In The Revised Kama Sutra (various editions show some differences), I mention that the ancestors of the Konkanis (my linguistic and cultural group, now settled in Southwestern India) were Aryan invaders. Some years back, I was championed as a “courageous” writer by an Indian-American millionaire with a large following of Indian-Americans, mostly Hindus (if you’re an Indian millionaire, you will always have a following; so too, if you’re an American billionaire, as Donald Trump has proven). He was, at that time, interested in White Studies, so he told me. He also told me he thought my book, Impressing the Whites, fell within the category of White Studies. His name was Rajiv Malhotra.
Some of his followers purchased the book he praised, Impressing the Whites, and read it and wrote to me praising it (a few are still my friends, and I appreciate that), and one of them also, I think, read enough of The Revised Kama Sutra to write to me, “But I don’t agree with the Aryan invasion theory.”
I didn’t want to get into an argument with him (you can’t really argue with someone who wields an argument like a club), but I think I told him that a novel must be taken as a whole, and as fiction, and his disagreement with a good part of an original work was a given (or else the book was probably unoriginal, pointless), that it ought not to be a block to reading and enjoying a book that has given pleasure to thousands of others.
And now, having read more on the subject–enough to convince me that genetic theory has traced the evolution of humans and found them to match precisely the origins of linguistic groups–I wrote to the linguistics professor I knew (author of Language and Globalization and other books) and mentioned my correspondent’s objection, and he replied:
As for the “Aryan invasion,” I don’t thing there’s any room for doubt that the northern Indian languages all derive from a language which “invaded” from the north, displacing, presumably, Dravidian languages. I would assume that any Indian challenge to that theory is, as you say, based on religion or politics. All linguistic evidence would point to either Ukraine or possibly Turkey as the place where “proto Indo-European” was spoken, before spreading in all directions. The dominant theory for that sudden explosive vitality projecting PIE [“proto Indo-European”] speakers out of the homeland is that they were first to domesticate the horse, which gave them martial superiority over all competitors. They spread and, of course, took their gods with them, which is why there is so much similarity between Norse, Latin, Greek, Hindu (and Persian?) gods.
So there you have it.
And yes, he confirmed that we all originate from Africa. I’m not in touch with that correspondent, but I’d be curious to know his and Rajiv Malhotra’s reaction to the geneticists and their theory that we are all related. I would also like to comment that, though Rajiv Malhotra told me he admired my courage, he was very parsimonious with his admiration. It would seem that he and his ilk admire “courage” only when they agree with the author’s viewpoint. But true courage has no limitations, no boundaries; whereas courage, when backed by the security of millions of dollars, is not really courage; it’s flashing (like Donald Trump’s courage).
Regarding Rajiv Malhotra: he had, at the point that he contacted me, set up a foundation called the Infinity Foundation, that gave away at least a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars (to people who, I now suspect, in some way flattered him or served his purposes, including the image he was trying to project). At first, he asked me if I was willing to edit his books; I was hesitant. And when there was a minor disagreement with me over a trivial matter (mainly to do with his ego), he vanished; and his blogs praising me gradually vanished; or I was “purged” from them. I had neither served his purposes, nor flattered him; my being a Mangalorean by heritage is a great defect: we are very poor at flattery, and our spines are notoriously unbending.
Seriously, I believe the Indian rich and powerful despise courage and fear it, and will do anything to suppress a writer of courage (the one I tip my hat to is Kancha Ilaiah, who I mention in “Impressing the Whites”, and who deserves the nation’s highest award for bravery). And their followers (with some handsome and genuine exceptions), fearing them, fearing disapproval from their “Master”, will follow suit (I speak of the majority). What the Indian rich want are toadies and chelas, devotees and worshippers, conformists and yes-men; and individualists and independents who think for themselves make them uncomfortable, nervous, insecure. Yet, that’s what India needs: more openness and toleration, encouragement, and support for its own independent and courageous writers. (If you do wish to encourage this writer, please look up this page: https://richardcrasta.com/buy-books-direct/