Indus Valley Civilisation 02/02 | The Identity of Pakistanis? | Faisal Warraich

How are you all doing In 2000 a book published in Hyderabad India made claims that shocked the entire world This book titled The Indus Script Deciphered was written by two Indian experts R S Sharma and Anil Kumar They claimed in their book that the ancient inscriptions of the Indus Valley known as the Indus script This was a monumental claim as experts had been attempting it for decades without success Moreover the book didn't just claim this—it also asserted that the Indus script was originally written in Sanskrit That is in Aramaic the ancient language in which their religious writings were composed particularly their oldest religious text the Qulasta In their book they published two examples of the Indus script that they had deciphered It contained a written note on a broken seal from the Indus Valley that could not even be properly read The book's writers completed it with the help of digital graphics They wrote that this text states the sun is actually like a horse Following this they translated the second inscription discovered at a site in Mandes Valley Gujarat India as follows: I've shouted at those raiders a thousand times those who tried to steal my wealth of horses from me The style of writing suggests it was composed by a ruler or powerful individual who had numerous horses and animals at their disposal This book and the claims it makes have sparked widespread controversy not only within Indian academic circles but also around the world Among the people working toward the settlement of the Jow Indus Valley Indian nationalists were delighted that the book had demonstrated that Indus Valley civilization was in fact an Aryan civilization This meant that to them Aryans were indeed the original and ancient inhabitants of India But you know the scientific principle: when such a claim arises it's not accepted simply based on its perceived value It undergoes critical analysis with scrutiny applied to determine whether this claim is true or not and evidence is also examined to verify its validity Experts weren't just surprised by this claim—they were also astonished that horses hadn't even existed in the Indus Valley Civilization Not a single artifact resembling a horse has ever been discovered at any of the sites where divine manifestations have been reported to date Elephant ox cheetah monkey—numerous animal carvings tiny sculptures and images have been unearthed from Indus Valley yet no horse has ever been found to date Even if the inscription on the Indus Valley seal depicts something it certainly isn't a horse How could there be references to horses in the Indus Valley writings if there were no corresponding evidence of horses anywhere else India and Indian expatriates abroad strongly supported this book's claim They examined both writings published in the book as well as the original manuscripts on which the writings were explicitly inscribed and subsequently deciphered After just a few months of investigation it became clear that the Indian reporter's claim of having read the Indus script was baseless and incorrect Among those who disproved this claim were renowned Indian historian and archaeological expert Iravatham Mahadevan In addition Étienne de La Vaissière who has written extensively on the Sogdian language and its script They have also received awards from the Indian government which they too rejected dismissing the claim Experts also noted that the Indus Valley script written in such a manner allows for countless interpretations However someone will have to provide proof that the matter has been finally settled Believing something simply because someone says so is certainly not the way of science Neither of the two claiming historians provided evidence nor did they prove their claims leaving their assertions baseless In fact it was proven the opposite—that the complete image of the broken seal had been published in the book The computer expert who completed it was influenced by Hindu nationalist propaganda The request was likely completed through digital editing to present the text in a way that would establish the Indus Valley Civilization as an Aryan civilization He also told journalists that he had been influenced by Hindu nationalist propaganda All this research was published in Indian newspapers where experts collectively rejected the claim There has never been any connection between the ancient Indus Valley civilization and the Aryans Aryans arrived later and were not connected to the ancient civilization This claim by Reuters that Aryans are India's oldest inhabitants remains unproven It could not be confirmed It is also a fact that nationalists in India have been making great efforts to date That the Aryans are proven to be India's oldest inhabitants India's nationalists rejected the new research just as the partners had feared In which Aryan was disqualified due to being deemed an indigenous resident At that time in India the ruling party in 2000 was also the BJP The BJP government did this: in 2002 they had this statement published in India's school textbooks Horse remains have been found at the site of Indus Valley It began to be taught to children that the Indus Valley Civilization was actually the Aryan Civilization However two years later when the Congress Party came to power and Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister he removed the controversial content from the textbooks Yet India Nationalists still stand by this claim today India many people particularly those aligned with the right-wing BJP and similar factions strongly believe in this The Indo-Aryan civilization that later emerged in India was originally the first civilization in the Indus Valley The idea is wrong—India's first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru was himself a victim of this flawed ideology They used to say that everything found in Manjo Dero and Harappa continues today in our traditions and practices They too believed the people of Andrus Valley were Aryans Unless your companion tells you that Aryans have no connection whatsoever with the ancient Underworld civilization not even a trace of it And who were these people exactly Where and when did they arrive in India Who else came to this region after the end of the Indus Valley Civilization Are present-day Pakistanis of Aryan descent or do they belong to some other ethnicity Companions of Arion were originally foreign invaders and Foran Envoys who arrived four thousand years ago They entered India via Central Asia and Iran several thousand years before the Indus Valley Civilization roughly three to four thousand years earlier These tribes were not as underdeveloped as those in the Indus Valley but they possessed a powerful advantage that was helping them spread across various regions of the world It was the power of the horse Aryanz had learned to tame the horses and ride them In addition they constructed large two-wheeled chariots and used them in battles and hunting expeditions Due to their control over horses the Aryans found it easier to travel swiftly across distant regions greatly enhancing their ability to exert control over those areas They gradually entered the Indian subcontinent riding on their horses and chariots By that time the underground civilization in the valley had already come to an end Its cities were being abandoned and although there were local populations in India they lacked the ability to resist the Aryans Thus the Aryans gradually began to seize control of India Over the next several centuries the arrival of the Aryans continued along with their ongoing conquest The Aryans initially worshipped the deities of Devi and later began referring to themselves as Hindus According to historians the Aryans first settled in various regions of the Indus Valley particularly in Punjab Afterward they gradually spread eastward advancing further along the eastern side When these people entered the Underworld the local inhabitants known as the Puro put up a brave fight against the Aryans but were ultimately defeated These residents were likely people who had just emerged from the Underwell Sewer system They lived under a tribal system practiced large-scale agriculture and were governed by religious leaders The Puro tribes had established a well-organized system of irrigation by constructing dams across the River Sindh and other rivers and streams The attack and Aryan tribes defeated the Puro tribes and broke the dams thereby ending this system of flood irrigation In the Hindu religious texts known as the Vedas it is written that the Aryan deity Indra broke countless bonds Thus the act was granted both divine and religious significance When Aryanz began spreading eastward across the remaining Indian subcontinent beyond the Indus Valley they took many local people with them These were the people whom the Aryan Society had reincorporated into its caste system They were first called dasa meaning servant and later came to be known as Shudra According to Hindu legend their four castes were created by the deity Brahma Because they originated from the head of Bhrami they are associated with all these things It is their responsibility to memorize religious teachings and continue passing them on to future generations The Kshatriyas who are rulers and warriors originated from the arms of Burma Those who are merchants or traders have emerged from the Ranu of Burma into Thailand Since Sudar is made from the feet of the Lord he is a servant and attendant When Aryans reached as far as the eastern regions of Bihar and Odisha they discovered deposits of iron there They crafted iron tools and agricultural implements and with their help they began advancing rapidly once again From springtime to the present day new cities emerged including Pataliputra—modern Patna—and Kashi now known as Varanasi In this region a distinct Hindu civilization began to flourish and was subsequently recognized as the Ganges-Jamuna civilization Because only two major rivers flowed through this region and settlements had been established along their banks as cities began to emerge While one side witnessed the flourishing development of the Ganges-Jamuna civilization on the other side in the Indus Valley—today's Pakistani territories—new civilizations were emerging and settlements were being established Since this region was closer to Afghanistan and Central Asia than to the rest of India the influence of those areas had a deeper impact on it Whenever a new empire emerged in Central Asia whether in Afghanistan or Iran it typically extended its control to many regions of what is now Pakistan including the areas of India or the Indus River valley The largest empire in ancient Iran was the Achaemenid Empire Empire Five Hundred Fifty known as the Zirkarnin in Phaifety BC was established by them In the fifth century BCE this empire was at its peak During this period most of the Indus Valley region corresponding to present-day Pakistan came under his control In the Indus Valley settlements flourished greatly during the Neolithic period Here rose the great and magnificent city of Taxila which later became the center of India's finest educational institutions Legend has it that this city was founded by the great Emperor Darius the Great who died in 406 BCE Besides Taxila the other major city in this valley was Multan regarded by some as the oldest city in India It is a well-established legend that the city was founded by Prophet Noah the prophet of the Children of Israel While there's no definitive proof the evidence from historical accounts suggests that Multan is an extremely ancient city likely over three thousand years old A tribe known as the Mali once lived here and the city likely derived its name Multan from this very tribe In addition to the establishment of new cities a new religion has also begun to flourish in the Indus Valley The atmosphere was vastly different from and even opposed to the caste system of Hinduism That was Boudem The date has reached us according to its popular version The founder of Bodhism Siddhartha Gautama was originally the son of a Nepalese king named Śuddhodana He had left his home his wife and his son behind in his youth venturing into the wilderness And they continued searching for solutions to human challenges According to some traditions he attained Nirvana beneath a tree in the region of Bodh Gaya in present-day Indian state of Bihar The solution to human challenges became clear to them They gave the world the idea that humans are repeatedly born as a punishment for their sins And it is punished by enduring hardships Then if he spends time alone in mountains and forests around the world engaging in a specific kind of physical discipline You will be freed from the recurring cycle of suffering That means the nation will be saved You have rightly shown the way to establish peace by ending wars Instead of dividing people into high and low social classes it rightly emphasized equality for all This idea has taken root in people's hearts As the plague spread people's faith in Hindu priests also weakened Because my body did not contain the kind of deities found among Hindus or those of the Aryan tradition There was no mention of any avatar in it nor any concept of a subsequent life after death or eternal existence thereafter May your legacy endure with India spreading rapidly alongside the Ganges-Jamuna civilization and also flourishing swiftly within the Indus Valley civilization Taxila Badamt was established as the largest center in the Indus Valley Educational institutions and hostels were established here drawing students not only from nearby countries but even from China seeking education in Badamt In addition Badminton schools were established in Swat and the influence of Badminton persisted for nearly a thousand years or even longer in the Indus Valley at Wan Thawson Hears But when the Indus Valley Civilization had already taken root under the Akamani Empire history took another major turn In 331 BCE Alexander the Greek defeated Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela bringing an end to the Achaemenid Empire a mighty Persian empire Check out the full biography of Alexander the Great where you can find more detailed information about this battle Alexander the Great not only ended the Achaemenid Empire but also swiftly advanced into the Indus Valley At that time numerous small and large states existed in the region Taxila had already become part of an independent state but its ruler Raja Ambhi chose to surrender to Alexander the Great instead of fighting him Alexander the Great continued his advance and reached the Jhelum River To the east of the Jhelum River Raja Porus ruled and bravely confronted Alexander the Great According to Greek historians King Porus was defeated in this battle You can also watch the entire story in this DSJ video According to Greek historians Alexander the Great returned the kingdom to King Porus and made him his ally However friends the Rajapura story of defeat isn't considered quite accurate by modern historians across the Bursgir continent They believe the story of King Porus's defeat was fabricated by Greek court historians The basic story according to them is that Alexander the Great was either defeated by King Porus or faced a significant setback at his hands Alternatively the war had been futile and ultimately Alexander the Great was forced to make peace with King Porus The popular version of this history on the international stage is that King Porus did not surrender his weapons Instead he was brought before Lexington wounded and captured having fought all the way Alexander the Great asked "Tell me how should I treat you " Pours said it was what a king does to another king After defeating King Porus in battle Alexander the Great advanced into Punjab reaching the banks of the River Beas However he did not cross the river The reason was that up to that point the Ganges-Jamuna civilization—where India is today— Where Aryens had established a powerful Empire under the rule of the mighty Nanda Dynasty This empire stretched from Bengal in the east to Punjab in the west Its capital was Pataliputra now known as Patna It is said that this state had an army numbering in the hundreds of thousands Alexander the Greek exhausted from his long campaign was already shaken upon hearing reports of Nanda Empire's military strength They had refused to move forward Fearful of a revolt among his troops Alexander was forced to retrace his steps On their return journey they traveled alongside the Indus River reaching the Arabian Sea as far as the Erythraean Sea conquering all regions along the way During this period he also faced off against the Malay inhabitants of Multan In this battle he sustained a deep arrow wound to his chest causing him to lose consciousness and struggle between life and death for several days The Greek soldiers were so enraged by their king's injury that they razed the city of Multan and its surrounding settlements to the ground High-ranking individuals were either massacred or taken captive and enslaved During his campaigns Alexander the Great also founded a city in Punjab naming it after his beloved horse Bucephalus This very Biafo eventually became the Phaloi glacier which remains part of Pakistani Punjab to this day In addition he had founded another city Nekaya which has since vanished Alexander the Greek sent the major part of his army through the Arabah Valley via Arabain Si to Iraq Meanwhile he traveled overland through Balochistan to Iran and then proceeded from there to Babylon There in the year 323 BCE Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-two It is also said that the very arrow that struck him in Multan was the cause of his death After Alexander the Greek's return from the Indus Valley a great commotion erupted in this region It established a new empire in India once again The story goes that a priest named Chankiya associated with Taxila took under his protection a young man named Chandragupta Maurya And it launched a war against the Greek occupation For the first time people from a region of India had taken up swords in such an organized manner against foreign invaders They expelled the Greek forces from the region In addition Chandragupta defeated the Nanda Empire bringing an end to its rule And thus the foundation of the Morin Empire and the Morya dynasty was laid They also defeated the general Sologus who ruled Afghanistan after Alexander the Great After this defeat General Slocus of Greece arranged his daughter's marriage to Chandragupta In return they also received a gift of five hundred elephants During Chandragupta's reign a significant portion of the region now known as Afghanistan was also part of the Indian Empire Ashok the grandson of Chandragupta ruled for approximately thirty-six years from 232 BCE to 202 BCE During this period a revolution swept through their life forcing them to accept the unacceptable The truth was that in the eighth year of their government they were forced to fight a terrifying war This war was against the state of Kalinga a region within the present-day Indian state of Rayasa Ashoka conquered Kalinga after winning the war Yet the bloodshed in this conflict deeply troubled them According to Ashoka's own edicts at least one hundred thousand people were killed in Kalinga and over a hundred thousand were captured Ashoka repented upon witnessing the devastation of war and embraced the religion of peace adopting Buddhism Then Ashoka began spreading his rule over Bhumika They demonstrated the teachings of Badmash on stone tablets The entire Indus Valley was part of the vast Mohenjo-daro Empire which stretched from India to Afghanistan and it too should be included They were installed in every major city and significant location You can still see these in Pakistan today in Mansehra and Taxila You'll find these inscriptions from Ashoka's era on pillars across various locations in India including Bihar and Delhi In Afghanistan too there are stones in Kandahar inscribed with teachings from Ashoka's edicts These inscriptions on stones are found not only in those three countries but also in Bangladesh This valley represents the oldest written record of the Sindh Indus Valley and Ganga-Jamuna civilizations still preserved in good condition After Ashoka's death the Indus Valley slipped from the grip of the Mauryan Empire For the next several centuries this region remained part of various empires It was an important empire the Greco-Bactrian Empire of Afghanistan These were established by the Greeks who had settled here after Alexander the Great's invasion of Afghanistan They expanded their empire bringing the entire Indus Valley—stretching from the River Indus to the western edge of India—under their control The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom existed from 256 to 250 BCE to 125 BCE During this period of the Sultanate Gandharah experienced significant flourishing What is Gandara Gandara was actually the name of a tribe that once inhabited a region in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan The tribe is also mentioned in the Hindu religious text the Rigveda Experts estimate that this tribe may have existed as far back as three thousand two hundred years ago The area and its surrounding region are known as Gandara Tizib and Gandara Civilization respectively after his name The people of the region had already accepted the concept of badminton before the arrival of the Greeks When the Greek government was established in this region the combination of the old eight and the Greek eight gave rise to a new form and figure known as the Gendarah Eight Hundreds of sculptures and images were created under this eight Peshawar and the Swat Valley had become hotbeds of extremism Then time passed and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom like many empires before it faded away leaving behind only a few lasting memories For over a thousand years up to the 12th century CE various regions of the Indus Valley were influenced by tribes originating from Central Asia They were Sistanis Kashanis and also the Hund tribes all originating from Central Asia They came from Grassland which you can see on the map At one point the Sibin dynasty also ruled over various regions of the Indus Valley for a time Yet gradually local people forced them out of their regions During that period specifically the sixth century CE hundreds of Rajput Jat and Gujjar clans had already entered the Indus Valley There was also a time during this era when Indus Valley civilization the cultural landscape surrounding Thar Sindh flourished India's other powerful empire the Gupta Empire had fallen under the influence of the Guptha Empire Don't mistake him for Chandragupta Maurya's empire friend—this is the Gupta Empire Chandragupta founded the Maurya Empire not the Gupta Empire which was established over two thousand years later around 300 BCE While the Gupta Empire was established nearly 1 600 years ago Under the influence of Gupta Empire Hinduism spread widely in the Huns Valley while followers of Buddhism gradually declined In addition this marked the first establishment of the zamindari system here along with several other social transformations However after the decline of this empire the Hunder Valley region remained largely under the influence of local rulers And it is not connected to any major Indian empire nor to the Ganges-Jamuna civilization Nor did any civilization from the west ever seize control over it in such a way as to make it their own Sixth century—the era following the Saka century—marks the time when India once again fragmented into numerous small and large kingdoms Then came the time when Arabs Muslims set foot here The eighth century marks the beginning of modern Indian history following the eighth century The history that begins with Muhammad ibn Qasim's campaigns passes through various Muslim empires and the British era and ultimately reaches modern-day Pakistan and India This entire history friends is not our topic right now as we're focusing on modern history Many of these historical moments have already been shown to you in our previous W-Lagaz and DSJ documentaries The Mai Khewri Fylos region encompasses most of the area that is now Pakistan After the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization people from numerous groups migrated to this region over the course of its four-thousand-year history and gradually merged into the local population There were countless nations including Aryans Specialized tribes settled in large numbers here through centralization Today the majority of Pakistan's population consists of people descended from all those various ethnic groups and indigenous communities And naturally it also includes descendants of the people from the ancient Indus Valley civilization Many families in Pakistan strive to trace their lineage back to the Arabs They believe that no migration of such magnitude has ever occurred from the Arab region toward India Thus it is highly unlikely that the majority of Pakistanis are of Arab descent These people the inhabitants of India's Indus Valley Civilization are children of the very same land Their identification is directly linked to the Identity Index Value As for Aryans they were not native inhabitants of India or the Indus Valley either They began migrating toward the Indus Valley and the Indus Valley some four thousand years ago And then they simply remained just that They are also like him fans of Soulwax Just as the people of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization who lived in the Harappan settlements And then they scattered to different places The question we posed at the beginning of the video fellow travelers ose people who live on both sides of the Indus River the region that is today Pakista Who are the original inhabitants of this place You've already received the answer within those very words Hunger was a very brief documentary on a remarkably widespread history Yet we have tried to ensure all the key questions are answered in it And make sure the essential events come to light on certain key incidents So that any descendant of the soil any native of the land may come to know their roots and historical connections You must also realize that when India was partitioned the name Pakistan was given to this region Why was opposition directed against him Because this name is a deliberate erasure severing the people here from their history Historically when referring to the Indus Hind Sindh and India They are not the civilization of the Ganges-Jamuna Indeed this was the very culture shared by the people living on both sides of Sindh a culture often spoken of The greatest injustice done to the people of this region in tandem with the partition of India was The issue is that they've been severed from their history and given a new name The truth is these people are simply children of Sindh The children with whom people from other nations have settled for centuries They continued enjoying the warm hospitality of the region And there on the five rivers and the slopes of the Himalayas we settled forever This is our history and it contains much that is good as well as much that is bad As happens in the history of every nation But we are the ones This is our history and no one no matter how hard they try can sever it from themselves Friends take a look at this brief history of the journey from Undersville Civilization today If you'd like to know how Muhammad ibn Qasim's arrival in the valley of Sindh by the Arabs came about Click here to find out who lived in this area at that time Watch how the tunnel warfare was fought in Gaza And this was theory of evolution series