SCHOLARS around the world speak of a family of Indo-European languages that spread from Central Asia westwards towards Europe and eastwards towards Iran and India. Note: they speak of a language, not a race. For example, everyone who knows English is not of the ‘English’ race. Yet, the idea of the Aryan race continues to be used in popular discourse by politicians and fiction writers.

According to the first theory proposed by 19th century Europeans, Aryans were a super race, white and blonde, originally from Northern Europe. They were overshadowed by Greco-Romans first, and then Semitic races that practiced Judaism and Christianity. Memory of this super race survived in India too in the form of the Vedas, though Indians themselves had corrupted themselves with practices such as untouchability and idolatry. This theory fuelled the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, and became distasteful to all after the Second World War.