Prompt Cast
The Indo-European language theory and its role in defining whiteness and perpetuating white supremacy
TLDR The Indo-European language theory, which discovered the similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, was co-opted by racists to perpetuate the pseudo-scientific origin of white supremacy. This theory led to the racist movement that characterized South Asians as "Aryans" and influenced the US government's struggle to define whiteness and limit Asian immigrants from gaining citizenship.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
In 1913, Bhagat Singh Thind, an uppercast, pure, Brahmin Indian, arrived in the US hoping to continue his education, eventually earning a PhD and becoming a patriotic American citizen, but faced challenges in obtaining citizenship due to the government's struggle to define whiteness and its efforts to limit Asian immigrants from gaining citizenship.
05:26
The US government challenged the naturalization applications of Asian immigrants who claimed to be white, leading to a Supreme Court case known as United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, where Thind argued that he should be considered white based on his interpretation of Indian history and the Indo-European language theory.
10:41
William Jones, a British judge in India, discovered the similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, leading to the realization that these languages are part of the same Indo-European language family.
16:10
The discovery of the Indo-European language family led to the racist movement that characterized South Asians as "Aryans" and perpetuated the pseudo-scientific origin of white supremacy.
21:28
The Yamnaya culture, which emerged around 3200 BCE, spread across Eurasia through the use of horseback riding and wheeled vehicles, allowing for increased mobility and the expansion of their population and culture.
26:52
The Yamnaya culture spread across Eurasia over 1500 years, leaving signs of their existence in the genetics and languages of people from Ireland to India to Iran, but attributing any racial characteristics to them is a mistake.
32:31
The Indo-European language theory was co-opted by European racists like Alfred Rosenberg, who believed that the original Indo-European people, or Aryans, came from Germany and were a superior race meant to rule over others, leading to the adoption of the swastika symbol by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
37:40
Heinrich Himmler, one of Adolf Hitler's top commanders, sent a team of Nazi scientists to Tibet in 1938 to search for evidence of the Aryan race and to legitimize their racist views through "science."
42:41
Nazi scientists conducted a pseudo-scientific expedition in Tibet to find evidence of the Aryan homeland, but ultimately failed, highlighting their deep belief in the concept of Aryan race and their willingness to go to any length to define it.
47:37
The US government recognized the extreme ideas of racial purity in Nazi Germany and slowly rescinded restrictions on naturalization, allowing Bhagat Singh Finn to become a US citizen and have a successful life in the country.
Categories:
History
Society & Culture
