SV: Tamil Muslims

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Swaminathan Madhuresan [SMTP:smadhuresan at YAHOO.COM] skrev 4. desember 2000
17:31:
> L. M. Fosse writes: "It would also include typical non-Aryans like Finns
and
> Basques." By implication, Germans and British etc. are Aryans. This
> even though Europeans have heard the term "Aryans" a mere 200 years ago.

I realize that I have made a terminological mistake. "Aryans" in an
Indological/Indo-European context refers to the peoples that called
themselves Aryans, that is the early Indo-Iranians. In the quote above, I
should have said: "typical non-Indo-Europeans". Mixing up Aryans and
Indo-Europeans is bad slip-of-the-mind, for which I apologize. However, I
believe I am not the only person on the list who occasionally makes this
error, so I'll excuse myself by blaming those other unfortunate individuals
for misleading me...  :-)).

As for the Germans and the British: they are Germanic peoples, not Aryans.
Only Indians speaking Indo-Aryan languages and Iranians are Aryans. The
rest of the Indo-Europeans are Slavs, Italic peoples, Greeks, Armenian,
Tocharians, Celts etc.

It follows that Finns and Basques are neither Aryan nor Indo-European. But
I don't know if this has any consequences for the Tamil Muslims. You can be
a Tamil of any religion, I should guess, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and
Muslim. The question is which criteria are used. Assume that a person of a
European background grew up in Tamil Nadu and spoke Tamil, identifying
himself as a Tamil: would he then be regarded as a Tamil by other Tamils?

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
0674 Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 22 32 12 19
Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45
Fax 1:  +47 22 32 12 19
Fax 2:  +47 85 02 12 50 (InFax)
Email: lmfosse at online.no