Indo-Aryanization

Indo-Aryanization means to change someone's language from a previous language to an Indo-Aryan language.

Indo-Aryanization of Indo-Greeks, Indo-Hepthalites, Indo-Scythians

In the northwestern Indian subcontinent, the stray Indo-Greeks, Hephthalites and Saka Scythians, became absorbed into the greater Indo-Aryan population of the subcontinent when losing their own government being replaced by a successive empire. Many Indo-Aryan ethnic groups claim ancestry of these ancient peoples. Such Indo-Aryan ethnic groups being supposedly of such ancestry are most notably, the Punjabis, Sindhis, Rajasthanis and Gujaratis.

Indo-Aryanization of Indian Arabs, Indian Africans, Indian Jews and Jewish origin groups

The Mappila Muslim community, who trace their origins to the Arab traders, Nasrani Christian and Cochin Jewish communities who trace their origins to Jewish traders at the turn of the millennium in Kerala, underwent a process of Indo-Aryanization as they were absorbed over time and adopted customs from their surrounding Indian community. The Indian African Siddi community in Karnataka who were brought to India by the British during the 18th century had largely assimilated into the larger Indian community by the 20th century.

Middle Ages

Parsi

The Parsi community, concentrated in Gujarat, are descendants of Zoroastrian refugees who fled from Iran migrating into Gujarat, to fled from the Islamic conquest of Persia, since their religion was undergoing marginalization by Islam. These Zoroastrians began to lose their original language, adopting the local Indo-Aryan languages ex.(Gujarati), and have adopted many elements of the culture in Gujarat. Parsi is the preserved term for Farsi, since the Arabic phonology changed the P to a F. Thus Parsi directly means, Persian.

Muslim Migration Into the Indian Subcontinent

During the Muslim rule of the Northern and Northwestern Subcontinent, the rulers began to adopt the Indo-aryan languages as their native tongue. For this reason many Persian,Turkic and Arab rulers assimilated into Indo-Aryan speakers, thus many Indian Muslims today claim descent of these ancient peoples.

Mughals

Mughals initially spoke Chagatai, a Turkic language, then adopted Persian before adopting Hindustani (later known as Zaaban-i-Ordu or "language of the horde" and thereafter simply "Urdu"), an Indo-Aryan language, as their new native tongue.

Ahoms

Originally one of the Tai tribes, the Ahom people assimilated to Hinduism and other elements of Hindu culture after their migration to Assam and nearby regions. Gradually the Ahom language spoken by the tribe was replaced by Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language. As a result, the Ahom language is extinct as a spoken language and only used for ritualistic purposes.

Change of formal language from Persian to Urdu

See: History of Urdu Urdu was intended to be a mixed language taking loanwords from many languages spoken in India.

Early Pashtun (Afghan) settlers in the Indian Subcontinent

Afghans came from eastern Afghanistan and Afghania further into the subcontinent to claim a land called Rohillakand and then got assimilated ultimately adopting Urdu, forgetting Pashto, when being overruled by Mughals. Mughals and Pashtuns had an ancient history of bitterness. Pathan was an Indo-Aryanized version of the name Pashtun. Many Rohilla Pashtuns began inter-marriage with their neighboring Indian Muslims. To this reason, Pashto-Speakers of Afghanistan and Afghania will not consider them as Pashtuns, believing that they have very little Pashtun blood in them. Many Pathans will claim their pure Pashtun, due to the concept in Asia, that someones Paternal Lineage to determines their ethnicity, and even in the Pakhtunwali, ones father has to be Pashtun, when being determined an ethnic Pashtun. When in India, the Rohilla identity is present among Indian Muslims, but when moving into Pakistan, the identity strikingly decreases, as Rohillas consider the "Pakistani" identity instead of Rohilla. 30-35% of Muhajirs in Pakistan are likely Rohilla Pashtuns, but is likely to become absorbed into the central Pakistani culture. When claiming Afghan descent, would ultimately mean Pashtun, since the name in the past was an ethnic term and not a nationality, since the change of the name Afghan from ethnicity to nationality didn't happen until 50 years ago.

Modern South Asia

Indo-Aryanization occurs in South Asia today

India

Dravidians

During the declaration of Hindi as an official language of India, many criticisms were received from some populations of India. Notably from Tamils. It was proposed that certain populations feared to undergo language shift into Hindi. The Munda and Sino-Tibetan speakers also have a risk to become Indo-aryanized. "See also: Tamil Nationalism"

Pakistan

See also: Pakistani people

Underlying issue of Pashtun national decline

Further information: Pashtunistan and Durand Line

During the Durand agreement, this concern was apparent from the start. A few Pashtuns are now worried about becoming absorbed into the Pakistani and Tajik(in Afghanistan) culture, as already split by a boundary. Though many Pashtuns in Pakistan now consider themselves Pakistani and support the country, some also have anti-sentiments against the dominance of the Indo-Aryan culture, by sometimes criticizing it as a Punjabi culture, instead of Pakistani, just to still be associated with Pakistan.

Indo-Aryanization of Pashtuns in Pakistan

A Pattern in Pakistan occurs among Pashtuns, who urbanize or intermarry, often end up having their generation and themselves becoming Indo-Aryans, a similar process occurs in Afghanistan where Pashtuns Persianize.

Baloch and Brahuis

The Baloch and Brahui, racially Iranian ethnic groups with Baloch speaking an Iranian language and Brahuis speaking a dravidian language are at some risk to become Indo-Aryanized, especially the fact, the Brahui language is at a high risk of being lost.

See also

• Sanskritization
• Neo-Vedanta