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[Rajesh Kochhar]

(1) Whether there was an Aryan invasion  of , or an Aryan migration into , India  is a matter of detail. Both constitute Aryan entry .The questions to ask are : Did the composers of the Rgveda came from outside ? If so when? What is there relationship to the archaeological evidence,Mehrgarh onwards?  In any case, invasion is historically a recent concept, because it presupposes a cocept of territory and boundaries. In earlier, pre-iron age times when technological limitations automatically resticted habitable territory,  the phiolosophy of our land versus your land could not possibly have  existed. Even if it did, we would not know.

 It is noteworthy that the vast territory the British came to occupy in the subcontinent stands in sharp contrast to the number and ferocity of the battles they fought against the natives.  To return to the ancient times ,if there was a political  vacuum and economic weakness in the Harappan times,it would have been a relatively easy matter  for the Rgvedic people to step in.

(2) Since all our information comes from linguistic / literary sources, for the sake of objectivity and rigour, it would be better to talk of linguistic groups rather than  of racial or ethnic groups..

(3). Dasyus and Panis. Since both these terms are known to Avesta also  in equivalent forms, it seems natural to place Dasyus and Panis in the common Indo-Iranian heimat .They are best seen as Indo-Iranian speaking tribes hostile to the Rgvedic-Avestan el people,rather than as native Indians. 

(4) The attributal distinction between white and black certainly has a racial connotation. But its origin need not be in racial encounter. The distiction between Krsna Paksa and Sukla Paksa of the lunar month is obvious and would have been easily extended to humans.

(5)The present-day colour- obsession of  most Indians ,and the Punjabis in  particular, is quite obvious, especially in the case of girls. The matrimonial market of a fair-complexioned girl improves. Most people will prefer  a gori-chitti kurhi to a  dark girl with  better  nain-naksh. In the Hindi movies and songs , the  heroine  is gori, while the hero is Sanvaria. In the Mughal period , it is on record that Hindustan- born nobility often sought to marry Kashmiri girls in the hope that the progeny would be fair and  therefore able to pass off as  being   of Central Asian  origin.

rajesh kochhar