Modi goes to the pole

Bal Gangadhar Tilak said in 1903 that the Arctic was the original home of the Aryans, and that climate change in 8000 BCE forced them to move into northern Europe, later into Asia and into India. Now another climate change is nudging India to seek out the Arctic.

- R. PRASANNAN

First about Tilak and his theory. Tilak analysed vedic hymns, created a chronology of vedic events, and looked into passages from the Zoroastrians’ Zend Avesta, to arrive at a migration theory from the Arctic. The subsequent discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and the argument by European antiquarians that those had been Dravidian cities destroyed by invading Aryans from central Asia, jelled with the theory. The Hindu right, who were Tilak’s admirers, got disenchanted. Soon the Aryan invasion theory itself got discredited, and Tilak’s theory fell out of favour with the rightist, the leftist and the straightforward historians.

We will leave the digging to archaeologists, the discoveries to scientists, the debate to historians, the diatribe to politicians, and look at our government. It is taking an interest in the Arctic—not to seek an Aryan home, but for the riches there.