Our ancient history is replete with examples of organized civilizations, mighty kingdoms, massive wealth, lavish lifestyles juxtaposed with epitomes of great wisdom and discipline, philosophical thinkers and mathematicians, scientists and medics, poets and writers, architects and artisans among others. Indian history, however skewed by imperialistic motives or political influences, still boasts of the 'golden' Gupta and Maurya reigns, Takshashila and Nalanda Universities and Aryabhatta and Susruta. However, surprisingly we have failed as a nation to imbibe the wisdom that was handed down by our predecessors, let alone propagate it. We had the Vedas and the Samhritas, yet it took some caucasian whites to come over, learn about them and talk to the world. We had the 'Arthashastra', yet it took us several years before the world took recognition to an 'INDIAN' contribution to economics when Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel in 1998. Our ancient scripts and literature were partly plundered or destroyed during the numerous invasions we were subjected to in the past and souvenirs of our illustrious heritage partly given away by the morons who took throne after the 'mighty' empires fell. The remnants lie 'secured' in museums, inaccessible. The number system and algebra were invented by the Hindus (ancient Indians) and so was the 'zero' (by Indian mathematician Aryabhatta). Yet the time lag between the passage of this information to the rest of the world was so great that the numerals 1, 2, 3...are known as Arabic numerals courtesy the Arab travelers who adopted them and popularized them. The same goes with our world acclaimed 'spices and condiments' while India woke from a slumber to fight back 'Basmati' patent rights from RiceTec. Oh...and interestingly, we unfortunate Indians also had the 'Kamasutra' which the western world now hails in documentaries sans any credit to the writer (even I don't know who wrote it!!) while we were busy in a population increment at a rate that is choking us now!!
We lost our relics, locked our history and perhaps let loose ourselves in pursuit of the West in perhaps during the British rule and post-independence period when the rest of the world moved ahead of the renaissance. We continue to lose a massive tourist revenue owing our border disputes up north or our internal conflicts and self-inflicted dispute situations far east. And we continue ravaging our natural resources and national heritage sites, not to mention those that could have been but were lost due to our 'secular-non-secular' wars. We have the wildlife protection bills, yet the poachers walk out with pachyderm tusks and rhino horns. When China rants claims over parts of our beautiful Arunachal, creates all the brouhaha about the Dalai Lama visit, and denies visa to Indians from the state, we care to focus on what Shashi Tharoor 'Tweets'.
It makes me wonder....was it some unnatural exchange of genes that made us Unwiser...? ;-)
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