Indians, especially those who have been educated in the Modern Western Education and perhaps Anglo-sized, only believe something positively said about Ancient India when a respectable westerner speaks authoritatively and endorses that aspect of India. At least without openly admitting, though professing to love and respect their in heritage, most Indians only have a negative impression of India, for having grown up in a country that was shackled by the 1200 years of political strife, economic repression, and religious violence and bloodshed touching the levels of ethnic cleansing, as per the book Our Oriental Inherit age by William Durant.
If this is hard to swallow, look at other countries like France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Greece, Japan and China, and all of them take pride in speaking their language of inheritance, even if they are equally competent in speaking other foreign languages, including English, which has become the language of the World. At one time it was in vogue to be considered modern and fashionable in India, if one only conversed in English. Just see how many Indians in the US like to converse with their kids in their languages. See how many change their names and accents. And how many Indians take to the Western things and flaunt them of their modernized selves but feel ashamed of flaunting any thing Indian. Of course this not true for everyone and one can not generalize, but at the same time this is not a black and white attribute and various people have this adoption to different degrees for many reasons which are utilitarian to economic to personal.
Not there is anything wrong with the things that are Western, or all things Indians are very good and to be proud of. But we need to take the best of both worlds and not ignore the best of either world. Now India seems to be taking the worst of the West, like the pre-marital sex, live-in girl-friends and boy-friends and so on. We need to take the honesty, humane values, openness, work ethics and discipline, public sense and awareness, and community belonging and commitments from the West. Then why should we accept and build our values on lies promulgated versus what the truth is?
The history taught to Indians and the World on Indian History is what was written by the historians who were on the payrolls of the colonist masters. The sincere and honest ones not only lost their works to the bookshelves gathering dust but most of the world of many generations lost an opportunity to know India's greatness. The true knowledge was only confined to the few learned ones who were versed in the truth. Imagine how many Indians know about the history of other countries versus of their own. And how many times on Western History Television Channels one hears on Indian History or their religion? But watch these channels and you would learn more about every other religion and nations but anything to do with India. The good news is that this is slowly changing with increasing awareness of India’s contribution to the world economy.
The poverty, the filth, the backwardness, the divisive caste system, the superstition of uneducated masses, etc, all were only exposed to the west but not the reasons of many years of slavery and drudgery. When one generation suffers a misfortune, at least three generations pay the price. Any family patriarch and an astute observer of a family's lineage and inheritance of misfortunes would endorse this point of view. Now generations spanning over 1200 years of mass misfortune of the land of their dwelling is unparalleled in any of world's history. This has been also noted by the noted historian William Durant. This gigantic proportion of misfortune of masses has only been surpassed by what Jews have seen in their 2 millennium of history - but it is sad to see the Palestine Arabs now suffering for last 60 years.
India has had a special, fortunate and glorified rendezvous with the destiny in recent times, and it commenced with the Internet boom that started in 90s, which kick started the Indian IT Sector. Remember the Reserve Banks of India sending Bank representatives to the countries where expatriate Indians were residing in order to mitigate their Foreign Exchange Crisis of the early 90’s? This was combined with the Government of India abandoning its Socialist Capitalism and Babu Raj Culture and all other artificial barriers to the spirit of Free Trade. For the last 15 years, it looks like there is no looking back for India, but this also comes with a great cultural loss of identity of Indians. They have to take to the new accents, present themselves Anglo sized and so on. It is almost a pariah inviting behavior if someone professes something that makes him more culturally or religiously an Indian. Go to a Yoga camp in the West or in India, and see how many Westerners flock versus how many Indians flock to these camps, and one would get the gist of the truth on this matter.
Today in New Delhi, India, there was a Leadership Summit, with leaders around the globe attending, hosted by Hindustan Times, where world who's and who's came to attend, including Sharukh Khan and Bush, the Governor of Florida and the brother of President Bush.
Surprisingly, Sharukh Khan mirrored the same sentiment, that in the psyche of Indians and the rest of World, it is programmed and expected that India only attracts world attention in the media and the movies, both from Bollywood as well as Holywood, because of it malaise and poignant pathos but not because of its rich in heritage, which is an unparalleled contribution to the history of human civilization.
So watch this video to see why the Vedic philosophy is very popular among the western academia and especially among the Theoretical Physicists.
I for one found that the topics of (1) the Bing Bang Theory, (2) the Atomic Theory, (3) the Evolution, (4) the Relativity, (5) the Particle Wave Theory and (6) the Quantum Mechanics were all validated and its philosophical musings discussed in the Vedic Philosophies. This was one of the greatest reasons for me to see that my findings in the Vedic scriptures were not being contradicted by the findings of the Modern Science. If it had ever, I would have been the first one to dump those books because I am and would be first the man of Sciences and Humanity versus being a man of any Religion and Culture.
Thinking allowed - The Sanskrit tradition -1/3
Thinking allowed - The Sanskrit tradition -2/3
Thinking allowed - The Sanskrit tradition -3/3