ARYAN Invasion Theory: Sir William Jones' conjectures

ARYAN Invasion Theory: Sir William Jones'  conjectures
(The DNA studies say the opposite -- if at all,  the migration was from India to other countries.)

It all began with a specific pronouncement by a remarkable Englishman, Sir William Jones (1746-94). He had studied oriental languages and literature at Harrow and Oxford . After achieving a reputation as an oriental scholar, out of financial necessity he undertook the study of law. In 1783 he was appointed judge in Calcutta, where he continued language study and publication.

It was the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism when Europe was keen to learn about the East. Jones introduced Sanskrit to European scholars. (See Ref 1)

At the time, the Hindu natives of India were not their own masters; they were under the rule of the Mughals. But their power was waning. In 1757, they were defeated by the British East India Company at the crucial battle of Palashi (Plassey). It marked the ascendancy of the British. Jones was keen to learn about the Hindus but the Hindus had no seats of learning of their own, no libraries, little published documentation or scholarship in the western sense. It was left to the British to scour what material they could about Hindu history and culture. Jones talked with the Brahmins, recovering and translating ancient texts. It was hard work as the Brahmins were poor at communication and rational discourse.

 

What did he think of the Hindus? In 1786, Jones wrote  from Calcutta to an American friend in Virginia, New England:
“I wish for universal liberty. But the Hindus are incapable of civil liberty; few of them have any idea of it. They must be ruled by an absolute power; and I feel relieved to know that the natives themselves… are happier under us than they could have been under the Sultans of Delhi or petty Rajas.”In Bengal, Jones did original work on Indian laws and went deep into Sanskrit and other languages, He delivered regular lectures to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. The most memorable was the Third Anniversary Discourse on the Hindus delivered in February 1786: it is there that he declared that

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists”

This simple observation made a great stir and led to the beginnings of a theory that there must have existed a ‘race’ of people who were carriers of this language to Europe and eastwards to Iran and India. In due course a more aggressive invasion theory was propounded.

It was people like Jones who gave Indians their first ideas of history and a better understanding of their own civilisation. Traditional Hindus and especially the 'holy men' had few original perspectives or propositions to offer without being clouded by their gods and gurus. Events were viewed not through the lens of logic and rationality (which requires engagement of the intellect) but via the symbolism and rituals of religion.

Jones amassed a fortune of nearly £50,000 in nearly 11 years. But he did not enjoy his fortune. His wife had returned to England, a sick woman.  Jones was due to return the following year but he died in 1794 and was buried in Calcutta. He was only 48. His collected works were published five years after his death as The Works of Sir William Jones in six volumes.

Reference
1. VS Naipaul, A Million Mutinies Now, (Heinemann 1990)