The Reconstruction of Indian History as Influenced by Race Conceptions Through:
British Colonialism, Linguistics, the Aryan Debate, and Caste Systems
Alexis V. Strang
History 135: South Asia to 1750
26 September 2013
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The Republic of India was founded in 1947 when after almost 200 years of British
colonial rule, England conceded its power; however, after having been colonized since
1769 the effects of British occupation were imbedded into aspects of India’s culture,
economics, politics, and history and were not soon to be forgotten1. I claim that British
colonialism influenced race conceptions when reconstructing the beginnings of Indian
history both because of the British’s mentality of superiority during this time period and
because many findings regarding the beginning of Indian history were discovered during
the era of British occupation in India; therefore, their interpretations of the findings would
guide how the information was documented and perceived. The evidence for my
argument comes through research done in the fields of linguistics, the Aryan debate,
and the caste system, more specifically in relation to how these elements are affected
by British colonialism.
In order to approach how British colonialism affected conceptions of race and its
role in reconstructing the beginnings of Indian history, clarifications must be made
regarding the physical area, the relative time frame, and the definition of race. In this
essay, I define race as a population of people who are descended from a common
ancestor with distinct cultural and historical characteristics as well as roots of
origination. When discussing the beginnings of Indian history, it is important to keep in
mind that the Indian Civilization and its landscape are what is being described, not the
Republic of India. Besides modern day India, the area also encompassed territories
such as Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, The Maldives, and Sri Lanka. 2 Similarly
to how its physical boundaries have changed, the starting point for the history of the
1
2
Class Notes: The Aryan Invasions.
Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press.
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Indian Civilization is malleable as well. Discovered in 1922 by British archeologists, the
Indus Valley Civilization, which dates back to 3000 BCE, is the oldest known civilization
in India.3 Its two main cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, were important, yet unsettling,
discoveries because not only did they shed new light on the ancient history of India that
had not been explored before, but they were also effective in destabilizing the British’s
sense of superiority.4 During this time period, the British were an imperialistic empire
with the mindset that their Aryan origins and their antiquity gave them an advantage in
the world and made them more superior to communities of people whom they deemed
less civilized. Britain viewed India as a less cultivated community of people that was in
early stages of development, and in order to justify the colonization of the region, the
British Empire asserted that their purpose was to help ‘civilize’ India.5 Therefore, the
discovery that the Indus Valley Civilization dated back to before the creation of England
would make it uncomfortable to disclose such information because it debased Britain’s
claim to superiority, causing the British to be cautious about asserting its validity.
Another discovery which further shocked the British was Sir William Jones’
advances in the history of the lineage of Indo-European languages. Before the
discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization, the time at which civilization was thought to
have started in the region was when the Aryans travelled across the Hindu Kush
Mountains and arrived in northwest India.6 In contrast to the Indus Valley Civilization,
whose language is still undeciphered, and whose remains include tangible artifacts such
as clothing, houses, and furniture by which to be studied, the Vedic society’s material
3
Majumdar, R. Ancient India,. 5th Revised ed. Motilal Banarsidass, 1968, 20.
Class Notes: Harappan Civilisation or the Indus Valley Civilisation: 2600 – 1800 BCE.
5
Robb, Peter. The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 18-30.
6
Majumdar, R. Ancient India,. 5th Revised ed. Motilal Banarsidass, 1968, 20-30.
4
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relics are scarce. The only method by which historians have to reconstruct Aryan history
is through their religious literature, the Veda.7 It was a commonly held belief during the
18th century that language and race were inextricably related, so when William Jones’
revealed in 1786 his discovery of the Indo-European language family, which was a
common ancestor language between the English of the British and the Sanskrit of India,
this inherently suggested a relation between the two races. 8 It is known today that race
and language are not indicators of one another; however, because this discovery
occurred during the time period of British colonialism in India, there was a lot of anxiety
about the possibility that the two races could be distantly linked. How the British
conceptualized the relationship between race and language had an impact on the
reconstruction of Indian history because they had originally thought that Indian lineage
was entirely separate from that of the British, but with this new discovery, they now
believed that there was a linkage between the two races, quite possibly descending
from one common ancestor. Although this was not true, because there is not a linkage
between race and language, there were now a debate rising about whether or not the
Aryans immigrated to India or were indigenous.
Discoveries such as that of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa civilizations along with
the lineage of the Indo-European language group not only give historians greater insight
as to the culture, customs, and evolution of communities and caused the British to
become more aware of the antiquity of the Indian Civilization, but these findings also
raised questions as to how the ancestors of both the Aryans and the Indians first came
into contact. Known as the Aryan debate, there are two theories on how the Aryans
7
8
Trautmann, Thomas R. India : Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, 32.
Class Notes: The ‘Aryan Invasions’.
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became an integral part of Indian history after the end of the Indus Valley Civilization:
immigration versus indigenous.9 Because the debate on this theory came into play after
the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization in the 1920’s, the British were still
uncomfortable with the research conducted that suggested the Indian civilization had
become a civilized nation before them, and therefore there was probably a large push
toward the acceptance that the Aryan race was not indigenous to India, but rather had
migrated to the area. These two different theories on race were important because they
could be used to define one’s identity. 10 For example, if one were inclined to believe the
theory that the Aryans migrated to the Indian subcontinent from across the mountains,
then one could also adhere to the idea that there was an Aryan/non-Aryan divide,
meaning that for British nationalists, there could still be a “purity of inheritance”.11 This
means that even though there were connections in the lineages of languages, there was
still the possibility that there were Aryans who were not related to the Indians. There
were probably not many British historians who were inclined to believe the second
theory, that Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent because that would
suggest that there could be a possible relation between the what the British thought of
as uncivilized and inferior Indians, and themselves.
British superiority was prevalent during the years that they colonized India. One
way in which this is reflected is through their over-racialization of the caste system. This
can be seen through the changes and evolution of the Brahmin order of hierarchy as it
became more of a system by which to classify people socially versus its original
9
Majumdar, R. Ancient India,. 5th Revised ed. Motilal Banarsidass, 1968, 30-32.
Robb, Peter. The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 31.
11
Ibid., 32.
10
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purpose to classify people by function. The original idea of the four varnas was that they
were created form the body of a cosmic being named Purusha: the Brahmin came from
the mouth, the Kshatriya came from the arms, the Vaishya came from the thighs, and
the Shudra came from the feet.12 Varna, which literally means ‘color’, was based on
someone’s ritual status and could only be inherited by birth, similar to how race may
only be inherited by birth.13 In the Vedic tradition, the people were not created equally,
as seen through the varna system, and the invading Aryans did not see consider the
natives of India as equals either, as they referred to them as ‘dasa’ which is
synonymous with slave.14 In contrast, in the 19th century, the term ‘Arya’ came to carry
an idea of respect, it had come to stand for the golden age of Indo-European
civilization.15 Why is that though? This is because the Aryans descendants, meaning the
British at this time, were the ones who were in charge, and because of the great
influence that comes with being an imperialistic nation in charge of another, they were
able to interpret history in such a way that Aryan was received with a positive
connotation.
As seen through this simple example where the British were able to interpret the
past with their own perspective, British colonialism has a large impact on how race
conceptions are used to reconstruct history. The attitude of superiority that
accompanied the British colonization of India played a large role in how race
conceptions structured Indian history. As seen with linguistics, the British believed that
12
Trautmann, Thomas R. India : Brief History of a Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, 46.
Class Notes: Developments in Buddhism 200 BCE – 200 CE.
14
Class Notes: India: The Vedic Age.
15
O’Hanlon, Rosalind. Caste, Conflict, and Ideology : Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenthcentury Western India. ;New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.O Hanlon, 148-149.
13
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race and language had a synonymous relationship with one another and because of this
belief, they advocated greatly for the theory in the Aryan debate where the Aryans
migrated to India. Because the British had such strict conceptions of race during their
colonization over India, especially when evidence through discoveries of new cities and
linguistic lineages that was coming out was contradictory to what they believed, they
placed a more favorable influence over the information found to reconstruct the
beginnings of Indian history.
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Bibliography
Class Notes: The Aryan Invasions.
Class Notes: Developments in Buddhism 200 BCE – 200 CE.
Class Notes: Harappan Civilisation or the Indus Valley Civilisation: 2600 – 1800 BCE.
Class Notes: India: The Vedic Age.
Majumdar, R. Ancient India,. 5th Revised ed. Motilal Banarsidass, 1968.
O’Hanlon, Rosalind. Caste, Conflict, and Ideology : Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low
Caste Protest in Nineteenth-century Western India. ;New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.O Hanlon.
Robb, Peter. The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi; New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. Oxford: Oxford
Univeristy Press.