An incisive look at the debate around this issue by one of India's foremost archaeological thinkers. Ratnagar looks at the issue in light of Indian Independence and the various political issues and currents that affect archaeological discourse and interpretations. She explains what the word "Aryan" means in the Indian context and "how an Aryan identity came to be inscribed into the construction of ancient Indian civilization."

Originally published in Selective Remembrances : Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration and Consecration of National Pasts, Edited by Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Chicago, University Press, 2007.