V Sem B.A.History, CPSD Volunteer
The report on the public lecture conducted by Dr.Akinori Uesugi on the topic How Peaceful were the Harappans: The Problem of Aryan Invasion on 28 September 2017 at T.B Ninan Hall, U.C.College, Aluva is as follows. The lecture was organized by the Centre for Peace Studies and Dialogue.
The theme of the topic evokes mixed feelings and an appropriate thematic introduction was given by Vedavyasan.S. He summarized the various causes for the disintegration of the Indus civilization and elaborated upon the Aryan theory which was first put forward by Mortimer Wheeler, D-G of ASI from 1944-58, and expounded in detail in the book ‘The Indus Civilization’ published in 1953.
The Aryan theory that we are all familiar with, since our school history classes was more of a conditioned mode of teaching that stated that the native population that flourished on the banks of the river Indus was driven down south by a group of light-skinned, iron wielding invaders from Central Asia around 1500 BC.
As mentioned above, the Aryan problem was taught in schools in a ‘conditioned’ state of mind that was not conducive for delving deeper into the Aryan invasion problem. What is significant is that, the theory hadc certain flaws leading to the development of several other equally viable theories such as a) Flood Theory put forward by R.L. Raikes; b) Shift Theory by Lambrick and c) the Arid Theory put forward by D.P. Agarwal and several others. The Aryan invasion theory continues to considered as the leading theory despite its many flaws.
Dr. Akinori gave an interesting lecture based on his study that he conducted on the region and presented to us an array of hypothesis which widened our mind on the topic. A gist of the lecture is given below.
According to Dr.Akinori, there are four broad assumptions for the decline of the Indus civilization:
1) Aryan invasion
2) Tectonic movements
3) Break up of trading activities with the West
4) Endemic disease
Apart from this, he also gave other possible reasons such as the a) localization processes, b) disappearance of Harappan seals, scripts and weights during the second millennium BC, c) collapse of the urban system and, d) climatic conditions. According to Akinori, trading activities ceased in the second millennium BC mainly due to the invasion of cities by pastoral communities.
Around the same time, the number of sites in the core region of the Mature Harappan such as Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan decreased, while the number of sites in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley increased. The Chalcolithic culture in Eastern Ganga valley spread into the western part of the valley as a result of which, the Harappan culture was replaced by the Ganga Chalcolithic Culture.
The lecture was conducted as a part of the CPSD whose motives are to present a clear view of history and to present it to the masses.
