In ancient Indian texts, a term referring to non-Aryan peoples or those outside the Indo-Aryan social and cultural system, often used to classify outsiders or lower castes.
From Sanskrit 'an-arya', where 'an-' means 'not' and 'arya' refers to Aryan peoples. The term appears in Vedic literature and was used historically to distinguish between Indo-Aryan groups and other populations.
The ancient Sanskrit term 'anarya' shows how even thousands of years ago, societies used language to draw sharp lines between 'us' (civilized, proper) and 'them' (uncivilized, other)—revealing that 'othering' is one of humanity's oldest social habits.
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