India’s Grand Regression: From Thinkers to Blind Followers

 

India’s Grand Regression: From Thinkers to Blind Followers

Image by GeekforGeeks

Sometimes, the perfect topic for a blog arrives unannounced, like an unexpected guest at your doorstep. Last night was one of those moments when a BJP supporter confidently asked me to endorse a BJP candidate online. Naturally, my first question was, Why? And her response? Voting for the BJP is voting for Hinduism.

Ah, yes. We’ve now reached a stage where political loyalty is no longer about governance, policies, or leadership—it’s simply about proving religious devotion. Now, I have two young women—both 28 years old—who are so blindly loyal to the BJP that they might as well replace their WhatsApp profile pictures with Modi’s face. Facts? They don’t matter. If you show them data from the Modi government itself, they’ll dismiss it as fake news. It’s a fascinating psychological experiment—how to create a mass movement that runs purely on faith, where truth is optional and believing is more important than knowing.

One of them even took it a step further, declaring that education is overrated, and that children should skip schools and attend Gurukuls to learn about Hindu culture and take pride in their identity. This was the moment I realized why China and Russia wiped out religious influence when they adopted Communism. For years, I thought it was a brutal suppression of culture, but now it makes perfect sense. Because when faith replaces critical thinking, a society is doomed to ignorance.

India, the birthplace of some of the greatest thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists, has somehow turned into a nation where people now believe that blind faith is more important than logic.

She then proudly reminded me that India invented zero. So I asked, And what did we do with it?

Boom. Instant meltdown. Somehow, questioning the contribution of zero is now an insult to our civilization. The truth is, zero was inevitable. When you invent addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, zero is bound to come up. It’s not like one genius suddenly had a divine realization and invented nothingness.

But this is where things get truly interesting. When she ran out of arguments, she threw in a classic BJP supporter move—As a Brahmin, how dare you question Hinduism?

My response? "Because I know my ancestors were some of the greatest businessmen in history."

Let’s be honest: India mastered the art of selling spirituality before capitalism even existed.

For centuries, a small group of elite scholars and priests successfully brainwashed the masses into believing that divinity could be packaged, marketed, and sold. And over time, the biggest industry in India wasn’t agriculture, or textiles, or even software—it was God.

If religion were an IPO, India would be the undisputed market leader.

But let’s rewind and set the record straight about Indian history. Before 900 AD, nobody in India even talked about religion. There was no concept of Dharma as we know it today. Instead, India was a civilization focused on knowledge, inquiry, and self-discovery.

The Rig Veda was a text of philosophical discussions and debates, not a religious manifesto. There were no temples, no idol worship, and no organized religion. Society was built on inquiry and exploration, not on blind faith.

This is why the Buddha's story is important—not as a religious tale, but as a philosophical shift.

The Buddha's departure from his home was not because he was called by divine forces, but because he asked questions that the scholars of his time could not answer. The scholars of the Rig Veda could have answered him, but by then, Indian society was already shifting towards ritualism and social hierarchy.

And here’s where the real tragedy begins.

At some point, India abandoned its legacy of free thought and inquiry, and replaced it with the business of organized worship.

We went from being a civilization of mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, to a nation where people worship stones, defend political corruption in the name of faith, and call their leaders divine incarnations.

Idol worship? Not even Indian.

The earliest temples and statues of gods came from Greek and Egyptian civilizations. The idea of building temples was imported from outside India. The first massive temple structures in India weren’t even Hindu—they were Buddhist.

And yet, today, people fight over who has the best God, as if it’s a competition.

And let’s talk about the real irony—the same people who proudly claim that India was the world’s most advanced civilization 5,000 years ago, now also claim that modern education is useless and we should return to religious schooling.

So let me get this straight—we were once the most scientifically advanced society, but now we should reject science?

We should be proud of our ancestors’ legacy of knowledge, but also ignore everything they built?

We should celebrate our history of logical thinking, but also surrender to superstition?

Congratulations, India! You’ve gone from producing the greatest philosophers in human history, to producing WhatsApp scholars who believe forward messages more than actual books.

We’ve replaced scientific inquiry with political propaganda, intellectual debates with blind nationalism, and our search for truth with an obsession over proving whose religion is superior.

And this brings me to my final point—governments that come to power in the name of faith have always been the most corrupt.

History proves it. Theocracies and religious governments have always been breeding grounds for dictatorship, destruction, and disaster.

And yet, here we are in modern-day India, where people are proudly asking, "Vote BJP to save Hinduism!"

Save it from what? Education? Rational thinking? Progress?

So to all the hyper-nationalists yelling Jai Shri Ram at anyone who dares to ask questions—congratulations!

You’ve successfully replaced 5,000 years of intellectual greatness with 10 years of WhatsApp forwards.

And if you still think voting for the BJP is the same as voting for Hinduism, then I have a better suggestion—find the nearest mental hospital and check yourself in.

Check yourself in because you’re delusional enough to believe that a blind man can lead a nation to greatness.

Check yourself in because you think rejecting logic, science, and education is the path to becoming a world superpower.

Check yourself in because you genuinely believe empowering blind followers is more important than empowering intellectuals and innovators.

And finally, check yourself in because you actually think faith alone can build a nation, while history has shown that it only tears nations apart.

Wake up, India. Or keep marching toward your self-inflicted doom.