Reclaiming Histories: Debunking Aryanism's Myth in the Middle East and South Asia

ABSTRACT This article charts the enduring life of the ‘Aryan’ concept from its 19th‐century philological origins to its contemporary political, cultural and national manifestations. Born out of William Jones's linguistic comparisons and entangled with biblical stories, Aryanism evolved into a racialized ideology, underpinning European Romantic nationalism, scientific racism, and colonial interpretations of South Asian history. Aryan myth proved most resilient in Iran, anchoring Persian identity and state‐building projects from the Pahlavi state in 1925 to the present. By tracing the Aryanist ideas across South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, this article elucidates how a once abstract linguistic conjecture evolved into a pervasive racial discourse linking language, race, culture and political power. I argue that Aryanism remains a living grammar of identity, sovereignty, and racial supremacy across both the Indian subcontinent and Iran. While it has been extensively interrogated and contested in India, in Iran Aryanism has transformed into the DNA of Persian nationalism, continually nurturing and legitimizing Persian supremacy.