Myth of the Sacred Soil: How Science Undermines the Hindutva Narrative of Indian Origins
The third part of V.A. Mohamad Ashrof’s review of Early Indians by Tony Joseph offers a rigorous deconstruction of the Hindutva concepts of pithrubhumi (fatherland) and punyabhumi (holy land) through the lens of modern genetics, archaeology, and linguistics. By tracing the deeply migratory and mixed origins of the Indian population, and the layered construction of sacredness across religious traditions, the article dismantles claims of ethnic purity and religious exclusivity. Instead, it affirms a more inclusive, historically accurate vision of India as a land shaped by continuous arrivals, plural sanctities, and cultural fusion, an antidote to exclusionary nationalism.
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Part 3
Dismantling Pithrubhumi and Punyabhumi
When the scientific evidence synthesized by Joseph is used as an interpretive lens to examine the ideological claims of pithrubhumi and punyabhumi, these concepts collapse. Their foundational pillars—autochthony, purity, and singular sanctity—are revealed to be historical and biological fictions. This section applies the scientific findings from Section III directly to the ideological constructs from Section I in a formal hermeneutical deconstruction.
The ideology of pithrubhumi rests on two core claims: that a specific group is autochthonous (originating from the soil itself) and that their lineage is pure and unmixed. The scientific narrative proves both to be demonstrably false.
The Fallacy of Autochthony: The core assertion of pithrubhumi is that a specific group is “of the soil,” having originated in India with no prior history of migration. Joseph’s synthesis proves this to be false for every single ancestral group that constitutes the modern Indian population. The story of India is a story of arrivals:
o The First Indians, the very bedrock of the population, arrived from Africa.
o The Zagrosian farmers, who co-created the subcontinent’s first civilization, arrived from West Asia.
o The Steppe pastoralists, who brought the Sanskrit language, arrived from Central Asia.
o Subsequent migrations brought Austroasiatic speakers from Southeast Asia and Tibeto-Burman speakers from East Asia, adding further layers to the palimpsest.
Migration is not an aberration in the Indian story; it is the fundamental, defining rule. This reality completely reframes the question of belonging. The politically convenient binary of “indigenous” versus “foreign” is rendered meaningless. Instead, we are all descendants of migrants, standing on a continuum of arrival times. The ideology of pithrubhumi, which seeks to grant special status and ownership to one group by claiming they are the sole “originals,” is thus exposed as a political manoeuvre, a claim made by the descendants of one set of migrants against others. A scientifically informed understanding leads to a more inclusive and historically honest conclusion: India is the shared pithrubhumi of all who have made it their home, a common inheritance forged through thousands of years of shared history on this land.
The Fallacy of Purity: The second pillar of pithrubhumi is the notion of an unadulterated lineage, a concept essential for justifying the hierarchies of the caste system and the idea of a “pure” national stock. Joseph’s work demonstrates that the history of the Indian population before the last two millennia is, in fact, a history of profound and pervasive mixture.
o The Harappan people were themselves a product of admixture between First Indians and Zagrosian farmers.
o The very formation of the “Ancestral North Indians” (ANI), the group often problematically equated with “Aryans,” was a product of a three-way admixture between Harappan-descended people, newly arrived Steppe migrants, and First Indians.
o The subsequent “Great Admixture” between ANI and “Ancestral South Indians” (ASI) over nearly two millennia was the defining demographic process that created the Indian population as we know it today.
The later imposition of rigid endogamy through the caste system was not a preservation of an original, pure state. On the contrary, it was an artificial, socially enforced, and violent interruption of a long and natural history of mixing. This reveals the ideology of purity to be a retroactive justification for a social hierarchy, not a reflection of a biological reality. The Indian gene pool is not a collection of pure, distinct streams but a deeply intertwined delta. The pithrubhumi is not the homeland of a pure race, because no such race has ever existed on the subcontinent. It is the homeland of a people whose very identity was forged in the crucible of genetic and cultural fusion. As Joseph unequivocally states, “We are all migrants. And we are all mixed” (Joseph, p.184).
The Deconstruction of Punyabhumi: A Fluid and Plural Sacredness
Just as science undermines the ethnic claims of pithrubhumi, a hermeneutical reading of that science also challenges the exclusivist theological claims of punyabhumi. While India is undoubtedly a land of profound spiritual significance, the idea that this sanctity is a singular, static, and inherent quality tied exclusively to one religious tradition is a historical construct that does not stand up to scrutiny.
The Human Construction of the Sacred: Deep history teaches us that the land itself predates all human belief systems. Sanctity is not an intrinsic property of geography but a quality bestowed upon it by human culture and imagination. The Indian subcontinent was inhabited for over 50,000 years by the First Indians, who had their own rich spiritual lives, sacred groves, and holy places, now largely lost to time. The Harappans, with their unique iconography, ritual bathing platforms, and what may be early forms of goddess worship, consecrated the land in their way, with rituals and beliefs distinct from those that came later. Upon their arrival, the Vedic people initiated a new process of sanctifying the land, focusing on the rivers and landscapes of the Gangetic Plain. This reveals the sacredness of India not as a monolithic entity, but as a layered palimpsest of meaning, with different cultures at different times consecrating the land in their image. The punyabhumi was not discovered; it was, and continues to be, created and re-created by human hands and hearts.
The Migrant Origins of “Vedic” Holiness: The primary basis for the claim that India is an exclusive Hindu punyabhumi is its status as the land of the Vedas, the foundational texts of Hinduism. Yet, as Joseph’s synthesis confirms, the core linguistic and cultural elements of the Vedic tradition were brought to India by migrants from the Central Asian Steppe. The language of the Rigveda, the rituals of the fire altar (yajna), the reverence for the horse, and the pantheon of gods like Indra all have clear antecedents and linguistic cognates outside the subcontinent, in the broader Indo-European cultural sphere (Anthony, p.117-120). This does not diminish the spiritual depth or philosophical genius of the texts, which were undoubtedly composed and elaborated on Indian soil. However, it fundamentally refutes the idea that this holiness sprang fully formed and uninfluenced from Indian soil. Instead, it points to a more dynamic process where a migrant culture interacted with a new landscape and pre-existing local traditions (likely from post-Harappan and First Indian sources), giving birth to a new, syncretic faith that was uniquely Indian. This exposes a central contradiction in the nationalist ideology: the very tradition used to define the “holy land” and claim autochthony was itself brought by migrants, the very group the ideology seeks to delegitimize.
A Land Holy to Many: Finally, the political claim of a singular punyabhumi deliberately erases the profound and unparalleled religious pluralism of the subcontinent. India is the undisputed birthplace of four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. For centuries, it was a global centre of Buddhist learning and pilgrimage, a land made holy by the footsteps of the Buddha and the great universities of Nalanda and Takshashila. To claim India as an exclusively Hindu holy land is to deny this rich, shared heritage. Furthermore, for the millions of Indian Muslims and Christians, whose ancestors have lived on the subcontinent for centuries or millennia, India has become their sacred land. The tombs of Sufi saints, such as Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer and Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, and the ancient churches of Kerala founded by communities tracing their origins to St. Thomas, are as much a part of India’s sacred geography as the temples of the north. The prayers of many faiths have sanctified the land. A true, historically honest understanding of punyabhumi would see it not as an exclusive property, but as a magnificent mosaic of overlapping sacred landscapes, a testament to the nation’s unparalleled history of spiritual creativity and co-existence.
Embracing a Complex Truth for a New India
The scientific evidence synthesized by Tony Joseph in Early Indians offers an irrefutable and comprehensive refutation of the ideological concepts of pithrubhumi and punyabhumi. A hermeneutical reading of this evidence reveals these concepts not as timeless truths but as modern political constructs built on a foundation of historical and scientific falsehoods. The myth of an autochthonous, pure-blooded people living in their eternal fatherland is shattered by the reality of a history defined by continuous migration and pervasive admixture. The myth of a singular, exclusive holy land is replaced by the richer, more accurate picture of a layered and pluralistic sacred landscape, consecrated by many faiths over millennia.
By dismantling the myths of purity and stasis, this scientific narrative does not weaken Indian identity but rather grounds it in a more profound and resilient truth. It suggests that the true genius of Indian civilization lies not in an imaginary, pristine origin but in its unparalleled, historically demonstrated capacity for absorption, synthesis, and innovation. It is a civilization that has for tens of thousands of years acted as a magnet for peoples and ideas, weaving them into a complex, vibrant, and unique cultural tapestry. To embrace this history is to move from a narrow identity based on exclusion to a more expansive one based on a shared, composite heritage. It is to recognize that the very diversity that ethno-nationalism sees as a threat is, in fact, the signature of our civilization and our greatest strength.
In an age of rising nationalism and sectarian strife, the message of Early Indians is more critical than ever. It provides a scientific foundation for a more tolerant, egalitarian, and humane vision of the nation—a nation where belonging is not determined by the imagined purity of blood or the exclusivity of faith, but by a shared commitment to a pluralistic present and future, grounded in the reality of a shared, migratory past. The fluid fatherland, a land of constant arrivals and endless synthesis, is a far more powerful and accurate emblem of India than the rigid, mythical homeland of ideological fantasy. Tony Joseph has successfully rewritten the first chapter of India’s story, offering a version that is not only truer to the evidence but also better suited to the aspirations of a modern, democratic, and inclusive republic.
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Cover Image: Lal Gumbad , which is the resting place of Sheikh Kabir-ud-din Auliya, a Sufi saint who was the 14th disciple of Shaikh Chirag-i-Dilli, the spiritual successor of Nizamuddin Auliya.
Photo courtesy : https://kevinstandagephotography.wordpress.com/
(The End)
V.A. Mohamad Ashrof is an independent Indian scholar specializing in Islamic humanism. With a deep commitment to advancing Quranic hermeneutics that prioritize human well-being, peace, and progress, his work aims to foster a just society, encourage critical thinking, and promote inclusive discourse and peaceful coexistence. He is dedicated to creating pathways for meaningful social change and intellectual growth through his scholarship. He can be reached at vamashrof@gmail.com)