Still No Trace of an Aryan Invasion: A Collection on Indo-European Origins

by Koenraad Elst

The question of the Homeland of the Indo-European (IE) or “Aryan” language family is, as riddles in the otherwise prosaic field of historical linguistics go, of unusual importance. It pits essentially two theories against one another. Either ancestral Proto-Indo-European (PIE), mother of most Indian and European languages, was spoken in Northwestern India, some 6000 years ago. This was the dominant view for some forty years after the close kinship between these languages had been announced by William Jones in 1786. It was revived amid lots of commotion around 1990, and since 1996 it is known as the Out-of-India Theory (OIT). Alternatively, it was spoken outside India, in Homelands ranging from Bactria to Anatolia, but now most popularly accepted to have been Southwestern Russia. As these more westerly Homelands all imply that the Indian branch of this language family had entered India from abroad, probably some 3600 years ago, this alternative is called the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), or with a more recent weasel word, the Aryan Migration Theory (AMT). This theory has led to the grossest political abuse: by British colonialism, by German National-Socialism, and even now by Dravidianism, Ambedkarism and other “Breaking India” forces. Nevertheless, most scholars still swear by it because they assume that someone somewhere must have proven it, otherwise it wouldn't have become the official theory. But this assumption is in need of verification. Over the years, Dr. Koenraad Elst has devoted a number of scholarly papers and journalistic articles to this controversy. For easy future reference, they have been collected here.

Genres: History, India

466 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Flemish writer and orientalist (without institutional affiliation).

Koenraad Elst was an editor of the New Right Flemish nationalist journal Tekos 1992 to 1995 and also contributed to other Flemish seperatist publications like Nucleus, 't Pallieterke, Secessie and The Brussels Journal.

Koenraad Elst is one of the most well-known western writers to actively defend the Hindutva movement.

Reviews

[Vinay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aryan Invasion now called Aryan Migration is the mainstream version of Indias history of Sanskrit, Vedas, Aryans, Caste system and Brahmins. The oppressed communities are the natives while aryans came from Steppe grasslands of Central Asia, western Russia and Ukraine. Genetic studies continue to show this piggybacking on the linguistic theory because of similarities between Greek, Sanskrit and Latin. This book is a good attempt to bust the myth based on linguistics. India was a melting pot but to accredit majority of Hindu and brahminism to outside invaders is a stretch, the theory doesn’t see India as a continuum.

[Atul Subramanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone to get the RIGHT perspective about AIT and OIT. Elst is a genius and masterfully sets the narrative for an Indian Homeland for Proto Indo-European (PIE) languages.

[Shreyansh Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still no trace of an Aryan Invasion is a very good collection of his essays which provide a comprehensive, scholarly view and also makes us learn the various dimensions and nuances involved and gets one out of complacency.

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essentially a collection of various articles, blog-entries, papers etc, on the Aryan question. The author has razor sharp academic rigour and an objectivity rarely seen today among the academics dealing with this particular issue.