowly work. The Aryans made it a rule that no Aryan could marry a Dasyu….” [2]

Note – It may be noted that this version of history had been written in 1966, and Prof. Romila Thapar herself has revised her views in her latest work on the topic published in 2002

b) “The Aryans came to India in several waves. The earliest wave is represented by the Rig Vedic people, who appeared in the subcontinent in about 1500 B.C They came into conflict with the indigenous inhabitants called the dasas, dasyus, etc Since the dasas are also mentioned in the ancient Iranian literature, they seem to have been a branch of the early Aryans. The Rig Veda mentions the defeat of Sambara by’ Divodasa who belonged to the Bharata clan. In this case the term dasa appears in the name Divodasa. Possibly the dasyus in the Rig Veda represent the original inhabitants of the country, and an Aryan chief who overpowered them was called Trasadasyu, Aryan chief was soft towards the dasas, but strongly hostile to the dasyus. The term dasyuhatya, slaughter of the dasyus, is repeatedly mentioned in the Rig Veda, The dasyus possibly worshipped the phallus and did not keep cattle for dairy products…” [3]

c) “The home of Indo-Europeans and Indo-Aryans is still a matter of debate. Many scholars are of the view that the Aryans came to India as migrants from Central Asia. It is also believed that several waves of Indo-Aryan migration might have happened. There are several factors which support this hypothesis….”

d) “Dasas and Dasyus : The Rig Vedas speak about not only the Aryans, but also about the non-Aryan people, whom the Aryans encountered in India. When the Rig Vedic people moved into India, they came into conflict with people whom they referred to as Dasyus or Dasas. Evidently the Aryans differentiated themselves from the dark native people who had different cultural practices, and sought to maintain their distinction….”[4]

“The Vedic people distinguished themselves from the non-Aryan people. Varna was the term used by Aryans to refer to colour and category. The Rig Veda refers to Arya varna and Dasa varna. The Dasas and Dasyus were conquered and treated as slaves. They came to be considered sudras in the later period. Social classes were classified as warriors, priests, and common people….” [4]

Instead of using the word ‘race’ directly, the assertion uses terms ‘dark native people’, ‘different cultural practices’, which is another way of saying ‘race’. There is no evidence to support the claims of “Dasas” being differentiated as ‘dark native people’ in Sacred Rig Veda . Also, there is no evidence to support the assertion of “Dasas and Dasyus came to be considered shudras in the later period.”

III) Riks (Verses)from the sacred Rig Veda were selectively(mis) quoted to manufacture a fake race narrative. Verses which suggest any evidence to the contrary (as per their own translation) was ignored.

a) Verse 5.29.10 of the Sacred Rig Veda was misinterpreted to create the view of ‘noseless’ people. Commentary of traditional scholars like Sayanacharya which does not bring in any such views were ignored.

b)Some Verses suggesting non-human physical attributes to Dasas were ignored.

Sacred Rig Veda verse 2.14.4 refers to a Dasa named Urana with 99 arms.

अध्व॑र्यवो॒ य उर॑णं ज॒घान॒ नव॑ च॒ख्वांसं॑ नव॒तिं च॑ बा॒हून् । यो अर्बु॑द॒मव॑ नी॒चा ब॑बा॒धे तमिन्द्रं॒ सोम॑स्य भृ॒थे हि॑नोत ॥ [5]

Sacred Rig Veda verse 10.99.6 refers to a Dasa with three heads and six eyes

स इद्दासं॑ तुवी॒रवं॒ पति॒र्दन्ष॑ळ॒क्षं त्रि॑शी॒र्षाणं॑ दमन्यत् । अ॒स्य त्रि॒तो न्वोज॑सा वृधा॒नो वि॒पा व॑रा॒हमयो॑अग्रया हन् ॥[6]

c) Verse 1.130.8 of the Sacred Rig Veda was cited as evidence of ‘dark skinned people’ being subjugated by ‘Aryans’. However, the verses which suggest Aryans with black or various other skin colours were ignored. For example, Verse 2.3.9 of the sacred Rig Veda invokes a prayer for a son with ‘pishanga’ complexion. [tawny , reddish brown complexion]

IV)Verse from Artha Shastra explicitly mentioning Shudras as Aryas was ignored.
Arthashastra verse 3.13.1 mentions that no Arya child shall be bonded or sold to slavery and it explicitly mentions Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Brahmana as Arya. [7]

उदरदासवर्जं आर्यप्रमाणप्राप्तव्यावहारं शूद्रं विक्रमाधानं नयतिः स्वजनस्य द्वादशपणो दण्डा वैश्यं द्विगुणं क्षत्रियम् त्रिगुणम् मनः चतुर्गुणः[7]

V) Linguistic Evidence contrary to the narrative of ‘Aryan Race/Invasion/Migration’ theory was not considered. The scientific study of languages and the basis for Language Evolution has evolved since the early hypotheses made a few centuries ago. Students are not allowed to be aware of the scrutiny of Aryan and Dravidian as language categories.

The scientific study of languages and the basis for Language Evolution has evolved since the early hypotheses made a few centuries ago. [8][9] Even the formulation of Aryan and Dravidian as language categories, a primary hypothesis, does not lend itself to modern scrutiny.

VI) Students are not helped to know that many scholars including Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar have categorically dismissed the assertions of “Dasas and Dasyus were the same as the Shudras’ as merely a wild guess.

Dr. Ambedkar had stated as follow: (bold face added by us for emphasis)

“That the Dasas and Dasyus were the same as the Shudras is a pure figment of imagination. It is only a wild guess. It is tolerated because persons who make it are respectable scholars. So far as evidence is concerned, there is no particle of it, which can be cited in support of it. As has been said before, the word Dasa occurs in the Rig Veda 54 times and Dasyu 78 times. The Dasas and the Dasyus are sometimes spoken together. The word Shudra occurs only once and that too in a context in which the Dasas and Dasyus have no place. In the light of these considerations, it is difficult to say how anyone in his senses can say that Shudras are the same as the Dasas and Dasyus …”[10]

VII) The student is not helped to know that there exists other alternative theories like the Out of India theory , also known as OIT which has been/continues to be researched by some scholars.

In this context, some scholarly works for reference are listed . [12][13][14]

VIII) The issue of Aryan Race Theory teaching in history textbooks has also been highlighted by Shri. Neeraj Atri Ji and Shri. Munieshwer Sagar Ji in the book “Brainwashed Republic , Indian’s controlled systemic deracination” (Year 2017). [11] A quote from the book below: (bold face added for emphasis)
“Chapter 3 – Breaking the civilizational contiguity The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), manufactured by the British in 18th century, is the bedrock on which the antagonistic divisions in the Indian society are created and in which the divisive identity politics takes roots. The AIT has been dumped even by most of its former vociferous supporters. But, the NCERT authors insert the AIT in the textbooks and base several other of their historical narratives on the AIT. These authors at no place directly outline or explain the AIT; instead, they either selectively quote individuals from the 18th and the 19th centuries (primarily, social activists sponsored or supported by British at the time) or build a historical narrative, which pre-supposes the AIT. The children are forced to assume and accept that an ‘Aryan’ invasion took place at some point of time in our history. We examine such insertions in the light of the latest scientific discoveries in the field…”[11]

IX) While we have quoted some scholarly works in this annexure, it must be highlighted that many more scholars have written refutation to Aryan Race/Invasion/Migration theory from varied disciplines like archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics and more.

We have attempted a small effort to compile a list of these scholarly works and publish the list in the website https://www.aryanracetheorydebunked.org/

It is by no means an exhaustive list and we continue to update the list as and when we come across such scholarly refutation. This website is open to everyone and all are welcome to review it and suggest any additions to this list.
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[1] “Communalisation of Education, The History Textbooks Controversy, Delhi Historians Group, December 2001
[2]Ancient India, a textbook of History for Middle Schools, Dr. Romila Thapar, October 1966
[3]Ancient India, A Textbook for Class XI, Ram Sharan Sharma, First edition August 1977, Reprint June 1981
[4]Tamil Nadu Textbooks and Educational services corporation, History, Volume-I, Higher Secondary First Year, Revised Edition 2020
[5] Rik 2.14.4 , sacred Rig Veda
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/rig-veda-english-translation/d/doc831062.html
[6] Rik 10.99.6. sacred Rig Veda
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/rig-veda-english-translation/d/doc839754.html
[7]Kautilya ArthaShastra, Chapter 3.13
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kautilya-arthashastra-sanskrit/d/doc905571.html
[8]https://academic.oup.com/jole/article/1/1/1/2281881
[9]https://academic.oup.com/jole/article/3/2/94/5035080
[10]Ambedkar, B.R., Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar writings and speeches, Volume 7, Ministry of Social justice & empowerment, Government of India, 2014, p 106
[11]] Atri, Neeraj , Sagar, Munieshwer A, Brainwashed Republic: India’s Controlled Systemic Deracination, Abhishek Publications, 2017
[12]Talageri, Shrikant A , The Aryan Invasion Theory, A Re-appraisal, Aditya Prakashan, 2006
[13]Elst, Koenraad , Still No Trace of an Aryan Invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins, Aryan Books International, 2018
[14]Ravi, Jijith Nadumuri, Rivers of RgVeda: A Geographic Exploration, Notion Press, 2022