Who invaded India? 'Not Aryans', says an IIT calendar

A new year calendar produced by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, is drawing unusual attention, especially on social media. Claimed to have drawn facts from decades of research, the calendar offers a ‘rebuttal’ to the ‘Aryan invasion’.

A certain challenge to history taught at large, a section of academics feel that it is an attempt to strengthen right-wing theories, discourages scientific temper, and is one more attempt at ‘saffronising’ education. The IIT’s centre-concerned refutes.

The calendar puts forward three points - ‘recognition of the secret of the Vedas’, ‘reinterpretation of the Indus Valley civilization’, and ‘rebuttal to the Aryan invasion myth’ - with twelve pieces of evidence. The opening page, Initial Evidences, states, “The current chronology of Indian Civilization and history is dubious and questionable.”

The calendar’s twelve pages cover pointers ‘evaded or manipulated’ by colonial historians, puts forth ‘evidences that bring Vedic Culture and the Indus Valley Civilization under one fold’, and shares ‘reasons why the colonial rulers were desperate to forge such a myth’.

The September page asks ‘Why an Aryan Invasion myth was forged?’, and answers, “The colonial invaders, from the Portuguese to the British, were shaken by the striking similarity between millions of words evident in Indian languages and others in the European Tree of Linguistics.”

“So they had to forge an Indo-European Language system, and further design a history of invading in-migration prior to Buddha, Plato and Lao-Tzu. They proposed that the superior Colonial rulers invaded the inferior India the second time in 17th century!” it added.

Professor Joy Sen, chairperson, Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems (CEIKS) (co-producer of the calendar), IIT-Kharagpur, talking to Deccan Herald, claimed that the calendar is the outcome of a great teamwork and reflects years of research. “Scientific evidence goes against Aryan invasion theory. What was propagated by colonial historians is about race, backed by racial supremacy,” Sen said.

“Aryan is (representation) of quality of human mind, the quality of culture and human civilization. Aryan could be anywhere in the world, is not a race, is a noble human being with highest qualities,” he added. Sen said that just like in the age of Galileo, many in the world of science are orthodox and work with older views.

Susanta Das, executive committee member, Indian History Congress, and a professor of history at Rabindra Bharati University, said that all leading historians agree on the Aryan advent. Das said that views contrary to what’s accepted, are distortions usually propagated by the right wing.

Adhyapak Sanhati Mancha, a platform representing teachers of higher education institutions in West Bengal, on Wednesday, wrote to the IIT, demanding that CEIKS be closed. Citing its various activities, Mancha alleged that the Centre is a “threat to the concept of scientific and secular education”.

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