In India the race discourse was distorted in the nineteenth century by pseudo-scientific anthropological classifications of Indian populations. Long lists of fictitious races filled academic publications -- and sometimes continue to be taught today, even though the race concept collapsed long ago. In the last two decades, population genetics has emerged as a powerful tool of inquiry into prehistoric migrations, and several studies conducted by multinational teams have cast a fresh look at India’s huge genetic diversity. Most have concluded that genetic connections between North India and Europe are much more ancient than the proposed dates for the Aryan invasion / migration, and failed to note a major addition to India’s gene pool in the second millennium BCE. Other important conclusions, such as a genetic continuum between Indian castes and tribes, are bound to radically alter our understanding of Indian populations. This paper presents a summary of recent findings in the field.

This volume (Edited by Dilip K. Chakrabarti and Makkhan Lal) contains articles of Sisupalgarh written by B.B. Lal, R.K.Mohanty and Monica Smith and Peninsular and South India by R.K.Mohanty and Tilok Thakuria . Look for the articles as per the titles for reference and authors names appear at the end of the article as RKM and TT. .

A summary of the archaeological evidence on metrology in the Harappan civilization

The diversities, distinctions and varieties of landscapes and regional/ sub-regional traditions scattered and rooted in different parts of India and overall their interconnectedness by the historical-cultural bonds converge into the mosaic of landscapes – a complex web of cultural whole. That is how many disciplines in their own ways and also with interfaces and interaction with others too worked in the broad realm of ‘cultural geography’ (see Singh 2012a). That is how cultural studies using historical, archival, ecological, literary, travelogue, ethnographic and associated methods to investigate localised patterns of religion, language, diet, arts, customs and any associated attributes are concerned with some of the aspects of cultural geography. Idea of place-based ecoliteracy and visioning India has open a new dimension of cultural understanding (Singh 2014 c). Sacrality, symbolism and formation of landscapes in ancient India were the nexus of Nature-divine-Man interaction, which has been now taken as emerging philosophy of nature conservation (Singh and Rana 2016 e). This idea is comparable to deep sense of ecospirituality and cosmology (Singh 2013 e and f; Singh 2016 c ; also Singh 2013 a) that ultimately will help in harmonizing global order (Singh 2012 c), and also comparable to the geographical thoughts in ancient India (Singh 2016 d), and searching similarities and archetypal relationship in the works of Leonardo da Vinci (Singh 2014 b). The image of ‘incredible’ India is further shines into the mirror of ‘make in India’, ‘shining India’, ‘skilful India, and above all ‘harmonising India’. The studies in cultural geography of India will take these issues in coming future. We have to realise and reveal for changing the mind setup, and mass awakening in making our culture harmonious, peaceful and happy; remember the core concern of geographical practice is to make happy places and spiritual landscapes. See for earlier REPORTS: 148.04; 149.04; 170.8; 171.08; 379.12; current one 460.16.

Provides Burdwan University Master of Arts History Syllabus

The presence or absence of the horse in the Indus-Sarasvati civilization has long been a matter of debate, especially in the context of the Aryan invasion theory. The argument is familiar: the Rig-Veda uses the word ashva over 200 times, ergo the Vedic society must have been full of horses, ergo the Harappan civilization, from which the noble animal is conspicuously absent, must be pre-Vedic and non-Aryan. The horse must therefore have been brought into India around 1500 BCE by the invading Aryans, who used its speed to crushing advantage in order to subdue the native, ox-driven populations. However, on closer scrutiny, there are serious flaws at every step of the argument — and indeed several concealed steps. This paper first examines the physical evidence of the horse from various Harappan sites, both in terms of skeletal remains and depictions, before turning to problems of methodology that have compounded the confusion, in particular the double-edged use of negative evidence, and the persisting colonial misreadings of the Rig-Veda.

Highlights: These seven reports-papers presents critical appraisal and synoptic reviews of the works done by geographers and scholars from sister disciplines (both insider India, and outsiders Abroad) on the progress of Cultural and Historical Geography of India in the 21st century at the period of 4-years phases. The papers cover a wide variety of topics, methodology, approaches and the reflections.