Thread by @tjoseph0010

"The only place where 'Aryan Invasion Theory' has existed for about half a century is the imagination of polemicists. And they keep it alive because it's good to have a handy strawman... It is surprising to see IIT Kharagpur giving them company."
My piece:
thequint.com/voices/opinion…

What does exist in the real world is strong, multi-disciplinary evidence for the ‘migration’ of Central Asian Steppe pastoralists into the Indian subcontinent between 2000 and 1500 BCE, bringing Indo-European languages with them to this region.

The remarkable and unique Harappan civilization, the largest civilization of its time (as big as Mesopotamian & Egyptian civilizations put together), precedes the arrival of the Indo-European language speaking people who called themselves 'Arya', by far.

And when their civilization began declining, the Harappans moved eastwards into north India and southwards into south India, thus becoming the ancestors of both south Indians and north Indians both culturally and genetically.

All large human populations today are the result of multiple mass migrations that happened in prehistory. So there is nothing surprising - or upsetting - about the fact that the Indian population, too, is the result of many mass migrations. That's the history of all humankind.

No civilization is unisource. Neither is Indian civilization, which draws its impulses and instincts from the many migrations that shaped its demography in prehistory. The Arya/Vedic/Sanskrit culture is an important part of that civilization, but not the only one or the earliest.

It is fascinating, the story that science tells us!
And new scientific discoveries are usually announced to the world through peer-reviewed research papers published in journals of high standing. Not calendars.

The attempt to deny Steppe migrations is also an attempt to appropriate - for a sub-section of the population - the much earlier Harappan Civilization whose culture and heritage belong to all Indians in the north, south, east and west. It is, therefore, a divisive enterprise.