In the year 326 BC Alexander returned from the banks of Indus River. But it is said that some of the soldiers stayed back and they are supposed to be the pure Aryan race. Around 120 kms from Leh the HQ of Ladakh there are 4 villages in the remote regions where these people live. For more than 2000 years they have lived an isolated life in the remote and inhospitable region and preserved their identity. Even now they are very particular about maintaining the purity of their race.
They have the called the Brokpa’s. They are also called Dard which comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Daradas’ which means people living on the hillside. They are tall and fair with high cheek bones and blue or green eyes. They worship the nature like the mountains and the trees and are dependent on cultivation and animal rearing. They do not marry outside the community to maintain an unbroken lineage. At present there are about 4000 of them residing in those 4 villages. They have a different language and culture from the rest of the people of that region. After the partition of India some of them are found in the Baltistan region.
In the year 1830, a British explorer Godfrey Thomas Vigne was the first Westerner to come in contact with them. By seeing their physical features he postulated the theory that they were the part of the Alexander’s army who stayed back or the Indo- Aryan people. No DNA testing has been done so far to find out the actual origin of these people. The village headman is quite candid and says that ‘some say we came from Rome and some say we came from the Alexander’s army but we consider ourselves as pure Aryans’.
In their community a man or woman can give divorce as many times as he or she wants, no taboo is attached to it. Also to maintain purity of the race marriage within relations is allowed but there has to be a difference of 3 generations. For example a sister’s granddaughter or grandson can marry back to the original family. It is also said that on the order of Hitler a few Germans came to find the pure Aryan race.
The unique thing about these people is what has been termed as pregnancy tourism. There have been reported cases of Western women particularly from Germany who came here to get impregnated but to the purity of the Aryan race. Some of them were very particular about maintaining a pure Aryan composition and are quite open about accepting the reason for coming and staying in the village for 15 to 20 days for this purpose. These women also pay for the services in cash and gifts.
The culture which they were able to preserve for so long without any outside influence is however under threat now due to modernization. Now roads come directly to the villages which have resulted in the influx of tourists and more intermingling. The young people are now going out to other places of Ladakh for earning and some have even married outside the tribe. Education has reached the village and now it is quite possible that the younger generation may question the age old practices and would rather embrace the new culture.
There is another place in India where it is also claimed that the soldiers of Alexander’s army stayed back. It is a village called Malana in Himachal Pradesh district. Malana is more popular in the outside world than the Dards of Ladakh. It is said to be the oldest democracy in the world within the village. These people are also a close knit group who do not mix with the outside people to maintain their purity of race. They are in a type of self imposed isolation Tourists come and visit their villages but are told to strictly follow their rules and are not allowed to touch anything which they consider sacred. Malana is also famous for the malana cream and other local intoxicants.
There are other tribes also who claim to be ancestors of Alexander’s army. The Kalash tribe from the Pakistan Afghanistan border have similar physical features. Though they have now converted to Muslims but they still follow certain Hindu rituals, do not use the veil and have equal rights as of the males. They perform idol worship which is against Muslim culture and for this they have faced persecution in the hands of radical Islamists. The Greek government also runs various developmental projects in this region for them.
There is also the Burusho tribe in Gilgit the region and the Pashtun people of Pakistan who claim the similar background. However as per DNA tests Pashtun’s have been found to be 2% similar to the Greeks.
If these things are proved by historical facts and scientific study then it will be a fascinating thing as to how their ancestors stayed back and formed a tribe which has stayed unique in its culture and lineage for more than 2000 years.
There was another type of pregnancy tourism in India, that of surrogacy and it is not related to the so-called purity of aryan race. Here childless couple from western country came to rent womb for having a child. In the west either it is costly or females are not ready for it but in India it was readily available at a cheaper rate than in the west. And there was no regulation on the part of the govt. Here it would cost about 2,00,000 INR for the whole nine months. 1 USD = 73.5 INR. But now this thing has been restricted by govt.
Interesting article but from my point of view the term "race" is completely wrong in relation to humans. There are ethnic groups, but no races. There is only one human "race".
The fact that people look similar or have similar skin colour does not mean that they can be called a race.
The term race was invented to divide people into "better" and "worse" ones, so that one may exploit and kill the "worse" ones.