Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate

Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate is a book by Koenraad Elst. The book discusses various aspects of the Indo-Aryan migration debate and concludes by proposing a chronological order for the events in the spread of Aryans Out of India.

It was published in 1999 by Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi.

In the preface to the book, K. Elst writes that "it hurts to release a book in mid-debate, knowing that much of it will be dated by the time a new consensus will have evolved", since "every hypothesis which is now carrying the day may be blown away by a new discovery tomorrow."

In this book, Koenraad Elst argues that the theory of an Aryan invasion of India has not been proven by prevalent standards and that all relevant facts can just as well be explained with alternative models. In the last chapter of the book, Elst writes, "One thing which keeps on astonishing me in the present debate is the complete lack of doubt in both camps. Personally, I don’t think that either theory, of Aryan invasion and of Aryan indigenousness, can claim to have been “proven” by prevalent standards of proof; even though one of the contenders is getting closer. Indeed, while I have enjoyed pointing out the flaws in the AIT statements of the politicized Indian academic establishment and its American amplifiers, I cannot rule out the possibility that the theory which they are defending may still have its merits."