Thursday, October 9, 2014

Germans were never Aryans

Before Hitler, Germans never claimed that they were Aryans. You won’t find the word ‘Arya’ in their history. Their culture doesn’t have any similarity with Aryan culture.
No doubt, you may find some linguistic similarity between Sanskrit and German languages limited to few words, however, you cannot find literary evidences of Germans being Aryans unlike Indian and Iranian people. 

In spite of this, Hitler ‘hijacked’ the concept of Aryanism just to loosen the grip of the Jewish community over the financial structure of Germany.  
He misused the baseless theory of White Aryanism propounded by the couple of European writers just during 2-3 decades before Hitler’s time. The background was as under.

Background
In 1853, Maxmueller, the so called German scholar, put forth the concept of ‘Aryan Race’ for the first time and subsequently retracted it back in 1888 after realizing the splendid culture and rich literature of Indian Aryans. He then declared it as a ‘Linguistic Group’ rather than a ‘Race’. It might be remorsefulness or might be an attempt to introduce White Aryanism in Germany; nonetheless, two particular European people viz. Gobineau and Chamberlain had already grabbed the opportunity and propounded a different story about the purported Aryan Race.

French writer Joseph Arther Comte de Gobineau (1816-1882) published his theory through his book ‘The Inequalities of Human Races’ that ‘Aryan is the supreme race of all races and if at all pure Aryans exist today, they might exist in Germany.’  

Huston Chamberlain (1855-1927) a British author who had settled in Germany after getting married with a German woman, stressfully proclaimed in his book ‘The Foundation’ that White was the superior race and Germans were the only pure Aryans.

Although the afore-said claims did not have any base and proofs, Nazi Ideologue Alfred Rosenberg used the contents of both the books to build his Aryan Race Supremacy theory and thus helped Hitler to flash it throughout the Nazi Germany. (For this Rosenberg was hanged in Nuremberg later on !)  

Criticism
This Aryan theory advocated by Hitler was immediately criticised and ridiculed by the then German scholars.

German Scientist Virchow believed that the so called Aryan theory was nothing but a myth. According to German novelist and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann, Germans often go to such extreme due to the natural destructive genes resting in the Germanic blood. This theory, he says, is nothing but the outcome of the Germanic inferiority complex against the successful & rich countries like England and France.  

Mike William Fodor, the Chief Editor of the popular newspaper in Germany ‘DNZ’ expressed the same views in ‘The Nation’ in 1936. ‘This is kind of attempting to transform inferior feelings into superior ones’ he wrote.

The most remarkable blow was from the ‘Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ fame German writer J.R.Tolkin.  In 1938, when German publishers decided to bring out German edition of his English books, they requested him to submit the proof of his Aryan origin as required under the Nuremberg Act. Tolkin, thereupon, wrote the following letter to the so called publishers.         
       
25 July 1938
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction : that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy or any related dialects.
But if I am to understand that you are enquiring that I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject-which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquires of this sort to become rules in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper even if had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung. (genealogy or ancestry)
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and
Remain yours faithfully,
J. R. R. Tolkien

Germans were Dasyus !  
If Germans were not Aryans, the question would naturally be asked as to who were they ?
They call themselves as ‘Deutsch’ and Germany is also called as ‘Deutschland’.
So far, however, we do not find satisfactory etymology of the word Deutsch. According to the Indian Historian V.K.Rajwade, ‘Deutsch’ came from ‘Dasyu’ mentioned in Vedas. Dasyus were not Aryas, nonetheless, they were enemies of Aryas. The Sanskrit meaning of the word Dasyu is ‘Those who are strangers…distant for Aryas’. The etymological chain could be given as under :
Dasyu > Deisyu > Deuschyu > Deutsch.  

Long ago; say about 10,000 years back, while Germans were the inhabitants of Danube valley at the western coast of Black sea, Aryans had settled at the eastern side on the coast of Caspian sea. (‘Danube’ is mentioned as ‘Danu’ in Vedas.) In their attempt to occupy more and more land to meet their growing needs it is very much possible that Aryans had to fight with Germans i.e. the then Dasyus. This continuous interaction might have exchanged few words here and there; that’s why the linguistic similarity, that’s all !   


(Partially extracted from the book under progress ‘AryaBharat’ by Harshad Sarpotdar    

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