Aryan race

The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept which emerged in the late 19th-century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. Anthropological, historical and archaeological evidence does not support the validity of this concept.

QuotesEdit

Though it were proved that there was never an Aryan race in the past, yet we desire that in the future there may be one. This is the decisive standpoint for men of action.
- Houston Stewart Chamberlain, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899), vol. 1, p. 266. Quoted in The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, p. 530.

To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.
- Max Müller, Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas: And the Home of the Aryas (1888), ch. 6. As quoted in The New Yale Book of Quotations, p. 578.

The invention of an Aryan race in nineteenth century Europe was to have, as we all know, far-reaching consequences on world history. Its application to European societies culminated in the ideology of Nazi Germany. Another sequel was that it became foundational to the interpretation of early Indian history and there have been attempts at a literal application of the theory to Indian society. Some European scholars now describe it as a nineteenth century myth. But some contemporary Indian political ideologies seem determined to renew its life. In this they are assisted by those who still carry the imprint of this nineteenth century theory and treat it as central to the question of Indian identity. With the widespread discussion on 'Aryan origins' in the print media and the controversy over its treatment in school textbooks, it has become the subject of a larger debate in terms of its ideological underpinnings rather than merely the differing readings among archaeologists and historians.
- Romila Thapar, "The Theory of Aryan Race and India: History and Politics", Social Scientist, January-March 1996, p. 3.

Encyclopedic article on Aryan race on Wikipedia