Comment by Riaz Haq on May 15, 2018 at 9:07pm

#India deputy rep at #UN: #Indian civilization built on "waves of #migration". "Science confirms that all of us are migrants. The deep and the more recent history of our migration and mixed ancestry is, in fact, recorded in our genes," http://toi.in/7i9GCa49/a24gk via @timesofindia

India has acknowledged here at an international forum that its civilization was built upon successive waves of migration like most countries and it was a scientific fact.
"The Indian civilization has been built upon successive waves of migration throughout history comprising traders, soldiers, missionaries, communities escaping persecution, artists and academics and artisans seeking better opportunities," India's Deputy Permanent Representative Tanmaya Lal said on Monday.
"This mega diversity of our peoples is among our greatest strength," he said at a session of the intergovernmental negotiations on a global compact on migration.
The statement comes amid heated debates in India about historic migrations, some that happened eons ago.
Lal did not get into the debate or into the specific theories or peoples, but made a general statement, which mentioned "soldiers" among the wave of migrants.
He pointed out that migrations were a global phenomenon throughout history and nations have emerged through this inter-mingling.
"Most nation states and societies have been built upon waves of migration over the past several centuries," he said.
"Science confirms that all of us are migrants. The deep and the more recent history of our migration and mixed ancestry is, in fact, recorded in our genes," Lal added.
"Migration has continued to expand and is now aided by the integration of economies over the last few decades," he said.
Speaking of the benefits to the world through migration, he cited the example of Mahatma Gandhi, who studied in England and worked in South Africa, saying he is "among the most well-known international migrants who contributed hugely to our collective progress."
Lal also mentioned the many Nobel Prize-winners of Indian descent "who made seminal contribution to science" as well as foreign-born scientists, inventors, businesspersons, artistes, sportspersons, authors, academics, doctors and political leaders "who have made an indelible mark not only on societies where they lived but globally." 

Negotiations are taking place for a global agreement to facilitate safe, orderly and regular international migration that is to be concluded in December in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Lal tried to dispel what he considered two widely held misconceptions about India and migrations

While India is considered to be among the top countries of origin for migrants globally, the rate of emigration from India is less than half of the world's average, he said.
"It is much lesser known and appreciated that India is also among the major countries of destination, as also a transit country, for migrants largely from our neighbourhood," he added. 

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 12, 2019 at 4:29pm

Two new genetic studies upheld Indo-Aryan migration. So why did Indian media report the opposite?
Science is proving India's incredible diversity. But this clashes directly with Hindutva’s racially nativist understanding of the subcontinent.

https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-ary...

“Can we now prove the historical existence of Bhagwan Ram?” rang out a question at a press conference in Delhi on Friday to explain the findings of two much-awaited studies on the genetic origin of modern South Asia.

On the podium to explain the two new papers of which they are among the co-authors were Vasant Shinde, an archaeologist and vice-chancellor of Deccan College, and Niraj Rai, head of the Ancient DNA lab at the Birbal Sahni Institute for Palaeosciences.

Taken together, the studies – one in Cell, the other in Science – painted a fascinating genetic picture of how groups as diverse as local hunter gatherers, Iranian farmers and pastoralists from the Pontic steppe grasslands in Eastern Europe mixed to form most of the modern South Asian population.

----

As a consequence, though the genetic studies themselves were rather clear, many in the media misrepresented the results to suit this political narrative. In fact, even the co-authors of the papers themselves seemed to disagree on the conclusions that can be drawn from the research.

Media confusion
The Economic Times reported that the research raises doubts over the “long-held theory of Aryan invasion or migration into South Asia”. Amar Ujala, one of India’s largest Hindi newspapers, was more emphatic: “The Aryan invasion theory proved completely false; India is the guru of South Asia.”

The theory of the Aryan invasion (or migration) was first put forward by Western scholars during the colonial age. It maintained that a race of European or Central Asian “Aryans” swept into the subcontinent displacing the indigenous Indus Valley Civilisation. These Aryans were said to have introduced key elements of Indian culture such as the Sanskrit language – which gave rise to the Indo-Aryan branch of languages spoken all across north, west and east India today – as well as the Vedas, the foundational texts of Hinduism.

This went against Hindutva’s own imagination of India, in which all significant cultural development was held to be indigenous.

Some of what the term “Aryan” once referred to has been proved to be scientifically inaccurate. The Nazis, for example, mistook what is a language grouping to be a racial one. However, much of the Indian media did not bother to explain that the new research actually upheld the theory that people with European Steppe ancestry had brought the Indo-Aryan language branch to India – not overturned it.

In contrast, the media in the West (with no political dog in this fight) communicated this fact rather well. People of Steppe-pastoralist ancestry likely “brought horses and the Indo-European languages now spoken on the subcontinent,” reported the Atlantic. The Smithsonian.com website of the American museum group wrote, “Indo-European languages may have reached South Asia via Central Asia and Eastern Europe during the first half of the 1000s BC.”

--------------------

To Reich’s cultural argument, there is also a political layer. India is today dominated by the politics of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism, an ideology which is fiercely nativist. Vinayak Savarkar, the founder of Hindutva and a foundational thinker for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, based his nationalism on nativism arguing that for a true Indian, India had to be both his pitribhumi (ancestral land) and punyabhumi (the land of his religion).

“A Hindu therefore could not be descended from alien invaders,” said historian Romila Thapar, explaining how Hindutva saw the world. “Since Hindus sought a lineal descent from the Aryans, and a cultural heritage, the Aryans had to be indigenous.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 10, 2020 at 6:22pm

What’s “Indian culture”? sitar? tabla? nan? nihari? biryani, tandoori? Even the words Hindi and Hindu are from Arabic/Persian “Hind”. The word “Urdu” is from #Turkish.

#Hindus are no more indigenous than #Muslims in #SouthAsia. Our #DNA shows #India and #Pakistan are lands of immigrants: traders, soldiers, missionaries, communities escaping persecution, artists, academics and artisans from Central Asia and Middle East

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 10, 2020 at 8:01pm

Pakistan is a glorious smorgasbord of cultures. One of them is Turkish. Others are Arab, Persian, Indian and Khorasani.

The most recent addition: Anglophone Western.

None are particularly better (or worse) than another.

Your problem with Ertugul is yours, not Pakistan’s.

https://twitter.com/mosharrafzaidi/status/1259565907996815362?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 10, 2020 at 8:10pm

“Our selves” are not Indian or Turkish but rich with multiple roots. “Indian”, Turkish, Arab, Persian, Mongol, own dharti…

Denying any specific root destroys the beauty that is our legacy

Real game here is political use of these issues. Let’s not fall for that fitna

https://twitter.com/iFaqeer/status/1259645820648845312?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 19, 2020 at 10:47am

ایک طنزیہ کالم - “سعودی عرب نے پاکستان سے 1400 سال کی مستعار تاریخ واپس مانگ لی” پاکستان نے 700 سال ترکی سے لے لئے ہیں باقی کی تلاش جاری ہے



@HarrisRichard77
Replying to
@husainhaqqani
Of course, you will find anything that ridicules or disparages Pakistan and it’s people amusing.

Ever commented on why the Americans & the British eulogise Greek and Roman history, culture & literature!

I guess not, because then u would have to learn perspective.

https://twitter.com/HarrisRichard77/status/1340338989295923200?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 5, 2021 at 9:06pm

Proponents of Indigenous Aryanism believe that the Indus Valley Civilisation was Aryan and Vedic.^[7] There are two common objections against such a correlation: "the Rg Vedicculture was pastoral and horse-centered, while the Harappan culture was neither horse-centered nor pastoral";^{[note 1][3]} and "the complete absence of the horse (equus caballus)."^{[note 2]} Support for the idea of an indigenous Indo-Aryan origin of the Indus Valley Civilisation mostly exists among Indian scholars of Hindu religion and the history and archaeology of India,^{[8][9][10][11]} and has no support in mainstream scholarship.^{[note 3]}

The paucity of horse remains in pre-Vedic times could be explained by India's climatic factors which lead to decay of horse bones. Horse bones may also be rare because horses were probably not eaten or used in burials by the Harappans.^[12][13] Remains and artifacts ascribed to domesticated horses are limited to Late Harappan times^{[14][3][note 10]} indicating that horses may have been present at Late Harappan times,^[1] "when the Vedic people had settled in the north-west part of the subcintinent."^[3] It can therefor not be concluded that the horse was regularly used, or played a significant role, in the Harappan society.^[2]

Horse remains from the Harappan site Surkotada (dated to 2400-1700 BC) have been identified by A.K. Sharma as  Equus ferus caballus.^{[subnote 3]} The horse specialist Sandor Bökönyi (1997) later confirmed these conclusions, and stated the excavated tooth specimens could "in all probability be considered remnants of true horses [i.e. Equus ferus caballus]".^{[subnote 4]} Bökönyi, as cited by B.B. Lal, stated that "The occurrence of true horse (Equus caballus L.) was evidenced by the enamel pattern of the upper and lower cheek and teeth and by the size and form of incisors and phalanges (toe bones)."^{[subnote 5]} However, archaeologists like Meadow (1997) disagree, on the grounds that the remains of the Equus ferus caballus horse are difficult to distinguish from other equid species such as Equus asinus (donkeys) or Equus hemionus (onagers).^[21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_horse_in_the_Indian_su...

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