A view is being assiduously propagated of late, with the active
endorsement of the Hindutva forces, that the "Aryans" are the
true authors of the Indus culture, that the movement of "Aryans"
into India is a myth, that the Indus and Vedic cultures are
identical, that the Vedas are the only source of the Indian
culture, and that the Vedic age began in the fourth millennium
B.C. Two of the articles in the current number of Social
Scientist are devoted to a discussion of this whole range of
issues. U.S. Sharma, in the lead article of this issue, is
concerned with the relationship between the Indus and the Vedic
cultures. He presents a host of evidence to question this claim
of identity of the two cultures, an^J argues instead, taking the
Harappan horse inter alia as his evidence, that there was a
process of interaction between the late Harappan and the Vedic
cultures. But even the claim that there was any substantial
direct interaction between the main Indus and the Vedic cultures
is problematical, owing to the f