I often felt proud of coming from a country that boasted one of the oldest civilisations in the world.  I felt that in a  country that gave birth to Buddhism, Hinduism , Jainism and Sikihism, the people should be  self assured and emotionally well rounded.  I have always assumed  that Indians are culturally refined and mature , ( if not materially), without questioning . Or so I thought.

I have frequently observed an annoying habit that seems fairly common among many Indians, cutting across regions or castes. That is the habit of attributing every advance, technological, or otherwise to Indians.

Anything from the invention of zero to using missiles and planes during Ramayana, (you got it!,  missiles were invented in India 3000 years  ago ,much earlier than westerners were using it ) , or solving complex mathematical problems . You name it and it has to have  an Indian origin. Then there is the amusing story of  NASA engineers being  30-40 % India, with many politicians even quoting this story.

There are more stories. Hindutva groups claiming vedic maths had solved most of the maths problems in ancient India.  Some Malayalis claiming that a difficult problem had already been solved by an ancient Mallu mathematician.  Some Tamil folks claiming that Tamils ruled over entire south East Asia( there is some truth, but this is often exaggerated dramatically) .  Sometime back i even had a colleague circulating a ppt presentation on the greatness called India and the Indians!.

And then there is the headline news in every newspaper, whenever an Indian makes it big, newspapers scream “Indian origin person’ did this and that!.

I am afraid , this syndrome just tells me a truth which is hard to brush aside. That is collectively we all have seem to have an inferiority complex, and we constantly keep comparing to other countries ( nothing wrong ) and make absurd claims ( totally wrong ) .

I do not see Chinese or Japanese or most westerners often boast about their country or country men. Chinese and Americans are as good as Indian counterparts, ancient Chinese and modern Americans were behind many technological innovations. Nothing wrong in being proud of ones achievements,  but taking it a bit too far , just makes us Indians look like idiots.