The Invasion That Never Was

by Michel Danino, Sujatha Nahar

Since the nineteenth century india's ancient history from vedic times and the true content of the veda have both been distorted by a blinked and unsympathetic scholarship. British rulers, European scholars and missionaries combined in a campaign to disparage the roots of indian civilization, and used the groundless theory of an Aryan invasion of India in order to sow seeds of division in Indian society- "divide and convert." The same fallacies continue to be promoted today. The first part in this book examine the birth of the aryan myth, and the misuses it has bred; it then gives a fresh look at the invasion theory in the light of recent archaeological evidence. The second part offers the essence of the veda's true message in the light of Sri Aurobindo's rediscovery of the rishis.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michel Danino was born in France in 1956. At the age of 21, after four years of higher scientific studies, he decided to live in India, where he first took part in the English translation, editing and publication of books related to Sri Aurobindo and Mother. A student of Indian civilization, culture and history, he has lectured widely and published research papers in journals of archaeology and Indology. In 1996, he wrote a brief study of the Aryan problem in the Indian context, The Invasion That Never Was (2nd edition 2000), further enlarged a decade later in a French book (English version forthcoming). In 2010, he authored a comprehensive study of the Sarasvati River, The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati (Penguin India). Michel Danino's work for the protection of a Shola forest in the Nilgiris in the 1980s and 1990s led to the creation of Tamil Nadu's first joint forest management group involving local citizens. His other interests include nature photography and a multimedia project for the creation of quality educational material on India's heritage. He currently lives near Coimbatore in south India.

Reviews

[Harini Gopalswami Srinivasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's incredible and shocking that so many generations have swallowed the myth of an 'Aryan invasion' all their years! I hope this fascinating and very accessible book, aimed at children, will be prescribed reading in schools, enabling us to shed our divisive delusions.

Update: Nine years on, I've been reading a lot of well researched books and articles, notably Tony Joseph's The Early Indians. Based on genetic evidence, current research strongly suggests the probability of an Aryan immigration into the Indian sub-continent, if not an invasion. I believe we should always keep our minds open and be willing to examine the evidence and its implications. Biased research does no service to the pursuit of knowledge.

[Ashish Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting short book. This book was written for school kids to get basic idea about it.

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too repetitive and not entirely as factual as it pretends to be. The second part of the book on the Gayatri mantra was poetic and beautiful.

[VijayaRaghavan S N · Rating 4 out of 5]

History was never my favored course. It reflected on my answer sheets well enough. So even though I remember learning about Aryan Invasion I don't even have a vague idea of what was taught. Lucky me I guess. Who would want to learn something that was a cooked up story? A point I can use when next time my dad says his usual 'Had you spend more time learning history in classes.. ' dialogue. Because I loathed history (the subject) I couldn't care less when Danino came to our college to have a talk about the same subject in this book. I didn't even try to listen to what he was saying. But now that it's been years since I last had any thing to do with history, I could spend some of my precious attention on this subject. This book makes Indians proud and shameful in the same pages. It shows how ignorant we were towards our own historical facts and how head-over-heels we were towards the westerners and their gospel truths. I feel ashamed to say that we continue being mesmerised by what's going on in the western world while we turn blind to what our country has got to offer. So, in that sense, this book is an eye opener for all Indians.

This book would have had a lot more profound effect on me had I paid more attention on my history lessons and then later realize through this book that all what I learned were a scam. But, alas, I didn't have the wrong ideas in me to start with, thanks to my special love for history. And that's why I give a 4 star and not 5 because this was a new knowledge to me rather than something which removes the mask of a scam.

[Gaurav Nawani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought proving book. Its been a shame of Indian intellect and meek political will to not arrest the trend of instilling our children with the lies of our origins shouted from rooftops buy our colonial masters and every other tom dick and Barry who could only just afford the spices we have been selling them since the dawn of ages.

[Ajay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it somewhere that Michel Danino made series of books like this for school. Good content. Hope i keep coming across his more work.

[Arpita K · Rating 4 out of 5]

May be it is time that every Indian reads this or a book related to this subject. It is imperative for us to rule out the word race and caste and replace them with diversified lingual groups. An informative piece to read. Definitely a gem. Good job to the Indian education system to introduce this to the syllabus.

[Bhavu Srini]

A must read book especially for all Indians who have been deceived by a fake history of its own land.
This book shatters most of the concepts that is widely accepted and read in history books for years and set forth a path to identify the truth.

[Raksha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The harsh misinterpretation, what we grew up with, has been thrown some light upon and intellectually the truth has been come out about the dravidian and aaryan community.

[Samanvay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The facts given may be true but the language is extremely biased