The Myth of the Aryan Race: Deconstructing a Dangerous Idea
Good afternoon, everyone. Today we will discuss what is perhaps one of the most critical, yet frequently misunderstood, chapters in intellectual history: the story of the Aryan Myth. When you hear the word “Aryan” today, what images come to mind? For many of us, it immediately conjures images of Nazi Germany, white supremacy, or perhaps ancient conquest. That immediate association is precisely the subject of our discussion today: how an obscure linguistic term became one of the most destructive racial myths of the modern world. Few concepts in modern history have had such a far-reaching and catastrophic influence as the idea of the Aryan race. It provided the ideological foundation for genocide, colonialism, and enduring caste hierarchies across the globe. The goal of this lecture is to trace this intellectual journey, examining how knowledge mutated into ideology. We are looking at how language became lineage, kinship became race, and scholarship became an instrument of vi...