--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:
>
> I have received a mail about counter-arguments to the AIT,
> I made the following answer,
> Some of you may be tired of the OIT
> but it's worth going thru the arguments.
>
> Actually, the case for the AIT is very strong.
>
> Aryan Race Politics
> The invention of the Aryan race was another political play. This
> was a product of the 19th century imperialistic British mind.
> =========
> Answer :
> The concept of Indo-European proto-language is a modernized version
> of the Japhetic and Scythic hypotheses that go back to the XVI and
> XVII century.
> The racialization of this linguistic concept was done by the
> Germans in the second half of the XIX century.
Gobineau was German? Live and learn.
> The statement that the British invented PIE as a by-product of
> colonialism is just absurd.
The real reason can be found in
http://lib.ru/DPEOPLE/PARKINSON/parkinson.txt_Ascii.txt
C. Northcote Parkinson:
PARKINSON'S LAW [AND OTHER STUDIES IN ADMINISTRATION]
5. THE SHORT LIST, OR PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION
' The Chinese method (old pattern) was at one time so extensively
copied by other nations that few people realize its Chinese origin.
This is the method of Competitive Written Examination. In China under
the Ming Dynasty the more promising students used to sit for the
provincial examination, held every third year. It lasted three
sessions of three days each. During the first session the candidate
wrote three essays and composed a poem of eight couplets. During the
second session he wrote five essays on a classical theme. During the
third, he wrote five essays on the art of government. The successful
candidates (perhaps two per cent) then sat for their final examination
at the imperial capital. It lasted only one session, the candidate
writing one essay on a current political problem. Of those who were
successful the majority were admitted to the civil service, the man
with the highest marks being destined for the highest office. The
system worked fairly well.
The Chinese system was studied by Europeans between 1815 and 1830 and
adopted by the English East India Company in 1832. The effectiveness
of this method was investigated by a committee in 1854, with Macaulay
as chairman. The result was that the system of competitive examination
was introduced into the British Civil Service in 1855. An essential
feature of the Chinese examinations had been their literary character.
The test was in a knowledge of the classics, in an ability to write
elegantly (both prose and verse) and in the stamina necessary to
complete the course. All these features were faithfully incorporated
in 49 the Trevelyan-Northcote Report, and thereafter in the system it
did so much to create. It was assumed that classical learning and
literary ability would fit any candidate for any administrative post.
It was assumed (no doubt rightly) that a scientific education would
fit a candidate for nothing - except, possibly, science. It was known,
finally, that it is virtually impossible to find an order of merit
among people who have been examined in different subjects. Since it is
impracticable to decide whether one man is better in geology than
another man in physics, it is at least convenient to be able to rule
them both out as useless. When all candidates alike have to write
Greek or Latin verse, it is relatively easy to decide which verse is
the best. Men thus selected on their classical performance were then
sent forth to govern India. Those with lower marks were retained to
govern England. Those with still lower marks were rejected altogether
or sent to the colonies. While it would be totally wrong to describe
this system as a failure, no one could claim for it the success that
had attended the systems hitherto in use. There was no guarantee, to
begin with, that the man with the highest marks might not turn out to
be off his head; as was sometimes found to be the case. Then again the
writing of Greek verse might prove to be the sole accomplishment that
some candidates had or would ever have. On occasion, a successful
applicant may even have been impersonated at the examination by
someone else, subsequently proving unable to write Greek verse when
the occasion arose. Selection by competitive examination was never
therefore more than a moderate success.'
It is obvious and clear that those of the candidates who were sent out
to rule India without any talent beyond that of writing Greek and
Latin verse, plenty of time on their hands and no entertainment other
than afternoon tea would go all gaga when confronted with a language
so similar to those otherwise useless ones they had mastered at great
investment in time and patience, cf. the famous words of Sir William
Jones in Calcutta.
Torsten