As I sat on the plush sofa sipping fine scotch in my friend’s swanky villa, the evening blended into the dark arms of the night. The three of us, all forced bachelors by a quirk of fate, and perhaps tingled by the pining of our faraway homeland, were talking about some interesting places of India. Places less frequented by the masses and relatively unexplored, making them all the more alluring and esoteric.
The flow of the conversation meandered to Ladakh, one of the most astounding lands that I have set my foot on. From some cog of memory, I mentioned that a pure Aryan race is supposed to dwell in certain part of the region, and German women go there to conceive children from the males of the tribe. As one of my friend nodded to confirm my statement, the other looked at me in bewilderment, his eyebrows rising and his forehead breaking into crooked lines.
“Really ?” he asked in a hushed tone, possibly not wanting to make obvious his disbelief. “Oh, I didn’t know about this”, he quickly added.
Bereft of any further information on the topic, I let it die out, but silently resolved to find out more on the intriguing subject.
I have done some research since then, and here is what I stumbled upon :
Perched on the rugged cliffs of Batalik sector of Ladakh is a cluster of four villages that have captured the world’s imagination with claims of their “pure Aryan” descent. The people of this Buddhist tribe, called Drok-pa (or Brogpa), are said to be descendants of the Dards, of Indo-Aryan stock, who came down the Indus centuries ago. The Drok-pa community claim to be progeny of the Macedonian soldiers who came with Alexander the Great for his attempted invasion of India in 327 BC.
Whether these claims are accurate or not, one thing is distinctly striking – their physical features. Unlike the other tribes of the area who have Mongoloid features, they have western looks like exceptionally fair skin, tall height (going upto 6’6”), high cheek bones, sharp features and almond shaped eyes.
This cluster of “pure blooded Aryans” are fiercely protective about their lineage, and don’t marry outside their tribe to protect their claimed purity.
Drawn by this mystique, and a yearning for a pure Aryan offspring, German women have been visiting Ladakh to get impregnated by the male members of the hallowed tribe. Incredible as it may sound, this fable has been chronicled by the famous mountaineer, Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, in his book ‘Hermit Kingdom – Ladakh’ way back in 1965. “These young, sophisticated ladies came all the way to Ladakh hoping to carry back with them the seed of what is believed to be the purest survivors of the Aryan race”’ he wrote.
More recently, a documentary called ‘Achtung Baby – In Search of Purity’ made by Sanjeev Sivan (brother of Santosh Sivan, the famous cinematographer), lays bare this arguably pernicious practice straight from the lips of a German lady and a Drok-pa male. (Watch a trailer of this on YouTube by punching in ‘The Aryan Saga’ in the search field).
So what does one make of this bizarre behavior ? Racist bigotry or preservation of pure identity ? Outdated clannish chauvinism or acceptable eugenics ?
We know from the Holocaust that the dangerous notion of perpetuating a racial hygiene has wreaked untold havoc on the human populace. But this is a matter between two consenting adults, and an issue of personal choice. After all, if one is free to choose a pair of jeans, what’s wrong with opting for one’s own preferred genes ? People go to great lengths to raise thoroughbred horses and spawn pedigreed dogs. But when the same principles are applied to humans, it raises shrieks of moral, ethical and social issues. Why ?
I see nothing macabre about the German ladies wanting to mate with the pure-bred Aryans to seed their child as long as they know what they are doing and can live with the consequences. It’s their life, its their problem.
As for me ?..... I manifestly prefer pure love to pure race. Crystal clear.
Endpiece : Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. – George Bernard Shaw
The flow of the conversation meandered to Ladakh, one of the most astounding lands that I have set my foot on. From some cog of memory, I mentioned that a pure Aryan race is supposed to dwell in certain part of the region, and German women go there to conceive children from the males of the tribe. As one of my friend nodded to confirm my statement, the other looked at me in bewilderment, his eyebrows rising and his forehead breaking into crooked lines.
“Really ?” he asked in a hushed tone, possibly not wanting to make obvious his disbelief. “Oh, I didn’t know about this”, he quickly added.
Bereft of any further information on the topic, I let it die out, but silently resolved to find out more on the intriguing subject.
I have done some research since then, and here is what I stumbled upon :
Perched on the rugged cliffs of Batalik sector of Ladakh is a cluster of four villages that have captured the world’s imagination with claims of their “pure Aryan” descent. The people of this Buddhist tribe, called Drok-pa (or Brogpa), are said to be descendants of the Dards, of Indo-Aryan stock, who came down the Indus centuries ago. The Drok-pa community claim to be progeny of the Macedonian soldiers who came with Alexander the Great for his attempted invasion of India in 327 BC.
Whether these claims are accurate or not, one thing is distinctly striking – their physical features. Unlike the other tribes of the area who have Mongoloid features, they have western looks like exceptionally fair skin, tall height (going upto 6’6”), high cheek bones, sharp features and almond shaped eyes.
This cluster of “pure blooded Aryans” are fiercely protective about their lineage, and don’t marry outside their tribe to protect their claimed purity.
Drawn by this mystique, and a yearning for a pure Aryan offspring, German women have been visiting Ladakh to get impregnated by the male members of the hallowed tribe. Incredible as it may sound, this fable has been chronicled by the famous mountaineer, Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, in his book ‘Hermit Kingdom – Ladakh’ way back in 1965. “These young, sophisticated ladies came all the way to Ladakh hoping to carry back with them the seed of what is believed to be the purest survivors of the Aryan race”’ he wrote.
More recently, a documentary called ‘Achtung Baby – In Search of Purity’ made by Sanjeev Sivan (brother of Santosh Sivan, the famous cinematographer), lays bare this arguably pernicious practice straight from the lips of a German lady and a Drok-pa male. (Watch a trailer of this on YouTube by punching in ‘The Aryan Saga’ in the search field).
So what does one make of this bizarre behavior ? Racist bigotry or preservation of pure identity ? Outdated clannish chauvinism or acceptable eugenics ?
We know from the Holocaust that the dangerous notion of perpetuating a racial hygiene has wreaked untold havoc on the human populace. But this is a matter between two consenting adults, and an issue of personal choice. After all, if one is free to choose a pair of jeans, what’s wrong with opting for one’s own preferred genes ? People go to great lengths to raise thoroughbred horses and spawn pedigreed dogs. But when the same principles are applied to humans, it raises shrieks of moral, ethical and social issues. Why ?
I see nothing macabre about the German ladies wanting to mate with the pure-bred Aryans to seed their child as long as they know what they are doing and can live with the consequences. It’s their life, its their problem.
As for me ?..... I manifestly prefer pure love to pure race. Crystal clear.
Endpiece : Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. – George Bernard Shaw
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