In 1880, [[Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner|G. W. Leitner]], a British orientalist, called the Brokpas "remnants of an ancient and pure Aryan race" — this trope would be reinforced by other colonial administrators, effectively exoticising them.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis |last=Bhan |first=Mona |title=Visible Margins: State, Identity & Development among Brogpas of Ladakh (India) |date=2006 |publisher=Rutgers University |url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/305292033}}</ref> In 1980, [[H. P. S. Ahluwalia]] reported having met three German Neo-nazi female tourists who attended a Brokpa festival and hoped to be impregnated by the "pure Aryans"; such mythical tourists would be a staple of media coverage on the region.{{sfnp|Friese|2000}} [[Mona Bhan]], a Professor of South Asian Studies and Anthropology at Syracuse University, finds such ahistorical racialising of linguistic and cultural traits to have persisted even in modern ethnography on the Brokpas.{{sfn|Bhan|2018|pp=82–83}} A genetic analysis of the Brokpas, published in 2019, rejected any link with the Aryans.{{sfnp|Syama|Arun|ArunKumar|Subhadeepta|2019}}
OverNonetheless, over time, the Brokpas have imbibed the Aryan characterization to the extent of tracing descent from Alexander's army.<ref group="web">{{Cite web |last=Jain |first=Akshai |date=2010-01-01 |title=Who went where, when? On the trail of the first people in India |url=https://www.livemint.com/Home-Page/retY51tHFRe5ZH6NeiU7QI/Who-went-where-when-On-the-trail-of-the-first-people-in-In.html |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=mint |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-08-03 |title=The Last of the Aryans |url=https://openthemagazine.com/art-culture/the-last-of-the-aryans/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=Open The Magazine |language=en-GB |quote=Among Brokpas themselves, an awareness of their ‘Aryanness’ has spread far and wide with the influx of tourists and others drawn by the tag. Within just decades, the process of exoticising is firmly and disturbingly in place. Aware of Aryan looks and cultural traits, Brokpas are now seen to seek these out in themselves.}}</ref> During the 2003 elections to the Kargil Hill Council, they claimed representation to the minority seats based on their Aryan identity, among other factors.<ref name=":0" /> However, this self-fashioning differed from the usual connotations of "Aryan" in the West; instead,for the Brokpas, foregroundedtheir Aryanness lied in their struggle to maintain a separate identity in the face of persecution at hands of various rulers. A genetic analysis of the Brokpas, published in 2019, did not find any link with the Aryans.{{sfnpsfn|SyamaBhan|Arun2018|ArunKumar|Subhadeepta|2019pp=84–86}}
