Wendy Doniger: Psychoanalysis of ISRO

Retro is the new black. PC: Google

I have written a lot on Hindus and exposed them as probably the most violent cult in the world. Currently I am working on my new book, How Hitler was inspired by Ramayana, and it will make its debut in fall 2017. I would like to use this article to seek your inputs on other topics on Hinduism you would like me to write on. My assistants take a long time to read and translate the Sanskrit texts and it will help me a great deal if you can send your ideas in. But I am not writing to you about my next book or complaining about my lazy assistants. I want to talk about the new Hindu mind set.

This year has been particularly disturbing for the liberal minded Indians. India’s space agency has sent too many satellites into space. Now we all know how a satellite launch causes millions of tonnes of carbon emission in both earth’s atmosphere and in the outer space. It is harmful to both life on earth and that in the outer space. Also the act of moving the satellite to its launch site causes a lot of noise pollution, which aggravates the harmful impact of carbon emission. The take-off is so deafening that it can almost kill many small animals in the vicinity. We all know these facts, but I am digressing by reiterating them.

The most harmful impact of ISRO’s launch programme is on the Indian society. Every single launch by ISRO propagates patriarchy and Hindu beliefs. Are you surprised? Read on to know how. It is so blatantly evident that it is almost hidden in plain sight. One doesn’t have to be a Robert Langdon to see this. The first thing that comes to mind it the shape of the launch vehicle. It is conveniently shaped like a phallus to assert male dominance over the Indian society. Since phallus worship is an ancient ritual in the Hindu cult, it gives legitimacy to the cult and propagates its patriarchal mind set. A good question for the so called space scientists of ISRO would be, “Why can’t you design a launch vehicle that is less aggressive”? Perhaps in the shape of a puppy or a kitten. The phallus shaped launch vehicle is clearly an attempt to silence the Indian feminists and appease the Indian men.

See the Phallus and the outstretched arms

Coming to the propagation of Hindu cult beliefs. I would like to point to the contraption that is used to keep the phallus erect during its performance. The agency again, very conveniently, places the cranes around the launch vehicle in such a manner that it appears like Kali, the goddess of death. With all her arms spread out and spitting fire. The psychoanalysis of ISRO reveals that this arrangement of phallus like launch vehicle and Kali like contraption is the manifestation of the sick Hindu mind. A mind that wants to control the minorities, liberals, feminists, subalterns, Dalits, adivasis, Dravidians, Rahul Gandhi, NDTV and Sonu’s dad.

My detailed psychoanalysis of ISRO has exposed their agenda and their plans to force their majoritarian beliefs on millions of Indians. I call upon all Right right minded Indians to assemble at Jantar Mantar on 31^st June at 10 AM to protest against ISRO and its patriarchal and majoritarian project to take over India.

If you still haven’t realised this is a satirical piece, please get introduced to humour. 

The Aryan migration theory is true. Is it?

We are a band of all male migrants from Central Asia. Don't ask why we left our women behind. 

Image: The Hindu

The colonial history writers were fascinated by the ancient Indian literature, especially the Rigveda. Translations were done and they realised that the text speaks of non-existent rivers and strange fire sacrifices, which people no longer performed. It also laid out elaborate procedures, including complex geometrical altars, to carry out the fire rituals. All this seemed too sophisticated for the uncivilised Indians to have mastered. Then came the chance discovery of remains of an ancient civilisation in Harappa, now in Pakistan. The discovery, in 1856, of burnt brick wells and brick walls was made by following the leads from local folklore. The engineers laying the East India Railway Company’s tracks from Karachi to Lahore used the four thousand year old bricks to lay ballast along the track.

It was not until 1921 that a proper excavation of Harappa began. The missionary zeal to civilize the Indians and the concept of racial superiority together with justifying colonial occupation of India gave birth to the Aryan invasion theory of the old civilisation excavated in Harappa. The Aryans were said to be “fair skinned warriors” who came on horses and destroyed the Indus civilisation. With them they brought Sanskrit and the Vedas. The Aryan Invasion theory was based on a finding of a little over forty skeletons on the streets of Mohenjo-Daro. The rest of historiography followed the Aryan Dravidian discourse and in mid twentieth century we even saw a “Dravidian political movement”. Almost all political parties of Tamil Nadu today have “Dravid” in their name.

Then came the genetic and DNA studies and the absence of any form of weapons at the IVC sites that destroyed the Aryan Invasion theory. The Aryan Invasion Theory became the Aryan Migration Theory. Mitochondrial DNA study suggested there was no evidence of any intermixing of genes from outside India (or the subcontinent). The debate seemed to have settled for good, until now. A recent paper published in the BMC Evolutionary Biology, titled “A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points to heavily sex-biased dispersals” has once again opened the debate. The study now claims to have settled the question beyond any doubt, as this article in The Hindu claims. According to this new study the Y-Chromosome data was studied together with Ancient DNA on a worldwide canvas. The study concludes that there was a strong, male-driven genetic influx from Central Asia into India during the Bronze Age.

The Study establishes that there was an influx from Central Asia and it coincides with the decline of Indus Valley Civilization and rise of the Vedic civilization, based on a strict caste system. The study puts the overall prevalence of haplogroup R1a at 17.5% in the Indian population, up to 50% in Indo-European speakers and 14% in South India. The study however leaves many unanswered questions. The most important one being, why was there a “male-driven” migration? There is plenty of evidence of sex-biased migration in animals and birds. But humans are a different story altogether. Evidence suggest that human migration has always been in small bands of 20 – 50 or 50 – 100. These numbers were minimum requirements for either hunting large game or for pastoral activities. We also know that the family was always the smallest unit of the band. Why would a large band of men migrate from Central Asian Steppes to plains of India? And how could they pass on their genes to 17.5% of the Indian population and 50% to the Indo-European speakers?

Long distance migrations usually do not happen the way we see them today. The migration process must have been a very slow one. The Central Asian migrants moving from one place to the next and passing on their genes to the local population, could not have happened in a span of few years. The population of Bronze Age Central Asia would not have been larger than the Indus Valley’s. To populate 50% of the population would have been a difficult task and would have required a lot of men.

The idea here is not to negate the scientific findings of the paper. Science definitely comes up with more powerful evidence than ideology. The study itself refrains from deriving conclusions based on linguistic groups. But what explains the high concentration of the Haplogroup R1a in northern and northwestern India? Did the incoming “Aryans” bring Sanskrit and Veda with them? We can only speculate.

It is likely that there was a high prevalence of endogamy, post the alleged migration, among the Indo-European speakers that led to concentration of the R1a haplogroup. On account of the “Aryans” and their language being an import is highly unlikely. For starters, a sophisticated civilization like that of Indus Valley is unlikely to be influenced by a band of Central Asian Nomads. The geography, flora and fauna described in Rigveda are exclusively of Sub-continental origin, implying that either the Rigveda existed before the “Aryans” arrived on their horses in the Indus plains or it was written by the “Aryans” many centuries after they arrived on their horses. Both these assumptions upset a lot of other established beliefs. In case the Rigveda existed before the Central Asian influx then Sanskrit was a language in use already. So there goes the belief of an Indo-European root from Central Asia. In case the Rigveda was composed centuries later (once the “Aryans” got used to the geography and gave up their barbaric lifestyle and got exposed to concepts of contemplation, philosophy and rituals), the description of Vedic geography does not hold good. It is now accepted that the Saraswati (mentioned extensively in Rigveda) started drying up in third millennium BCE and completely dried up towards the end of second millennium BCE. Much before the horse riding Aryans arrived.

The article in The Hindu puts a seal of finality on the conclusion. But the research itself puts in a disclaimer saying the Y-chromosome studies are in a nascent stage, unlike the mitochondrial DNA studies. Whatever the truth be, it is definitely far from known.