(April 20, 2013 at 1:11 pm)Free Thinker Wrote: I grew up in Pakistan and I was taught that fair-skinned Aryans from the North came in and "pushed" (which implies forced) dark-skinned dravidians to the South. Now there's no denying the colour difference between the fair-skinned and dark-skinned South Asians - but I have yet to come across any proof that the Aryans led any kind of ethnic cleansing. In fact, the current people (who are more beatish and less dark) seems to suggest to me that it wasn't some sort of ethnic cleansing - but more of a nomadic expansion and mixing of two cultures.
Then again - I would be definitely interested in some proof that the Aryans did indeed push/subjugate/cleanse the dravidians. If they tried, then they were pretty unsuccessful ...
You got it. The idea of invasion goes back to the late 18th c. when someone whose name I forget first noted the languages from northwest Hindustan and eastward were related to European languages. At the time it was a first guess that it spread by conquest. That method was never a fact in evidence.
The oddball thing is about the time the idea of superior race was peaking in Europe it was also the time archaeology was starting to show spread by conquest simply did not happen.
For those still stuck in the post WWII propaganda, it was a common idea all through Europe. Simply each major country was claiming to be the best of the best Aryans. Half a century before Hitler became chancellor and started working on German dominance of Europe (and never any more than that despite wartime propaganda) the Brits were openly discussing their natural fitness to rule the world and were in fact implementing it.
Mussolini was pushing a return to the greatness of the Italian people by restoring the Roman empire. And Italy was a good guy in the first world war.
Going into WWII the good guys, Britain, France and Russia combined had enslaved between a third and a half of the human race. And they accused Germany of being evil for wanting to get a piece of the action.
Another thing, in those days the word race was more or less synonymous with nationality. The propaganda of the self-proclaimed English race belittled the claim of a German race. However you have to know some history. The Brits were comparing their history from 1066 to the Bismarck's unification of the German states in the late 19th c.
