Our own people, down under

The latest edition of Panchjanya, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-inspired Hindi weekly, has a write-up on how the original inhabitants of the Australian continent were from Bharat. To buttress the claim, the article pointed to recent studies on the subject in Germany. The studies, the article stated, had found evidence of "gene flow" from India to Australasia and similarities in Indian languages with those of the original inhabitants of Australia. "They are our own people," the writer, Moreshwar Joshi, exulted before concluding, rather predictably, how it was so unfortunate that none of the governments in India in the last 68 years decided to conduct research on the subject. Joshi bemoaned the fact that India should have played the part of an elder brother for the people of the region but was only an inferior younger brother because of "1,000 years of thraldom".