Comments - Harvard Scientist Debunks Hindu Nationalists "Racial Purity" Myth - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-29T07:23:46Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A384338&xn_auth=noWhy Endogamous Marriages Coul…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-07-15:1119293:Comment:4255282023-07-15T14:03:58.905ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Why Endogamous Marriages Could Make Us An Unhealthy Population</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/11/endogamous-same-caste-marriages-unhealthy/" target="_blank">https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/11/endogamous-same-caste-marriages-unhealthy/</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Endogamous marriages are the ones that take place within a particular social group such as caste, clan, tribe, gotra, etc. The presence of thousands of castes and communities in India…</span></p>
<p><span>Why Endogamous Marriages Could Make Us An Unhealthy Population</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/11/endogamous-same-caste-marriages-unhealthy/" target="_blank">https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/11/endogamous-same-caste-marriages-unhealthy/</a></span><br/><br/><span>Endogamous marriages are the ones that take place within a particular social group such as caste, clan, tribe, gotra, etc. The presence of thousands of castes and communities in India has led to the formation of a very fragmented and dissociated society.</span><br/><br/><br/><br/><span>Posted by Shivani Gual</span><br/><br/><span>When I look around my family and close relatives, I often find multiple family relations between two people. My father’s sister married a man whose sister married my mother’s brother. You might need a pen and a paper to figure that one out! What I intend to communicate here is that in small communities marriages among relatives is a common affair. This is known as endogamy.</span><br/><br/><span>Endogamous marriages are the ones that take place within a particular social group such as caste, clan, tribe, gotra, etc. The presence of thousands of castes and communities in India has led to the formation of a very fragmented and dissociated society. These castes, even though belonging to the same religion, are so different from each other that it is laborious to find similarities in their customs and traditions. As a result, marriages are found to be conventionally more successful when they are endogamous due to the familiarity between the two cultures.</span><br/><br/><span>Also read: Endogamous Love: On Love Jihad & Marriages In India</span><br/><br/><span>Endogamous marriages are the ones that take place within a particular social group such as caste, clan, tribe, gotra, etc. The presence of thousands of castes and communities in India has led to the formation of a very fragmented and dissociated society.</span><br/><br/><span>One of the most common endogamous groups is caste. Caste-system in India is primordial and it was first mentioned in Rig Veda, the oldest Hindu shastra. This division that varna-system created has lost its muscle today but the notion and attitudes remain in the minds of people. Every caste has its sub-castes and an imperceptible hierarchy exists which results in the formation of new endogamous groups. Due to the presence of a strong caste system in India, inter-caste marriages are overtly avoided even today.</span><br/><br/><span>The social and cultural gap between different endogamous groups is so significant that marriages among them are believed to destabilise and dismantle the society. Consequently, the choices for marriage unions are limited and restricted to the core primary group. When members of this group mate and have children, it is often found that these children suffer from genetic imperfections that their ancestors might have possessed. Inbreeding is one of the reasons for these ‘hereditary diseases’.</span><br/><br/><span>Inbreeding is a phenomenon where two close relatives mate with each other. While there is a huge demand for inbreeding in animals such as dogs and cows for various reasons, it is a taboo in many human societies. Inbreeding is infamous as it results in sub-optimal heritable attributes in the inbred offspring. When a child inherits a pair of recessive genes, one from each parent, it becomes dominant even though it might have been inactive in the parent. The chances of a recessive gene being present in close relatives are higher and therefore it is more likely that an inbred child will have a genetic disease.</span><br/><br/><span>In our fragmented society, there are over 4000 castes and communities, some of which comprise only a few hundred people. When a group of people indulges in marriage unions through generations, it results in an aggregated gene pool due to the absence of diversity. This limited gene pool is often responsible for the transmission of recessive genes from one generation to another creating a risk of chromosomal, genetic, or congenital abnormalities.</span></p> Study links endogamy to persi…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-07-15:1119293:Comment:4256142023-07-15T14:03:01.458ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Study links endogamy to persistence of harmful genetic variants in India<br></br><br></br><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/south-indian-population-homozygous-genotypes-genetic-disorders-study/article67070500.ece" target="_blank">https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/south-indian-population-homozygous-genotypes-genetic-disorders-study/article67070500.ece</a><br></br><br></br><br></br>A large-scale medical genetics study aimed to identify unique genetic variants behind South Asia’s health…</p>
<p>Study links endogamy to persistence of harmful genetic variants in India<br/><br/><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/south-indian-population-homozygous-genotypes-genetic-disorders-study/article67070500.ece" target="_blank">https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/south-indian-population-homozygous-genotypes-genetic-disorders-study/article67070500.ece</a><br/><br/><br/>A large-scale medical genetics study aimed to identify unique genetic variants behind South Asia’s health problems.<br/><br/>In 2009, a study in Nature Genetics by the group of Kumarasamy Thangaraj, at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, reported a fascinating finding on why a small group of Indians were prone to cardiac failure at relatively young ages. They found that the DNA of such individuals lacked 25 base-pairs in a gene crucial for the rhythmic beating of the heart (scientists call it a 25-base-pair deletion).<br/><br/>Intriguingly, this deletion was unique to the Indian population and, barring a few groups in Southeast Asia, was not found elsewhere. They estimated that this deletion arose around 30,000 years ago, shortly after people began settling in the subcontinent, and affects roughly 4% of the Indian population today.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Airyana Vaējah | Encyclopedia…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-12-05:1119293:Comment:4150662022-12-05T05:30:20.341ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<div dir="ltr"><div><div><h3><font size="4"><span>Airyana</span> Vaējah | Encyclopedia.com</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/airyana-vaejah" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/<span>airyana</span>-vaejah</a></div>
<div><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">The Rigveda & Bactria (1700 BC) - Okar Research…</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><div><div><h3><font size="4"><span>Airyana</span> Vaējah | Encyclopedia.com</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/airyana-vaejah" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/<span>airyana</span>-vaejah</a></div>
<div><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">The Rigveda & Bactria (1700 BC) - Okar Research</font></h3>
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<div><a href="http://balkhandshambhala.blogspot.com/2012/12/balkh-vedas.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://balkhandshambhala.blogspot.com/2012/12/balkh-vedas.html</a></div>
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<div><h3><font size="4">Aryan <span>Homeland</span>, Airyana Vaeja, in the Avesta. Aryan lands ...</font></h3>
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<div><a href="http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/airyanavaeja.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/aryans/airyanavaeja.htm</a></div>
<div><b><font color="#000000" face="arial, sans-serif">The <span>homeland</span> of the Aryans was called Airyana Vaeja in the Zoroastrian scriptures, the <i>Avesta</i> and <span>Arya</span> Varta in the Hindu scriptures. The collection of first Aryan nations was called Airyanam Dakhyunam. Aryan lands are called Airyo Shayanem.</font></b></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><div><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">The truth about us Indians: Who are we, and why</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/230819/the-truth-about-us-indians-who-are-we-and-why.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/230819/the-truth-about-us-indians-who-are-we-and-why.html</a></div>
<div><b>Aug 23, 2019 — <span>The only indigenous people in India are the Adivasis, who Nihar Ranjan Ray had described as 'the original autochthonous people of India'.</span><br/></b></div>
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<div><h3><font size="4">Indigenous people in India and the web of indifference</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/governance/indigenous-people-in-india-and-the-web-of-indifference-55223" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/governance/indigenous-people-in-india-and-the-web-of-indifference-55223</a></div>
<div><b>India is home to about 700 tribal groups with a population of 104 million, as per 2011 census.<br/></b></div>
<div><blockquote><div><div><h3><font size="4">India, largely a country of immigrants - The Hindu</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed//article60547497.ece" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed//article60547497.ece</a></div>
<div><b><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">UPDATED: DECEMBER 04, 2021 </font></b>— <b><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">A Supreme Court judgment projects the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old immigrants and that <span>pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present Adivasis, rather than Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of India.</span></font></b></div>
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<div><h3><font size="4">Where Indians Come From, Part 2: Dravidians and Aryans</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/where-indians-come-from-part-2-dravidians-and-aryans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/where-indians-come-from-part-2-dravidians-and-aryans/</a></div>
<div><b>Jan 7, 2019 — </b><b><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Who were the people who made up ancient India and where did they come from?</font></b></div>
</div> From Virginia Raines via emai…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-12-05:1119293:Comment:4152192022-12-05T05:14:22.947ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>From Virginia Raines via email:</p>
<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate - The Hindu</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/how-genetics-is-settling-the-aryan-migration-debate/article19090301.ece" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/how-genetics-is-settling-the-aryan-migration-debate/article19090301.ece…</a></div>
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<p>From Virginia Raines via email:</p>
<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">How genetics is settling the Aryan migration debate - The Hindu</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/how-genetics-is-settling-the-aryan-migration-debate/article19090301.ece" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/how-genetics-is-settling-the-aryan-migration-debate/article19090301.ece</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">Two new genetic studies upheld Indo-Aryan migration. So why did Indian media report the opposite?</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-aryan-migration-theory-so-why-did-indian-media-report-the-opposite" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-aryan-migration-theory-so-why-did-indian-media-report-the-opposite</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Harrapa and the Aryan Invasion - Ancient India</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://faculty.tnstate.edu/tcorse/h121/indus.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://faculty.tnstate.edu/tcorse/h121/indus.htm</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">Myth of one Hindu religion exploded</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://asimiqbal2nd.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/hinduism-exploded.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://asimiqbal2nd.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/hinduism-exploded.pdf</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">India is Filthy | Adventure Travel blog for Couples - The Planet D</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://theplanetd.com/india-is-filthy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://theplanetd.com/india-is-filthy/</a></div>
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<blockquote><div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Traveling in India: 3.5 Weeks in Review - Frugal Frolicker</font></h3>
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<blockquote><div><a href="https://frugalfrolicker.com/traveling-in-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://frugalfrolicker.com/traveling-in-india/</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Donald Trump Jr. Went To India To Sell The American Dream to a Bunch of Billionaires</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nishitajha/donald-trump-jr-went-to-india-to-sell-the-american-dream-to" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nishitajha/donald-trump-jr-went-to-india-to-sell-the-american-dream-to</a></div>
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<blockquote><div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Indians love the bling of billionaires like Trump Jr. They are the gods of ache din</font></h3>
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<blockquote><div><a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/indians-are-bedazzled-by-the-bling-of-billionaires-like-trump-jr-they-are-the-real-gods-of-acche-din/37402/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://theprint.in/opinion/indians-are-bedazzled-by-the-bling-of-billionaires-like-trump-jr-they-are-the-real-gods-of-acche-din/37402/</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Kerala govt selling ayurvedic medicine made from cow urine ...</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/kerala-govt-selling-ayurvedic-medicine-made-from-cow-urine-cow-dung-995489.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.deccanherald.com/national/kerala-govt-selling-ayurvedic-medicine-made-from-cow-urine-cow-dung-995489.html</a></div>
<div dir="ltr"><b>Jun 9, 2021 — The Kerala government-owned ayurvedic medicine company, Oushadhi, is selling 'Panchagavya Ghrutham' made from cow urine and cow dung.<br/></b></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><blockquote><div><h3><font size="4">The use of cow dung and urine to cure COVID‐19 in India: A public health concern</font></h3>
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<div><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hpm.3257" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hpm.3257</a></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><blockquote><div><b>by S Daria · 2021 · Cited by 37 — In Hinduism, the cow dung is used to clean homes and for prayer rituals. ... They believe that it has therapeutic and antiseptic properties. The ...<br/></b></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Hindu Fascism 101: What is Hindutva? - Medium</font></h3>
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://medium.com/@stophindutva/hindu-fascism-101-what-is-hindutva-75105e71f5e1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://medium.com/@stophindutva/hindu-fascism-101-what-is-hindutva-75105e71f5e1</a></div>
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<blockquote><div dir="ltr"><h3><font size="4">Ramachandra Guha: Hindutva has strong links with fascism</font></h3>
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<p></p> ArainGang@ArainGangCompare to…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-11-29:1119293:Comment:4149352022-11-29T06:02:49.294ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>ArainGang<br/>@ArainGang<br/>Compare to figures for Hindus, where the Twice-Born Upper-Castes are evenly balanced with the Lowest-Caste Dalits at about 25% each.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the Shudras comprise the great mass of the Hindu population, at nearly 50% of the total.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419838053691392?s=20&t=Epthtms47R193qTQdnHNTA" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419838053691392?s=20&t=Epthtms47R193qTQdnHNTA</a></p>
<p>ArainGang<br/>@ArainGang<br/>Compare to figures for Hindus, where the Twice-Born Upper-Castes are evenly balanced with the Lowest-Caste Dalits at about 25% each.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the Shudras comprise the great mass of the Hindu population, at nearly 50% of the total.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419838053691392?s=20&t=Epthtms47R193qTQdnHNTA" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419838053691392?s=20&t=Epthtms47R193qTQdnHNTA</a></p> ArainGang@ArainGangPer 1901 B…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-11-29:1119293:Comment:4149342022-11-29T05:34:55.502ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>ArainGang<br></br>@ArainGang<br></br>Per 1901 British Estimate for UP Muslims:</p>
<p>37% are Ashraf (Syed, Sheikh, Mughal, Pathan)</p>
<p>8% directly descend from Twice Born Upper-Castes (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas)</p>
<p>33% descend from Lower-Caste Shudras (artisans, cultivators)</p>
<p>21% descend from untouchable menials, Dalits.…</p>
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<p>ArainGang<br/>@ArainGang<br/>Per 1901 British Estimate for UP Muslims:</p>
<p>37% are Ashraf (Syed, Sheikh, Mughal, Pathan)</p>
<p>8% directly descend from Twice Born Upper-Castes (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas)</p>
<p>33% descend from Lower-Caste Shudras (artisans, cultivators)</p>
<p>21% descend from untouchable menials, Dalits.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419233666772992?s=20&t=LTzlyo7kaW263fAjerf9lA" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ArainGang/status/1597419233666772992?s=20&t=LTzlyo7kaW263fAjerf9lA</a></p> B.B. Lal and the Making of Hi…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-10-14:1119293:Comment:4116072022-10-14T14:20:20.451ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>B.B. Lal and the Making of Hindutva Archaeology</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya</a></span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>Lal’s most significant discovery was that of the earliest Jain terracotta figurine (4th century BCE) and Roman Rouletted Ware (1st-2nd century CE). This evidence showed that Ayodhya was…</span></p>
<p><span>B.B. Lal and the Making of Hindutva Archaeology</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>Lal’s most significant discovery was that of the earliest Jain terracotta figurine (4th century BCE) and Roman Rouletted Ware (1st-2nd century CE). This evidence showed that Ayodhya was not just part of the brisk ancient trade route, but it was a multicultural site. There was no mention of a Hindu temple at the site. The short excavation reportage in IAR ironically stated that the entire period after the 11th century “was devoid of special interest”.</span><br/><br/><span>However, it was in 1990 when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was jolting the political climate in India, and more than 10 years after he had excavated Ayodhya, Lal, in an influential article in a Hindu propaganda journal, Manthan, announced that he had recovered Hindu temple pillar-bases during the excavation.</span><br/><br/><span>Lal forcefully asserted his authority as an eminent ASI archaeologist behind his egregious claim that remains of a Hindu temple existed under the Babri Masjid. He allegedly provided false archaeological justification for the claim that the Hindutva fundamentalists were making about the Babri Masjid. Archaeology was irrevocably pushed into the greatest political crisis of postcolonial India.</span><br/><br/><span>Lal’s assertion about the presence of temple debris under the mosque had led to an acrimonious debate among archaeologists and historians in India. He led a group of historians and archaeologists, along with his collaborator S.P. Gupta, who provided archaeological justification to the political project of Hindu fundamentalism.</span><br/><br/><span>With this, the project of Hindutva’s appropriation of archaeology’s scientific legitimacy to pursue its divisive politics reached its logical conclusion on December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished.</span><br/><br/><span>Along with this project, Lal is also the progenitor of the other favourite Hindutva archaeological project – ‘Aryanization of the Indus Civilization’. This basically means deceptively force-fitting archaeological evidence of the Harappan civilisation (3300-1800 BCE) with the Vedic civilisation (1500-600 BCE) and creating a new ethnic category called the ‘Vedic-Harappans’ – the authors of the ‘Out of India’ theory.</span><br/><br/><span>This project disputes the movement of the Aryans from the West, and asserts, without much evidence, that the Harappans were indigenous Vedic Aryans. This is a speculative premise devoid of any material data on the ground through which the Harappan civilisation becomes the birthplace of the indigenous Aryans who spoke the proto-Indo-European language and spread throughout the Eurasian world.</span><br/><br/><span>The centre of this process of ‘Aryanization’ – the practice of reading Aryan elements into Harappan material culture – is the river Saraswati, which, thanks to specious scholarship by Lal, moved from the mythological to the archaeological realm. I say specious because in all of his official ASI publications that dealt with the Harappan site of Kalibangan that Lal excavated, he never used the word ‘Saraswati’.</span><br/><br/><span>He excavated the site of Kalibangan from 1960-69, but published the report only 34 years after the end of the excavation. In the meanwhile, in non-official publications, Lal routinely postulated the idea that the monsoon-fed Ghaggar-Hakra paleo-channel was actually the Vedic river Saraswati, without archaeological, geological, or hydrological evidence.</span><br/><br/><span>If Lord Rama was the divine centre of the property dispute at Ayodhya for Lal, then Goddess Saraswati was the celestial pivot of the making of the Vedic Harappans.</span></p> The Wire@thewire_inLal began…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-10-14:1119293:Comment:4115022022-10-14T14:19:42.701ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>The Wire</span><br></br><span>@thewire_in</span><br></br><span>Lal began his career as an archaeologist with a commitment to empirical rationality. However, by the 1990s, he was known as a 'bhagwa archaeologist' for his spurious claims on Ayodhya. |</span><br></br><span>@AAvikunthak…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>The Wire</span><br/><span>@thewire_in</span><br/><span>Lal began his career as an archaeologist with a commitment to empirical rationality. However, by the 1990s, he was known as a 'bhagwa archaeologist' for his spurious claims on Ayodhya. |</span><br/><span>@AAvikunthak</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://twitter.com/thewire_in/status/1579287401041514496?s=20&t=aRjh-wfOmRZqzGrZ-bpSog" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/thewire_in/status/1579287401041514496?s=20&t=aRjh-wfOmRZqzGrZ-bpSog</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>---------------</span><br/><br/><span>B.B. Lal and the Making of Hindutva Archaeology</span><br/><span>Lal began his career as an archaeologist with a commitment to empirical rationality. However, by the 1990s, he was known as a 'bhagwa archaeologist' for his spurious claims on Ayodhya.</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/history/b-b-lal-hindutva-archaeology-ram-temple-babri-masjid-ayodhya</a></span><br/><br/><span>If there is one name in the history of post-independent India that has had a towering influence on the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), it is Braj Basi Lal, who recently passed away last month at the age of 101.</span><br/><br/><span>Lal’s career biography ideologically maps the trajectory ASI took after India broke its colonial shackles. Lal began his career as an archaeologist with a commitment to empirical rationality as seen from his early writing in the ASI journal Ancient India in the 1950s. However, by the 1990s, he was known as a “bhagwa [saffron] archaeologist” for his spurious claims on Ayodhya, which provided an archaeological impetus to the eventual demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.</span><br/><br/><span>As a young archaeologist, Lal was trained at the famous Taxila School of Archaeology in 1944. Led by Mortimer Wheeler – the last director general of the colonial ASI – this is considered to be the first school of field archaeology. It had an enduring impact on the trajectory of post-colonial Indian archaeology, as many students who attended went to become the director generals of the ASI, including B.B. Lal who headed the ASI from 1968 to 1972.</span><br/><br/><span>The first time I saw B.B. Lal was during unsavoury circumstances. It was a cold winter of 1994 during the Third World Archaeological Congress (WAC 3) held in Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi. As a young graduate student of archaeology, I was a delegate attending the WAC 3 – a gathering of international archaeologists held once in four years. The conference opened with disarray organisation, disordered logistics, and corruption allegations.</span><br/><br/><span>Palpably, an unofficial gag order prohibiting any discussion on the demolition of the Babri Masjid was floating in the glittering corridors of the five-star hotel. I heard muted voices of dissent and the simmering tension in the air threatened to disrupt the conference.</span><br/><br/><span>On the last day of the conference, an ugly fistfight broke out on the stage of the hotel’s regal ballroom. The national and international delegates sat in stunned silence. Amid a heated discussion and vociferous slogan shouting, a group of senior Indian archaeologists led by B.B. Lal and right-wing archaeologist S.P. Gupta were seen rushing onto the stage.</span><br/><br/><span>They snatched the microphone from the Indian delegates who had come up to the podium to read a petition for WAC-3 to pass a resolution condemning the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The conference ended wretchedly, with the WAC Council boycotting the official closing ceremony in protest.</span><br/><br/><span>B.B Lal’s role in transforming the ASI from a sedate government organisation excavating diverse pasts of this ancient nation to something that has been trying to prove the archaeological veracity of the ancient Hindu epic tradition is indelible.</span><br/><br/></p> India's Culture ministry to s…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-06-19:1119293:Comment:4090152022-06-19T01:51:25.454ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>India's Culture ministry to study ‘racial purity’ of Indians - The New Indian Express</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/may/28/culture-ministry-to-study-racial-purity-of-indians-2458899.html" target="_blank">https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/may/28/culture-ministry-to-study-racial-purity-of-indians-2458899.html</a></span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Culture is in the process of acquiring an array of DNA…</span></p>
<p><span>India's Culture ministry to study ‘racial purity’ of Indians - The New Indian Express</span><br/><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/may/28/culture-ministry-to-study-racial-purity-of-indians-2458899.html" target="_blank">https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/may/28/culture-ministry-to-study-racial-purity-of-indians-2458899.html</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Culture is in the process of acquiring an array of DNA profiling kits and associated state-of-the-art machines for establishing the genetic history and “trace the purity of races in India”. Highly placed government sources said the acquisition process began recently following a meeting that Ministry of Culture Secretary Govind Mohan held with well-known archaeologist Professor Vasant S Shinde and senior scientists and scholars of the Lucknow-based Birbal Sahani Institute of Paleosciences (BSIP) in Hyderabad two months ago.</span><br/><br/><span>Shinde is adjunct professor at the Bangalore-based National Institute of Advanced Study and director of the Rakhigarhi Research Project. Founder of the Society of South Asian Archaeology, Prof Shinde’s research contribution includes “DNA analysis and craniofacial reconstruction of Harappan People”.</span><br/><br/><span>When contacted over phone, Prof Shinde admitted that the gadgets were in the process of being acquired. He said, “We want to see how mutation and mixing of genes in the Indian population has happened in the last 10,000 years. Genetic mutation depends on the intensity of contact among populations and the time that this process takes. We will then have a clear-cut idea of the genetic history. You may even say that this will be an effort to trace the purity of races in India.”</span><br/><br/><span>The Kolkata-based Anthropological Survey of India (ANSI), which has, “of late”, expressed “disinclination” to proceed with the exercise to trace the genetic origins of early Indians because the issue is “politically loaded”, is also part of this project which was initially conceived in 2019. A budget of `10 crore has been earmarked for procuring the DNA profilers and the other related scientific gadgets, sources said. The aim, according to the ANSI, is to “develop a resource of cell lines and DNA samples that can be used to study DNA sequence polymorphism in contemporary Indian populations”</span><br/><br/><span>More importantly, the ANSI seeks to “establish (the) Indian role in the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa” because “modern humans could have taken the ‘southern route of dispersal’, utilising the coastlines to travel from Africa, through Arabia, across the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia and finally into Australia”.</span><br/><br/><span>Secondly, the ANSI wants to understand the genetic diversity of Indian populations among various ethnic groups in different regions of India based on direct re-sequencing of haploid genomes. By its own admission, under this project, the ANSI has studied 75 communities comprising 7,807 blood samples from different parts of the country. These communities include the Jarawa, Nicobarese, Andh, Kathodi, Madia, Malpaharia, Munda, Bhoi Khasi, Nihal, Toto, Dirang Monpa,</span></p> You could call it experimenta…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-01-07:1119293:Comment:4060042022-01-07T18:35:06.259ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">You could call it experimental plate tectonics: the formation of the Somalaya Mountains. Predicting these Mountains of the Future requires developing ‘rules’ and ‘recipes’ of geological behaviour. Understanding these principles will help us to to understand our geological past. Therefore,m geologists at Utrecht University's Faculty of Geosciences drew up a series of such rules – the first in the world – to describe how mountain ranges…</span></p>
<p><span dir="auto" class="style-scope yt-formatted-string">You could call it experimental plate tectonics: the formation of the Somalaya Mountains. Predicting these Mountains of the Future requires developing ‘rules’ and ‘recipes’ of geological behaviour. Understanding these principles will help us to to understand our geological past. Therefore,m geologists at Utrecht University's Faculty of Geosciences drew up a series of such rules – the first in the world – to describe how mountain ranges will look in the future. Developing these rules allows using paleogeographic reconstruction to predict modern geological phenomena, such as ore deposits. Failure to predict correctly means the reconstructions and/or the rules and recipes contain errors, and drives targeted research and innovation. For more info visit the Faculty of Geosciences website:</span> <a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXUyQ2dWcC1mZHkxNHNmTEkzRGh6RVIyR2hfUXxBQ3Jtc0trSVB3Mm5XTVJfLVd3MUxsdkN4X2tRODJCRkJ5TDdEQ2NkZE5FaEtQdWZpN3hKZHowVWZMUVJqTFJReXVIQU44V2FaNEY0TmQ1Wm1tSHBjWVlfM250djdZTXJYRUZDbFBCQWF3aWcwOTgtQWVLVHBMOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uu.nl%2Fen%2Fnews%2Fmountains-of-the-future-the-collision-of-india-somalia-and-madagascar" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" dir="auto">https://www.uu.nl/en/news/mountains-o...</a> <span dir="auto" class="style-scope yt-formatted-string">(English)</span></p>
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<p><a href="https://youtu.be/HSilbObdCZ4"><span dir="auto" class="style-scope yt-formatted-string">https://youtu.be/HSilbObdCZ4</span></a></p>
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