Aryan race

The Aryan race is the name sometimes given to various peoples of southwest Asia who were supposed by the British to have invaded the Indian subcontinent, displacing and exploiting those of the native Dravidian race.

The British exaggerated differences between northern and southern Indians, beyond anything scientific evidence supports, to help sustain their control of India, and all discussion of Aryan or Dravidian "races" remains highly controversial.

The term "Aryan" is used in the Vedas, but never in a racial sense or to describe physical characteristics. Arya is used by Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and Jains, as well as Hindus, to mean "noble" or "spiritual." It is similar to the Sanskrit word sri, an epithet of respect.

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The Nazis used the term Aryan race to refer to what they saw as being a "master race" of people of northern European descent. This usage has nearly no meaning outside of Nazi ideology. It followed from the common 19th century use of the term 'Aryan' to mean 'white European'. This derived from the discovery that the Vedic Aryan language Sanskrit was related to European languages. It was widely believed in Germany that the Vedic Aryans were ethnically identical to the Goths, Vandals and other ancient Germanic peoples of the 'volkerwandering'.

This ideology can also be found in Theosophy movement founded by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott, an early kind of new-age philosophy, that took inspiration from Indian culture. The theosophs claim the Aryans to be God´s chosen race to free the world. Blavatsky herself was influenced by Daynand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj (or 'Society of Aryans), a Hindi reform movement.

The German Guido v. List Society mixed this ideology with some nationalistic ideas. Hitler was probably reader of their magazines.