Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar (1875-1950) was a historian of ancient India and a political scientist. Using epigraphic and ethnological research, "Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population" attempts to break down entrenched beliefs about the purity of Hindu caste and race boundaries.
"There is hardly a class or Caste in India which has not a foreign strain in it. There is an admixture of alien blood not only among the warrior classes—the Rajputs and the Marathas—but also among the Brahmins who are under the happy delusion that they are free from all foreign element. If the Brahmanas have not escaped this taint, as we have seen, and yet call themselves Brahmanas, it excites the risibility of the antiquarian or the ethnologist when he finds some Brahmana castes strenuously calling in question the claims of certain warrior classes to style themselves Kshatriyas. The grounds of this strenuous opposition stated by the Brahmana castes, are that pure unmixed Vedic Aryan blood does not run through the veins of those warrior classes. Yes, this is quite true; but it is equally true that pure Vedic Aryan blood does not run through the veins of the Brahmanas also. Looked at from the antiquarian or ethnological point of view, the claims of either community to such purity are untenable and absurd. As the chief thing valued by the members of the higher castes, viz., purity of blood, the absence of any admixture of aboriginal or foreign blood, has been proved to be hollow and non-consistent, the caste jealousies and controversies, which cause immense mischief, are really useless and meaningless. It is to be sincerely hoped that the knowledge furnished by ethnology and the body of ancient inscriptions will spread among the people, and open their eyes to the emptiness and ruthlessness of the thing they are fighting for, and put an end to all caste animosities and disputes, which are the bane of India." [p. 37]
Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna. "Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population," Indian Antiquary, no. 40 (1911):7-37, 179-180 [Bombay, Popular Prakashan [etc]]
Annotation by: Koirala/Pritchett