They are still teaching the Aryan race/invasion misconception in universities

[sam1008]

The idea of there even being an aryan race let alone an invasion has been well and truly discredited. Yet it still gets taught to Religious Studies students in universities. Someone needs to take it upon themselves to inform all the relevant lecturers throughout the world.

Here's a couple of links to articles:

The Myth of Aryan Invasion of India

THE ARYAN INVASION: HISTORY OR POLITICS

[wil]

Originally Posted by sam1008

The idea of there even being an aryan race let alone an invasion has been well and truly discredited. Yet it still gets taught to Religious Studies students in universities. Someone needs to take it upon themselves to inform all the relevant lecturers throughout the world.

which uni's teach it as fact v. myth?

[Snoopy]

what do we mean by Aryan?

[sam1008]

Aryan means 'noble', due to some Eurocentric misconceptions the notion of the Aryans being a distinct Indo-European race who invaded India a few thousand years ago bringing Vedic civilisation with them was invented in the Nineteenth century and became the accepted academic dogma which famously Hitler adopted to assert German supremacy.

I was taught the invasion theory at my uni - although the possibilty of the Aryans already being in India was mentioned - the fact that there is no such thing as an Aryan race was not, and I've come across students in forums admittedly a few years back recanting the invasion theory as if it were gospel.

[I, Brian]

The trouble is, the whole issue has become a political one. There's a serious surge in nationalism in India, and now a lot of things are being rooted and contested not on evidence, but national pride. And one of these core issues is that there's no way Hindu Nationalists can accept the country and people could have had any kind of outside influence at the outset.

I've seen a lot of subtle things come up - more recently, I read a claim stating that calculus originated not from Isaac Newton but from India, because some obscure Indian mathematician no one really read once wrote something that might have been similar to calculus - and then argued that clever Jesuit Missionaries read the theory in India and took it back to Isaac Newton.

In such instances, it's worth checking sources, and in that case while it's definitely worth accepting there is a debate, there's no reason to accede to arrogant Hindu Nationalism on the grounds that politics should define history.

2c.

[I, Brian]

ADDED: Hindu Nationalism argues that the Aryan invasion theory is based on a complete dismissal of Indian culture and philosophy, and that the West is somehow utterly biased against India and instead pro-biased for Iranian peoples - which is whom the Aryans were.

However, these nationalists are arguing against points maybe raised 150 years ago which I don't believe have any accepted place in modern scholarship. What instead we have are things such as archaeological remains of the so-called Indus-valley people, and strong parallels between context of the oldest Vedas (especially regarding Agni) and already documented fire-worship across Mesopotamia, which suggest that a migration certainly could have taken place from West to East at the foundations of Indian culture.

[sam1008]

Aryan means noble theres no such thing as an Aryan race. Aryans included many races. The refutation of the Aryan race theory is not a new Indian nationalist thing it was refuted in the west when it was created and also by Aurobindho and others.

There is certainly a parallel between ancient Persian culture and Indian but this doesn't suggest migration one way of the other just a culture that covered the whole area.

The foundations of Indian culture go a lot further back than the Indogolists proposed.

Surely the evidence of Indian scripture which suggests Vedic culture has been present in India for many many millenia is worth something in itself.

I can't be bothered to research the issue. The burden of proof should lie with the Western scholars who wish to discredit Indian culture with their modern theories.

[I, Brian]

The burden of proof is to simply forward a valid and sustainable theory - and certainly there's a lot of discussion going on which will shape the theory. It's just a shame everything is getting caught up in politics.

As for Aryan people - my impression is that the Aryans were designated as a nomadic group from the Iranian plateau.