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Region in Ladakh, India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aryan Valley, historically known as Dah Hanu region,[note 1] is an area comprising four village clusters — Dah and Hanu in Leh district, and Garkon and Darchik in Kargil district — in Central Ladakh in India. It is inhabited by Brokpa people of Dardic origin.[2][note 2][note 3] Until its absorption into the Maryul kingdom, Brokpa chiefs wielded nominal autonomy in the region.[3]
Aryan Valley
Dah Hanu region[note 1] | |
---|---|
Region in Ladakh | |
Location in Ladakh, India | |
Coordinates: 34.60°N 76.51°E | |
Country | India |
Union Territory | Ladakh |
District | Leh and Kargil[1] |
Highest elevation | 3,000 m (10,000 ft) |
Lowest elevation | 3,000 m (9,000 ft) |
Population (2011) | |
• Human habitats | 3,727 |
Spoken | |
• Languages | Brokskat |
Ethnicity | |
• Ethnic group | Brokpa (Minaro) |
Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
The current name originated in the tourism industry c. 2010 to market the Brokpas, the local inhabitants, as being the primordial Aryans.[web 1][note 4][note 2].However, it lacks scientific proof.
Historically, the area was known as Dah Hanu region to the British administrators,[note 1] and as Brog Yul, "Hill country," in Tibetan.[note 3] The villages and hamlets are situated 70 km east of Kargil along narrow valley of the Indus River at an elevation of 9000–10000 feet.[note 5][note 3]
Agriculture — especially the cultivation of fruits like apricots and grapes — is the main driver of the economy.[web 2][note 6]
The region is inhabited by the Brokpas — an exonym, used by the Ladakhis (lit. Highlanders) — who are a sub-group of the Shin people.[2] From their oral history, it can be reasoned that Dah-Hanu region was first occupied c. 10th century by a group of migratory Shins who practiced the largely-animist ancient Dardic religion, and staked claim to a "Minaro" ethnic identity.[2] About six hundred years hence, another group of Shins — influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism — migrated to Dah-Hanu, fomenting a conflict but yet chose to live together.[2] Until its absorption into the Maryul kingdom, their chiefs wielded nominal autonomy in the region.[3]
Uninfluenced by Islam to any significant extent, the Brokpas of Dah-Hanu maintained a unique culture unlike most of neighboring Shins.[2][web 2]
In 1880, G. W. Leitner, a British orientalist, called the Brokpas "remnants of an ancient and pure Aryan race" — this trope would be reinforced by other colonial administrators, effectively exoticising them.[4] The claims hold no merit and they run contrary to genetic analyses of the Brokpas.[5] Mona Bhan, a Professor of South Asian Studies and Anthropology at Syracuse University, notes that such ahistorical racialising of linguistic and cultural traits has persisted even in modern ethnography on the Brokpas.[6]
In 1980, H. P. S. Ahluwalia reported having met three German Neo-nazi female tourists who attended a Brokpa festival and hoped to be impregnated by the "pure Aryans"; such mythical tourists would be a staple of media coverage on the region.[7] Over time, the Brokpas imbibed the Aryan characterization to the extent of tracing descent from Alexander's army.[web 3][8] During the 2003 elections to the Kargil Hill Council, they claimed representation to the minority seats based on their Aryan identity, among other factors.[4] However, this self-fashioning differed from the usual connotations of "Aryan" in the West.[9] For the Brokpas, their Aryan identity laid in a millennia-old-struggle to maintain a unique identity in the face of persecution by various rulers, as told through folk-lores, and was a tool to improve their abject socioeconomic marginalization.[9]
Beginning in 2010, as the Government wished to attract tourism to the region, local travel agents began to market the "Aryan-ness" of the inhabitants;[9] the state government reinforced the trend by projecting the Brokpa people as "pure specimens of the Aryan race".[web 1] Some Brogpas even changed their surnames to "Aryan".[10] The name "Aryan Valley" was created within this discourse.[web 1] In 2019, locals demanded that the "Aryan valley" be declared as a heritage village to boost tourism.[web 2] The discourse on the Aryan traits of the Brokpas has been increasingly appropriated by right-wing Hindutva groups to leverage their supposed indigeneity against the Muslim other and to "validate their hold on India's disputed territory".[web 1][11]
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