What is the 'Aryan Invasion' theory?

And what your European Pundits say about the Aryan's swooping down from some foreign land, snatching away the lands of the aborigines and settling in India by exterminating them, is all pure nonsense, foolish talk! Strange, that our Indian scholars, too, say amen to them; and all these monstrous lies are being taught to our boys! This is very bad indeed.

I am an ignoramus myself; I do not pretend to any scholarship; but with the little that I understand, I strongly protested against these ideas at the Paris Congress. I have been talking with the Indian and European savants on the subject, and hope to raise many objections to this theory in detail, when time permits. And this I say to you—to our Pundits—also, "You are learned men, hunt up your old books and scriptures, please, and draw your own conclusions."

Whenever the Europeans find an opportunity, they exterminate the aborigines and settle down in ease and comfort on their lands; and therefore they think the Aryans must have done the same! The Westerners would be considered wretched vagabonds if they lived in their native homes depending wholly on their own internal resources, and so they have to run wildly about the world seeking how they can feed upon the fat of the land of others by spoliation and slaughter; and therefore they conclude the Aryans must have done the same! But where is your proof? Guess-work? Then keep your fanciful guesses to yourselves!

In what Veda, in what Sukta, do you find that the Aryans came into India from a foreign country? Where do you get the idea that they slaughtered the wild aborigines? What do you gain by talking such nonsense? Vain has been your study of the Râmâyana; why manufacture a big fine story out of it?

What is of significance is that a 2009 and 2011 research by Dr Thangaraj and Dr Chaubey in association with another group of international scientists proved that the Aryan-Dravidian theory was bunkum. “Human genome sequencing and genetic studies proved that Indians all over the sub-continent had the same genetic traits. The physical traits differed because of external factors like climate, food habits and living conditions. We have found that there is no scientific validity for arguments like Aryan Invasion or Aryan-Dravidian theory. Classifications based on caste and religion are of recent origin and has nothing to do with genetic traits,” said Dr Thangaraj and Dr Chaubey.

The Harappans of the Indus Valley have left profuse archaeological records over a vast region?from the borders of Iran and beyond Afghanistan to eastern UP and Tapti Valley, and must have supported over 30 million people believed to be living an advanced civilisation. And yet these people have left absolutely no literary records. Sounds incredible! The Vedic Aryans and their successors, on the other hand, have left us a literature that is probably the largest and most profound in the world. But according to the AIT, there is absolutely no archaeological record that they ever existed, either on the Indian soil or outside its boundaries. So we have concrete history and archaeology of a vast civilisation of Dravidians lasting thousands of years that left no literature, and a huge literature by the Vedic Aryans who left no history and no archaeological records. The situation gets more absurd when we consider that there are profuse archaeological and literary records indicating a substantial movement of Indian Aryans out of India into Iran and West Asia around 2000 b.c.?

So, how can all these obvious anomalies and serious flaws be reconciled? By accepting the truth that the so-called Aryans were the original inhabitants of the townships along the Indus, Ravi, Saraswati and other rivers of the vast northern region of the Indian sub-continent. And no invasion by nomadic hordes from outside India ever occurred and the civilisation was not destroyed but the population simply moved to other areas, and developed a new syncretic civilisation and culture by mutual interaction and exchange of ideas.

This had been originally answered by me as one of the answers for What is Aryan invasion theory and how it proved to be false? Hence, replicating it here as well (almost verbatim).

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The definition, as well as various facets of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) has witnessed many modifications over a period of 200 years. Yes! it's century old theory and a very successful one.

The page on Indo-Aryan migration debate is good starting point to understand the basics of Aryan debate .

However, if someone were to define it in simpler words/phrases, it would be summarized as follows:

1) Aryans were pastoral farming as well as nomadic central Asian/Eurasian tribes.

2) In the mid of third-fourth millennium BCE they started dispersing from their Urheimat in various directions. (viz Europe, Middle-East and South-Asia).

3) They entered Indian subcontinent around 1,500 BCE (That's the time period AIT scholars assert and do not revise that ever. They are very adamant about it).

4) They destroyed the native primitive aboriginal cultures of India (read culture of forest-dwelling tribes) and established the extant Hindu religion and civilization.

Wow! Now That was so easy :).

5) They introduced modern-day Horses (i.e. Equus Caballus), it's domestication and the war chariots that were drawn by these creature to the Indian subcontinent.

These premises were based on the Western interpretations of "select" verses described in the Vedas (textual evidence) and that they also found remarkable similarities in the languages of non-peninsular India, Iran, as well as Eurasia (linguistic evidence).

Archaeology and other scientific disciplines were silent on the validity of this theory in days of the yore.

Hold on! during 1920s a city (i.e. Harappa) belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization was exhumed, so then this AIT was challenged a bit.

Now! Indologists pondered over their theory "India did not only consists of forest-dwelling tribes during the arrival of Aryans, it already had sophisticated urban centres that were much older than the dreaded 1,500 BCE time line").

"Nah!" exclaimed the Indologists and stated, "Aryans ain't myth. They are very much alive, let's modify fourth point enumerated above."

4) They destroyed civilization of Indus Valley and the native aboriginal culture and established the extant Hindu "nope" Aryan religion and civilization.

That was walk in the park for the early Indologists!

"Phew! that was some hard work" said the relieved Indologist.

This theory had been always debatable from the day it came into existence.

Fast-forward 60 years after Harappa was found:

From 1980s onwards till the current decade, lot of new bronze-age archaeological sites (of IVC kind) were further excavated and the archaeologists did not find any trace of destruction or invasions in any of the IVC sites "Period!" (although they tried hard to find one).

It was established that the IVC culture had slow and steady decline mostly due to adverse climatic conditions (drought, weaker monsoons over many centuries). Hence most of the sites were abandoned and their denizens moved out of this place in a phased manner. Hence, the question of their cities being attacked and destroyed lost it's turf.

Many archaeologists even found continuity of IVC culture post it's decline.

[Sources for above-mentioned archaeological assertion : Indus Valley Civilisation, Jim G. Shaffer, Harappan Horse: Polemics and Propoganda, Talk:Historical Vedic religion]

Now! old schools historians/linguists needed a new twist in their adorable theory in wake of path-breaking archaeological findings. What shall they do? So they purged the fourth point and rephrased it as :

4) They migrated peacefully (with few skirmishes here and there) into northern, as well as western India around 1,500 BCE (ah! this darn date) vacated by IVC folks and established Aryan culture.

Today most of the pro-AIT scholars (which also includes eminent Historians like Romila Thapar) have also changed there stance and now they subscribe to Aryan Migration Theory (AMT) instead.

"Now we are safe I think" cautiously voiced the old-school scholars "Archaeologists should be happy, we're happy! It's a win-win!"

So AMT became dominant model of Indo-European migration/expansion. Now they further backed AMT archaeologically using Kurgan hypothesis.

Fast forward in time, here comes 21st century. "Yippee! AMT lives another day unchallenged" old-school scholars were delighted and wondered keeping their fingers, as well as toes crossed. However! they were least prepared to face another adversary of AMT/AIT 

"The Genetics!".

Genetic studies conducted on various Indian, as well as Eurasian, populations does not find any huge immigration/infiltration of eastern/western European, as well as central Asian gene pool/haplotypes (both mtDNA and Y-Chromosome) into Indian subcontinent around 3,500 years before present (i.e 1,500 BCE) or there abouts.

Although Ancestral north Indians (ANI), West/Central Asians, as well as Europeans do share genetic kinship. However, the Indian population has been found to have maintained considerable genetic distance from the European cousins, hence ruling out any large-scale migration in later parts of the Holocene epoch.

Here's the list of some of those major genetic studies which are freely available on public domain and these research works validates the above point:

1) https://genetics.med.harvard.edu...

2) Complex genetic origin of Indian populations and its implications

3) http://genetics.med.harvard.edu/...

4) Afghanistan's Ethnic Groups Share a Y-Chromosomal Heritage Structured by Historical Events

5) The origins of Indians

6) Reconstructing Indian Population History

7) Indian ancestry revealed

"COME ON!" wailed the disgruntled AMT sympathizers, that's too much to take. Then they sighed and spoke "We still have textual and linguistic evidences in our favour"

"Really!" uttered Mr. Shrikant G. Talageri of The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis fame. "I can prove you guys wrong even on textual and linguistic fronts as well, read these books of mine my friends".

1) http://www.trueindianhistory.org...

2) http://ancientvoice.wdfiles.com/...

"Ah Talageri! another pain in ****" yelped the disgusted hapless old-school folks (especially Michael Witzel long time professional enemy of Talageri).

Sorry! Mr. Talageri for being rude, with all due respect I want to clarify that the cuss words were not uttered by me ;). You know who uttered them.

"What about the horses??" enquired the AMT lovers with raised brow. "Well!" I said "Why don't you guys check out the following answer written by me that was based on an essay compiled by Michel Danino".

Abhishek Chakrabarty's answer to Is Aryan invasion theory correct or not? If not, why is the Indus valley civilization not mentioned in Vedas? Why is there an anthropomorphic difference between various groups of Indians?

So in nutshell, not a single convincing physical, archaeological, as well as genetic (and even textual) evidences have been found in support of AMT/AIT. So there's a good reason to critically question and discard this centuries-old theory.

However, it must be admitted that the origin of Indo-European languages is still a mystery, so let's have more productive debate on that front and say good bye to Aryan fairy tales.

Too much of sarcasm :P, sorry about that! I hope the message is clear :) Thank you!

Aryan invasion theory or a clash is a lie fabricated to divide india,

In consequence of the omission of the sacred rites, and of their not consulting Brahmans, the following tribes of Kshatriya have gradually sunk in this world to the condition of Sudras;

The Paun-drakas, the Kodas, the Dravida, the Kambogas, the Yavanas, the Sakas, the Paradas, the Pahlavas, the Kinas, the Kiratas, and the Daradas.

Dravidas are aryas too as described in manusmiriti, Indians are what we can call brown race

The most famous part of the Book of Gates refers to the different races of humanity known to the Egyptians, dividing them up into four categories that are now conventionally labelled "Reth" (Egyptians), "Aamu" (Asiatics), "Themehu" (Libyans), and "Nehesu" (Nubians). These are depicted in procession entering the next world.

From the tomb of Seti I.