Thread by @cbkwgl

Let me quote Fairservis's paper on IVC. He is one of the leading figures in IVC archaeology from an article dating to 1961. No Bhandarkar, no Banerji, no anybody.

The decade of 1950s saw nothing of worth coming out of IVC.

Now, how did the civilization start? Like Edison. 1000 times he failed to make a bulb and finally he made one.

Who ruled it? Some priests it seems. And the greatest achievement of IVC is it being eligible to be compared to Roman Empire 🤦‍♀️

By the way, Mesopotamia taught this Indus zone barbarians the concept of civilization. How cute!!

And he quotes another doyen - another hater.

And why did it end? Because IVC made bricks. Bricks needed wood and woods means forests should be chopped. Global Warming, you see. I am confused. What has drains got to do with global warming?

And then, how can we forget the cute Aryans?

Bad Indus people. Had they been barbarians, the grasslands and forests of the zone would have stayed. A major loss, one would say.

Whatever you say. If you say there were Iranians at that time, we will accept, if there are Pakistanis in Jhumritalaiyya, we will accept, if you say igloos are built on Kilimanjaro, we will accept it.

But then, because we have decided it beforehand that every civilizational move HAD TO come from Mesopotamia, this trace from Balochistan towards Sind makes sense. It's not that every hole is occupied. It's the direction which matters.

This is sad. First, he positions Amri as a competition to IVC but then tries a backflip. Did he land on his face, I don't know.

Fairservis realized what he did and is now desperately clutching to straws.

And now, Fairservis is happy that he found his brainwave. But...where is IVC? It's just a bunch of independent cultures - Amri, Harappa, Kot Diji,...

Wait. Zhob is non-Harappan but has Harappan origins and Harappan influence. What does that even mean?

And a monologue. People say IVC is a civilization. But, I won't accept it. And people say IVC is formed because of Mesopotamia. But then, why didn't anyone form a civilization between the both? May be...may be...

And he finds an answer. It's not as if Mesopotamia didn't teach everyone civilization, everyone except IVC turned out to be a bad student who failed his exams.

Oh!! IVC is just a bunch of villages. And what's the reality? Literally every site larger than 50 acres in 2000 BC is in IVC. Such kind of a devastating dominance IVC had.

It makes more sense if we call them aliens teaching the locals new dance moves, right? All these proofs point that they are actually aliens.

Indus seals are talismans to be worn. But I am confused. How do they wear them when there are no holes in them to pass a thread?

Why is IVC's lifespan 500 years? Because its a number I made up and I believe it to be true.

Finally an Indian. By the way, is he Subbarao or Sabbarao?

In synopsis, what does the paper say? Most of the early players in the IVC field were loath to give it an importance it deserves. One said brick burning ended the civilization, one said it is dull and uninteresting, another said it's a religious cult with talismans - none really were happy India ended up to be the founding civilizations of the world.

And what does this Sabbarao say? This Sabbarao is actually Bendapudi Subbarao, the Head of Department of Archaeology at University of Baroda. If we go by Fairservis's theories, he is indirectly saying Fairservis is a good archaeologist but has no clue what he is talking about. I believe that's a fair judgement on him? Finis.

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